The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1889-03-22
POPULAR SCIENCE.

Italy has discovered a new explosive
of tremendous power.
The surface of the earth is thirteen
miles nearer to the sun at the equator
than it is at New York.
The steam pipe is not as innocent as
1t looks, aud care should be taken TO
surround it with proper safeguards,
Robert Stevenson, engineer, of Glas-
gov, 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-
tanned in a full key would draw wagon
load with ton of coal ffty-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.
Iti reported that all the materials
needful for the manufacture of the gen.
uine Portland cement have been diScov-
cred IN Utah, and factory for its pro-
duetion is to be established.
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 bv 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 a volatile poison which con-
teammates the air.
When the rosewood tree is first cut,
the fresh wood exhales a 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 neighboring islands.
The American Aaalysi has valuable
article on ''Refrigerating Risks" 1t
points out that not only is the favor of
many articles of food injured by being
kept at too low a temperature, but that
some, eggs especially, are rendered posi-
lively injurious, without showing any
obvious change, by being preserved for
a 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. In the liquid
preparations the tincture is the most
popular; but paregoric is favorite form,
especially with women, while the elixirs
are also largely used. AIorphia holds
sway over a large proportion OF con-
sumers, either by the stomach or hypo-
dermically.
The latest method of increasing the
speed OF vessels is a 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. 1t
is claimed that greater speed results.
The photograph IS a novel instrument
de7ised by Dr. Mortimer Granville, an
English physician. 1t consists of deli
cately suspended and counterpOised half
disc, with an arrangement for moving
smoked paper under a 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 character
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.