The herald., 1897-12-05

before the Christian era Let us learn to
be a little less boastful of our nineteenth
century age Of progress, etc.
The facility with which contagious
disease in communicated by microbes or
bacilli is clearly shown by the teaching
of modern science. This fact is recog-
nized by the authorities of Paris, France,
in the requirement that BARRIERS and hair
dressers of that city observe sanitary
measures in carrying on their business.
The Medical News says that they are
required to use only nickel-plated
combs, "to substitute pulverizers for
powder puffs, to cover the hair cut Off
with sawdust and have it promptly re-
moved, and to place all metal instru-
ments, razors, shears, combs, clippers,
etc, in a sterilizer for ten minutes be-
fore they are used" This is sensible as
precautionary measure against the
transmission of disease. France has ever
been in the lead in matters Of scientific
progress. Might not Los Angeles board
of health wisely take hint from this
admirable action of Partisan sanitari-
ans?
ApropoS of the mention made in our
last Sundays Brevities about the ex-
cellence of the bicycle chain gear is the
following interesting suggestion by
Tecumseh Swift, which we find in the
American Machinist: Il keep thinking"
says Mr. Swift, about how much the
/ bicycle folks have taught us all around
on the general subject of locomotion,
and l would not be surprised any day to
see the locomotive people taking radi-
cal lessons from them about building
locomotives. There is much that might
be learned and adopted about the use
of tubing, and why not also about the
use of the chain? We have all of us
vastly more respect for the chain as
power transmitter than we had ten or
twenty years ago. 1t is entirely prac-
ticable today to build a locomotive with
high speed, perfectly balanced, smooth
running and economical engines and
chain transmission to all the aXes, and
| expect to see it. With the electrical
people so evidently intent upon swallow
ing everything in sight it can scarcely
be pretended that the time-honored old
locomotive is as safe as it once was, and
there was never time when revolutions
airy suggestions were more permissible
than now"
With electricity substituted as a mo-
tive power for steam, and chain trans
mission to all the car axles, that would
be, indeed, revolution in locomotion
to wake Hudson from the dead. And it is
by no means remote possibility.
We had not credited John Bull with
to- ;,,o
defeat as a runner of locomotive steam
engines. On several Of our American
railroads the speed recently attained
by American built locomotives surpassed
anything of the kind attained on the
English rails. To account for this our
cousins over the water have made a
brand new discovery, to-wit: that the
American mile is 5000 feet instead Of
$3.50! The American Machinist says the
same discovery is not yet known in the
United States, but that several English
publications have announced it and that
they are using this supposititious dis
covery Ito discount some of our locomo-
tive performances" What has become
of John Bulls time -honorded bluff and
OF John Bulls time-honored bluff and
passed in any field Of honest effort?
The bacteria family is no parvenu, On
the contrary the family is probably older
than that of man himself. The Dental
practitioner, in a recent issue, publishes
a paper by NJ. B. Renault, who has been
investigating the subject, from which
1t appears that bacteria exist as fossils
IN geological strata, and the Indications
are that they have been coeval with the
1irst appearance of organic life on earth.
Evidence of their presence has been
found In fossilied bone, teeth, scales
ana coprolites, ''as we'll as abundantlv
IN vegetable tissue, the spores and
sporanges of ferns appearing to have
been especially subject to their attack"
so that we have not even the consola-
ton Of believing that these inflnitesimaI
creatures, so destructive Of life and b,,t
so recently known to science, are the
product OF our degenerate day and gen.
eratlon ~ but We're very much alive
ana Kicking in the twilight of time.
when darkness was upon the face of the
deep"
beautiful artificial moonlight effect
mas been successfully gained by a novel
,nethoo or Illuminating the new law Ii
prary at Columbia university. The
IDEA, says Electricity, is to gain the adj
vantage Of diffusion, and the plan be-
ing tried is as follows: Suspended in the
center OF the great hall is large. hollow
globe seven feet in diameter and
painted dull white. This is not a re.
ceptacle of the light intended to diffuse
the rays by transmission, but is OPAQUE.
and intended to diffuse the rays by re-
Election. Upon this sphere are directed
the concentrated beams of light from
eight hidden arc lamps located at inter-
walls along the gallery pilasters. The
moonlight effect is heightened by the
background of blue, which constitutes
the ceiling, and the effect is described
as fine in the extreme.
4 + =
The mammoth meteorite discovered bv
Lieutenant Peary four years ago. near
Cape York, at the northern end of Raf.
Tins bay, and which recently arrived at
New York from Greenland, is now at Cob
dock in the Brooklyn navy yard It is
esteemed by scientists a magnificent
prize to be treasured more than tts
weight in gold. Its measurement ia
eight and half feet in length by a few
inches over five feet in height and
breadth-enormous proportions COM
pared with any aerolite hitherto discov-
cred. The material of which it is COM
posed consists of iron and nickel IN me-