Stephens City star. (Stephens City, Va.) 1881-1883, 1882-06-03
Bits of Science.

.s..iS.R...s
Bits of Science.
Scholz's liquid blacking consists of fifty
partsAsphalte, fifty parts naphtha, six
parts linseed oil varnish, fourteen parts
train oil and thirteen parts spirits of
wine.
1t has been proved by Herr A. Muntz
and others that the substitution Of maize
for oats in feeding horses has been at
tended with very satisfactory results.
It is stated that the streets and public
places of Paris are lighted with 45,815
gas burners, sixty-tkree electric lamps,
sixty. five vegetable oil lamps, and 293
mineral oil lamps.
A great number of analyses and ex
periments conducted by Mr.. A. Levy
show that grapes ripened in sunlight
contain 1854 per cent. more sugar, and
1927 less acids than those matured in
darkness.
From an examination OF statistics COM
piled by DR.. Andrews, of Chicago, and
DIR. Richardson, of London, ether is
by far the safest of an@sthetics, only
one death occurring from it in the course
of % 204 administrations. Bichloride
of methylene causes death oncs in {, 900
instances of it's use.
The Sanitary Engineer is glad that
the officials of water works in New Eng
land are about to organize an assooia-
tion. 1t believes that such a society
will be of great service in advancing
some of the important questions which
concern the management of public water
supplies, such as waste, etc.
At Salzburg, in the Tyrol, some old
bricks were found to be magnetic. Ex.
periments on the clays in the neighbor.
hood showed that the bricks, which
contained brehnerite, mica,late, argilla.
ceous iron-g garnet, chlorite and horn
blende, became, after intense heating,
capable of affecting magnet.
The gasometer of the greatest height
and the largest capacity is in the pos
session of the South Metropolitan Gas
Company, London, England. The in
ner lift is 2O8 feet diameter by fifty
three feet six inches deep; middle lift,
211 feet diameter by fifty three feet three
inches; ou' er lift, 214 feet diameter by
fifty-three feet, thus having a total
height OF 159 feet nine inches.
The new or "Wells comet" is steadily
increasing in brightness, and must ere
long be very conspicuous obje in the
heavens without the aid of telescope.
According to Mr.. William R. Brooks,
of the Red House Observatory, Phelps,
N. Y, its approximate position on
May 1, will be as follows: Right as
cension, twenty hours, thirty. eight
minutes; north declination, sixty-eight
degrees fifty seconds.
In Norway, woodpecke ers damage tele-
graph poles by boring through them,
supposing that the humming sound pro-
duced by the wires is caused by insects
upon which they feed. Bears also re-
move the supports of the poles, instinct
leading them to suspect that the hum
ming is produced by wild bees and that
the poles contain honey. Instinct, like
reason, is not infallible.
The Lancet publishes communica-
ton to TIE effect that boracic acid two
drams, glycerine half an ounce, and
water half an ounce, we'll mixed and ap-
piled freely to the fauces every hour
and less frequently when the dangerous
symptoms show signs of abating, will
prove OF advantage in treating diph-
iberia. The application must not be
discontinued too abruptly or the deposit
will cheorm.
These are Mr.. o. Comes's observa-
tions on the effect of the light on the
| Transportation of plants: The transpi-
ration of water is effected by light as
we'll as by the other physical agents in
duenciDg evaporation; and therefore,
plants trapsrire more by day than dur
ing the night, and the amount is pro-
portioned to the intensity of the light,
and the parts of the plants which trans
pire most are those which are most in
tensely colored.