Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1893-04-08
POPULAR SCIENCE.

A line of tricyles for passenger service
Is proposed in London.
The Panama Central Amcrica) Elec.
trio Tramway has proven failure.
More than 1000 distinct and perfect
forms of snow crystals have been enumer-
ated.
The planets Venus and Mars most
nearly resemble the earth in climatic
conditions.
Doctor Rudolph Burckhardt, of Ber-
In, has published a work descriptive of
the brain of the muifsh (dipnoi.)
There have been no improvements in
electric lighting, except in matters of
detail in the incandescent lamp, for ten
year,.
Every ninety mine per cent. of the en-
er2y liberated by the combustion Of
gas are given out as heat rays, and are
totally useless for Illuminating purposes.
| An enormous flow Of natural gas has
/ been eclred from a well just sunk at
Geneva, N. Y, which will be used by
manufacturers in operating and lighting
their plants.
Ice is accunulating at tie North
! Pole. So ne day, it is alleged by some
scientists, the earth will fall out of ball
ance and man will be utterly annihilated
by the rush of moving objects.
An immense ore dock is building at
/ Onesta, MINI. The structure, which,
| 1t is said, will be the largest on the
lakes; is to be $500 feet in length, fifty
feet wide, and height above mean water
level 52II feet.
| Another use has been found for cleo
| tricity. In Csylon experiments have
shown that it is more economical to dry
tea leaves by its agency than by the ola
method, and extensive plants have been
erected for that purpose.
/ The sparks which in cold weather fly
from the fingers when metallic object
| is touched are due to the electricity pro-
duced by the friction between the soles
| of the shoes and the carpet. The cleo
tricity is not formed in the body at all,
and has nothing to do with the vital
1 processes.
/ 1t is now claimed that there is such
thing as electrical suustroke. The work.
ers around electrical furnaces in which
metal aluminium is produced suffer from
| them. The intense light causes painful
congestionsj which cannot be wholly
prevented by wearing deep colored
! glasses.
A physician who has made the subject
( study declares that the faint of heredity
1 is to be found in most cases Of nervous
disease. Persons who are broken down
by dissipation, exhausting diseases, ex-
cessive brain work, or anxiety, he says,
can no more transmit vitality to their
children than a decaylng vine can beget
healthy fruit.
Recently some glacial scratches were
found on the top of the Palisades, above
Fort Lee, N. Y, showing the course of
| che ice that covered the continent down
to this point. The general motion of the
glacier was southwark, but these cuttings
point to the southeast. Many boulders
OF trap, obviously from the Palisades,
are found on the western end of Long
Island.
/ In the insect house at geological
garden it is possible to have ones ners
vous system stimulated by one or both
of the electric eels. The eels are soon
weakened by parting with this energy.
The fish depend upon their battery for
food. They are supplied with living
gudgeon, which are stunned By touch
from the eel, and are swallowed before
recovery allows them to escape.