Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1882-06-29
FACTS FOR THE CURIOUS.

The furnishing of silver when exposed
to the air is due to sulphuretted hydro
gen, the metal having strong attraction
for sulphur.
OYSTERS can live twenty-four hours in
an exhausted receiver The flame OF .
candle goes out in one minute, charcoal
in five minutes.
THE horns Of the water-snail are hol-
low tubes, and when it draws in its horns
the eyes disappear down the tubes
When the "optics" are needed again il
is only necessary for the muscles round
the tube to contract, and so 70 squeeze
the tip gradually out.
STRUT, an English authority on
games and amusements, speaks of a
Yorkshire jumper, named Ireland,
whose powers were marvellous. He was
six feet high, and at the age Of Is leaped,
without the aid Of spring board, over
nine horses ranged side by side.
EXAMINE the thread-slime how we
will we can find in it no mouth, no
| stomach, no muscles, no nerves. no
parts of any kind. Yet it eats and
breathes and grows. When it is too
large to be comfortable it splits in two,
and each half goes its way as living
animal.
ToPHAM, an Englishman, born in ITO,
was possessed of astonishing strength
| His armpits, hollow in the case of ordin-
ary men, were with him full of muscles
and tendons. He would take bar OF
| iron, with It's two ends held in his hand,
place the middle of the bar behind his
neck, and bend the extremities by main
force until they met together.
ONE of the most curious railroads in
the world is a ten-inch gauge road run
ming from North Billerica, Mass, to
Bedford. 1t was first hooted at by the
people, but was completed, making a
length of about eight and half miles.
There ara eleven bridges. The rails
weigh twenty-five pounds to the yard.
One grade is 155 feet. The cars and en-
gines are constructed 80 as to be very
near the ground, giving them greater
safety. The cars have an aisle with one
seat on each side, in the same manner
as ordinary cars have two seats. The
cars weigh but four and half tons, Or
dinary cars weighing on an average
eighteen tons. Trains run at the rate OF
twenty miles an hour with perfect
safety. The engine is placed behind
the tender, giving it greater adhesion
to the track. They weigh eight tons,
and draw two passenger and two freight
cars. The cost of the road was about
"a, 500 per mile.
In Colorado is ten acre field, which
Is no more nor less than subterranean
lake covered with soil about eighteen
inches deep. On the soil is cultivated
field of corn, which produces thirty
bushels to the acre. If any one viii take
the trouble to dig hole the depth of q
spade handle, he will find it to ill with
water, and by using hook and line fish
tour or five inches long may be caught.
The fish have neither scales nor eyes, and
are perch-like in shape. The ground lis
black mari i'll nature, and in all proba-
billty was at one time an open body OF
water, on which accumulated vegetable
matter, which has been increased from
time to time, until now it has crust
sufficiently strong and rich to produce
dne corn, although it has to be cul-
hvated by band, as it is not strong
enough to bear the weight of a horse.
While harvesting, the hands catch great
strings OF fish by making hole through
the earth. A person rising on his heel
and coming down suddenly, can see the
growing corn shake all around him. Any
one having sufficient strength to drive a
:ail through the crust will find, on re-
leasing 1t, that it will disappear alto
gether.