The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-07-01
POPULAR SCIENCE.

A bedtime luncheon Of lettuce induces
sleep. il
The last eclipse of the sun was success
fully observed at Lick Observatory
California. O.
To erase the white stains that occur in
some of the bricks in newly constructed
buildings, wash with diluted muriatic
acid.
The electric spark has been photo@
grapbed by special camera, in whicR
the sensitive plate rotated $500 times q
| minute.
! s. W. Williston, Professor of Geology
in the university at Lawrence, Kan.,.
found a skeleton of a pterodactYl, the
most complete in existence, in Monument
Rocks, in the Smoky River valley. 5
Experiment on the action of different
oils on metals shows among others that {
bronze is much corroded by linseed oil, -
slightly by olive oil, and not at all by
COLA oil, and that for lead the safesE
lubricant is olive oil, and the worsk
whale oil.
Two marked improvements have re-
Gently been made in the use OF gas for
lighthouse illumination. One is o pro-
cess of enriching gas made from ordinary
coking coal by the addition of hydrocar-
bons and heated air, the other is the new
dioptric lens.
A skin of very rare and remarkabla
bear-hke animal has been brought from
the Chinese province of Kansu to St.s
Petersburg by two Russian explorets-f
The only other specimen is in the Paris
museum. It lives in Western China az
an elevation of from 10000 to 12,0M
feet, where it inhabis the Bamboo
thickets, and is knowp by tho natives o..
the white or spotted Dear.
"sil!ey Thsw" is the name arnlied TO-.
winter ppaaeia a;ssaon OF frequent ocour.e
renee at Ben Nevis (scotland) obssrva.
tory. It consists Of rain falling whed the
air is below freezing point and congesk
ing whenever it reaches the ground. Oe
course, this points to an inversion Of tho
temperature, which is lower on tha
mountain top than at greater heights Z
and, being largely associated with acy-s
clonic distribution of pressure, it is Of
considerable "forecasting" value.
Professor Elihu Thomson finds in his
experiments on the physiological effects
of alternate currents that the danger Of
the current diminishes as the number Of
alterations per second is increased.
Thus it took twenty times at strong
current to kill dog when the alterna-
tions were $500 per second than when
they were 120 per second. When ths
alterations were 800 per second, tho
current was only half as dangerous to life
az when the alterations were 12O.
The rate of travel of thunder stormS
has been studied by Herr Schonrock from
the record of 1917 such storms in Russis
in 1888. The velocity is found to have
varied from thirteen to fifty miles IN
hour. with a mean of 2S.5 miles an hour
in the hot season, and increasing 20
thirty-two miles an hour in the cold
season. It was least in the early morn
ing, increasing to maximum between
and 10 P. N. The storms Travelled moss
quickly from southwest. west and north
west.
It is announced that the constructions
of a perfect pendulum has been accomp-
lished at last. 1t was done by suspend
ing lead shot by single fiber of COCOON
silk in q vacuum produced by Sprengia
pump. The shot, one-sixteenth OF an
inch in diameter, weighing one-third Of
grain, is suspended by two-foot fiber
and is placed in a tube three fourths Of an
inch in internal diameter. 1t has
vibrating range, each side OF the m.d
position, the vacuum being equivalent to
oone-tenth of millionth of an atmos-
! nhere