St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1892-08-06
POPULAR SCIENCE.

| A man obtains his maximum height at
forty years of age, woman at fifty
years.
According to the best authorities the
heat generated by an English sun-glass
was equal to 1863 500 degrees.
All but one of the forty-two cities in
United States, with populations Of from
so, 900 to zoo, 900, have electric railways
| in use.
Owing to the fact that counterfeit
| coins are bad conductors, Professor Elihu
! Thomson suggests the electric current as
a means of detecting spurious money.
Recent experiments in Germany tend
to show that asbestos paper is not only of
against fire, but it probably aids in the
cont1agratlon.
A double-erder logging engine, built
to order, for the Alexander Boom and
Lumber Company has been dispatched
from the Baldwin Works, Philadel phia,
to West Virginia.
Some large blasts of rocks have been
made to provide material for the new
harbor of refuge at Brest, France, as
much as $1,000 cubic yards being
thrown out at one time.
The measles bacillus, discovered in
Berlin by DR.. Canon, varies in length
from one three thousandth to one one
thousandth of an inch. 1t possesses
characteristics said to be different from
those of any other bacillus known.
In Scranton, Penn, there is remark
able wheel which weighs 10000
pounds. 1t is a cog wheel, fifty four
feet in diameter and eighteen inches
face, and has capacity of 80, 100000
gallons of water aud 1000 tons of sand
each day.
1t is now admitted that the inherent
hue of water IS blue. Even distilled
water has been proved to be almost
exactly of the same tint as a solution of
Prussian blue. This is corroborated By
the fact that the purer water is in nature
the bluer it is in hue.
A powerful lamp, which distinctly il
mminates objects over half mile distant
by means of a great reflector, Is to be-
adopted in the French army. 1t is car
ried on a light wagon, behind the sol
diers, and they will be in obscurity
while the enemy and all objects in front
will be made conspicuous.
Twenty compound locomotives on the
four cylinder or Vaucain system are
being constructed at the Baldwin Works,
for the Chicago Elevated
Railroad. These engines are effective
types OF their class for power and speed
combined with lightness and durability.
They weigh fifteen tons each.
A tool has recently been invented
that may be attached to any drill press
for boring any geometrical figure, such
Is round, square, hexayoa, octagon, tri-
angle, diamond, star, oval, half round,
tic. 1t can be fitted to bore any shape
,r hole having straight sides or curved
tides, or both. Any machinist of or
linary ability can successfully use the
tool.
A scientist has computed that 10000
threads of the web of full grown spider
re net larger than single hair of a
mans beard. He calculates that When
'oung spiders begin to spin, 400 of their
breads are not larger than one from a
ull sized insect. If this be fact, f.
100000 webs of young spider are not
S large as single hair from mans
ace.
In discussion on diphtheria, pub.
ished in the British Medical Journal,
)r. Russell cited several instances in
Which steam seemed to be an active
actor in the propagation of the disease.
lot water and steam from factory were
into some old cesspools and
Violently wakencd into activity germs
7hich, if undisturbed, would have re-
lained dormant.
An interesting application of the
is seen in new instrument
y which the dimensions aud outline of
he living human heart are obtained.
he one physician in New York using
be instrument asserts that he can estab- (
sh the outline of the heart so accurately
hat it would be possible with certainty
. thrust pin through the patients {
hest to point within a hairs breadth '
{ the heart without touching the latter.