Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-09-14
SCIENTIFIC.
Conjunction OF Venus and the MoOn-Fort
Worth's L0cation-W Weapon for Throw
ing Proiectiles.

The leading astronomical phenomenon
planet Venus aud the moon on Wednes-
day evening, the 18th; that is, the
planet and the moon Will appear very
near each other on that evening. If our
young readers who have as yet not made
much study of astronomy, will pay at
tention TO these notes they will find in
them q means OF locating all the planets,
as we shall from week to week point out
their times of conjunction with the moon.
Venus, as all know, is now our even
ing star. She is extremely brilliant at
this time, but not yet at her best, as she
is growing more brilliant with every day,
and will continue to do so on to the 2Sth
of October, when her brilligncy will be-
gin very gradual decline. She is the
first planet inside the earth g orbit as We
reckon towards the sun, and has diam
eter of 1900 miles-only 400 miles smaller
than our earth. Distant from the sun
sc 200, 200 miles.
=.
Strangers not familiar with the geology
of Texas may be interested to learn that
Fort Worth sits Immediately upon the
top OF the cretaceous formation-the
OblJ CESLsCcOho CAloIluS III
North America. 1t is the formation Civ
ing rise to what we call the hblack
waxy prairies. The cretaceous comes
to the surface in other states, as Misss-
sippi, Alabama and Georgia, but when
seen there it is simply a continuation of
the same formation we have here. In
the states just named it gives rise to
what Is called the "black lands'' or
"caDe brake country -
1t came from London that NJ. Paul
Giffard; the inventor of the pneumatic
tube aud the Giffard injector, the latter
now largely used in connection with steam
power, has Just invented q remarkable
weapon which employs lignifed gas rs an
explosive for throwing projectiles. Tests
made at the headquarters of the London
Scotch Rifles gave entire satisfaction.
The invention can be applied TO guns of
any size from that of an ordinary rifle TO
that of the heaviest field ordnance. The
gas mploE ed is compressed into small
cylinders, which may be carried, IN case
o small arms, like ordinary cartridges.
One cylinder showed into place in the
arm, furnishes the explosive for 220
shots. No sound attends the discharge
above that attending the discharge OF an
ordinary 'parlor rife, ~ and there is no
smoke or fouling of barrel. The arm
tested at London had the caliber of an
ordinary army rife, and the p-ojectlle
was thrown with force sufficient to kill at
the distance of 600 yards. Three pro-
jectiles may be thrown every two sec
ouds.
As q careful record of the effects of
storms and their electriu distances has
been kept in Berlin, which shows, among
other things, that electric wires are much
less disturbed by thess storms when laid
underground than when elevated on
poles; while, on the other hand, scci-
dents from lightning are much less CON-
mon in towns with elevated wires.
Dynamite freezes, 30 to speak, at
temperature of 40 deg, eight degrees
above the freezing point for water. A
higher temperature thews /. out again,
and during the time when this thawing-
out is taking place is when exists thu
great danger of spontaneous explosion.
Herr Edward Liebest, German chemist,
announces the discovery of compound
which, added to dynamite, changes its