The free press., 1892-10-20
POPULAR SCIENCE.

/ Mars was so bright in 1719 as to oe
/ mistaken for new star.
A dinner has been cooked by eiec-
1 trjcity in a Canadian hotel.
OF the fires of 1891, sixty-four per
cent were due to electricity.
Mullen leaf is recommended as an ex-
cellent specific for rheumatism
Four-fifths of the engines now work
ing in the world have been constructor
during the last twenty-five years.
An alloy of seventy eight per cent. OF
gold and twenty-five per cent. OF alu-
minum is the most brilliant known.
An observatory Of fire and lightning
proof quality of construction has been
designated and section built so as to be
easily carried to the top of Mount Blanc,
Switzerland, where it will be permanently
located.
The taxidermist of the Smithsonian
+ Institution at Washington denies that the
peacock has ugly feet--a condition OF
affairs which has been very generally ac-
cepted as truth as long as the peacock
has been known.
There is a variety of pigeon hawk in
Syria which kills pigeons by cutting
their throats with its sharp bills as they
Hy. 1t gives swoop, quick dart and
presently there is a tumble, and the poor
dove is finished up with a cash across its
throat.
Sudden attacks of angina pectoris are
dangerous, and the feet should be placed
immediately in hot water, and mustard
should be applied to the heart region.
Stimulants should also be given, and in
iections of morphine or atropine to re-
lieve intense pain.
The gold dlggers of Thibet, most OF
whom are Chinese, make air do the
work of water. That is to say, they use
the same process by which farmers used
to winnow their grain before tanning
mills were invented. They lift the
baskets containing earth and gold to an
elevation and then slowly empty the
contents to the ground.
DIR. Grana, country physician in
Spain according to foreign papers, has
discovered cure for diphtheria which
he claims never fails. The queen regent
of Spain is greatly interested in the dis
covery and received DR.. Grana at court
few weeks ago. The physicians has
! been invited to explain his remedy to
the Madrid Academy of Medicine.
Rotting tree stumps may be easily re-
moved in this way; With one and one
] hol in hp
centre OF the stump about eighteen inches
deep and put in twenty ounces OF salt
| peter, fill the hole with water and plug
! it tight. In tie spring take out the plug,
and set it on fire. The stump will burn
and smolder to the end of the roots,
leaving nothing but ashes.
Some silk worms lay from 1000 to
1000 eggs, the wasp 5000, the ant from
5000 to 5000 The number of eggs laid
by the queen bee has long been in dis
pute. Burmeister says from 5000 to
! 5000, but Spence and Kirby both go him
several better, each declaring that the
queen of average fertility will lay no less
than 10000, and probably as high as
so, 900 In one season.
a manufacturing concern in Brooklyn,
N. Y, has substituted large fan for a
smokestack. By the draught created. the
smoke, dust and gases from several'fur
naces are drawn into a brick apartment
that has a low chimney. Small pipes,
conveying water, open into the apart
ment, and as the water escapes it is
! sprayed over the apartment byimeans OF
steam jets. The dust is laid thereby,
and whatever gases may be present
escape by way of the chimney.
The resources of the lecture-room ara
decidedly increased when Professor
Dewas was able, in a lecture on chemis.
try in London lately, to produce liquid
oxygen In the presence of the audience
literally by pints, and to pass liquid air
about the room in claret glasses. Oxygen
liquifes at about 250 degreesbelow zero,
and air at 343 degrees below zero. If
the earth were reduced to temperature
$50 degrees below zero it would be
covered with sea of liquid air thirty
FIVE feet deep. Professor Dewar's pro-
cess of liquefying oxygen and nitrogen
was with hundred pounds of liquid
ethylenic and fifty pounds of nitrous
oxide, with the aid of two air pumps
and two compressors driven by steam.