Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-04-23
POPULAR SCIENCE.
Items OF Interest to Artisans, Scientists and
Mechanics.


mute diamonds in meteorites found in
Siberia.
More than 100000 bird skins are now
shown at the Natural History Museum in
London.
It is estimated that to COLI ct one pound
OF honey from clover $4,000 heads OF
clover must be deprived of nectar and
3,750,000 visits from bees must be made.
The remarkable finish of American
| papers Is impaired by the addition of q
mineral called agalith, silicste Of mag
nesia somewhat resembling asbestos in
texture. Il is found only in the United
States.
A Vienna engineer has Just taken out q
patent for new smoke-aoating process.
By means of electricity he proposes to
condense The solid part of the smoke as
1t arises from the coal, the carbon thus
formed falling back into the furnace.
An automatic gasextinguisher has been
lately patented by Josph Heroux, Yama-
chiche, Canada, which consists of q spring
stopcock, which shuts automatically when
the gas is extinguished. The mechanism
used is based on the lineal expansion of
meta g.
Sir Morrell Mackenzie examined the
throat of the Crown Prince with an
electric lamp. The lamp is appended at
the end OF what looks like long, slender
penholder, and the proportionately small!
battery VIII Oh supplies the electricity is
worn about the examining surgeons
neck.
In recent tests on forty persons, one
part OF salicine was tasted in Il, 600 parts
OF water; of morphine, one in $4,000;
quinine, one in 10000; quasslne, one in
10000; picrotoxine, one in $4,000;
alvine, one in 100000, and strychnine,
one In $4,000. Twelve tastes detected
one part of strychnine in 1890, 600.
The seedless raisin is produced by SIM
ply arresting one of the processes of
nature. When the grape is about one
half ripe the end OF the vine is bent
down and buried in the ground. This
prevents the formation of seed and the
full development of the fruit, but it
ripens all the same, and has 8 delicious
flavor.
According to the American Exchange
and Review, sit is little known fact that
hard friction can develop sufficient heat
to infsme benzine vapor, especially If the
surface rubbed be vanished with shellac"
They had also been informed by q compe-
tent and truthful mechanical engineer
that the head Of "soldering iron,"
which, it is well known, is far below cred
heat" had in his own experience been
sufficient to set fire to an escape Of ben
zine vapor.
Experiments recently made at the Ma
tional theeter at Munich, Germany, in
regard to the relative effects of electric
light and gas light upon the air, says the
Engineering and Mining Journal, are re-
ported to have shown most satisfactory
results in favor of the former. On the
other hand, 1t is claimed for gas that 1t |
promotes ventilation of factories, etc.,
where suitable openings are provided;
and the journals snot interested in the |
electric light frs quently make this point.
The electric welding of Professor |
Elihu Thomson is rapidly develop |
ing into q great business. The |
practical uses to which this invention |
can De applied are very numerous. Be-
sides its value In factories for the repair |
OF tools, shafts, etc, and in general "job |
work" among machinists, it is adaptable |
to msny forms Of manufacturing. In |
steam and gss-ftting, Lor plumbing, en-
ploying either copper, lead or cast-iron
pipe, as we'll as IN electrical fitting, it |
will prove Invaluable.
When the first electric telegraph wss
established the speed or transmission |
was from four to five words q minute |
with the fve-needle instrument. In 1849 |
the average rate for newspaper messages |
WAS seventeen words minute. The |
present pace of the electric telegraph be- |
tween London and Dublin, where the |
Wheatstone instrument is employed,
reaches 4S2 words; and thus what was
regarded as miraculous sixty years sgo,
has multiplied hundred fold in half o
century.
A method OF preserving the natural
color of fowers, recommended by R.
Hegler in the Deutsche Botanische |
Monatshefte, consists In busting sslicylic |
acid on the plants as they lie in the press,
and removing 1t again with brush when |
the flowers are dry. Red colors In par
ticular are well preserved by this agent.
Another method OF applying the same
preservative is to use solution of one
part of salicylic acid in fourteen Of alcohol
by means OF blotting paper or cotton
wool soaked in it and placed above and
below the flowers.
Aprysexie is the rame DR.. Guye OF
Amsterdam chooses for inattentiveness,
and he quite singulArly finds that the nose
is the cause Of it. A dull boy became
quick to learn after certain tumors had
been taken from the nose, and man who
had been troubled with vertigo and buzz
zing in the ears for twelve years, found
mental labor easy after q like operation.
In third case medical student was
relieved. DR.. Guye supposes
that these nasal troubles affect the brain |
by preventing the cerebral lymph circnla-
ting freely.
"Mr. Shelford Bidwell (RoYal Society,
March ID is continuing his admirable re-
searches on the changes produced BY |
in the linesl dimensions of the |
different magnetic METALS" says Nature |
"He finds thst iron, which first expands
with the msguetizipg force, soon reaches
a maximum point, whence III
contracts until it attains ns
original length; but, on still furthss
increasing the msgnetizlng force, 1t
contracts until 1t apparently reaches a
minimum point, beyond which his means
have not enabled him to proceed. Bis
muth appears to continually expand;
nickel to continually contract; while CO.
bait contracts, reaches minimum point