The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1901-01-24
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

'Eucain" is a newly-Gicoyered
anaesthetic, by injection of whlca
pain is deadencd to a degree that
greatly promotes the work of surgeons.
It's successful use in Philadelphia hos
pitals is reported.
The suns heat raises from the earth
every minute $4,000. 100000 tons
of water. or say a weight equal to
six times that of the Great Pyramid
Such heat could only be produced on
earth by burning s0,0OU00O cubic
miles of coal per second-that Is to
say. rice little block 200
MILES long, 200 miles high and goa
miies broad, weighing 12,000,O0o,ooo
tens:
A recent number Of the Chemlkcr
,eitung describes an accident result
ing from the explosion of chemicals
while in transit. which is net without
interest in view of the recent catas-
trcphe in New York City. Nine cases
CT sodium peroxide, each weighing
eO Kilograms, and intended for
Japan, were being unlcaded, when one
CT the cases exploded with a loud re-
pot and seriously injured q number
Of wo. o.kmen. besides causing q fire.
The cases Were merely labelled "chen1l-
Gals" and under the German law it Is
thought serious consequences Will be-
fall the shipper.
The engineer in charge Of the i'm
p:ove!ne,.t of the Yellowstone park
denies that the geysers are approach
ing extinction. An article to this ef-
feet appeared in a French paper and
was widely copied throughout the
United States. 1t tends to create an I'M
preston that the Yellowstone won
derland, for far as regards the hot
springs and geysers, is practically a
thing of the past. This is an excellent
example of how a scientific observer
may draw a wrong conclusion. II ne
has not studied the subject sufficiently.
The names given to such natural. OBJ
jects as geysers are very apt to be
misnomers. The geyser acting on the
shore Of the Yellowstone lake Is more
vigorous than it was ten years ago.
A San Francisco inventor has de-
voted a quarter of century to the
perfection cf a device which he be-
lieves will store up wave power for
use in running machinery, street cars,
electric lights and the like. AS de-
scribed in brief the arrangement con-
sists of two buoys attached under
water to a plunger, and as they rise
and fall with the waves they move the
plunger up and down in an upright
tube and compress the air therein.
This tube is connected with a pipe
which runs along the sea bottom to
a reservoir for the compressed air.
The latter can be converted into any
form Of power. There seem to be
people with money who believe that
the scheme will work and that the
day is at hand when fuel will no longer
be required to turn the wheels of in
dustry.
An interesting report was recently
presented before meeting Of the
Institution of mining engineers of
Great Britain. in which the condition
of a mine after being tightly closed
for Is. months was described. At
the reopening of the mine the air
was analyzed and was found to con-
tain 81 percent of nitrogen,
12 percent of fire-damp, and 4
percent of carbon diexide. These
gases were greatly compressed. and
it is believed that about 100000
cubic feet escaped from the first bore
hole in "a hours. The con-
dition of the contents Of the mine was
found to be practically the same, and
no danger could be traced to the gases.
Bread was dried hard like biscuit, but
cooked. bacon was as fresh as when
left, and the water for the horses had
not evaporated. Iron had not been
attacked by rust. nor was the fodder
in the stables in any way changed.