The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-01-16
POPULAR SCIENCE.

Italy has discovered new explosive
Of tremendous power.
The snrface of the earth is thirteen
miles nearer 10 the sun at the equator
than it is at New York. =
The steam pipe is not as innocent as
it looks, and care should be taken to
surround it with proper safeguards.
Robert Stevenson, engineer, of Glas-
cow, Scotland, is the last one to claim
an invention which will drive ocean
ships up to forty knots an hour.
1t has been computed that the power
required to drive the tenpenny nails con-
tained in full key would draw wagon
load with ton of coal tifty-two miles.
A London physician says that no two
lives are alike. One man muct be tenn
perate and steady to live fifty years,
while another may be ever so reckless
and live to be eighty. .
1tis reported that all the materials
needful for the manufacture of the gen.
uine Portland cement have been discov.-a
cred in Utah, and a factory for its pro-
duction is to be established. 8
A New York physician recommends
the Jewish custom Of washing hands be-
fore meals as preventive against typhoid
fever. He says that contagion can be
conveyed into the system by the hands.
Most of the buhach grown in CALI
fornia is raised around Stockton. From
it Dalmatian insect powder is made,
which retails at 81 per pound. The
Fresno Republican advises the farmers OF
California to pay more attention to its
cultivation.
The yellow fever germ probably gains
entrance into the body by the respiratory
or alsmentary tracts, or through the
surface of the body, or it is possible that
it multiplies in insanitary localities and
develops q volatile poison which con-.
teammates the air. ... .-., i l55gS
When the rosewood tree is first cut,
the fresh wood exhales very strong,
roselike fragrance, which soon passes
away, leaving no trace of the peculiar
odor. There are several varieties of rose,
wood trees. The best, however, are
those found in South America and the
East Indies and neighbcring islands.
The american Aaalyst has valuable.
article on ''Refrigerating Risks" It:
points out that not only is the favor OF
many articles of food injured by being
kept at too low temperature, but that
some, eggs especially, ore rendered posi-
lively injurious, without showing any
obvious change, by being preserved for
length of time in low temperature.
Opium eaters take the drug in every
variety of form. In the crude state the
gum is eaten or smoked. Inthe liquid.
Preparations the tincture is the most
popular; but paregoric is favorite form,
especially with women, while the eli1irs
are also largely used. Morphia holds
sway over large proportion Of con-
sumers, either by the stomach or hypo.
dermically. ss
The latest method of increasing the
speed of vessels is q screw which IS So
designed that the center lines of two;
following blades from spirals running in.
opposite directions. The blades are SO
curved that one has It's leading part near
the periphery, the other has it near the
center, so that each blade cuts into the.
water in advance of the following. It
is claimed that greater speed results. ;;
The pneograph is novel instrument
devised by DR.. Mortimer Granville, an
English physician. 1t consists of q deli:
cately suspended and counterpoised hall
disc, with an arrangement for moving
smoked paper under tracing needle.
When held over the mouth, the half disc
rises and falls with the breath. The,
needle is thus made to trace wavy line
on the moving paper, and the charscter,
of this line indicates the force, contin-.
uity and duration of the expiration
The tracings in diverse conditions OF the
lungs show very marked and apparently
significant differences. ..a..