The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-12-18
POPULAR SCIENCE.

Iron or steel immersed in a warm solu.
tion of carbonate of soda (washing sods)
for few minutes will not rust. 81
EdgarF F. Lincoln, of Topeka, Kan., has
taken out more patents during the last
two years than any man in the country.
An electrical instrument has been in
vented which is designed to remove the
pain Incidental to the extraction of teeth.
An Engligh surgeon has made series
of experiments in Bengal which confirms
the belief that cobra poison does not kill
these snakes themselves.
Herr Ebers, German experimenter,
has found that the human eye is more
sensitive to green rays Of light than to
red rays, and to red than to blue rays.
It is estimated that there are 8, 1000, 600
of people who walk about London's
streets daily, and in so doing wear awaya
ton of leather particles from their boots
and shoes.
Silk thread is soaked in acetate of lead
to increase its weight, and persons who
pass it through the mouth in threading
needles and then bite it off with the teeth
have suffered from lead poisoning.
An incandescent lamp arrangement for
showing the interior of boilers while un-
der steam, has been made by German
inventor. The device Is likely to be of
practical, as we'll as of scientific, value.
In a Moscow foundry castings are
made from metals fused in an electric
furnace. The operators work two hours
per day, the glare being greater than that
of the sun. and uncomfortable for large
time.
Experiments communicated to the
French Academy indicate. that disease
microbes may not only attenuated until
entirely harmless, but may be revivited
by degrees and given the most virulent
character. ...
The oldest mark of human life is be-
lieved to be flint idol recently brought
up from depth of 800 feet by a sand.
pump near Boise City, Idaho, and now in
the possession of Professor G. Frederick
Wright, of Oberlin College.
All plants and trees consume water IL
large quantities. Sir John Laws discov-
cred that an acre of barley will take up
1894 tons of water in two days. Trees
and plants are composed more largely OF
water than any other substance.
Lizards present strange phenomenon.
Their tail, brittle and easily broken, lives
for considerable length Of time after
being separated from its bearers body;
and, more than that, the lost tail is in
comparatively short time replaced by an
other, similar to the amputated one.
It is a curious fact, so announced, that
cider scalded to 1875 degrees or 13O de-
grees will not make vinegar, as this
heat destroys the bacteria that forms vine
gar. This same temperature destroys the
bacteria in the silo, and this is perhaps
the explanation why it remains compare
lively sweet.
An invention is said to have been
patented in New Zealand and in other
colonies which, if it does all that is
claimed for it, will reyolutionize the set
tlement of bush lands. 1t is compost
ton which, when trees are inoculated
with it, mingles itself with the sap and
circulates through every branch and leaf,
utterly destroying the life and rendering
the standing tree in three months time
dead and rotten, and so highly imtiam-
mable that when fired it burns away liter
ally root and branch.