Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-07-21
POPULAR SCIENCE.


fresh and sweet.
Immense numbers of stoats and weasels
are being imported into Australia in the
hope that they will destroy the rabbits.
which are dreadful pest.
A Frenchman claims to Lave invented
thermometer SO sensitive that its index
needle will defect two inches upon the
entrance of person into the room where
1t has been placed.
The use Of water meters in restricting
waste limits the average daily consump-
ton OF water in Berlin to twenty-five gal
Ions per head. Every house has its water
meter, the landlord paying the water rent
a Mrs. Farnham, of New Orleans, has
invented " car-starter and combination
brake " tor street cars. From the descrip-
ton 1t appears that the brake winds up
the starter, and relieves the horses of the
strain Of starting the car.
A new coal mining company known as
the Electric Motor Company, which has
patent for mining by electricity, will es-
tablish plant at Phillipsburg, Pa, for the
mining Of an area of ten miles. The plant
as whole, is to consist of central dyna-
mo, conducting wires, coal-cutting ma
chine, electric lamps and motor attach
ments for hanging the mining cars.-Elec-
tricat Reciep.
The conduct of the Signal Service, as
disclosed by its annual report, is criticised
at some length in an article in a recent
number Of Science. 1t seems to be estab-
lished by trustworthy statistics that the
reliability of the weather prognostics fur
nished by the service has fallen off notice
ably in the last few years, the year 1883
showing 50 per cent. of successful predic-
tons, while in 1887 the percentage had
fallen to "A.
According to the British Consul at La
Rochelle, since the failure of the vine
yards from phylloxera, an imitation of
claret is made there by sleeping raisins
and currants in water and mixing the
compound with cheap Spanish wine. In
other districts of France spurious brandy
Is made from mixture of beet-root and
cheap German spirit. This, having been
sent to port OF expectation in its true
character, Is remarked and sent abroad as
cognac.
\ material for fastening knives or forks
into their handles is much needed. The
best cement which is used for this purpose
is made by melting one pound of colo
phony, bought Of any druggist, and eight
ounces Of sulphur. 1t may be kept in
bar or reduced to powder Take one part
of the powder and mix with iron filings.
fine sand or brick dust, and fill the cavity
of the handle heat the stem of the han
dle, then heat the stem of the knife or
fork and insert. When cold it will be
found to be firm in its place,
Floridians are excited over the discov-
cry of valuable textile fiber in a plant of
common growth, and which can be grown
on waste lands. The plant is known by
the name of mangney, and the fiber is de-
scribed as silyer-gray, and each fiber strong
enough to use as sewing thread. The
plant Is perennial, and from once it takes
root becomes as firmly attached to the soil
as Bermuda grass. A cord made of the
tibers, twisted to the size Of an ordinary
lead-pencil, will sustain 1000 pounds sus-
pended for any length of time.
Steam pipes of copper are now made by
elect.o-deposition from sulphate of copper
solution. The pipe is formed on an iron
core in the depositing bath, and the de-
posted copper is pressed by moving tool
as it is deposited, so as to give iibrous
strength to the crystalline copper. After
the pipe is thus formed it is subjected to
hot steam, which expands the copper shell,
or pipe. clear off the core, thus separating
the two. These pipes have DO Joint, and
are said to be very strong; tests showing
that they break with strains of from 81 to
Il tons per square inch.
Some experiments have lately been made
at Cape Town in transmitting messages by
flashing electric lights upon the clouds at
night. The signals are read like those of
the heliograph, and besides being available
at night the system has the advantage over
the heliograph of not requiring night
stations. The terminals may be below
each others horizon, while the heliograph
requires considerable altitude, strong light
and clear air for operating over long dis
tances. Under proper atmospheric con-
ditions messages were transmitted from a
vessel forty miles off shore to the land in
the experiments referred to.