San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-10-23
USEFUL INFORMATION.


electricity, it is said, can take out as
much ore and tunnel as far as one
hundred men with picks, shovels, and
blasting material, besides which the
buildings can be lighted, and great
saving on insurance and Oil made
thereby.
A French statistician has just as
certained that a human being, of
either sex, who is a moderate eater,
and who lives to be seventy years
old. consumes during "the days of
the years of his life" quantity of
food which would fill twenty ordinary
eater,n however, may require as
many as thirty.
The postal card was twenty years
old on the first this month. Austria
has the credit of first adopting the
invention, though it was first advo-
Gated by the German Postmaster
General, DR.. Stephan. On October /.
1869, a "Correspondenz Karte' first
burst on the astonished Continental
world. New York Sun.
The Electric World gives partial
list of all the patents taken out by
Mr.. Thomas A. Edison 1t is at fol-
lows: Telegraphy, 13l; electric
lights, 1OS; distribution, Sc; genera
ton, lO7; railways, s; telephones, 80;
photograph, q. The total number,
including many not enumerated
above, is 493, besides over 800 appli-
cations for patents pending.
M. de Susini, Corsican doctor, has,
it is asserted, constructed q motive
apparatus or propeller of twenty-horse
power, which is worked by sulphuric
ether, result which the doctor an
tioipates will realize q saving Of IS
per cent. of the combustible material
at present employed for setting ma
chinery in motion.
NJ. Pasteur delivered an address the
other day in Paris to the members Of
the Society of Practical Medicine, and
1t is declared with much emphasis
that rabies is never spontaneous.
The microbe producing 1t, he said, was
invariably transmitted. This means,
of course, that no dog ever goes mad
unless he has been bitten by another
mad dog, a fact at once important and
reassurlng.
The deepest bore-hole in the world,
claimed at different times tor num-
Der of places is, according to latest
accounts, at Schladebach, a small
German village near Leipzich. 1t
measures l, 1884 meters, or about S, 735
feet. The time expended in boring to
this depth amounted to six years,
at a cost of So, 500. A peculiar expe-
rience encountered in connection
with this and other deep holes in diff
ferent parts of Germany is, according
to Uhland's WOchenschrift, that the
observed temperatures while steadily
increasing with the depths. show
smaller ratio of increase in the lower
strata.-Science.
Progress has it's penalties. The use
of steam as a motive power and heater
has cost many thousands of lives. So
has the use Of gas as an illumination.
Electricity Is now at the front for en-
ployment as power and light. 1t is
doing some killing, but its victims are
few as compared with those of steam.
Doubtless it will be rendered less
dangerous, but it must always retain
capacity for evil as we'll as for good.
We do not get unmixed good on this
side of eternity.-Washington Press.
In the laboratory of the State min
ing bureau in San Francisco discov-
cry was made recently which is high
ly priced. In working specimen of
sulphide or olende ore sent from
mine in Shasta county, Cal, a small
piece of metallic zinc was secured.
This is the first piece of the character
named ever known to have been Sc
cured in this country. Late works on
metallurgy note the existence in the
mines of Victoria, Australia, of the
only native metallic zinc known.-Eu-
gineering and Mining Journal.
A few days ago M. Lyman Knapp,
Of Providence, h. l., died suddenly in
his carriage. This country, and es-
pecially the South, owes great deal
to Mr.. Knapp. He invented the ma
chine which led to the manufacture of
cotton-seed oil. Thirty years ago
there was no market for cotton seeds.
They were used only for planting and
fertilizing purposes. About that time
Mr.. Knapp invented a machine which
he thought would hull the seed, and
! in connection with it was q process for
refining the oil. He had a shipload
of cotton seeds sent to Providence from
New Orleans; the experiment was
made, and the utility of his invention
was established, to the surprise and
delight of Southern planters.-Savan
nah News.
At the opening of an electric-light-
ing station in Salem, Mass, a letter
was read from Prof. Moses G Farmer,
who had the honor thirty years age
to demonstrate the possibility of illu-