The Opelousas courier., 1891-09-05
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.
Pacific coast uses English coal.
Electric buggies r announced.

Pacific coast uses English coal.
Electric buggies are announced.
Perfumery is made from coal tar.
An underground railway for Berlin Is
being discussed by German engineers.
1t is estimated that at least 1000, 900
pounds of rubber are annually used for
bicycle tiers.
The telephone cables laid beneath the
streets of Berlin are estimated to meet
the requirements 10000 subscribers, the
present number being $4,000.
Coal in the Province of AImeria, in
Spain. is so dear that there is a great re-
joicing over the discovery of an inferior
quality in a large vein near Albanchez.
A recent English invention is a
machine which bends tubes without the
necessity of filling them with some yield
ing material to preserve an accurate sec
ton.
An electric wire in Pittsburg parting,
fell to the ground and within two inches
of a pedestrian, who, though not touched
by the wire, received a rather severe
shock.
An electric car in St. Paul, Mimi,
while passing the end of a bridge in a
heavy rain recently, was struck by light
ming. The Car wa set on fire and the
machinery rendered useless Not one OF
the passengers was injured.
Among the novelties is an infiatable
rubber chamber for bathers. 1t passes
around the bust underneath the arms,
making it possible for a bather to float
in an erect position without fatigue. 1t
can be inflated when desired by means
of a tube attached to the neck.
Herr Bombel, an %apothecary and chem
ist of N~euenhaus, Germany, claims to
have discovered 6, process by which the
lymph which DR.. Koch invented may be
purged of its dangerous qualities. Ex-
periments with lymph so purged are
said to have met with great success.
Some of the single plates of armor for
the armored cruiser Maine, building at
the Brooklyn IN. " Navy Yard, will
weigh fifty tons. A special crane is in
construction at Alliance, Ohio, to handle
| the Names armor. The crane will be
mounted on a railway running around
the edge of the stone dry dock.
The rate of growth of corals is diff
cult to estimate. At the meeting of the
! Academy of Natural Sciences, of Phila.
| delphia, Professor Heilprin exhibited a
specimen Of Porites astre oldes WHICH
| had been taken from an anchor cast in
the autumn of 1855. He estimated that
the annual amount of increase was
scarcely one-twentieth Of an inch.
An attempt is to be made by DR.. Fl.
| Koplik at the Eastern Dispensary, stu
ated in the tenement district of New
York City, to furnish to the poor at a
low price sterilized milk. Il is hoped
by this means to prevent the appalling
mortality among the children of this
class. The plan was initiated IN a small
scale last summer by DR.. Koplik, who
reports favorable results in the majority
of cases.
A machine has recently been invented
by a Philadelphia man by which electric
i power can be introduced into a dwelling
house, or, in fact, any building, with
but slight expense. The basis of the in
~vention is a practical use of the power
Of atmospheric gravity. The gravity, or
weight of the atmosphere at sea level,
will raise water in d vacuum thirty three
feet. The invention consists of a pro-
cess of forcing water out OF a vacuum
placed on the roof of a building and
keeping the air out at the same time.
The water is forced to the vacuum, is
then driven into a tank, and in descend
ing has sufficient power to drive a wheel.
Below the wheel the water can be col
lected into a shallow tank aad led back
into the tank from which it first came,
forming a continuous stream.