The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-11-11
POPULAR SCIENCE.
A torpedo costs $1,000.

NSSsS
Rome will be lighted BY electricity.
There are about sixty species OF
sharks.
The barking of dogs on the earth can
be heard in balloon at an elevation OF
four miles.
It has been discovered in England
! that smokeless powder is unsafe for
small arms.
The salmon placed in the Hudson
River by the fish commission are increas-
ing very rapidly.
The Government is about to begin the
work of preparing q photographic sur
vey of the Great Lakes.
DR.. Higgins, the celebrated English
astronomer, says the stars are red, white
and blue according to their age, the first
being the youngest.
The French have planned works at
Havre for utilizing the ebb and flow Of
the tide to work Turbine wheels to gen.
crate power for the dynamo to supply
oiAo "A1o AAShs'
Blood travels from the heart through
the arteries. ordinarily, at the rate Of
about twelve inches per second; its
speed through the capillaries is at the
rate of three one-hundredets of an inch
per second.
Sir William Tanner, who has made
careful study Of the whale, calculates
that one of eighty feet in length, in
order to attain speed of twelve miles
an hour, would have to exercise pro-
pelling force of las horse power.
For measuring coal OIL AMI geIatins
there has been recently invented faucet
that measures each quart that passes
through the cylinder of which the appa-
ratu l. made. A lever is attached to
the cylinder, and by one movement of it
toe oil is discharged. the cylinder re-
filled and the quantity registered on a
toothed disk.
The money Of f1e Malta bees has long
been noted both tor its purity and for its
delicious favor. A writer in the Meai-
serranean Naturalist says the favor is
largely due to the extensive crops of
sulla (clover) that are annually raised
throughout the islands, from which the
bees derive the largest proportion of
their material.
The successful treatment of hysterical,
rheumatic and neurasmatic affections by
illuminating the surfaces with the elec-
trio light is reported. in foreign medi-
cal journal, by DR.. Won Stein. His ap.
paratus consists of an incandescent light
of twelve volts supplied with reflector
and handle. Illuminating painful
Joint or nerve, as sciatica, for two to five
minutes has yielded him surprising re-
suits.
Aluminium has been substituted for
castiron in the specifications for tho
dome of the tower of Philadelphia new
City Hall. 1t will save the constant ex-
pense of painting and reduce the weight
of the tower about 400 tens. The
bronze statue of Penn that is to sur
mount the tower is to be thirty-seven
feet in height ard about ~, 1000 pounds
in weight. The clock face is to be
twenty three feet in diameter.
The system OF riveting by hydraulic
power is being successfully applied to
the shell plating of vessels now in course
of construction in Tyneside ship-build-
ing yard. In this district the applica-
ton of machine rivetlng to ship con-
struction has hitherto made little pro-
gress, but it would seem that attention is
now being more strongly directed to the
subject, with the result that the advan-
tages of machine riveting are being ap.
preciated.
All sounds, whether high orlow, loud
or soft, travel at precisely the same rate
i. e., about 100 feet second. Were
this not so the different notes Of music
would reach the ear at different times,
and the result would be confusion in
stead OF melody. If the sun gave forth
sounds loud enough to reach the earth,
such sounds instead of reaching us in
the space of about eight minutes as light
does, would ~nly arrive after period o!
nearly fourteen years.