The Washington times., 1894-11-18
FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE.

unique trolly-car fender is proposed by a
Boston inventor. He has taken the large re-
volving brushes from street sweeper and
placed them in such position under the car
that person who happens to fall in front of
the ear will be swept from the track-a much
better arrangement, it would seem, than
sweeping up the remains from the track after
an accident.
It Is encouraging to know that the scien-
tihc application of electricity to therapeutic
cal work is gaining ground rapidly. Not
only are medical men themselves actively in
vestigating the subject, but electricians like
Edison, Yesla, Elihu Thomson. A. E. Ken
nelly, J. J. Carly, and others are devoting
considerable time and study to it. American
medical papers contain many notes on new
lines ofwork. and even the more conserva-
tive English press finds space to record ad-
vances in the electro-therapeutic art recent
Lancet contains interesting references to the
very successful use of electricity in curing
ttigeminal neuralgia, and to long-continued
treatment of cases of tic douloureux which is
practically the same thing, with long and
short applications OF the current. Success is
uniform in all cases.
The system Of teephoning between the
shore and anchored light ships, or even mov-
ing vessels, with which the government is
about to experiment at Sandy Hook, depends
upon scientific principle that is not gener-
ally understood. There is no connection
whatever between the ship and the shore. On
the contrary, one branch of an insulated cable
extends from the land telephone station to
a baro metal plato nj the bottom OF the water
near the ship, and the end Of the other branch
is attached to a similar plate near shore No
current actually passes between the two
plates, but it is found that an electrified re-
gion exists IN the water around thsm and
that if the two ends of an independent tele-
phone circuit be dipped into the water from
the deck Of the ship the receiver on board
will reproduce accurately the speech or
signals transmitted from the shore, oven
though 1t may be many miles distant.
It IS said that wood may be thoroughly pre-
served by being impregnated with a strong
solution oi calcium blsulphate and afterward
with caustio lime. The pores are thus filed
with the two solutions which are oxidized by
exposure TO the air and become practically
part OF the wood itself.
The erratlc courses OF the dereicts that
form a constant menace to navigation is for
eibly shown by the pilot chart OF the North
Atlantic Ocean for September. Most remark
able is tho drift OF the Fannie E. Wolson.
which was abandoned October l6. 1891. near
Cape HRtteras, and has been floating about
the ocean ever since, during which time she
has covered something like 5000 miles.
Forty-flve collisions. nine OF which we're fatal.
have occurred with these wrecks in the last
seven years. notwithstanding the fact that in
the same period seventy have been destroyed.
The construction. of an important ship rail-
way is abou; TO be commenced through the
Dalles on the Columbia River. Oregon. The
car on which the vessels will rest is to be
from forty to fifty feet wide and will accom-
motate craft Of fourteen feet draft. When a
vessel has been fixed in position upon SUBJ
merged car the latter will be raised by hy-
draulic pressure to a height OF seventy feet
above the watenlevel, where it will be run of
on a hand truck. 1t is said that Congress has
appropriated 900 for the preliminary
work.