Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1892-02-05
POPULAR SCIENCE.

A bee does not weigh the one-hun-
dredth part of an ounce.
It is said that the grip this year par
takes of the nature of neuralgia.
Electric motors have been so greatly
improved of late that they will now pull
nearly 10000 pounds.
Naturalists haYe enumerated 657 diff
fercnt species of reptiles. OF this num-
Der 400 are as harmless as rabbits.
BY new system, compound sheets Of
platinum and gold are used to make cru
cibles for use in industrial chemistry.
The Maine Cattle Commission has dis.
covered tuberculosis in cattle from Mass
achusetts, and has ordered that importa-
tion be stopped.
Steel smokestacks are being placed up
on the locomotives of the elevated rail-
roads in New York City, thus reducing the
weight from 800 to about 100 pounds.
An apparatus for purifying lubricatlng
oils coming from machinery has been
patented in Norway whereby the same
oil can be used many times at triaing
expense.
In order to photograph the flying in.
sect, the exposure must last only 1-25,.
OOOth part of a second. This the French
photographer, NJ. Marcy, claims 10 have
accomplished by the ard Of new instru-
ment invented by himself. He has also
photographed the blood globules circu-
lating in vein.
Owing to the lack of penetrating
power possessed by the electric arc light
10 thick weather, its use in lighthouses is
not recommended. Inventive talent is
now being brought to bear in England to
ascertain a better composition of the
carbons, with view to supplying the re-
quired rays for penetrating effect.
The effect of a recent explosion at
Rome in which 265 tons of gunpowder
blew up, has been observed on the bar
ometer at the Roman College, which is
four kilometres fror: the magazine. The
increase of atmospheric pressure caused
by the sudden evolution Of gases male
the mercury Jump up ia millimetres.
The recent rise in the price Of camel
coal has led the English gas companies
TO look about for some other means OF
increasing the Illuminating power of the
gas. This has been found in Russian
petroleum, from light product of which
according to BIr. Weaver, a rich gas is
now being supplied in KensingtOn by the
local company.
An extraordinary result has been OBJ.
tanned by some experiments made in Eng.
land in signalling with electric lights
turned vertically to the sky. The light |
of the Eddystone lighthouse can be seen |
only III miles, aud then on a clear night;
but a vertical beam of light of far less
power is visible just twice as far, with
strong chance of its surmounting an Or
dinary fog.
Professor KraiI,of Vienna, Austria, in |
examining the bands Of mummy, pro-
badly OF the age of the Ptolemies, which |
for the last forty years has been pre-
served in a museum, has found strip OF
linen with several hundred lines of Etrus-
can writing. In this text, which is the
longest We possess in that language, some
words occur that are to be found in Etrus
can inscriptions known to us, but the
whole cannot, IN the actual state Oh Etrus'
can studies, be deciphered.
Examination has shown that fish came
back to the stream where they were born
after having been out at sea for the win
ter months. This is known by the marks
placed on them and by the general diff
ference in the varieties of salmon and
shad which came to different streams.
This is not only a curious aud interest
ing fact, but an important one in the
consideration of the laws governing fish.
cries aud fish culture, as it allows each
State to have its own system and provide
ior its own fish.