The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-08-29
POPULAR SCIENCE.

The direct action of steam at 212t
degrees is sufficient to destroy all germs.l
Chloroform may be detected in the
lungs of animals four weeks after DEATH
According to the naturalists, wasps
remember the locality of their nests just
ninety-six hours.
Waste silk. has been shown to be the
most effective non-conductive covering
for steam pipes The price is high, but
the demand is very great. -
There has been invented for the use OF
the trumpeters in the French army an
! instrument which at will can be turned
10 as to throw the sounds backward. I.
A human subject without collar bones
has been met with in st. Louis dis.
.ecting-room. This structure is that of
most of the vertebrates, such as lions,
bears, etc. ,. ~ -lst.
Without taking into account the small
variations due to refraction, ETC., the
days and nights are always of equal
length at ali points on the equator, with
out regard to the position ofthe ecliptic. !.
The atmosphere on the English Channel.
was recently rarefed to such a degree
that OBJ 'ects between thirty and forty
miles from Dover and Folkestone could
clearly be distinguished with the naked
eye. a3
Tests of various kinds of coal have
shown that only coke is sufficiently.
good electric conductor to be used as
an earth collection for Lightning rods.
Specimens of anthracite and bituminous
coal and charcoal were mostly lacking
in conductivity.
A natural soap we'll has been discovered
near Buffalo Gap, Dakota. The soap is
skinned from boiling spring and
hardens by exposure to the air.. It is q
mixture of borax, alkali and oil. The
quality is excellent, and the supply Is
believed to be inexhaustible. y a!.
A remarkable strip Of the new South
American railroad, from Buenos Ayres to.
the Andes, is probably tn, longest tam
gent in the world, extending Oil miles
without curve. 1t is further notable
as having no bridge in the entire dis.
tance, and no cut or fill exceeding about
yard in depth or height. - !
A new method of weather prediction
has been discovered by a French phys
sicist. He has observed that the scintil.
lations of stars increase before many;
storms, indicating disturbance Of the,
upper atmosphere hours before the
meteorological instruments show any
change. The fiercer the storm, the,
more is the strength of the scintillations
increased. -
Eighteen years ago, when the ais-;
brake was, it required eighteen seconds.
to apply it to train 2UO0 feet long.
Four years later the time was reduced
to four seconds. Recent experiments
with the air-brake on freight trains.
show that it can be applied to every car
in train of that length running at the.
rate OF forty miles an hour, and that
this train can be stopped within 500
feet, or one-fourth its own length, and
all this without any serious -jostling. tx ss
When the first electric telegraph was
established the speed of transmission
was from four to five words q minute
with the five needle Instruments; in 18i9.
the average rate for newspaper messages
was seventeen words minute; the pres9
ent pace of the electric telegraph be-
tween London and Dublin, where the
Wheatstone instrument is employeds
reaches 463 words; and thus what was
regarded as miraculous sixty years ago
has multiplied hundred fold in half g
century. Z