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SOME POPULAR ERRORS.
j
UNIVERSAL MISTAKES REGARD
ING FAMILIAR SUBJECTS;
iJSrroneons Impressions concerning
Names and Habits of Ani
ftials, Plants and Insects.
A volume could be written on popular
on scientific subjects. iSo few
pie observe for themselves, and so
many accept what they hear from others,
' or what they read, that it is a wonder
there are not more errors fixed in the
.popular mind on such'subjects.
One hardly knows where to begin on
sthe list, but attention is first called to
xtlie loose manner in which terms, espe
cially names are applied. Take the com
mon gopher as an example. The true
gopher is of a gray color and is about the
si/.e of a large rat. He has large pouches
on each side of his mouth in which he
■ carries dirt when making his burrows in
hie ground. Ijis flout teeth stand, out
inost' prominently in any of the great
family of gnawers—rodents. His tail is
' short and looks very much like that of a
rat. In some parts of the couutry a
grey ground squirrel is called a go- .
pker.
iu other parts a striped squirrel or
prairie chipmunk is called by that
name, while iu Kansas, Nebraska and
tumy other parts of the West a small
jntrpiotv which is closely allied to the
'prairie dog, is’called a gopher. These
marmots are quite commoii in the .coun
try around this city. In most parts of
the Southwest a skunk is caljed a pole
cat and a polecat is called a mink—for
the ‘ Western so-called mink is nothing
brUa polecat. 1t.400.1v 200 years for the
popular belief to 1.0 given up that beav
ers u.-e’thfeir tails for trowels. In some
places yet school readers can be found
ihat teach such nonsense., . •
Another popular fiction is that if one
•shoots a prairie dog his mates will rush
out and carry him into one of their dens
beforejitimpossible to get possession of
kim.
It is true that such things have actu
ally occurred, l ilts hr/e been known
the same thing, but the instances
af? rare Usually a country that is in
irabited by prairie dogs, or more prop
erly by prairie marmots, has a dry, thin
3Ktsuospfee&.' This condition deceives
ii'm-ter an I causes him to shoot so
far-at the little creatures, that in the
larger number of cases he misses entirely,
in the seebhd'place, these animals never
stop when danger is near until they are
At the mouth of a hole. Then they will
stop and sit upon their haunches in such
a manner that if they are shot, they are
nearly sure to fall inside the hole. The
prairie marmots, ment oned above, that
one sq the'teountry around this city,
■same habit—that of stopping at
rthe mouth of their holes and sitting
•apon the r liaun lies to look around.
Another error is the calling "of nearly
•* ery insect a bug. Potato beetles,.June
ix-e ties, May beetles, etc., are all called
hogs, when they are beetles. The bed
Ac 6hinch bug are true bu s,
bat nearly ever, thing else usuallytealled
by nalne belongs to the great family
of ueetles. A beetle opens his mouth
judewi.se, while the bug opens his per
pe dicular as we open ours.
Worms are all regarded as worms
whether they are true worms or not.
Angle cr fisii wQrms are true ■types of
worms. Most otner worms that one sees
a e the larva* or insects,, and will be
come images or perfect insects in time.
i he common “grub worm” becomes a
May bile tie. The largest white “grub
worms’ that have a bluish list' down
their backs become '‘tumble bugs,” the
tree scavenger beetles. People often
apeak of “eight-legged insects ’ or “ten
legged insects,” unmindful of the tact
that an insect lias six legs and no more
nor no Jess. Spiders, theu, having eight
legs are not insects. •
We speak of the time when the “grass- ;
hoppers destroyed the crops,” when we
m -an that the locusts destroyed the
crops, and the insects we usually call lo- j
c sts are the seventeen-year-old cicada*. !
The “horse-hair snake” is another
d mmon source of error. The creature
that is usually called by. that name
originates and has a life history as fol-i
lows: A small flesh colored mite is in
water. It changes to a purplish lead color
And comes to ilie top of the water where
it sports for a time, and when looking
*cr ss water of a still evening,
especially if looking toward . the
sett ng sun,, one can see masses of these
tiny creatures that look like smoke on
the water. When they reach this stage
ot development they leave the water
and get out on the leaves and grass.
Here ? as opportunity offers, they attach
.themselves to the feet of large insects
of grasshoppers, katydids, etc.
