The Opelousas courier., 1889-01-19
SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS

ANA NSNA g
striking resemblance to that of q beast
of prey.
Experiments on the speed of the cleo.
trio current prove that if a proper con,
ductor could be wound around the globe
asignal parting from it at any point o
it would return to the starting point IL
one-half of a second.
A scheme is in progress in Mexico fol
tunneling the volcano of Popocatapetl
through the wall of the crater, in order
to reach the immense sulphur deposits
inside the mountain. A narrow-gaugs
railroad will connect the tunnel witt
the town of Amecameca, which, in turn,
will connect with the Morelos road.
leading to the national capitol.
The experiments which were success.
fully carried out at Washington some
time ago of sending nitro-gelatlne shells
from an ordinary gun have been re.
peated by the Turkish government. 4
breach-loading howitzer was pointed OF
a target of twelve steel plates 20'
metres away. The shell exploded OF
contact aud completely destroyed thu
thing.
A wonderful fre-proof paint has been
invented By A. Jameson. According
to the Electrical Review, a 'tshanty" o
dry pine wood was covered with the
paint, and, by means of oiled sh~avingss
two attempts to burn it were made, but
without success. The hot fire was only
able to char the face of the wood, and
would not take hold of it. The test
was so satisfactory that Captain Cam
eron, of the White Star line, intend
taking several gallons of it over to Eng
land in his ship, the Adriatic.
DR.. Brown Sequard, who has been
preaching that bad ventilation and poor
and monotonous food are the great
aus of phthisis, has exhibited to tn
Paris Academy of Science a ventilatine
apparatus of his invention. A reversed
funnel, the shape of a lamp shade, is
placed at the end of a tube, so arranged
in its curves and angles that wher
placed beside a bel the reversed funnel
will be above the sleeper and draw ur
the air he bseathes. The other cad run:
into the chimney of the room. If there
be none, it is taken through a heating
| apparatus to an air-hole. The heat il
great enough to burn the disease germs
The average watch is composed o
n hundred and seventy-f We differen
pieces, comprising upward OF two
thousand four hundred separate an6
distinct operations in its manufacture
The balance has eighteen thousand beats
or vibrations per hour, twelve million
nine hundred and sixty thousand and
lightly in thirty days, m hundred ane
fifty-seven million six hundred and
eighty thousand in one year it travels
one and forty-three one-hundredtl
inches with each vibration, which is
| equal to nine and three-quarter miles il
twenty-four hours, two hundred ane
ninety-two and a half miles in thirt,
days, or three thousand five hundred
and ifty-eight and three quarter miles
in one year.
1t is estimated that the air in a room
becomes distinctly bad for health wher
its carbonic acid exceeds 1 part in 1000
An apparatus has been recently pa
tented by Prof. Wolpert of N~urnberg,
which affords a measure of the sarboni
acid present. From a vessel containing
a red liquid (soda-solution with phe
n~olphthalien) there comes every 10t
seconds, through a siphon-arrangement
a red drop on a prepared white threae
about a foot and a half long, an6
trickles down this. Behind the thread
is a scale beginning with "pure air
(up to o. per 10000 at the bottom, ant
ending above with extremely BAD,
a to q per 1000 and more). In pure al
the drop continues red down to tn,
bottom, but it loses its color by tn
action of carbonic acid, and thegooner
the more there is Of that gas present.