The Opelousas courier., 1891-12-05
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

An average locomotive costs S10, 0OO.
Iron has been rolled to the thinness of
1-1S00th of an inch.
A new method to utilize coal culm has
been successfully tried.
Anthony is found extensively in Por-
tugal, the largest beds being situated
near Braganza.
An electric flying machine was re-
Gently made to rise to a height of seventy
feet and fly about 400 yards.
The French make paper umbrellas,
rendered wholly waterproof by gelatined
bichromate of potassium.
By the use of the camera, with power
full telescopes a new and very large crater
has been shown upon the moons sur
face.
A French electrician has gotten up a
device by which he can send $50 type
written words per minute over a single
wire.
The sturgeon is toothless and draws 10
its food by suction, but the shark has
hundreds of teeth set in rows that some
times number ten.
4 seamless steel boat made from one
piece of metal by hydraulic pressure
promises to be very desirable. 1t will
last a great while and cannot leak.
The largest locomotive yet built in
Europe was recently sent out of the
Hirschau works in Munich, Bavaria. It
is forty-six feet over all and weighs
eighty-four tons.
Telescope steel masts or rods are to be
used in lighting the public squares in
Brussels, Belgium. The object of this
system is to preserve the beauties of the
parks in the daytime.
The effective range of the modern
magazine rifle is not less than a mile, and
the maximum range not less than two
miles. There is danger from rlchochet
up to a distance of a mile.
As heat resistants we may mention as
bestos, plaster-of-pari uncalclned gyp-
sum, sand, clay, ashes, charcoal, soap
stone, pumice stone, chalk, lnfusorlal
earth, mineral wool, rock, wool.
The Majestic is the most economical
coal burner of any of the Atlantic flyers.
She burns but 22o tons a day, shows
10, 500 horse power and makes an average
of over twenty-three miles an hour.
Electricity is playing an important
part in the working of heavy guns, an.
munition hoists, and winches in the
French Navy. New ships are being fitted
with electric appliances in lieu of ny
draullc gear.
The practice of placing the greca
boughs of the eucalyptus tree IN SICK
rooms is growing in Australia. They
not only act as disinfectauts, but the
volatile scent has also q beneficial inau-
ence on consumptive patients.
Smoke is finding its champions in Eng
land, Notwithstanding the efforts made
to preventits diffusion IN the atmosphere.
It is claimed that the carbon in the smoke
is "a powerful deodorizer, and as such, is
a blessing rather than a NUS
By means of a powerful jet of com
pressed air a German engineer drives dry
cement down into the sand or mud at the
bottom of a stream, SO that the water
Immediately fixes the cement and it be-
comes like solid rock, suitable for foan1a-
tions.
An American machine which will sue
cessfuliy work out the fibre Of sisal from
the plant has produced q boom in that
industry never realized with the English
machines heretofore used. The new ma
chine does not cut the fibre, and the
product leaves the machine ready for the
market.
After the passage Of an electric storm
there is quite an appreciable amount OF
ozone in the atmosphere, so muca SO
that its presence may be frequently de
tected by exposing a piece of blotting
paper, previously dipped in a solution of
starch and iodide Of potash, when it will
be turned blue.
The French are now painting their
war vessels a dull, sulphurous gray, ex-
actly the color of smoke as it arises from
cannons. They say this color has the
advantage of being as Elusive and indis-
tinguishable in fogs and sea mists and
darkness as during the smoke of battle.
It is more battling in the search light
than any other tint.
A ive-inch shot was recently fred
through the ~cellulose belt of the Danish
cruiser Hepla, entering the bow in the
port side, and coming out on the star
board side. the Hepla steamed for
three hours at a speed of sixteen knots
per hour. The cellulose is reported to
have proved 50 effective that a. the end
Of the three hours the water-tight com.
partment through which the saot passed
contained but two feet Of water. During
the run the water rose high above the
shot hole. Cellulose is a wate.-excludiug
substance.