■k* ht legs of these insects being hollow,
Ml hey crawl up them, where they grow till
Hire fill the legs and sometimes the cavi
tic of the bodies ol these large insects.
Tins accounts for the fat, clumsy con
dition of many of these insects. After
araiH, in wit ch the insects drown, tnei
lut fledged “horsehair snakes” come
forth to delight the small b >v and to in
terest the student of nature, after which
thev lay eggs in the water, if it does not
dry up too soon—and curl around them
for i time, and about the time the eggs
hat h into the litt.e flesh colored mites
fir>t described, the “snakes” die. It is
boi claimed that ihis is the history of all
■“ho sehair snakes.” but it is the true
hit try of all that I know anything
About.
.’.other error in the application of
na -s is noticeable in the vegetable
wot d. Tills is the so-called sycamore.
he true sycamore grows only in Eng
land, or, a f most, the i ritish Isles. Our
tree-hould be “called bufrbnwood. The
tru • sycamore is as worthless as buckeye
■or h esc chestnut.
A;iother error is held regarding the
Virginia creeper that grows so abundant-.
3Jv amng our leuces and also in our for
«est- It is a beautilul plant, and per
fe. i y harmless. It can be trained over
« one or brick walls, o cr windows,
■door , lattices or aibors, so as to give a
Aio-t pleasing e ect; but most people
th uk it is poisonous.
hey mistake it for the poison ivy
which als® g: ows abundantly througlio it
the country. The b. autjful rginia
eic- [>er has five leaflets on each leal
®t,.lk, while the poison ivy has only
th.ee leaflets. The creeper is ada k,
rich green, and in autumn changes to a
vivid russet. The poison ivy is of a
. iigh er green color, but changes toama
*o *a or magenta :n syutumn. It also lias
many more lateral tendrils than the
creeper has, and consequently stick*
closer to whatever it grows upon.
Another error is that of saying, “It’s
! going to rain; see how heavy the air is.
The smoke all comes to the ground.”
The fact is that the air is lighter before
or during a rain—damp air is always
j lighter than cold air. When the air is
j dry and heavy it buoys the smokeupward,
j but when it is light and moist it is nearer
the weight of smoke and consequently
will not buoy it upward so readily.
When it comes to treating the sick and
dealing with the causes that produce
•disease, so many errors have prevailed,
and do now prevail, that it seems a won
der that the human race has not become
extinct long ago. Take the so-called
liver complaints. Of course the liver
may have organic diseases, just as any
other organ may have, but by far the
greater part of so-cailed liver diseases are
only functional, aud have their origin in
the stomach. When the stomach is all
right the liver will be all right, nine times
out of ten.
Another delusion is mal:iria j so called.
The word malaria means bad air. The
diseases that are attributed to this cause
are frequently common in districts where
there is no staguaut water or anything
else to taint the atmosphere. — At. Louis
. Republic.
SELECT SIFTINGS.
ages in China are two cents a day.
A beetle can carry twenty times its
own weight.
New envelopes have the gum on the
lower part of the envelope.
A citizen of Canton, Miss., *lvos a
pair of pet bears in a buggy.
Ben Shott is the most appropriate
name of a candidate for Coroner, in Cin
cinnati, Ohio.
The Bank of England is the most ex
tensive lianking institution in the world.
It emp oys ovM 1000 clerks.
The tusk' of a gigantic mastodon,
measuring thirteen feet six inches, lias
been found in a well near Bismarck, Da
kota.
It is said to be unsafe to strike a match
within a half mile of the great gas and
oil gusher that has burst out at Mont
pelier, Ind.
The oldest rose tree in the world is at
Heldersheim, Germany. Its history can
be traced back to 1070, and it was quite
a bush then.
Coral has felt the whim of fashion,
and its importation lias fallen olf in the
last three years as rapidly as that of am
ber has risen.
A colored woman who recently went
insane at Atlanta, ha., imagined that the
sun had perched itself on her head and
she could not shake it otf.
During the month of August 13,000
umbrellas were left in the railway car
riages of the United Kingdom, and . 7,000
different articles of all sorts were lost.
Glass eyes, false teeth and cork legs
are among the curious things sent to the
New York pawn-shop by the wearers,
who seldom fail to redeem them Satur
day uight.
