The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-09-25
POPULAR SCIENCE.

The Imperial University OF TOXIC naa
1873 professors and teachers, all but six
teen being japanese. This years STU
dents number 7Sa.
When a storm is advancing, the wind
blows to meet it. Thus wind blowing
from the east or southeast indicates the
approach of storm from the west.
The Belgian Government are now max
ing experiments with a new kind OF
screw, which enables vessel to stop or
turn instantaneously to avert collision.
The shortest time occupied by the tor
nado cloud in passing a given point
varies from "an instant" to about twenty
minutes, the average being seventy-four
seconds.
A remarkable cave has just been dis
covered on the top of the Taygetus range,
in Greece. 1t is from ten to thirty feet
high and from thirty to sixty feet wide,
and contains thousands of stalactites IN
wonderful'groups.
From experiments made in Richmond,
Va, with electric heaters, it seems prob
able that a passenger coach can be kept
warm at an expense of two cents an
hour; the current being supplied by a
dynamo on the locomotive or tender.
A French stone-mason has discovered
a cement which he claims to be stronger,
cheaper, and less liable to damage from
the action OF the weather than any pre-
paration now in use. 1t is not plaster,
but o heavy, viscous fluid, and is applied
with brush. Its composition is kept
secret.
Some experiments lately made at the
Royal Polytechnic School at Munich show
that the strength of camels-hair betting
reaches 6315 pounds per square inch,
while that of ordinary betting ranges
between 223O and $3.50 pounds per square
inch. The camel's-hair belt is unaffected
by acids.
A new shaping tool has been invented
"a machine in which two fiat surfaces,
acting vertically or horizontally and NOV
ing in opposite directions, with adjusta-
BILE dies fitted upon them, roll in one
motion piece of metal, regular or irregu-
lar in shape and of almost any desired
pattern. At q single stroke OF the
mechanism may be obtained sphere, a
cone, chair screw, bolt with thread
and head-in fact, an endless variety OF
mechanical forms.
Among the latest American patents is
one for a process of obtaining dry feed
for animals from the refuse of starch and
glucose. The coarse refuse is first SUBJ
jected to pressure to free it from water,
and to it is added the fine refuse, con-
tanning the glutinous nitrogenous parts
of the grain. This combination IS SUBJ
jected to pressure to express the greater
part of the moisture, and finally placed
under the influence of heat, for the pur-
pose of evaporating the remaining moist
ure.
A wonderful invention for rapid transit
is attracting attention in New York.
The invention consists of an elevated
railway track of a new design for a car
made of demagnetized steel and running
upon o single rail. The car will go a
distance of 230 miles in an hour. The
invention will first be used for transport
ing small packages and mail matter, but
eventually will be adapted for the trans
portation of passengers. The cost Is
trivial when compared to that of the
regular railroads.
Experts in house building have sug-
gested that CRATES in second stories are
usually less safe than those below, as the
narrower joists give little room for the
boxing of the hearth. It is also urged
that CRATES be examined carefully, to de-
termine whether the back of the fue is
simply of four-inch wall, which is always
dangerous at the back of a crate in a
frame house. This cln be determined
by measuring the distance the breast ex-
tends out from the wall, and, as some
times the breast runs through flush with
the face of the wall in the next room,
the calculation is to be made accordingly.