Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-02-18
POPULAR SCIENCE.

loicocOl INdlllSds tulllhS llldt COlOr-
blindness is defect Of the brain instead of
the eye.
According to naturalists, wasps remem-
Der the locality of their nests Just ninety
six hours.
A mercury plumb-bob has lately been
made. 1t consists of small steel rod
bored out and filled with mercury to give
weight.
A very useful polishing powder for
metals and glass is made of Underground
glass, mixed with a small proportion of
dried soda ash.
Tannin has been discovered as an ami
nal substance by NJ Villon, French
chemist, who finds that corn weevils con-
tain about 3 per cent. of it.
1t has been discovered that wool, sat-
urated with 10 per cent. solution of
glycerine, can bear a prolonged heat of
275 degrees without injury.
The Popular Science Ne,rs inveighs
against the abuse of tea, and warns the
young PARTICULAR against its use. Four
or six cups of tea taken during each
twenty-four hours will, in time, produce
tea-poisoning.
Austrian engineers speak favorably of
GieszFs pilot engine for preventing rail-
way collisions. 1t is worked by electricity,
under the control of the engineer, and is
run at any desired distance in front of the
train, which it stops automatically on en-
countering any obstacle.
Nitrogen will not burn, like hydrogen,
nor support combustion, like oxygen; and,
though not of itself poisonous, animals sur
rounded by it speedily die from Oxygen
starvation" The specific gravity of nitro
gen is .972, air being one (D. Its escape
from deep, open jar is one means of dis
tinguishing it from carbonic acid
a new invention, to take the place of
stained glass, is made of cotton and linen
paper, which is dipped into preparation
of alcohol and camphor, which makes it
like parchment From this point it can
be modelled and cut into remarkably tough
sheets, entirely translucent, and it can be
dyed with almost the whole outline colors.
the result being translucent sheet show
ing far more vivid hues than the best glass
exhibits
DIR. c. A. White thinks he has solved
the mystery of what becomes of all the
antlers that deer shed every year. AL
though the antlers when the deer is killed
before they are removed will withstand all
weathers for years, it is very rarely that a
pair that have been shed are found. DR..
White asserts that he has discovered a
small insect that attacks the antlers. and
within Il short time after they are shed
destroys them by burrowing through and
through them.
KANT is obtained at Strassfurt, Prussia.
The mine from which it is taken is struck
at depth of $50 to S12 feet. The thick
ness of the bed is unknown. 1t has been
pierced over 1000 feet. 1t extends over
an area of more than twenty-five German
miles in length. The constituent parts of
kainit are: Sulphate of potassa, from %
to 81 per cent: sulphate of magnesia. from
ii to 20 per cent; chloride of magnesium.
from 4 to ) per cent; sulphate of lime,
from 10 to II per cent; chloride of sodium
common salt, from 50 to 40 per cent.
There is news from Cochin China that a
meteorite of great size has fallen not far
from Tayninh. This brings to mind the
Cranbourne meteoric, found near Mel
bourne in 1861, and weighing four tons,
which is one of the largest known. That
found in Brazil, weighing fourteen tons, is
also one of the largest known. But it,
again, is far behind the meteoric mass
found in 1870 by Nordenskjold at Ovijak,
in West Greenland. He found three me-
teorites there-one weighing four tons,
another weighing fourteen tons, and third
weighing twenty-five and one-half tons
The use of the mosquito has been at last
discovered. Professor Webster SAYS that
injurious organic matter in the water
instead of decomposing and poisoning
people, is changed into "wiggle-tails."
which in due time become mosquitoes, and
the winged matter flies away, leaving the
water purified to the extent of their ability
to remove the impurities. If fish are kept
in the water they eat the 'wiggle-tails,'
and grow large enough to serve as food for
man. Thus the poisonous ingredient of
impure water becomes healthful food.
Without mosquitoes most marshy or
swampy land would be dangerously in
salubrious"