Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1890-07-05
POPULAR SCIENCE.

It is not generally known that black
coffee is most potent alcoholic neutrali-
Ter.
A method of soldering tin cans by
electricity has recently been devised aud
it bids fair to be quite generally used.
An English engineer states that GER
tain firm has been saved over 100 tons of
coal week by a weekly cleaning Of their
boilers.
The voracity of the silkworm is great,
consuming as it does in its life Of thirty
Eve days sixty thousand times its print
tive weight.
A soldier who had borrowed a bugle
belonging to musician suffering from
tuberculosis became himself a victim TO
This fatal disease.
The explanation of the peculiar destiny
Of thunder clouds is sand to lie in the fact
that the vapor is partially condensed into
drops by the electrical action.
Under the most intense chemical rays
Of the spectrum ants are thrown into
most violent perturbation, while they go
quietly about their business under the
color rays.
The danger of infection from impure
water is said to be only slightly reduced
by filtration through sand. Bacteria pass
through this medium at all times, but in
iarger numbers just after the filter has
been cleaned and again after it has been
used for some time.
Leading authorities seem to agree that
while electricity is an unquestioned sue
cess as a substitute for horses in street
car propulsion, its use instead of steam
locomotives on ordinary railroads must be
postponed at least until many more i'm
provements have been made in electric
engineering.
The use of the electromagnetic for in-
dicating the presence of submerged tor
pedoes or lost anchors has been suggest
ed. The magnet, in connection with
delicate strain dynamometer is lowered
into the water and excited by battery.
The metal will attract the magnet and
the dynamometer will reveal the fact.
The cars on the Jungfrau Railway, in
Switzerland, have movable flaps, which
may be expanded by the guard until they
nearly touch the tunnel lining. In this
way the car becomes a kind of piston,
acting in the tunnel as a cylinder, and
the air acts as an automatic brake to
check the speed of the descending car.
A metal has been produced that will
melt at temperature of $50 degrees. 1t
is an alloy of lead, tin, bismuth and cad
MUM, and in weight, hardness and color
resembles type metal. 1t melts so easily
that, placed on comparatively cool part
of the stove with a piece of paper under
it, it will melt without the paper being
scorched.
An instrument has recently been ex-
hibited in London by which a photo
graph can be taken of drops of water in
the course of their formation. 1t consists
of lantern and lenses by which water
trough, the source of the drops, can be
strongly illuminated, together with
lightning camera having a revolving
dish with one perforation.
Bee-keepers are complaining of a new
and frightful contagious malady which
makes its appearance in hives throughout
the country. The disease is destructive
and apiarists have about decided that It is
due to an attack OF the bacillus gaytoai,
which devastated the bee colonies of Eu-
rope some time ago. 1t is said that an
abundance of salt water placed close to
theshives where the bees can get at it
will cure the trouble.