Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1891-03-13
POPULAR SCIENCE.

A new typewriter, under the "point''
system, produces writings which the
blind can read.
At least one person in three between
the age of ten and forty years is subject
to partial deafness.
Felix i. Oswald maintains that night
air from the outside is far more healthful
than the vitiated, disease.laden night air
of ordinary human dwellings.
A grain of fine sand would cover one
hundred of the minute scales OF the
human skin, and yet each of these scales
in turn covers from 800 to 500 pores.
The Common Council of Gin cinnati,
Ohio, at the suggestion of the health
officer, has passed an ordinance making
it misdemennor to give public exhibit
tions of mesuerism and hypnotism.
A method for using the short pieces OF
carbons used in the electric arc lights is
in operation by the electric light COM
pany at Concord, N. H., and it is
stated that it saves thirty per cent. Of
the cost.
The smokeless powder that will be
used in the thirty y-calibre magazine rifles
that the Army Board on Magazine Guns
are about to experiment with is OF
Belgian make. 1t is known as the Wet
teran powder.
Among the latest disinfectants is "ly-
sol" which appears to be very much like
carbolic acid. The emusifying agent is
resin or fat soap, tar acid being incorpor-
ated with the soap at the moment of
saponifeation.
A new idea in arc lamps is the substi-
tuition of hollow carbon cylinder for
the usual upper carbon point and a disc
for the lower rod. The edges of the
cylinder and disc are in contact, and the
light is formed at that point.
A Willows (Cal.) paper says that JEFF
Garnett has utilized three miles OF barbed
wire fencing for telephone. 1t runs
from his old ranch home to new resi-
deace just finished. A small wire at
each end Of the fence connects a tele-
phone in each house.
Oxygen is the most abundant OF all
the elements. 1t compOses at least one
third of the earth, one.ffth of the at
mosphere and eight-ninths by weight OF
all the water on the globe. 1t is also a
very important constituent of all minerals,
animals and vegetables.
A scientific paper says: Observations
seem to show that a decrease in the
earth's latitude is in progress, implying
an alteration in the direction OF the
earth's axis. The 1uctuation is thought
TO be due TO a minute oscillation caused
by changes in internal wars OF the
earth.
Homeopathy is said to be spreading
in Russia, especially in the upper social
strata. Societies for the propagation oil
the Hahnemannian doctrines have re-
Gently been established at Tschernigov,
Odessa and Warsaw. The clergy are
conspicuous among the supporters of the
great medical hcresy, and in Russia the
military mind seems also to have an cleo
tive affinity for globules and infnitesimal
dilutions.
Month by month the number OF tele'
grams which can be sent through single
wire increases, and the distance through
which telephone message can be heard
is heightened out. A newly devised ap-
paratus, quito simple in form, is said to
take a telegram as it flows from ones pen
and transcribe it from the wire in fac
smile. Even the words impressed upon
the wax of phonograph are now capable
of being forwarded to distances exceeding
q hundred miles.