The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1888-08-02
POPULAR SCIENCE.


A Spanish astronomer is now able 10
announce with certainty that there is
rain and snow in the moon, same as on
earth.
A German photographer has succeeded
in preparing Photographic plates so sen.
sitive that an exposure of 10000 of
second is sufficient.
A pleasure launch-known as Of the
Zephyr type"-is now built IN Eng.
land, the motive power Of which is OBJ
tanned from highly volatile hydrocar.
bon, one of the early products in the
distillation Of petroleum selling in thi.
country for about ten cents gallon.
Anew telephone line, nearly 800 miles
long from Marseille' to Paris is now in
course of construction, and will soon he
finished. At first it was feared that the
human voice could not lie transmitted
such distance; but experiments have
shown that. with thick bronze wire,
the sound can be sent 500 miles as easily
as 10.
The remarkable tendency which Is oh.
servable in tissues and cottuns when
moistened with oil to become heated
when oxidation sets in, deserves particu-
lar attention, and especially so in view of
the sad results that may follow negli-
gence, caused too often by ignorance of
the danger or of the necessary precau-
tions.
Wax is q substance secreted by the
bees, and is analogous to the fat of higher
animals. To produce single pound Of
wax bees must consume from fifteen to
twenty pounds of honey. This expen-
sive substance is used by the thrifty lit
tie insects with the greatest economy.
The thickness of the cell walls in new
comb is said to be only 1-1S0th of an
inch.
A neat bit of doubtless unintentional
sarcasm has been perpetrated by an
American inventor, who has patented
an improved passenger railway car
with detachable and buoyant side pan.
els. so that in the event OF bridge
breaking and precipitating the coaches
into river the passengers can readily
detach the panels and use them as lie
RATS.
In the Algerian Sahara there are num-
erous subterranean lakes in which a
number Of small fish and mt tllusks live
and multiply. Moreover, the artesian
wells of the Sahara often throw out fish
that are sometimes two inches in length.
The Governor of the oases Of Thebes
and Garbes, IN Egypt, in ls49, asserted
that he took from an artesian well 4l0
feet deep, near his residence, fish in
sufficient quanty to supply his table.
Fire under water can be produced by
..1a all al, .l,.,.,
conically shaped glass filled with water,
and some crystals of chlorate of potash
covering the phosphorus, and then pour.
ing through a long tube funnel, ora glass
tube. n few drops oil sulphuric acid down
on the mixture at the bottom of the
glass. Tongues of flame can be seen
flashing up through the water. The in.
tense chemical action produces sufficient
heat TO inhame the phosphorus under the
water. Where there is sufficient heat
and oxygen, fire will burn, whether in
air or water.
An Austrian engineer has. il is said,
designed truck to run before every rail-
way train, being maintained always at q
fixed (but ad iustable) distance in front
by the force of an electric current trans
mitted along the metals from dynamo
on the engine. The current is conducted
in glass tubes on the pilottruck. II,
therefore, the trucks come into collision
the tubes are broken aud the contact
necessarily destroyed. The interruption
of the current instantly and automati-
cally applies the brakes on the following
train. 1t is claimed by the inventor that
two expresses, fitted with this system,
might with impunity be allowed to run
full tilt at each other. The collision of
progress of both trains before they could
meet.