The Opelousas courier., 1893-11-04
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

Tidal waves will often acquire a veloc'
ity of one thousand miles minute.
Herbert Spencer has \ yented a lit,
tie a machine by whicl 'he can shut
out all sounds.
A steam jet casts but a slight shadow.
but if it is given a charge of electricity
it takes an orange-brown hue and Its
shadow is very dark.
To the residents on other planets,
Shat is, of course, providing there are
such beings, our earth is a bright blue
this on account of the cerulean hue
of our atmosphere.
A Frenchman declares that vegeta-
ton can be aided by electricity. Pota-
toes planted in the path of the electric
current grew enormously, and e~lectri-
fed tomatoes became ripe eight days
before the others.
The snake worm is the name Of a
small creature which, when alone, has
almost no power of locomotion. Large
numbers of them, by forming a close
rope-like procession, move with ease
from place to place.
A remarkable discovery has been
made by Professor Emmerich. He
finds that the blood of IN animal which
has recovered from an infectious dis
ease can cure another animal suffering
from the same disease, and the discov-
cry is likely to prove of the greatest
Importance.
Lieutena tApostolow, ofthe Russian
navy, recently exhibited tosome naval
officers in Odessa a new style of ship,
without screw or paddle, but which
had instead "a kind of running cleo
trical gear round the vessels hull un.
der the waterline, and a revolving
mechanism, which, he says, will pro-
pei a ship from Liverpool to New York
in twenty-eight hours
An ingenious contrivance for record
ing sunshine is the recent invention
of Professor Marvin. The professor
describes the instrument as consisting
in principle of a Leslie differential air
MISUNDERSTANDING, however, be-
ing used to separate the air in the two
bulbs, and the whole thermometer is
designed in the form of a straight
tube, having q bulb at each end.
Experiments have been made with
aluminium for horseshoes by a Penn
.srylvania manufacturer within the last
few months. Methods and machines
used with steel had to be modified a
little first. The shoes are light, of
course, but they yea rapidly, not last
ing over a week or ten days on a dirt
road and breaking easily. The expert
menter thinks hat possibly an alu-
minum alloy might be more servicea-
BILE.
Insects that spend most of their lives
in q torpid or semi-torpid condition are
not always killed by being frozen. In
stances are numerous of travellers in
the Rocky Mountains finding butter
flies above the snow-line frozen stiff.
When carried to a warmer climate or
into a cabin they often completely re-
vive. Their normal vital power is so
low that a degree of cold that would
prove fatal to other creatures does not
kill them.
The decorations of walls prove to
have a very important influence upon
gas bills. From recent figures it has
been calculated that with the different
decorations a room would be equally
lighted by the following candle pow
ers: Black cloth, 100; dark brown
paper, eighty-seven; blue paper,
s~eventy-two clean yellow paint, sixty;
clean wood, sixty dirty wood, eighty;
cartridge paper, twenty; w%hitewash,
IS. Only about one-sixth as much il
Elimination is necessary for the white
washed room as for the same room
papered in dark brown.