Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1882-09-10
ScIEN TlFfc
What the Great Thinkers Of the
Age Are Doing.
The Latest Experiments and Researches m
This and Other Landslide Latest
Celestial and Terrestrial
Discoveries.

car cOurlerS have been taken out edCIl
month for the past ten years.
Kerr Krupp, the celebrated gun-maker OF
Essen, is said to have invented an absolute
" i'm mobile floating battery for coast de-
Tense.
Ii may interest our manufacturers to
learn that the Turkish Council OF State has
lust authorized the importation OF agrlcul-
tural machinery into the Ottoman Empire
free OF duty.
A gray enamel is impaired to water pipes
and other hollow castings OF iron made
with cores by simply covering the core
with euamel and pouring in the metal in
the usual way.
At Hayre it is proposed to have pontoon
structure at some distance from the land,
on board of which public telephones will
be placed for use by the shipping IN COM
munication with the land.
A wonderful snow and ice cavern has
been discovered on Mount Tecumseh, in
Thornton, n. H., the existence of which
has heretofore been unknown to men living
within two miles OF the place.
The Scientific american recommends that
criminals in prison should be put to turn
ing CrankS which will operate dyramO-elec'
trio machines that may be employed to
charge the so-called storage batteries.
A coast railroad in California has an I'M
pleasant fashion of sinking in spots A
section over mile long settled to such a
depth the other day, that passengers were
compelled to walk across the place and
take another train.
During 1880 Europe produced 2oS, $50
tons of zinc, of which nearly $4,000 tons
came from Germany, and about two-thirds
from Upper Silesia. Belgium contributed
65, 0l0 tons, England $4,000, France l2,7l5,
and Austro- Hungary 5000.
\ shinglc- packing contest for 5000 prize
was lately decided at Saginaw, Mich. Jack
Lyons gained the victory after ten hours OF
steady work, with a score OF 592oO. he
was closely pursued by Robert Scott, whe
packed 50, 100 shingles.
Although NJ. Dumas believes that the
proportion of carbonic acid in the atmos'
phere varies little from parts in the TO-
600, he proposes systematic determinations
under competent chemists at various Si"'
tiOnS on the surface OF the ea-''-'
1tl,us uecn found that lime juice OF
itself will not prevent SCurvy at sea, and
that too much reliance is placed upon 1t to
the neglect of other food. Lime juice, how.
ever, in connection with fresh or preserved
meat and vegetables may prevent scuryy.
A street railway has been laid between
Athens and the PirTuS, which serves the
whole city, passing by the Parthenon and
the Acropolis. But what prosaic, every
day sort of age this is when such things
can be as horse cars in the land OF the
ancient Greeks.
1t has been announced that an "Exhibi-
ton Of Practical Electric Development"
with reference chiefly to telephones, cleo.
trio lighting, transmission OF power and
II IL Nf ola nfrin on.
ergy to practical work, will be held in the
ROYAL AQUARIUM, Westminster, from No.
vember /, 1882 till March /, 1888, with
prizes amounting to total OF Il 900.
The Italian ship Francesca, loaded with
rice, put into port May IL, at East London
leaking considerably. A large force Of men
was at once put on board to pump out the
water contained in the ship and to unload
her, but in spite of all the activity exerted
| the bags of rice soaked Ill water gradually
swelled up. Two days aftcrward, on
MAY Is, the ship was violently burst asun'
der by the swelling OF her cargo. La Ma
ture.
A series of torpedo experiments is being
| carried out by the German Government III
| the Baltic. Two hulkS had been fitted up
! for the purpose at Brunhausen, near Baudor
| the German torpedo station or depot. Nc
! fewer than 800 pioneers and five officers
had been detailed to assist in carrying on
| the experiments, which have direc
| bearing upon coast defense and ship at
| tack drills. These commence on July %
and terminated on August 23d. So far the
results are oil that could be wished.
Frequently it is important to know
whether there is lead in tin paper. This
| is the method given for its detection in G
leading foreign technical journal. A drop
of concentrated acetic acid is let fall upoI
the suspected leaf, and drop OF q solution o
potassium iodide is added. If there i:
lead present there is formed in two Oh
three minutes a yellowish spot of lead
iodide. DR.. Kopp moistens the leaf to b.
examined with sulphuric acid. If the tin
is pure the spot remains white, but II lead
is present there is black spot.
Ar immense flagstone, which is said Il
be the largest ever quarried in America
and is destined for the sidewalk in front o
r, l.. Stuart's new brownstone residence a
Fifth avenue and Sixty-eighth street, New
York, stretched across the avenue from
curb 10 curb yesterday and made II neces
sary to close the street between Sixty
eighth and SiXty-ninth streets. The grea
slab is of river bluestone, and measures
twent'-six feet and six inches by tifteei
feet and six inches. IL is nine inche
thick and weighs over thirty tons. II raised
on edge it would make one side OF an aver
age seashore cottage.
Distinguished scientists are sometime
modest, but not always, and DR.. Siemen
has recently exhibited himself as the kint
that are not. In fact, he is what would b
called in common slang very cheeky.
That is certainly the only term TO apply 4
man who grayely states in serious mag
azine article that the annual yield OF al
the coal mines of the earth would no
sufficsto keep up the fires OF the sun at II
present intensity OF light and heat NOR
than the forty.millionth part OF second
That is carefully exact statement but
would have been Just as exact il DR.. Siemen
had said the four hundred millionth par
of a second. He could prove the one jus
as we'll as the other, for he can neithe
prove nor disproye either. That is why hi
statement is simply cheeky"
Nature says: "A curious and little-know
experiment, showing the resistance OF a.
in guns, is described by Prof. Daniel Colls
don, of Geneva, in q recent letter to u
Melsens Bulletin Belg. Acad., No. 81. d
fully charged with compressed air the no
low iron breech OF an airgun, serving IS
reservoir. Having screwed up the gun b
introduced a round lead ball, runnin
freely, but nearly filling up the bore; thsI
placing the gun vertical, he seized ia
upper end and pressed his thumb Wig
orously on the mouth. The gun VS.
then fired by an assistant Will
the thumbs remained in position, and th
ball was heard 10 fall back in the bort
Thereupon after recharging the breech an
with the same bali he shot the latter at
pine board 04 inches thick, or a psns {
glass, and it passed through. NJ. Collsio
says the experiment is without danger
the operator is sure Of the strength OF h
thumb if the gun is more than thirty-tS
inches long. and if the ball is spherical an
nearly fills the gun, in which il must n
like piston. The pressure Of the thlFr
must Cause an hermetic closure OF the DO
or the thumb may receive serious injury