St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-07-21
Scientific GIenninns.

Additional discoveries of tin ore are re-
ported from Custer, Dakota. A number Of
eastern capitalits are investigating the mat
ter.
The universal square may be used as
try-square, T-square as a graduated rule for
laying out mitre, and for finding the cen
ter of a circle.
The number of flowers produced by the
palms is astonishing, not less than II, 600
having been counted in spathe of the date,
and 207, 900 in one of species of Alfonsia.
The Building News, speaking of the re-
suits of the researches Of Schliemann, says
that the discoveries at Hissarlik, and the CON
clusion is inevitable that the Homeric Troy
could have been on no other site.
In England during healthy years air trav-
els on the average about 4 IA miles an hour,
and 1-2 in unhealthy. The percentage of
carbonic acid ranges thus In country, Oh;
in town, OF; in hospitals, 05; in fogs, OF;
in crowded lanes, ID; in theaters, 80.
There is an extensive coal field, with an
area of about $4,000 square miles, in the
Transvaal region of South Africa, on an ele-
waited plain, where rise nearly all the impor-
tant rivers Of that part Of the continent.
The deposits cover tract OF country 400
miles long and $50 miles broad.
Some of the trains of the London and
Southwestern railway are to be permanently
equipped with incandescent electric lamps
supplied by batteries of the Holmes-Burke
pattern. The estimated cost Of working il
one-fourth cent an hour for each lamp of
nominal five-candle Illuminating power.
Recent chemical investigation has shown
that potato plants do not absorb and assimi-
late the arsenic of Paris green and other pre-
parations used for destroying the Colorado
potato beetle. Fears that the tubers might
be rendered poisonous are thus proven to be
groundless The productiveness of the soil,
however, is impaired by the use Of arsenic in
considerable quantity. =
1t has been proven by Mr. d. f. HlaBa
that the water of the Oder, after receiving
the sewage of Breslau, whose population ex-
ceeds a quarter of q million, is con- pletely
purified by the oxygen of the air and the ac-
ton of vegetation. At distance of some
nine miles below Breslau no sewage matters
could be detected either by chemical or mi
croscopc means, and the water appeared to
be identical In quality with that above the
town.
clock in Brussels has been going for
eight months and has not yet been required
to be wound up since it was first set agoing.
In fact, the sun does the winding Of this
time piece. A shaft exposed to the sun
causes an up draft of air which sets fan In
motion. The fan actuates mechanism which
raises the weight of the clock until it reaches
the top, and then puts on brake on the fan
until the weight has gone down little, when
the fan is again liberated and proceeds to act
as before.
To obviate the ''dnks' in submarine tele-
graph cables, and consequently render these
important means of communication less LA
bic to break when subjected to strain,
Messrs. Trott and Hamilton have adopted
the cxpedient Of making each alternate lay.
er of sheathing cross each other. Thus il
inner sheathing of hemp has right-hand
''lay'' care is taken that the lay Of the next
sheathing shall be left-handed.