The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-10-06
POPULAR SCIENCE.

The London Lancet suggests that the
germs of consumption and other germ
diseases may be inhaled with the dust OF
cities, in which they become incorpor-
atcd when discharged from the mouth
and nostrils of infected persons.
A railway company now uses signal
wire running in tubes filled with petro-
leum oil. Some of the wires are l, 100
feet long, and are easily operated. The
pipes are laid on stakes driven into the
ground eight feet apart and are three
fourths of an inch in diameter inside,
while the wire is thrcc-siXteenths inch In
diameter. The pipes run parallel to the
railway, and follow the curves as we'll as
the straight parts of the line.
A machine for shearing sheep is said
to be in successful operation in Victoria.
1t is m de of brass in the shape of a
small trowpl and is actuated by tur-
binc wheel about three inches in diam
eter, geared into o wheel on which is
fixed q cutter. A comb serves as a
guard against cutting the skin. The
steam is conveyed from the boiler by an
india-rubber tub, which IS double,
having one inside the other. The inner
one is the injection, and the space be-
tween the two the election.
Mr.. Chodwick- Brown has drawn at
tention in medical contemporary to the
use of lead in the CON truction of certain
mincine machines, whereby lead poison
ing may be produced. lie was induced
to make the inquiry by observing the
blue line on the gums, which is char
.cteristlc of lead poisoning, and he re-
marks that obscure firms Of dyspepsia
may be caused by the lead in these
machines acting on the most acidulous
food in them. The substitution OF
wood or some harmless metal ought, IN
his opiuion, to BE- made for lead in these
machines.
Professor L. Weber relates, in Ger
man periodical. that during thunder
storm at Ribnitz in Me klenberg the
lower pane of n window on the first floor
Of a house was brok, IL by lightning and
sjet of water was thrown upward through
the hole to the ceiling with such force
that part of the ceiling was broken down
and other damage was done. The hole
in the window was like bullet hole,
with radial cracks. Some cigars on
table that was broken by the fall OF the
reiling and the water were carbonlZed.
The origin of the jet of water is not sat-
isfacorily explained.
The two satellites of Mars are pro-
nounced by N.wcomb by far the smallest
heavenly bodies vet known. Their diam
eters cannot be stated with any degree
of accuracy, but that Of the outer satel-
lite may be as small rs five miles, while
that of the inner satellite probably lies
between ten and forty miles. Ceres and
Vesta, the largest OF the asteroids, are
supposed to be between 200 and 400
miles in diameter, while others OF the
group may he as small Is twenty miles,
or even less. There ar some reasons Tor
believing, indeed, that the rirg of as
teriods may include bodies of unlimited
minuteness-fracmcnts far too small to
be visible with our la"Ge<t telescopes.
DR.. Gorham has discovered that the
tight reflected from gr, en- leaves consists
chiefly of rcd and g'cca rays, and by as
certaining the proportions of the colors
reflected from leaves. and taking re-
volving ring with the like proportions of
color on it, he has ben able to mix these
colors as it were in the eye and repro.
huce the tiat of the lea eS. lie found
during the INJURY, however, that the
simple colors did not exactly reproduce
the color of tie leaf c,,uired, but GER
tain admixtiire Of hla' k was necessary to
this end. Black, it may be remarked, is
well known to exist in the cellular struc-
ture of leaves in the form Of carbon. 1t
is deposited there, as is lelicvcd, from
the absorption Of carb nit acid gas from
the atmosphere by the Ito nata or mouths
on the under side Of tho leaf.