The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1888-05-19
SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS.

well rubbed in will take ink stains from
silver or plated ware. Wash and wipe
as usual.
The pendulum governor for steam and
gas engines has appeared in this country.
1t has only one ball, is not rotary, and
consumes no power in driving.
A hitherto uncharted island, two
miles long, is reported to exist ia lati-
tude 8 deg. 10 min. south, longitude
100 deg. 80 min. east.
Portions OF the Andes seem to be sink.
ing, the altitude of Quito havin g dimin-
ished &c feet in 1872 years, and that of
another peak 21S feet. A crater has
sunk 42j feet in % years.
The electromagnetic consists of an ap-
raratus for recording in legible charac-
tiers articulated and musical sounds. 1t
has flexible diaphragm to be vibrated
by the impact of sound waves and to
ribrate an ink-discharging pen, which
marks upon paper ribbon.
1t has been found that old crowbars
made of the best Swedish iron and used
by the early settlers of New England,
have become SO rotten that they could
not be welded together when broken,
and had an offensive smell when the
welding heat was applied.
At recent meeting of learned men
in Berlin it was said as fact that when
bee has filled his cell with honey and
has completed the lid he adds drop of
formic acid which he gets from the
poison bagconnected with the sting.
To do this he perforates the lid with the
sting. This acid preserves the honey.
A writer in Science comes to the con-
clusion that, as result of his investiga.
tions, at seems idle to discuss further
the influence of forests upon rainfall
from the economic point of view, as it
is evidently too slight to be of the least
practical Importance. Man has not yet
invented method of controlling rain
fall"
A veteran Of the late war, who re-
sides at Croydon, n. H., claims to have
invented a new engine of war, which he
calls Time Torpedo" L. has no
clockwork and no chemicals, but by
subtle combination of forces known to
every schoolboy the charge explodes at
any given time, varying from two min
utes to two weeks.
The statement has recently been
made by practical iron worker of fifty
years experience, that not only does the
metal rot from age, but that continual
jarring has the effect to weaken the
tensile strength, an illustration of a IA
miliar kind in this line being afforded
by the step of carriage, which, when
new, may be bent back and forth with
out breaking, but after few years SER
vice will certainly break no matter how
we'll preserved.
Professor Morgan caught scorpion
and pierced it in three places with its
own sting, on which in each case there
was drop of poison, but the creature
remained alive and active. But these
and subsequent experiments led him to
believe that the poison has some effect,
causing sluggishness and torpor for a
while. He also agrees with Professor
Bourne, that it is possible for . scor-
pion to sting itself in vulnerable place.
Messrs. c. II. Hartwig and G. Hunter
have recently succeeded in reaching the
crest OF the Owen Stanley Range, in
British New Guinea. They had some
difficulty to overcome the opposition of
the tribe which guards the great noun
tain, Paramagero, which the natives DE-
ieve to be the abode of the spirits of
the departed. Eventually they were
placated, and two hundred of the tribe
followed the expedition in the ascent.
A method, claimed to support electric
wires above ground in such way as to
evadc the dangers and diff
iculties of the old pole system, as we'll
Is tho expense and inconvenience that
lttend most of the propo,ed under
ground remedies, is the tower system
,eing introduced ia New Orleans. The
overs are to be quadrangular, and
where placed at tho corners Of streets