The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-04-15
POPULAR SCIENCE.

viewed DY HauSILltIeo III PioSe VI 10
fected light. each color is replaced by
its complimentary one.
A Swedish engineer claims to have in-
vented new machine for making horse
shoe nails out of iron rods, the machinery
making 140. strokes per minute, each
stroke producing two nails.
Scientific men say that the earths age
is,about half million years for the nebu-
lar and stellar periods, and about 25,-
900, ,OO0-of which Is, 1000, 900 are past
for thc-p period of organic beings.
Cork covering for steam pipes has
proved very successful in England, and
in some. cases it has been found to make
difference of LOO degrees to 124 de-
grees from the temperature Of uncovered
pipes.
It. is stated that the muskra. is enabled
totravel under the ice Of frozen river
or lake for considerable distance by re-
spring against tho ice roof where the
bubbles gas collect, and getting fresh
supply of oxygen.
Small articles made Of malleable iron
are now finished and polished bright by
being placed in revolving drums with
curriers' shavings, from which they
emerge with all of the rough edges
smoothed and the surface highly pol.
ished.
Professor Thomson has recently shown
very plainly that between the carbons of
an arc light there pours a steady stream
of carbon vapor, and the light is derived
almost exclusively flom the enormous
heated surface at which the evaporation
takes place.
The effect which living at high alti-
tudes has on the blood OF animals has
been recently Investigated, and tho re-
suits show that the proportion of oxygen
in the blood of men and animals acclima,
tized there was the same as that OF dwell.
ers at lower levels.
A self.acting electrical balance has re-.
Gently been invented. The object to be
weighed is to be placed in the pan, which
closes the circuit, starts motor, and
moves the weight out on the beam OF the
balance. When the equipoise is estab-
lished the circuit is broken,
A quart of water recently taken from q
typhoid infected district In France was
found to contain upward OF twenty mil
lions typhoid germs. 1t was the result
of scientific Investigation, and shows
how extremely necessary it is to destroy
the execreta of typhoid patients.
There are any number of sweet water
springs in the ocean. One of these Is
off the coast of Florida, in the Gulf OF
Mexico. 1t sends its waters upward In
such quantities that sailors dip it up IN
the midst of the salt water of the Gulf.
Another of these springs is on the eastern
shore Of Florida opposite Matanzas.
Dr.. P. Morean, Of Tours, gives some
very curious information as C C szicidea
In Europe strangulation seems to hsVa
the greatest fascination; next come:
suicide by drowning, and then by shoot
ing. 1t appear thhafe is stronger
propensity among tie Italians
than among the tl1a ll d !s, ~
country to throw
height.
A kind Of moth or butterfly isst1lE Eto
have becomes 80 very troublesome and
destructive in Bavaria that every possible
means his been taken to destroy it.
The most effective method consists Of
attracting the pest by means OF an
electric light in connection with blow
fan, which draws the insects icto the
suction pipe by air draught and results
in millions of them being destroyed.
An ingenious French engineer has dis
covered device for ascertaining th'
speed of a train, so that check con bt
had on the engine driver as he runs
around curves and other difficult parts oi
the line. The instrument is tuning
fork, having a point which inscribes
curve on a rotating cylinder. Th'
mechanism is set in motion and alst
stopped by the wheels of the train pass
ing over treadles at known distance
apart.
A new apparatus Tor measuring tn'
mean level of the sea has lately been in
stalled at Marseilles, France. 1t is based
on the principle that when liquid wave
traverses q capillary tube or porou
partition, its amplitude diminishes and L
retarded in its phrases without the mear
level of the wave changing. 1t consists
of glass tube, the lower end of which
communicates by flexible pipe with
plunger which is lowered beneath th' h,
lowest water level. There are two cell!
in the plunger, the lowest being filled
with sand and open 70 the sea, the result
being that the column OF water in thf
tube rises and falls very little with the
tides, and the mean sea level can be reao
from a graduated scale.
IINufap fhn DnrpnicnS