St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1881-12-17
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

Some experiments were lately made
in a Russian town with a fire
gushing powder. Upon contact with
the flames, the powder produces heavy
fumes in such overwhelming quantities
as to completely stit1e the fire. A few
boxes were thrown into burning naph-
tina and petroleum store, and the doors
and shutters were securely closed. In
two hours the building was opened and
found to be filled with the dense fumes
from the power, but entirely free from
fire. The powder is expensive, but, as
is wisely remarked, not so expensive as
contiagration.
Considering the sense Of pain in fishes,
Mr.. C. S. Bentley concludes that the
peculiar nervous system and very small
perceptive brain of fish, together
with the fact Of its being cold FLOODED,
precludes it, from being highly sensi-
tive to pain. This view is extensively
corroborated.
Among the many practical applica-
tons of Faure's electrical accumulators
suggested, is that Of using them for
utilizing the waste of water power
during the hours when such power is
not employed in ordinary work, as at
night, etc. In many localities waste
energy might be stored up in this way
to advantage.
Observations as to fuel consumed
have been made on locomotives of the
Hanover Bremen railway, showing,
among other results, that the locomo-
tives are sometimes run with loss of
only fifteen or twenty per cent Of heat
up chimney.
Sea-water contains about two per
cent of salt, while the water of Great
Salt Lake has twenty-five per cent.
The earth seems destined soon to lose
its giants. No creatures of the present
day approach in size the monsters of
early ages; while an eminent French
authority has recently observed that
all the larger living animal species the
world over including the lion, tiger,
gorilla, giraffe, elephant, hippopotamus,
and others, are rapidly becoming ex-
tinct.
The Austrian Society Of Engineers
has had its attention called to a new
application OF electricity in the form Of
an underground railway for the trans
mission Of mails. The locomotive and
train can be constructed of any conve-
nient small size, and will perform the
same service for any distance which the
pneumatic tube will perform for short
distances. The locomotive will re-
quire no accompanying attendant, as,
the battery or motive power not being
on the locomotive, it can be guided and
controlled from stationary point.
From the rarity" says Sir John
Subbock, "and in many cases the en-
tire absence, of reference to blue in
ancient literature, eiger-adopting and
extending suggestion thrown out by
Mr.. Gladstone-bas maintained that,
even as recently as the time Of Homer,
our ancestors were blue-b blind. Though
for my part am unable to adopt this
view, it is certainly very remarkable
that neither the Rigveda,' which con-
sists almost entirely Of hymns to heaven,
nor the Zendavesta,' the Bible Of the
Parsees or fire. worshippers, nor the
Old Testament, nor the Homeric poems,
ever allude to the sky as blue"
The great telescope perhaps the
largest equatorial telescope in the
world-now being constructed for the
observatory near Nice is to have an OBJ
ject-glass three feet in diameter and a
focal length Of over fifty feet.
A veteran Swiss matchmaker claims
to have devised means Of keeping
watches running for years without
winding up. A sealed box containing
two watches was placed in the keeping
of the municipal authorities of Vouvry
on the 10th Of January, 1879. The box
has just been opened, and the watches
were found going.
The discovery of q new island off the
coast of Peru is reported. It is about
a mile in length, Of nearly the same
width, and evidently Of volcanic origin.
Great accuracy is necessary in the
constitution Of standard weights, and
numerous precautions against error are
essential in making final comparisons.
Some Of these have been described by
Messrs. Deville and Masca2t. A bal
ance should never be opened during the
long series of operations upon which
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