Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1893-07-01
POPULAR SCIENCE.
Moonstone is variety of feldspar.
In Germany aluminium crsvats are

Moonstone is q variety of fcldspar.
In Germany aluminium cravats are
now on sale.
A quarter Of each generation is said
to die before reaching the age OF
seventeen.
Two hundred dogs are annually
doomed to death in an English univer-
sity for physiological experiments.
Scientists allege that the remote an
cestor of the horse was diminutive
quadruped, but little larger than the
rabbit.
When The thermometer registers
100 degrees the cable which draws the
cars of the East River Bridge, New
York, is seven feet and six inches
longer than when the thermometer is
at zero.
The use Of aluminium has been pro-
posed for boats, balloon cars, trotting
sulkies, flying machines and all pur-
poses where lightness is desirable. At
present its cost, seventy cents a pound,
is against it.
Tissot says that talking is healthy
exercise, promoting the circulation OF
the blood without any risk of exer-
ton. He attributed to their activity
in this line the fact thai women live
longer than men.
The star Alcogne is so remote from
the earth that the light which now
arrives at our eyes, even though 1t
speeds on its way at the rate of $50,
600 miles a second, has not improbablt
taken century or more than a century
TO reach us.
A pound of rice contains Sc. 90 per
cent. of nutritive matter, against So. 81
per cent. for wheat, 81. 70 per cent.
for rye, OF per cent. for oats, S2.97
per cent. for corn, 1924 per cent. for
potatoes, 1903 per cent. for fat beef
and &c. SO per cent. for lean beef.
A French scientist says that an un-
failing test of death may he made by
producing a blister on the hand or
foot of the corpse, using candle for
that purpose. If the blister, upon be.
ing opened with pin OF other instru.
ment, is found TO contain fluid of any
kind there is still life in the supposed
corpse. On the other hand, should it
contain steam only, rest assured that
the vital spark has flown.
A chain of compressed cakes of gun
cotton tied around the trunk of the
largest-sized trees and exploded will,
by the action of their violence, cut the
tree down instantly and as smoothly as
though done by an AK III the hands of
an experienced woodman. Timber
cutters working among the forest
giants of Montana, Idaho and Wash
ington declare it to be the cheapest
and most economical mode of telling
trees that has yet been devised.
Explosives theoretically act with the
same force in every direction. Giant
powder, nitro glyceri and the like
explode so rapidly that the air has not
time to get out of the way and acts to
some extent as a solid The down
ward force therefore has something to
act against Hence apart of the force
is felt by the ground. Gunpowder, on
the other hand, is slow explosive,
and when it is burnt on the ground the
air has time to get out of the way and
there is little apparent downward eff.
feet.
Humboldt and Culver estimated the
number Of species OF mammalia, or
creatures which suckle their young, TO
be but little short of 600; of birds,
1000; insects, $4,000; reptiles, 700;
in all about $4,000 species. In the
, southern hemisphere birds are five
times more numerous than the NAM
malta. Toward the equator both birds
and reptiles are most plentiful and
most highly colored. Cuvier said that
the record left by the fossils prove
that the mammalia was once as numer-
ously represented as are the bird spe-
cies ut the present day.