Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1890-08-16
POPULAR SCIENCE.

The fastest time made over an electric
street railway is twenty-five miles an
hour.
1t is proposed to photograph the songs
Of birds and afterward write them down
IN score.
About $500 species of wild bees are
known, of wasps HOO, of which 10 AMI
sixteen respectively live in Britain.
The electric spark has been photo
graphed by means of special camera,
in which the sensitive plate rotated $500
times minute.
A luminous buoy has been invented,
the light for which is produced by phos-
phuret of calcium, and is visible two and
half miles away.
Electrically deposited copper is so due
tile that it can be drawn down until it
resembles the finest hair, and this, too,
without annealing.
One of the most elaborate collections
Of beetles in the world is owned by the
Prince Regent Of Bavaria, who is an en-
thusiastic entomologist.
1t is said that the shores of France arc
sinking SO rapidly that in twenty CEN
turtles the French capital will have be.
come entirely submerged.
A new utilization of waste product
is the making of valuable paste-an eff
fective substitute for gum arabic-from
the straw boilings that accumulate III the
manufacture of paper.
Thunderstorms are said to be more
numerous in low attitudes than in high,
and one reason given for their being less
destructive in England than in some Other
countries is the dampress of the climate.
The reason given why birds do not
fall from their perch is because they can
not open the feet when the leg is bent
Look at hen walking and see it close
its toes as it lifts its foot and open them
as it touches the ground.
1t has never hitherto been found pos
sible to make drilling machine which
would drill square, hexagonal, oblong
and octagonal holes in metal, but such a
tool has finally been devised, aud its ap-
pearance at an early day has been prom
ised.
We lose two pounds of water in the
twenty four hours by perspiration, and
the more we perspire the cooler we be
come. There are $4,000, 900 pores on
the surface of our bodies, which, if placed
in line, would extend twenty eight
miles in length.
The fact that the waves in the North
Sea differ in shape when caused by {
northeast wind under high pressure from
those caused by southwest wind with
| low barometer, is considered as a proof
that the air in an anti-cyclone is de
scending current and the air in a cyclone
| an ascending current.
American naval officers who have
adopted the cholera belt in the tropics
find it SO beneficial that they often retain
it in all ATTITUDES. 1t is simply a broad
band of flannel worn night and day the
year around tight about the waist, so as
to protect the stomach from sudden
changes of the temperature. 1t is an ex-
cellent preventive of stomachic disord-
ers.
A distinctive feature of insects of the
grasshopper family is the manner in which
they produce sound The sharp, stridu.
lating noise with which the air resound>
all through the day and far into the mid
summer night is produced by the rubbing
of the stiff edges of the wing cover,
against the basal joint of the hindmost
pair of legs; or, in some species, by rub
bling the edges of the wings against each
other.
Dr. Charles w. Dulles, a prominent
physician of Philadelphia, holds to the
opinion that there is hope for consump-
tives and that medical science will be
able soon to control the disease. In a
recent paper on the subject he pointed
out that while in England half century
ago there were 1000 deaths annually
among $4,000, 900 people, there are a
present in population of 40, 900, 00C
but IA, 900 deaths due to phthisis.
The temperature of snow at different
depths has been investigated by Signol
Christoni. He finds that the variations
IN temperature of the lowest layer, next
to the ground, are extremely small, while
The uppermost layer has often consider
ably higher temperature. The temporal
lure minimum of the air-laycr next the
snow was always lower than that of the
lppermost snow layer, while an air-layer
about twenty inches above the snow had
higher temperature than the layer one
two inches above the snow.