Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-07-26
SCIENTIFIC GOSSIP.


only one instance of accidental failure in
bill during the whole of the past year.
Pasteur sent an assistant to Berlin and
convinced some skeptical persons there of
the efficiency of his vaccination process for
the prevention of charbon in sheep by ac-
tual experiment.
1t is reported that the Merchant Ven.
turers Company, of Bristol, England, have
resolved to erect, at an expense Of $780,
OOO, technical school for the use of the
Bristol Trade and Mining School, founded
through the exertions of Canon Moseley in
1855.
A petroleum pipe line constructed from
the Couban oil territory over the Caucasus
mountains to Novoroszisk harbor, on the
Black Sea coast, was opened on May 27th.
This line OF pipe, which is los miles long,
can deliver every day not less than l,O0O,-
600 pounds of petroleum.
a rail for common roads has been intro.
duced in France. 1t is imbedded in con-
crete, and is flush at the edges with the
roadway. From the sides it slopes down
to the center, so as to enable the wheels of
vehicles to retain their place upon it. The
estimated cost is about 81 a yard.
The council of the Society of Telegraph
Engineers and of Electricians, England,
announce that three premiums will be Of
fered annually for the best original papers
sent in to the society on telegraphic or
electrical subjects during the session by
any one not a member of the council.
Planters in Jamaica, encouraged by the
success of the experiments conducted at
the Botanical Gardens, Kingston, have in
measure ceased to devote their whole
energies to the production of sugar They
have now begun to introduce cinchona
with great profit, and they have lately done
much to make vanilla, cocoa, and other in.
digenous plants of commercial value
Besides oranges, bananas, pine-apples,
lines, mangoes and other fruits, grapes are
now grown for export.
A prize of $4,000 is offered by the
French Government to any person who be-
tween July l, 1882, and July /, 1887, will
have invented the most useful application
of the Volta pile. The prize was first
opened to competition by Napolean the
Great soon after the eminent philosopher
of Como had made his memorable discov.
cry, but it has not yet been achieved. 1t
has now fair chance of coming to Amer
lea.
Recently, says the Engineering, the firm
of Sir w. Armstrong & Co. has submitted
for trial breech loading gun having Pc
culiar construction. The whole of the
piece in rear of the trunnions is built up of
steel wire, over which is shrunk ordinary
yet thinner coils Of great tenacity. 1t is
said to be capable of bearing an explosion
of 300 pounds of the slow-burning service
powder. Although the weight of the gun
is only 81 tons hundred-weight, it has
bore of TO- 23S inches.
An old gun, supposed to have been
Spanish one of the fifteenth century, has
been taken up out of the harbor of Santan.
der. Some resemblance can be traced be-
tween it and an English gun, known to be
of ffteenth.eentury origin, in the Rotunda
Museum at Woolwich, very old gun taken
in the last Chinese war, and gun which
belonged to vessel of the Spanish Ar
mada. 1t is of wrought-iron, is breach
loader, is about thirty.six calibers long,
and has no provision for recoil.
The rapidly reversed currents on an ordi-
nary Bell telephone do not affect in SEN
sible degree the needle of galvanome-
ter, but M. Chardonnet has noticed that
during the short time note is increasing
or diminishing in intensity deviation of
the needle takes place. He accounts for
this by stating that then the alternate cur
rents are not of equal strength, the odd
semi.oscillations being either greater or less
in amplitude than the even semi. oscilla-
tions during the period of rise or fall of the
note.
A Swiss process of removing the bran of
wheat without loss of nutritive matter con-
sists in moistening the wheat before grind
ing with solution of caustic soda in wa.
ter. The solution is prepared by dissolving
six and two.thirds pounds of caustic
soda in 13S pounds of water. The
sleeping may be from fifteen to twenty
minutes, and may be done in vats SIM
liar to those used by brewers. The caustic
solution swells and loosens the hull proper,
so that it may be removed by the slightest
friction, leaving the gluten with the body
of the grain.
1t has been held by some medical men
that the best treatment of frozen individu-
ais is the gradual application of heat,
while few experimenters have claimed
that the warming should be rapid. To
settle the matter, Laptchinski has made
a series of very careful experiments
upon dogs, with the following re-
suits OF twenty animals treated by the
method of gradual resuscitation in cold
room, fourteen perished of twenty placed
at once in warm apartment, eight died
while of twenty Immediately put into hot
bath, all recovered.
The celebrated Kent Hole" of the geol-
ogists is located near Torquay, in Devon
shire, England. This remarkable cavern,
first scientifically explored in 1924
by Catholic clergyman, has given
up remains of the mammoth, rhi-
noceros, hyena, elk and other ami
mails now extinct in England, together with
many fints and other relics OF ancient
man. The earth in the cave has now been
explored to great depth, and the finding
of human jaw far below the surface has
added link to the chain OF evidence estab-
fishing mans great antiquity.
Experiments lately made at Leipsic with
q cuirass made of steel the formula Of
which is kept secret, have given very re-
results, which would seem to in.
dicate that the new material combines
both tenacity and ductility in the
highest degree. The steel plate of
the cuirass is only .06.inch thick and
lined inside with layer of wool. OF
eleven rounds from Martini breech. loading
rifle fired distance of I75 yards, only
two of the bullets pierced the metal, and
even these were completely fattened and
stuck in the lining, so that the suppositi.
tions wearer would have remained
uniniured.