The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-02-22
POPULAR SCIENCE.


a contract by the Italian Government for
the construction of Zalinski dynamite
gun, which is to be forty feet long and
to be made in three sections, and de-
signed to throw a prosectile weighing
600 pounds distance of four miles. 1t
will be used for coast defense.
The extension of the Chinese telegrapn
system has involved the crossing OF
several large rivers-a matter of no small
difficulty, owing to the enormous dimen-
sions of the summer floods. The river iE
question, whose ordinary width is about
half mile, is swollen by the rains to Il
breadth of more than eight miles. "
Referring to the British birds that
swarm in South Africa in winter, Profes-
sor Scebohm states that on the coast OF
Natal he must have seen hundreds o
thousands of barn swallows, evidently COL
lected to return to northern Europe.
Swifts and other species were numerous.
Many of these did not breed within
5000 miles of those arts. and some not
within 10, 900.
A powder is used in the German army
for sitting into the shoes and stockings
of the foot soldiers. 1t is called Gus
streupulver," and consists of three parts
salicylic acid, ten parts starch, and
eighty-sevcn parts pulverized soapstone
(Speckstein). 1t keeps the feet dry,
prevents chafng, and rapidly heals sore
spots. It is to be recommended to
mountalneers,
Mr.. J. W. Collins reports in the Bull
letin of the United States Fish Commis-
sion the finding of knife of curious
workmanship in the thick flesh of a
large cod. The handle of the knife is
of brass, curved and .tapering behind,
with longitudinal incision on the con-
cave side to receive the edge of the blade.
The total length of handle and blade to-
gether is 81 inches.
Professor Medeleef. in Engineering, has
advanced the theory that petroleum is OF
mineral origin, and that its production is
going on and NAV continue almost in
definitely. He has succeeded in making
it artifcially by similar process to that
which he believes is going on in the
earth, and experts find it impossible to
distinguish between the natural and the
manufactured article.
Some of the inventors evidently do
not propose to give up the car stove:
Several of them have invented and
patented extinguishers in the shape OF
water tanks. which, when anything hap.
pens, drown out the fire in the stove.
Some of them act autom atically, while
others must be operated by pulling a
cord, which is supposed to flood the
stove and render it innocuous, so to
speak.
A paper made by Herr Ladewig, Ger
many, will resist the action of both fire
and water. The manufacture is accom-
plished by mixing twenty-five parts OF
asbestos fiber with from twenty-five to
thirty parts of aluminium sulphate,
moistening the mixture with chloride OF
zinc and thoroughly washing it IN
water. It is then treated with solution
of pure aluminium sulphate, after which
it is manufactured into paper like ordi-
nary pulp.
Roburite (says Iuaustries) promises to
disp!ace all other explosives now used in
coal mines. The experiments made are
highly satisfactory. 'In what's usually
an explosive mixture of air and fire damp
we understand there was no ignition.
Underground, both in coal and stone, it
gave results equal in power to ordinary
blasting gelatine, while there was not SO
much small coal as with gelatine and
dynamite. Probably it is not widely
known that roburite is an invention due
partially to the action of the Austrian
Government, which in 1882 offered prizes
for the safest mining explosives. Robu-
rite, carbonite and securite were three
out of twenty which were favorably re-
ported upon, and the former appears to
be the most satisfactory"