The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-08-22
POPULAR SCIENCE,

POPULAR SCIENCE,
Chains are heavier than ropes, for
given strength, in the proportion o
seven to two.
j. J. Skinner, of Boston, has reckonet
the candle power of the moon to be 1874,
900, OOo, 900, 100000.
A French electrician claims that b,
will soon be able to produce thunde
showers in any part of the country at th'
exceedingly low rate of S. per shower.
Professor Babcock found the average
percentage of water in fourteen samples
Of butter from the New York dairy show
last spring to be 1882; fat, 49, A; ash
(salt), 2.14; curd, 0.60.
Hitherto all the photographic stone:
used in this country have come from Ba
varia, where the mines have long beer
worked and are fast becoming exhausted.
Now perfect lithographic stone in large
sheets has been discovered within hun
dred miles of Austin, Texas.
The smallest known Towering plant,
scarcely visible to the naked eye, is Wolf
! fla microscopic, water weed of India.
Two species of the same genus, the larger
about one twenty-ffth of an inch in di-
ameter, grow in the eastern United
States.
It has scarcely been supposed that the
lower animals have any sense of locality.
To test the matter Mr.. E. Carman, editor
of the Rural NeaD Yor1er, reports that he
marked a number Of snapping-turtles,
took them from a small pond, and
placed them in q pond half mile dis
tant. 'In a few days they had found
their way back" to their original home.
Two French biologists have been
making experiments ip typhoid fever
vaccination. In mice inoculated with
cultures of typhoid bacilli, genuine
typhoid fever seemed to be produced,
but in mice inoculated with broth in
which the germs had lived, but no longer
containing them, subsequent incubation
with the most intense typhoid virus was
resisted.
Nightingales build at the bottom Of
hedges and shrubs. They use dry oak
leaves, and arrange them according to
the direction in which the leaves are
curled, so they fit partially over one an
other, like plates in a coat of mail. In
side the leaves there is lining of grass
and small roots; but the loose grass OF
the outside is 80 deceptive that only q
skilful observer can guess that the mass
of dried leaves he sees huddled together
among twigs and grasses is anything
save a heap of refuse left behind by some
winter whirlwind.
Meteorological reports from the Pun
jab Province of British India gave q
mean rainfall of 29.1 inches for 1886,
ranging from 53.3 inches at Abbottabad
to 4.3 inches at Muzaffargarb, not In
Guiding the extraordinary fall of 1875
inches at Dharmsals. The highest tenn.
perature in the suns rays was 1873 degrees
at Lahore on April 90, and it ranged
faom 172 degrees to 175 degrees in the
five succeeding months. The greatest
maximum in the shade was 11S degrees
at two stations on April 1S, and the
absolute minimum in the shade was 2G
degrees at Rawalpindi in February.
OF the present very limited number Of
high stations for making meteorological
observations there are only two in Europe
which exceed 5000 meters in height, be.
ing about 10000 and 1000 feet, re-
spectivcly. Among those in this coun.
try Pixies Peak, which has an altitude OF
IA, 900 feet, exceeding thus, by NOR
than 5000 feet, any in Europe. These
great hei ghts are much more accessible
on this continent than in Europe, there
being five in America where II, 900 feet
or more is reached by railroads built for
facilitating mining work; the highest OF
these in North America is Mount Lincoln,
in Colorado, the mining works on which
are Il, 207 feet above the sea.