The Opelousas courier., 1891-08-15
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.
Electrical tanning is SATISFACTORY.


An Italien has invented a new fuel
prepared from Ignite. It has been salts
factorily used for running locomotives.
The largest telescope lens ever ground
in this country is now N course of polish.
ing at Greenville, Penn. 1t measures
thirty and one-half inches in diameter,
ave and one-eighth inches in thickness.
The application of the microscope to
machine shop practice, for the purpose
Of proving whether surfaces are true, is
pronounced by experts as being the best
method of obtaining accuracy thus far
suggested.
An apparatus for testing the smelling
capacities of individuals was recently ex-
hibited in Paris. It is said to determine
The weight of odorous vapor existing in
a given quantity of air. The invention
is called the olfactometer.
A man named Jones, of Cardiff,
Wales, is said to have patented a sewing
machine without shuttle or bobbin. The
thread is supplied directly from two
ordinary spools and scws through the
assistance Of a rotary looper.
Moulds for casting iron car only be
made in sand. Iron and other metallic
moulds chill the ircn, and it does not
fill well. The great heat at which iron
melts will burn any other material, or
will stick 50 as to break the mould.
One of the novelties at the St. Pan
cras Exhibition, in London, lately, was
q sausage machine, driven by electric
motor. In conjunction with this ma
chine it has been proposed to employ
an electric heating attachment, whereby
the savory dish can be delivered cooked.
A successful exhibition was given in
Philadelphia recently, of the system of
storage batteries for propelling passen-
ger railway cars, as introduced by Messrs.
Wright g Starr. A special feature OF
the new system is the recharging of the
batteries by 3 retrograde movement OF
the motor.
The run from Baltimore to PhiIa-
delphia of the Royal Blue Line Express
is made behind what is said to be the |
largest engine in this country. 1t weighs
1S7, 900 pounds, and runs on four driv-
ing wheels six feet six inches in diam.
eter. It is black, without a particle os
color about it.
A new method Of ventilating railway
carriages and preventing dust from en-
tering with the air has appeared IN
The more quickly the train
moves the moro rapidly the apparatus
works. The air is made to traverse a
receptacle containing water, which cools
It and relieves it of dust, after which it
goes through another I'll ering before
sering the carriage.
State Entomologist Ltntner, who was
summoned to Catskill recently, to examine
new pest which was running the pear
,rop Of that place, finds that an area
,hree miles in diameter has been oceu-
bed by the most dangerous fruit pest
has visited the State in years. Il
s the Diplosis P~yrivora, or pear nudge,
which is common in Europe, but first
its appearance in this country ten
ears ago at Meriden, Conn.
The great electric searchlights of the
modern man-of-war may have an often
i've as well as defensive value. There
vas a sham attack upon Cherbourg the
day, by ! squadron of the French
and during the m~anoeuyres the
boat Edmond Fontaine was Il
nto BY a cruiser and sent to the bottom.
Ter officers report that they were so
azzled BY the searchlight of NJ cruiser
hat they were utterly unable to see the
nip that struck them, and SO could
lake no effort to get out cS1a way.