St. Landry democrat., 1892-02-13
POPULAR SCIENCE.
Thunder aud lightning are exceedingly
are On the Pacific Coast.

Electric motors have been so greatly
improved of late that they will NOW pull
nearly 80, 900 pounds.
The most recent calculations made by
Nicholson gives the velocity of light as
1856, 800 miles per second.
The French soldiers have lately been
engaged in an extensive series of expert
ments with bicycles. That machine has
now taken its place as an appliance of
war.
Steam pipes are now being made from
/ the ramie fibre. The material is so closely
pressed together by hydraulic machinery
that it has tensile strength two and a
half times that of steel.
Flower pots can be rid of earth worms
by pouring on the soil warm decoction
of NORWOOD and powdered horse chest
nuts. The worms will come to the sur
face and can then be removed.
Owing to the rapid. progress that is
being made in all branches of electrical
science many manufacturers are afraid to
prepare their electrical exhibit for the
Worlds Fair until the latest possible mo-
ment.
In sinking an artesian we'll at Calves
ton, Texas, recently, at depth of 1910
feet, good specimens of wood and OF
seeds were found. Biologists compute
the age of this formation to be about
100000 years.
A French professor has recently anal
yzed the waters of the Dead Sea aud
found that they will kill every microbe,
with the exception of gangrene and
tetanus bacillus. With this discovery he
hopes to render service to the French
hospitals.
Compound air is used in the Union Pa.
cifc Company's shed at Portland, Oregon,
for removing dust in railway cars. It
is delivered from flexible hose with a
small nozzle at pressure of fifty pounds
to the square inch. 1t Is very effective
In cleaning plush cushions.
Military reviews have been more nu-
merous than ever before in Europe this fall.
In Germany, in Thuringia, 1000 SOL
diers were in the field, and it was noticed
that although the firing was incessant the
atmosphere remained perfectly clear. In
the next war, thanks to smoAeless pow
der, there will be no smoke.
It is said that four-fifths of the steam
engines of the world have been con-
structed within the last twenty-five
years. The total horse power is esti-
mated at 40, 900, 000,o which the United
States has $500, 900, Great Britain l.,
100000, Germany 4,500, 900, France
3,0O0,O 900, and Austria 1, 800, 600.
An interesting calculation has just
been made by a French geologist to the
effect that, taking into consideration the
wear and tear on the solid land by ocean
washing, rivers, wind and weather, and
leaving out of the calculation volcanic
action, the world will in four and a half
million years be completely under water
and no dry land exist at all.
A specimen of old Mexican picture
writing has lately been discovered by DR..
Vallon which indicates that the germ
theory of disease was known to the ancient
Mexicans. The inscription says that eff
you boil the yellow root of the kobotshe
plant and drink the infusion, it will kill
all those invisible animals which the hu-
man body produces within itself"
AS to the origin of the meteoric masses
that have fallen from time to time on the
earth innumerable theories have been adj
vanced. Astronomers are now trying to
solve the problem of their origin in two
ways-frst, by tracing the paths of the
great periodic star showers and comparing
them with the paths of the unknown
comets, and secondly, by examining their
light by the spectroscopa. The gener-
ally accepted theory among astronomers
is that they are solid masses and are
formed by the breaking up of the
comets.
DR.. Elkin, the astronomer of Yale
University, and formerly of the Cape of
Good Hope, has, by long series OF OBJ
servations on the parallax of the star
Arcturus, arrived at the conclusion that
it moves with the inconceivable velocity
of 31S miles second, that is to say, it
would traverse the distance from London
to Edinburgh between two ticks of a
watch. This is twenty one times faster
than the speed of the earth in its orbit
round the sun. DR.. Elkin also finds that
Arcturus is so far away from us that his
light, travelling $50, 600 miles second,
takes 1S1 years to reach us.