Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1891-09-26
POPULAR SCIENCE.
Cocoa induces sleep.

Cocoa induces sleep.
Electrical blasting gains popularity.
A Chicago drawbridge is to be run by
electricity.
A tarsntula has been known to live
over two years in glass jar, with only
little earth in it.
Hailsterms do not occur in well
wooded districts, according to the OBJ
seryations of noted Swiss forester.
DIR. Cold, an eminent physician of
Germany, says that we should not have
less than nine hours sleep while we are
under twenty-one.
Nearly hundred thousand human
beings die every twenty tour hours, and
one-half of the people born die before
reaching the age Of sixteen.
Mems jaws are growing narrower and
more delicate in their structure, while
those of women are growing broader
and stronger. Physical culture accounts
for it.
Scientific men have often declared
that railroad cars aid in spreading pull
monary diseases by means of the bacilli
coming from consumptive passengers,
which lodge in the aust of the cars.
DR.. Nardyz, Plttsburg physician, is
at work upon an immense papier mache
model of the human heart for exhibition
at the Worlds Fair. 1t will be three
feet in diameter, and will open to show
the inner mechanism.
In Southern hotel it is stated instead
of an electric button, every room will
have telephone connected with the
office. Guests will be able to communi-
cate not only with the office but with
their friends in other rooms at will
AT many Australian railroad stations,
cold-storage rooms or houses have been
erected to accommodate shippers of
fruits, butter or other perishable products
When such articles are to be shipped
they are not left on the platform to bake
and stew in the hot sun, but are held in
the storage-room until the moment of
shipping.
A gruesome story comes from Lille,
France. Professors Debierre aud Wer-
theimer have been carrying on expert
ments with the heads and bodies of two
muTderers recently exected by the gull
lotine. They claim to have discovered
signs of vitality in the heads consid-
cradle time after the execution, but no
evidence of consciousness.
Poultry food is gathered and put in
shape by an electric machine invented
by Bavarian. A very powerful cleo
trio light attracts insects and moths;
suction fan, worked by the electric cur
rent, draws them in when they approach
the light and carries them into a small
mil, also worked by the electric current,
where they are gyound up and mixed
with flour. This food is said to be quite
fattening to poultry.
The star ArctUrus is III million times
as far away as the sun, and if our sun
were placed at that enormous distance its
diameter would have to be eighty-two
times as great IN order to give a hight
equal to that received from Arcturus.
Arcturus muss be agigantic sphere, $780,
600 times larger than our sun, vita
diameter 20, 900, 900 miles, or more than
large enough to fill the entire orbit of
Mercury.
An idea OF the tremendous penetrativs
force of u lhojectile hurled from pow
erful gun can be gained from the fact
that projectile recently fired from a 10
poundesi1 England passed successfully
through s twenty inch steel plate, eight
inches OF iron, twenty feet of oak bl}ks,
five feet of granite aud eleven feet af con-
crete, being finally stayed in its path of
destruction by mass of brick masonry,
into which it made its way to 1.pth of
three feet.
A device for dispensing WITH overhead
wires involves the use of closed contact
for the trolley wire. There is slot
closing device consisting of three wheels,
one of which on the passage of the car
/ presses downward the halt inch strip of
steel that is used for closing the slot.
The other two wheels Of the trolley
meanwhile run in separate grooves upon
a copper track and keep up the current.
Lead packing makes the conduit water
/ tight. There is a lead cushion for tho
steel strip on the edge of the slot, but it
IL so arranged that neither trolley nor
( anything else can touch it.