Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1889-01-05
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

a substitute for jute.
A torpedo boat for Spain is twenty
two meters long and can stay under
water two days.
The Southern Pacific Railroad pays
from So to $40 per ton for coal. The
concern is now experimenting with
petroleum.
From skeletons found in South Caro-
lima it is certain that there used to be a
race of men in this country who stood
from eight to eleven feet high.
An English scientific man has pre-
served record of family of many-toed
cats down to the tenth generation. Some
members of the family have as many as
seven toes on each foot.
A New York ocuist who Travelled
about the city for week on a tour of
observation encountered 20O1 people
who were doing exactly what he would
recommend person to do to destroy his
eyesight in couple of years.
1t is difficult sometimes to loosen a
rusty screw. If you cannot withdraw
such one, heat an iron rod TO white
heat and hold it for two or three
minutes against the screwhead, after
which the screw will come out with
facility.
A Maine genius has scovered that
spruce sawdust is an excellent substitute
for sand in making common mortar for
plastering houses. He has used it in
making house in Greenville, and other
masons in the State are experimenting
with it.
The ehigh Valley (Penn.) Railroad
now has twelve trains equipped with
telegraphic instruments for transmitting
messages along the road while the trains
are in motion. The system has been
used with particu ar success by the
wrecking trains ON the road.
The copcensus OF opinion now points
to the. fact that the auditory organs of
insects are located IN different insects in
different parts of the body, and, more
over, in the same animal, there is reason
to believe, that the sensitiveness to
sounds is not necessarily confined to one
part.
How and when an cells eggs are
Matched has always been, and still is, a
mystery. All that is known definitely is
that the old eeis run down to salt water
in October, and that in the spring swarms
of young ones, tho size of darning-
needle and about two inches long, as
cend the rivers.
DIR. De la Rue has reached the conclu-
sion, after numerous experiments, that
the most brilliant displays of the aurora
borealis occur at an elevation of not more
than thirty eight miles. while pale glow
may possibly be produced as high as
eighty-two miles, but that no auroral
discharge is possible at a height. of 124
miles.
Not long ago fireman remained half
an hour i'll dense smoke, protected by
means of the Loeb respirator and eye
protecting and elastic-rimmed spectacles.
With this respirator on, the air can be
inhaled very easily, the exhalations pass
ing out through valvular arrangement.
So successful has the appliance been that
the German navy has adopted it.
DIR. Eisenmann. of Berlin, has in
vented piano which, by the aid of
electro magnetism, can sustain. increase,
and diminish sound. This has been at
tempted by other experts, notably
Boehm. the inventor of the metal flute.
Another novelty will be that, by moving
the electro magnets, the timber of the
tone is changed; for example, from that
of violincello to piccolo.
A striking improvement in clocks was
exhibited and described to the British
Association for the Advancement of Sci
euce by Mr.. w. IL. Douglass. The new
feature consists in the use of torsion
pendulum. which, with lever and escape
ment, may be apple ed to ordinary works,
and by its slow rate of vibration makes
it practicable to convert an eight-day
clock into one requiring winding only
once a year.
On examining block of ice which
formed part of a large quantity stored
for more than twelve months at Moores-
town. N. j., Professor Leidy found it
riddled with air bubbles and drops of
water. A portion of the Llock was
melted, whereupon a number of worms
made their appearance, but died almost
Immediately. The worms cannot be
identified with any known species, and
Professor Leidy believes them to be as
yet undescribed.