Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1884-01-14
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY,
A Lot Of DRY Facts Grouped Together,
and Presented In An Entertaining Man.

and Presented In An Entertaining Man.
ner.
Compiled for the T1Mrs.]
The remarkable storm which crossed
the British Isles between September
and 3, has been traced by Mr.. Hard
ing, +. r. N. S., to two original cen
tiers of disturbance, one being first
shown at point $50 miles to the
south of Bermuda, on August 26, and
the other to the east of the Rocky
Mountains, on the 9th. These two dis
turbances merged on the goth, when
about 800 miles north of Bermuda,
and formed one great and destructive
gale, which continued to grow in vio-
hence as it crossed the Atlantic until
at reached the British coasts. This
storm crossed the Atlantic at an aver
age speed of 40 miles an hour, which
is more than double the usual rate of
storms which travel that ocean.
Among the many substances form
erly considered valueless, but utilized
by modern science, is the nette. This
weed is now actually being cultivated
in Germany, where its fiber is made
INTO a variety Of textile fabrics. A
Dresden manufacturer has produced
from it the finest thread known to the
trade, of which a length of GO miles
only weighs two and a. half pounds.
A disease peculiar to persons who
dig potatoes has been described by a
Prussian physician. 1t appears to be
an affection of the nerves of the legs
and feet, and is produced by the
strained position into which the lower
extremities are thrown as the laborer
gathers his potatoes. The patient
finds one or both feet and legs to be
heavy, cold, numb and sometimes pain
full, while his gait becomes clumsy and
limping. The disease may be of short
duration, or it may continue for years.
The tea plant has been successfully
acclimatized ut Auckland, New lea
land.
The term "telpherage" has been APP
piled by Prof. lecming Jenkin to
''the transmission of vehicles by cleo
tricity to distance independently of
any control Exercised from the We
h'cle." In system of telpherage
worked out ny Profs. .Ienkin, Ayrton
and Perry, trains of buckets, each
bucket containing 200 or 300 pounds
of freight, are drawn by small cleo
tro-motors over single rail of rods or
ropes suspended Oh posts, the move
ment of trains being controlled en-
tirely by operators at the stations.
BY keeping up constant stream of
these light trains large amount Of
freight may be forwarded, while the
expense Of fitting up such line is
very small compared with that of build
ing railways for concentrated loads.
An experimental tel pherage line has
been constructed in England.
Dust-either volcanic CT cosr..c-is
the rejecting medium to which the
brilliant sunsets witnessed in Novem-
Der from large part of the world
seem to be quite generally attributed
Some scientists suppose that the dust
had drfted with the air currents from
the Java volcanoes, and others believe
that the earth encountered dust
cloud in space In this connection it
may be noted that the fall of dust
covered the snow of valley in Cen
trail Norway on the night of November
l.th. 1t will be interesting to know
how this dust compares with tina, from
krakotoa, which has been chemically
and microscopically examined.