Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-12-10
POPULAR SCIENCE.

A New Use FOR ELEeTRICITY.-Elec
tricity is now employed in the rectifcation
of inferior alcohol. This work is accom-
plished by passing current, generated by
a voltaic battery and dynamo electric
machine, through it. By this operation
the superfuous hydrogen is disengaged,
and beet-root alcohol, which is usually very
poor, can be made to yield so per cent of
spirits, equal to that obtained from the
best malt.
INSECT LIFE.-It is estimated that tdere
are five times as many kinds of insects as
there are species of all other living things
put together. The oak alone gives shelter
and support to $50 species of insects, and
200 kinds make their home in pine trees.
In lS49, Alexander Won Humboldt esti-
mated that the number of species preserved
in collections was between l50, 900 and
10000, but scientific men now say that
there must be something like 10000
species.
A New METAL "A vein of what is sup
posed to be new metal is said to have
been found in digging well near Battle
Creek, Mich. The find is in a stratum of
rock about 2S feet below the surface.
Pieces of some of the nuggets taken out,
| it is said, have been melted up, and have
all the appearance of the best gold, but
when the acid test is applied to the metal
it corrodes, showing that it is not the
genuine precious metal. It is not known
what metal it is, and specimens have been
| sent away for analysis.
New MODE OF TELEGRAPHING.- Nature
reports that telegraphing experiment of
singular description was tried about the
middle of August at the Troeadero. 1t
consists merely in the reading of large
silvered zinc letters, square meter in size,
fixed on blackened board, by refracting
| telescopes. This method has succeeded
very well from the Trocadero to the
Pantheon distance of three miles. The
inventor, an officer in the French service,
thinks he will succeed in reading messages
at distance of sixty miles under favorable
| circumstances.
HAULING FIREs.-When boiler is short
of water and heavy fire is on the CRATE,
what shall be done to prevent the boiler
| from being burned? The first impulse is,
| on the part of some, to haul the fire at
once. but is not that the most dangerous
course that could be taken? 1t seems open
| to criticism. A fire that is disturbed is in
tensely hot for a short time, at period
when no more heat is needed, and 1t
would therefore seem that it would be bet
ter to open the doors and throw wet ashes
on to smother the fire, instead Of adding to
the danger by raking it over. By SO doing
the heat is at once lessened-at no time in
creased-and the pressure Is falling, but
when we haul fire, the exact reverse oc.
ours. more steam is made and the danger
increased. We think it is safer to cover
the fires than to haul them, particularly II
they are of bituminous COAL Mechanical
Engineer.
| LIVING ANIMALS LIT Or FROM WITHIN.
At recent soiree in the Paris Observa-
tory, NJ. Trouve showed a live fish with Its
body Lit up from within by. his electric
polYscepe, minute form of which, with
conducting wires passing to the hands OF
the operator, the animal had been caused
to swallow Comfortably, let us hope). The
whole body became transparent in the
dark, so that the vertebIse could be count
ed and all the details examined. This In
strument promises to have many uses.
Among others, it has already been applied,
La Nature says, to showing students the
texture of the rectum and bladder, to facil-
itate extraction of projectile at the back
of the nose, to examine the stomach of q
bull lin which a gastric fstula was formed),
to lighting the interior of shells and cannon
for examination, also to lighting powder
magazines, in which case the reflector is
inclosed in triple envelope of glass.