Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 December 1887 — POPULAR SCIENCE. [ARTICLE]

POPULAR SCIENCE.

By means of an air gun, Prof. C. L. Mees has found that to drive straws into pine boards and hickory bark, as is often done by tornadoes, a velocity of 150 to 172 miles an hour is necessary. Sugar has frequently been recommended as a means of preventing boiler incrustation. Recent experiments have shown that formic acid is generated by such use, attacking the iron of the boiler. The Swedish count, M. Bjomstjerna, suggested more than forty years ago, in a book on “The Theogony of the Hindoos,” that, as both poles must have been cooled to a suitable temperature at the same time, the earth might have been peopled from the north pole with its white races and from the south pole with its colored races. There is, as Prof. Thompson remarks, no assignable “velocity of electricity,” as this must vary with the current and the conductor. Wheatstone in 1833, seemed to show a transmission velocity of 288,000 miles a second through copper wire; but in late experiments signals were sent over ordinary telegraph wires on poles, and had a rate of only 14,000 to 16,000 miles. With wires near the earth the velocity was 12,000 miles, but reached 24,000 on very high wires. It is_ generally supposed that pneumonia is due to the accidental penetration of specific microbes into the system, but the observations of M. Jaccoud, a French student of the subject, show that the disease really results from the development, under favorable conditions, of microbic germs permanently present in the system. A chief condition of such development is a sudden chill, which explains the frequent coincidence of lung affections with abrupt changes of temperature. Sometimes the lampwick will obstinately refuse to be turned up in an orderly manner. It will seem firmly wedged at one side, while the other will run up in a point, causing weariness and vexation of spirit. To overcome this depravity take a new wick, draw out a single thread near the selvage, and the wick will be found quite tractable when introduced into the burner, The cogs will take it up properly, aud it will appear in good form and give an even flame when lighted.