The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1888-07-28
SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS.

A soda motor Is to be used on one o.
the Chicago car-lines.
Professor Proctor says that in 10 OO(
years there will be no water on the
earth.
A patent for driving vehicles by
electricy is said to have been sold in
England for $3.50, 900.
Careful experiments have shown that
waste silk is the most effective of all
hon conducting coverings for steam
pipes.
Tannin has been discovered as an ami
NAL substance by French chemist, who
6nds that corn weevils contain about
threc per cent. of it.
Dr.. William S. Bryant of Boston has
discovered that in the postal veins of
tery young children are valves that disap-
pear as the child grows older. These
Ealves are found in the lower animals.
Americans of the uppe, and lower
Elasses-i. e., those who can afford to
ret their lives insured--- are healthier
nd longer lived THAI Elglishmen. Such
the result arrived at from a study of
be life insurance statistics.
Edison's latest is a harmonic tele-
Eraph, by means of which any number
y messages may be sent over the same
gire simultane ously in either direction.
he has been eleven years perfccting it.
The Western Union people have pur-
based its exclusive use.
The trials of the two 110-ton breech-
bading guns of the new armor- plated
arbette ship Benbow at Sheerness,
England, have been satisfactory. The
uns wero each tested with the full
harges of 1000 pounds of powder, the
rojectiles fred weighing 1900 pounds.
The largest known flower is the raj
esia, an extraordinary parasite of the
brest trees of Sumatra, which measures
hree feet in diameter, weighs fifteen
Ounds, and has q calyx holding six
uarts. The odor is that of tainted
leat. The plant consists only of the
over, growing directly on the stem of
host.
Walter G. Murphy of New York has
scovered that fish can be kept alive
pnsiderable time without change of air
water by placing them in a recepta-
e partly filed with water, and her
etically sealing the same. They arc
bafected by changes of temperature,
bd quite healthy and lively on being
leased from the jar, while others
aced in jars "quite full of water, or
jars opened or exposed" to the air,
Jed in a short time.
Several tramcars drive, by COM
Fes'ed air have recently been placed
the London England) Street Tram
avs Company's lines, where they are
gularly taking their turn in working
- traffic with the ordinary horse
lawn cars. The road is about two
Plies in length, and has several heavy
Fadients and sharp curves. 1t is hoped
at the system has now been so ma
red as to secure economy over horse
action, and this notwithstanding that
9TH horses and forage arc at a low
ice.
When the first electric telegraph was
taolished, according to the British
stnaster-gencral. the speed of trans
|ssion was from four to five words
mute on the five needle instruments.
la9 the average rate for a number
newspaper messages was seventeen
PROS minute. The present pace of
electric telegraph between London
q Dublin, where the Whcatstone
tomatic instrument is employed,
Pches 462 words minute; and thus
pat was regarded as miraculous sixty
y" ago has multiplied hundredfold
0ne-half century.