The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1882-08-03
SCIENTIFIC MATTERS.

A Pittsburg firm has secured a
patent for glass shingles, and pro-
poses to manufacture them.
Of 1000 ounces of healthy human
blood 1915 ounces consist of water
and 318.5 ounces of solid matter.
No fewer than two German expe-
ditions will come to this country to
observe the transit of Venus next
December.
All solid bodies become self lu-
minous at about the same tempera-
ture, beginning to show q dull light
at about 10000.
Transitory color blindness has
been produced by few hours stay
in snow fields Illuminated by the
sun, all artificial lights appearing
green for a short time.
To remove rust from saws, chisels,
etc, first scour with emery moist
ened with sulphuric acid diluted
with six volumes of water, rinse,
dry and finish with oil and emery
flour.
The amount of heat radiated from
the sun is so great that if the earth
were mass of coal and could be
supplied to the solar furnace, the
supply would last just thirty-six
hours.
There was at one time exhibited
by Mr.. Ralt, an English merchant, a
thread 10000 feet long, spun by
twenty-five silk spiders in less than
two hours, and which was five times
as fine as the thread of the silk
worm.
The Figaro learns that Mr.. Van
Rysselberghe, who has found how to
communicate at great distances tel
eponically ON the ordinary tele-
graphic wires, is going to sell his
discovery for 100000 to the French
government. NJ. Cochery, the
French postmaster general, is much
impressed with its Importance.
Before an English committee of
inquiry, DIR. John Hopkinson has
expressed the belief that the whole
of the electricity generated by one
horse power would not be more
than boil a gallon of water an hour.
This opinion was given as evidence
that electricity is not likely to ever
become economically useful for
heating purposes.
Beds of triassic coal, according to
w. FL. Adams, underlle several thou
sand square miles of territory in
Coahuila and Tamaulipas, upon the
Mexican side of the Rio Grande. AS
surface fuel is scarce or of poor
quality in the neighborhood, and as
there is a great call for fuel for
smelling, for manufacturing and for
railway engines, this intelligence is
OF great Importance.
By what he terms a galvano-plas-
tic method, a member of the Berlin
physical society has succeed In coat
ing organic bodies with metal, so
that they may be indefinitely pre-
served. He has shown numerous
articles such as a beetle, a butter
fly, a crab, a mulberry leaf and a
rose-bud-plated with gold, silver
and copper, and showing perfectly
ONCI uCbdl1 Vi IuOlI CAIOI ndl 1OI ulos
A foreign exchange states that a
wealthy land owner in the Tyrol has
made an application of the micro
phone to the detection of subterra-
mean springs. He fixed the micro
phones at the spots where he sup
posed water might exist, each being
connected with its telephone and
battery. Then at night he put his
ear to each of the instruments and
listened for the murmuring of the
waters, aud in several cases heard it.
Under the great stream of the ST.
Lawrence, near Montreal, it is inten-
dcd to carry tunnel connecting a
line of railway on the north with one
on the south side Of the river. The
length of this tunnel will be fully
$1,000 feet. The deepest point of
the tunnel gradient will be 10 feet
below the level of the river banks.
The tunnel is, says the Builder, to
be completed within three years.
The contractor, Mr.. ROillard, of
Montreal, has undertaken to execute
the work for $3,905,O00