The Opelousas courier., 1890-03-22
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

Peat fiber is coming into considerable
Use in the manufacture of brown paper,
icing about fifty per cent. cheaper than
WOOL pulp.
According to DIR. Ozeretskofski, hys-
eria exists among Russian soldiers, and
presents as various diversities of form as
t does among women.
The British Government has yielded to
popular clamor so far as to assent to a
lew and thorough investigation of the
merits of vaccination. While asserting
o this, it allows it to be given out that
t sees no necessity, in any new facts that
lave been discovered, for such an in
resignation.
While the electric light is gradually
sakng the place of Illuminating gas in
Germany, the latter article is to be ex-
ensively used on account of its con-
ddetable evolution of heat. In COM
p~arison with the electric light, it is this
property which is, apart from minor
brightness, considered to be in principal
/ deficiency.
Mt. A. B. Grifiths states that the pro-
less of converting iron into Bessemer
teel results in the elimination of a basic
dag, containing from fourteen to twenty
per cent. of phosphoric acid. Reduced
o an impalpable powder, this Stag is a
taluable plant food; and as manure the
$50, 900 tons of the Stag obtained yearly
n England should produce at least A.
100, 600 tons of hay, or sufficient for feed
ng $50, 900 head of cattle.
The drainage area of the Yang-tse-
xiang River in China is equalto one-sixth
If the area of our country, including
Alaska. 1t is estimated that the enor-
nous amount of sediment poured down
~ this river amounts to the denudation
Vt the entire basin by one foot in 5000
fears. No wonder that with this mass
If five billion cubic feet of solid matter
.mptied- into the ocean every year the
people of Shanghai are able to see that
he coast line is rapidly advancing.
Admiral Akamatsu, of the japanese
Navy, has invented a new floating fort for
coast defense. This fort is to be built on
, kind of vessel made of steel, and $50
eet in length. The armor is to be
welve inches thick, and the bridge will
80 specially protected with a steel bull
wark of three inches. It is to have a
louble screw and engines of 200 horse
,ower, capable of attaining a speed of
hree miles an hour. On the first bridge
will be placed twelve fifteen-cehtimetre
:annon, and on the second eight twenty
ix-centimetre. The crew will number
$50 men.
Formerly engineers estimated the
strength of ropes by the old rule: -Four
lines the square of the girth in inches
yives the breaking weight in hundred
weights" Commenting On this rule an
engineer says: apparently ropes are
hires times as strong now; and to get
lear the tabulated strength take-ths
,quare of the girth in eighths of an inch
md divide by 1000, or point off the last
;hree figures as decimals. The answer
will be the safe working load in tons.
This is an error of about ten per cent. on
he safe side. The breaking strain IS
from five to seven times greater than
his"
Inquiries sent to thirty-fve English
coast towns which had been using sea
water for watering streets showed that
swenty-three towns had abandoned its
use for various reasons. Ramsgate and
Folkestone stated that it destroyed all
kinds Of road material except wood.
Some towns advised its use in eve
dushing in sufficient volume, but Others
Thought it produced gases when brought
into contact with the sewage. The teeti-
mony is in favor of sea water preventing
lust on roads of flint or gravel; and
Berwick on-Tweed highly commends it
for this purpose. It is there found that
one cart Of sea water is equal to two
loads of fresh water in lasting effect.