The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1891-05-15
POPULAR SCIENCE.

A big meteor fell in Western Mis-.
souri,, striking'a big rock on the farm OF
William Apperson and smashing it into
4 thousand pieces.
The British Balloon Society has en-
tered sturdy protest against the threat
ened choice of Jerusalem as the prime
meridian of the world.
The velocity of sound in air at low
temperatures has recently been measured
by determining the interval between the
flash of gun 12.S meters distant and
the report.
The national powder mill at st. Med
ard-en-Jalle in France has recently been
lighted by 'incandescent lamps and is be-
lieved to be the first mill of its class on
the continent to use electric lighting.
The sun gives 600, 600 times as much
light as the full moon, 1000, 600, 900
times as much as the brightest star in
the sky and 36, 600, 600 times as much as
all the stars in the heavens combined.
Guttapercha derives its name from
the Malayan words guta, gum, and
pertcha, cloth, and was introduced to
thecivilized world in 1912 by DR.. Mont
gomery, a Scotch surgeon. The first
specimens were taken to London from
Singapore by Jose Almeida, and the
properties of the gum were announced by
Hancock, Wheatstonc and Faraday.
Among the natural productions OF
Canaan, lucia, is the Strychnos nux.
voIniea, forest tree Of majestic appear.
ance, bearing sea-green and golden-coI.
ored fruit. In the pulp are embedded
the seeds from which strychnine is ex.
tracted. The fruit and seeds arc the ia.
vorite food Of the grotesque bird known
as the rhinoceros horn-bill. The bird
fattens on the poisonous seeds, and yet
it IS eagerly sought as game, and its flesh
is excellent and perfectly innocuous as
human food.
A Bohemian inventor named Won
.SLoda has taken. out an English patent
Tor machine gun SO constructed that all
operations required for firing automatic
ally are effected BY the recoil. The
breech is opened, the percussion lock Is
arranged, and a cartridge nose or spoon
is fitted in such a manner that 1t will,
when the breech is opened, be in an at
titude suitable for the reception of the
cartridge passing out of the magazine.
The speed of firing is adjusted by alter
ing the position of weight on a pen
dulum, which actuates the trigger, SO az
to alter the period of oscillation.
A method is now on trial at the meteor
illogical Office at Stockholm, Sweden,
which seems likely TO throw some light
on subject which hitherto las been at
tended with some uncertainty, namely,
the determination of the path taken by
storms. From the telegraphic weather
reports tables of the density of the at
mosphere have been constructed, and
Other data have been collected which
have been embodied in special charts.
These charts are found to give much
more reliable clues to the movements
and origin OF cyclones than the usual
method of the comparison OF the isobars
and isothems alone. The latest investi-
cations show that storms move in the
direction of the warmest and dampest
AR, parallel to the lines of equal density,
leaving the rarer air to the right hand.
The intensity of the light under the
water diminishes with great rapidity.
At about ninety feet one sees very much
less, and when the sun approaches the
horizon, and the rays get much more OBJ
lique, it seems as though night had come.
Horizontally, at 100 feet depth, a rock
cannot be made out at greate- distance
than twenty-five feet. Generally speak
ing, at greater depth than thirty feet
one cannot distinguish things under the
conditions that ordinarily obtain. This
will account for the inability to see their
way on the part of those who attempt to
navigate submarine boats. As soon as
an object is seen it is so close that there
is not time 10 steer clear of it. Nayiga-
ton in deep waters can only be in direc-
tians IT, haze-alyeed4a-bsan Isxzs.ai s.-.A=
and found clear, which naturally con-
fines submarine boats within very narrow
limits.