News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-03-08
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

DR.. Bubsiinski, of st. Petersburg, has
found that the gastric juice is less acid
during sleep than at other ines.
Pasteur's plan of exterminating rabbits
/ by inoculating them with chicken cholera
has been tried at Rheims with success.
French naval officers are experiment
/ ing with cocoanut fibre as a covering foI
war vessels. 1t is claimed that plates OF
the fibre offer as great a resistance as
steel, and are more elastic and thou
sand times lighter.
Satisfactory experiments have been
made in Germany IN the way Of photo
graphing moving bullets fired from a
gun. These photographs are said to
show very clearly the waves set up in the
air by the motion of the bullet.
The lowest barometric pressure on
record is 81. 135 inches, which was OBJ
served in 1885 during storm over the
Bay of Bengal. This storm was also re-
markablc for its smallness-its diameter
being only from 100 to 200 miles--for its
fierceness, and for its indraught toward
the centre.
There is much mysterious talk of a
balloon invention of NJ. de Nillars, in
which the problem of aerial navigation is
said to have been solved, at least to a
degeee never yet reached. NJ. de Villars'
aim has been to direct his balloon by
taking advantage of the several air cur
rents which are to be met with at various
heights.
Extended observations at Paris and at
Munich indicate that the sanitary condi-
ton of locality depends on the amount
of water contained in the ground. The
years in which there has been a large
quantity of ground water present have
invariably been the healthiest years,
while those in which there has been
smaller Quaftftr lave Invariably been the
unhealthiest periods.
A Swiss matchmaker has made q new
application of electricity in the invention
of an illuminatOr for watch dials, where
by one in the dark can tell the hour with
case. A small electric lamp is fitted in
the watch case where it will light up the
dial when, by touching the case with
charm, connection is established through
the chain with a small battery carried in
the watch pocket.
Paper "window glass" is now said to
be an assured fact. AS described: "a
window pane is made of white paper,
manufactcd from cotton or linen, and
modified by chemical action. Afterward
the paper is dipped in a preparation of
camphor and alcohol, which makes it like
parchment. From this point it can be
moulded and cut into remarkably tough
sheets entirely transparent, and it can be
dyed with almost the whole of the ami
line colors, the result being II transpa--
ent sheet, showing far more vivid hues
than the best glass exhibits"
The latest thing for which dynamite
has been employed is not the blowing up
of buildings, but, on the contrary, the
laying of their foundations This new
development is due to NJ. Bonnetond, a
French engineer. When foundation has
to be laid IN wet ground, he borcs hole
ten to twelve feet deep and an inch and
a half wide. Into this hole he passes a
string of dynamite cartridges, which are
then exploded. Not only is a cavity of
a yard wide produced by the explosion,
but the expansive force of the dynamite
drives the water out far beyond the sides
of this cavity, and it does not return
again for more than half an hour. In
the meantime the workmen clear the
cavity and introduce quickly setting con-
crete, so that when the water returns
again it cannot injure the foundation.
The term incandesccnce, so much used |
at present, says the Eiec ri,al Re ie'c, in
dcates white heat, or the glowing |
whiteness of a body caused by intense
heat. The little glass bulbs, remarks a
writer on this subject, with their brilliant
horseshoe Of glowing tilamcnt, attract no
more attention than the Pickering gas
Jet But the facts about the gas jet are,
unlike those of the electric lamp, easily |
and generally understood. Both produce
light by incandescence, the molecules of
gas being rendered incandescent by the
heat generated by the combustion of |
other molecules The blue portion of |
every gas fame is where combustion is
taking place, and from there comes the
heat which keeps the rest in state OF
With the electric lamp
it is the heat produced by the friction OF
IN electric current, compelled to go
through a fine carbon Element, which
raises that filament to a condition of In
adolescence which produces light.