St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1892-02-27
POPULAR SCIENCE.

Trunks are now made of paper pulp.
A LOGON otive's strength equals that of
900 horses.
A mountain of sulphur has been dis
covered in California.
The temperature of man is ninety
eight degrees; that of fish seVenty-SeVen
degrees.
Sugar made from charcoal is 800 times
sweeter than ordinary cane sugar, but 1t
costs $40 a pound.
Southern Missouri has an animal that
combines the peculiarities of dog,
lynx and hyena.
A smokeless fuel call "massute" is be-
| ing used on steam rollers in Vienna,
Austria. The fuel is composed of the
liquid residuum of petroleum retinerles.
Notwithstanding the size, strength,
and great vitality of sharks, they are ex-
| tremely susceptible to cold weather, and
will die at temperature that would not
| iniure the smallest fish north of Mary
land.
| EYDCElLucutS "iIl Cil dAN
various other substances have shown that
| oil alone will give the greatest heat. 1t
has been adopted for the boilers of the
big pumping engines at Brilliant, neal
| Pittsburg.
The remarkably beautiful green color
| of some preserved beans and other
! vegetables is said to be obtained by
boiling the vegetables in copper vessel
| while an electric current is passed
| through it.
Sir Robert S. Ball, astronomer royal
| for Ireland, predicts that within few
thousand years sheet of ice 1000 feet
thick will advance over the fairest por-
lions of our globe, blowing up all vege-
tation and leaving desolation for CEN
turtles.
The heat conducting qualities of the
metals range as follows: Silver, 100;
copper, 1880; gold, $500; annealed
aluminium, 80. 81 ;unannealed alu ninum,
81. 96; tin, 1850; iron, 11.5o; steel,
H. 60; lead, $50; platinum, o.4o' bis
muth, $50.
Albert Edelman, of New York City,
has applied for patent on what seems
to be a wonderful discovery. 1t is a
chemical process whereby liguile, which
| is coal of a later stage than the authra-
cite or bituminous article, may be trans
ferred into serv;cable fuel. This can be
sold, he says, at 81 ton, and will equal
our present coal.
Professor Arthur Auwers, the we'll
known Berlin astronomist, has now COM
Melted the calculations based on the OBJ
servations in Germany of the transit OF
Venus in 1882. He finds that the earth
is about 90, O43, 074 miles distant from
! the sun, and that the parallax of the sun
is s. 800 seconds, with an error of three
hundredeths of a second at most.
To cut sheet-brass chemically the fol-
lowing method meets with great success.
Make strong solution of bichloride OF
| mercury in alcohol. With a quill pen
| draw line across the brass where it is
to be cut. Let 1t dry on, and with the
same pen draw over this line with nitric
acid. The brass may then be broken
across like glass cut with diamond.
A device has just been patented in
England by which all kinds of wood
can be cut into veneers or boards. The
logs are cut into suitable lengths, steamed
in close box through which current
of electricity is sent and finally placed
in an lathe, where they are rotated
against knife. Tne thin sheets are
afterwards nipped at the edges. and can
be used to make barrels, pals, etc.,
from one stave.
| NJ. Oovarof, Russian scientist, has
discovered that when lightning strikes
in forest the white poplar (populus
alba) is the first to attract it. He came
to the conclusion that the tree can be
USED as a natural lightning -rod and he
submitted a memorial to the Minister OF
the Interior advocating that the planting
of white poplar before every house in
a village be made obligatory upon the
peasants to prevent fire by lightning.