The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1889-12-06
POPULAR SCIENCE.

There were IS, 315 applications for the
registration of trade marks in England
last year.
The total weight of the great thirty
six-inch telescope at the Lick obserya-
tory is forty tons.
The metre is the French standard of
measurement, and is equal to about forty
inches, or, to be exact, 39.37O79.
Mr.. Oscar Montelins estimates that the
stone age ended $500 years ago in swed-
en-, where it reached very high develop
ment.
Every electric motor mandatory IN
the United States is said to be crowded
to It's utmost capacity to meet the de-
lnands for electric power.
The transmission Of an electric current
by an insulated wire was shown by Wat
son and others as early as 1747, nearly a
century before Morse gave to the world
the telegraph.
Professor Ayrton says that the power
which runs to waste at Niagara Falls ex-
ceeds that which could be produced by
the annual consumption Of $50, 900, 600
of tons of coal
Ar invention has recently been per-
fected by Professor Thomson whereby
rails Of street or steam railways can be
welded together by electricity after be-
ing placed in position.
In France they now use for steam and
water pipe joints, gaskets made of wood
pulp, which are boiled in inseed oil.
They give satisfactory results, and are not
subject to decomposition at high tempera-
ture.
NJ. Courton, chemist, produced re-
Gently at the sitting of the French
Academy of Sciences a sealed envelope
containing description Of an apparatus
by means of which objects may be seen
at vast distances, the vibrations of light
being transmitted through a wire.
It is affirmed that the large quantities
of snails which appear in the chalk pas.
lures after rain, and which are devoured
by the sheep along with the short herb
age on which both feed, have a consider
able share in imparting that peculiar fla
vor to which South Down mutton owes
so much of its celebrity.
Among the latest life-saying devices
appears a lifeboat with machinery for
hydraulic propulsion. The hull Is built
Of steel and strongly braced, and the
total weight Of the boat when completed
and ready for service viii not exceed
twenty tons. The boiler is calculated to
carry . very high pressure.
The head measurement of 1G7 students
at Cambridge University show a small
diminution in the head capacity as the
individual grows one year older, but this
is so small compared with the probable
error that the observations are quite con
sistent with the hypothesis that the head
remains quite stationary.
Accurate observations taken quite re-
Gently in England with reference TO cleo
trio phenomena connected with thunder
storms are said to show that each flash Of
is in reality made up of three
separate and distinct discharges of fluid, /
though they are so closely connected as I
to present the appearance of continuity |
to the naked eye.
A Swiss inventor has perfected
method of making artificial boards, and (
is advocating their use in building.
They are made of a mixture of plaster of
paris and reeds pressed into shape by
hydraulic process. The material has the
Of incombustibility and light
ness, and will resist the varying action
Of atmospheric changes.
At the close of June there were twenty /
three crematories in Italy, ten in America,
one in Germany, one in England, Sne IN
-a--------esia-ia Switzerland. one in Den |
mark and one IN SwedeR-,s lt0tias OF /
thirty-nine In Italy two corpses Ae7s
burned in 1876, fifteen in 1877, sixteen
in 1873 and 226 in 1888. Since 1876
1177 corpses have been burned IN Italy,
and 1869 in the other countries The
whole number burned in June was fifty.