The Opelousas courier., 1893-05-13
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

Professor Hermann has photographed
the sound of vowels.
Tanning extract is used to treat rail-
road ties to preserve them from decay.
Bacteria grow most rapidly in the
warm, sultry conditions which usually
precede a thunderstorm.
Among some recently observed inter
esting results of application of cold, M
Raoul Plctet has found that at $50 de.
grees all chemical reaction is suppressed.
A Brussels dispatch says a new phar-
maceutical bottle has recently been in
vented which indicates the hour at which
the medicine is to be taken. A Belgian
establishment has secured the sole right
to manufacture these bottles.
A considerable freight business is be-
ing carried on by an electric railroad IN
Maryland operating eighteen miles o !
track in a good farming country which is
not reached by steam roads. Ihe cars
used have a capacity of five tons.
Sugar is nothing but charcoal and
water, combined in certain proportions.
This is proved by weighing resultant'
into which sugar resolves. If weight
were less, something lost; if more,
something gained. But weight of re-
solved charcoal always equals weight OF
sugar.
The operation of the electric under
ground road to South London has not
only ~demoralized the telephone service
of the entire vicinity, but has rendered
futile observations on the earth's poten'
tial. At Greenwich Observatory, some
miles distant, it has been found neces-
sary to abandon the tests.
a Frenchman has recently conducted
a series of @xperiments which will 60 far
towards correcting a popular impression
regarding the effects of electricity on
vegetable growth. He has demonstrated
that currents of electricity passed
through tie roots of vegeta bles tends to
injure them, but that static electricity
might be considered slightly beneficial.
A wide awake New York real estate
agent proposes to remodel antique off ice
buildings on the electrical plan. He has
a large steam plant lying idle in the
basement of one of his buildings, and he
is utilizing this plant for the generation
of electric power to be distributed to
manufacturing concerns In the same
block with the office building, besides
installing in the building itself electric
elevators, electric lights, electric fans
and electric heaters.
An effective method of warning line
men who may be as various working
points of a city, of the approach of the
electric current, has been provided in
the '~screecher" whistle. One of these
whistles has been attached to the boiler
at the electric-light statio@ in Chatham,
and will be blown each day five minutes
before starting the dynamos. There can
be no mistake as to the fitness of this
instrument for the purpose to which it
has been applied, as it is guaranteed to
be heard at a distance OF fifteen miles.
A startling proof of the value of the
fire-proof wire was given8by its in
ventor, who, taking a number Of
pieces of various insulated wires aud
joining them together, had a current of
$50 amperes passed through the circuit.
The current destroyed the pieces on the
outside of either hand, but the section
of wire held between the hands remained
in such a cool condition that its holder,
in spite of the risk he would have u
with an ordinary wire, was the calmest
and least concerned member Of the
party.