The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1891-06-11
PROGRESS IN SCIENCE.

PROGRESS IN SCIENCE.
THE influence Of food upon the rate
u formation Of carbonic acid has been
made . matter of study in France, and
irst hour after meal the quantity Of
:arbonic acid exhalcd increases till it
reaches maximum, three or four
hours after the meal, when it falls 0ff
sgain. Plenty of fresh air is desirable
from one to three hours after meal.
IsQUIRY into the subject Of explosions
n mines being caused by dry coal dust
las led to some very valuable expert
ments and plans for clearing the gal
leries of foul air. One of these consists
n moving open water butts through the
affected localities. The coal smut col
lccts in the water, and the air is there
BY cleared before the danger limit il
reached
EXPERIMENTS with strawberries indi-
.ato that pollen-bcaring is an exhaustive
process, aud that larger yields Of fruit
IS rule Eay be expected from those
varieties which produce pollen so spar
ingly that small proportion Of other
varieties producing pollen abundantly
must be planted with them in order to
insure full crop.
A NEW system Of electric railway
signaling has recently appeared in Eng
land, in which, II two engines come on
the same section of line, bells are au-
tomatically set ringing in each engine
by an electric current. The same ar
rangcment allows telephone communi-
cation between the engineers and also
with the signal men.
By a comparison Of records extending
over number Of years it has been con-
cluded that the moon has an influence
in lowering the height of the barometer
in the months from September to JAM
uary at the time of full moon and in
raising it during the first quarter. No
effect has been perceived in the other
months.
THE English troopship Euphrates
illustrates the progress of marine en-
gineering. She was built with simple
horizontal engines, after which she was
fitted with compound vertical engines,
and now she is to be provided with en-
gines of the triple expansion type.
THE Hungarian minister Of commerce
has under consideration plan for the
fastest train in the wcrli, TO be run on
an electric railway, and to carry pas
sengers from Vienna to Budapesth, 156
miles, in two hours and o half.
THE application Of the microscope to
machine shop practice for the purpose
Of proving whether surfaces are true is
pronounced by experts as being the
best method for obtaining accuracy thus
far suggested.
ELECTRIC power has recently been de-
pended upon in England for q supply of
phosphoros, with the results, both as to
quality of material and cost of produc-
ton, that were considered to be en-
incntly satisfactory.
In its native habitat the shell OF the
oyster is always little open, and mi
croscopic, waving hairs set up currents
which carry the food plants to its
mouth, where they are ingulfed and
afterward digested.
In armor-platc tests steel has Oen.
orally been found to compete more sue
ccssfully with compound armor when
the plates were eighteen inches thick
than when they were only twelve inches
thick.
To OBvIArE the waste of steam in
steam hammers an improvement has
been introduced in fitting the hammers
with two pistons of different diameters,
compounding them in fact.
THE French chemists who some
months ago succeeded in making small
rubies have now overcome all difficult
ties, and can make them of very much
larger dimensions.
A NEW theory in relation to the moon
has lately been advanced, to the effect
that the lights and shadows of the moon
are incompatible with the theory of its
spherical shape.
An arc lamp with four carbons ar.
ranged radially in nearly horizontal
plane, but having their centrally meet
ing points slightly depressed, has lately
appeared in Paris.
An instrument called the hRmatolxrit
based on centrifugal action, has beer
invented for determining the volume oi
corpusclcs present in blood.
In the new Anglo-French telephone
cable the four cores arc wound around
each other in spiral or strand to obvi
ate the effects of induction.
THE effect of removing tassels from
torn is to turn the strength of the plan,
to the ovaries, and SO produce larger
amount Of grn;r.