Allen Crosby, of Boston, claims to
have beaten the record on consecutive
days’ work in shoemaking. He has not
missed half a day from the bench since
May, 1881.
“Paradise,” by Tintoretto, is the larg
est painting in the. world. It is eighty
four feet wide, thirty-three and one-half
feet high. It is now in the Doge’s Pa
lace in Venice.
The Rev. Walter L. Huffman, of Per#
Ind., has married over twelve hundred
couples aud prt#ched 13U0 funeral ser
vices. His surpasses the record of any
other clergyman in the State.
There is very near the great city
London a home for stray dogs, where
they may be claimed, or if unclaimed or
no home found for them they are put to
a merciful death in a lethal chamber.
An electric girl in lowa, who weighs
only ninety-four pounds, tosses strong
men about like feather bolsters, and held
a GOO pound man suspended in the air
while ten others tried to pull him
down.
Within the Antarctic circle there has
never been found a flowering plant. In
the Arctic region there are .02 kinds of
flowers. Fifty of the-e are confined to
*tne Arctic region. They are really polar
flowers.
In the Madrid prison prisoners are al
lowed out at night occasionally. One,
Varela, joined his accomplices outside,
engaged in the murder of his mother,
divided her money with his pals, and
then returned to his ce l.
A Nebraska man named Mickelwait,
who recently traveled to Washington,
weighed 400 younds, and had to be car
ried in the baggage car, being unable to
enter a passenger car. He is in robust
healtn, but is fasting to reduce his
flesh.
An English writer declares that the
custom of pairing o f guests at dinner
arose in the middle ages, when there was
* only a single plate and drinking cup for
each couple, and that white the man cut
up the meat the woman put the pieces in
his mouth and they both drdlhk from the
same cup.
Samuel KautTelt of Wrightsville, York
county, Penn., who is 83 years old, has
written the Lord’s Prayer on a piece of
cardboard but a trifle larger than a gold
dollar. Under a magnifying glass every
lei ter is as legible as if it had been
written a quarter of an inch in size. The
■ ene able penman used an ordinary steel
pen in executing the work.
The Peer’s Tricky Tailor
An 1 nglish peer who had always or
dered his coats through his valet-stepped
into his tailor’s on Piccadilly to order
one h msclf. When he gave the address,
tne tailor, supposing him to be a new
valet, slipped a little packet into his
ha id. with. “Here’s your commission,
and it’s your own fault if you don’t earn
more, .lust you this brush, and
gi. e the old man’s clothes a good wipe
down with it every morning. He doesn’t
wear half as many coats as he should.”
11 was a steel wire brush. The peer took
the money and his custom with him.
Lessons in cookery seem to be ex
tremely popular in ugland. One school
has had 3 ,00(1 pupllss since 1874, and
another school has been teaching cook
ery to 1 ,00 i per-ons each year. A fa
vorite teacher wears a necklace of dia
monds given her by her pupils, and there
are other signs that the mission of good
coo ring is appreciated.
THE GERMAN DAMASCUS.
A CITY FAMOUS FOR MAKING lll
impiements of war.
The Monster Factories at Sol ingen
Where Keen-Blailetl Weapons of
Steel are Forged.
A letter from Solingen, Germany to
the Pittsburg Dispaia A says: Of all the
places of industry in Germany there is
not one whose very name is so apt to
make your blood run cold, and make you
think of murder and death as the men
tion of this little town on the Wupper.
Wherever you go knives, forks, daggers
and swords are always confronting you.
Whenever you talk to anybody you are
always forcibly entertained with a volu
ble speech about instruments of death.
How many factories there are really in
Solingen it is hard telling. There are
23,000 inhabitants, and with the excep
tion of women, infants aud old people,
everybody is engaged in making some
part of cutlery. This industry has been
going on in this place for nearly a thou
sand years. Tradition has it that Count
Adolf IV., of Berg, who was the owner
of Solingen, went to the crusades with
Emperor Frederick 11., of Germany, in
the eleventh century, and on his travels
to the holy land came to Damascus, in
Syria. Here the nobleman observed the
manufacture of all kinds of weapons, and
he learned it th’ere himself. On his re
turn home he at once started a factory in
Solingen, and since then Solingen weap
ons have become so famous That they
are now considered to be unequaled in
the world.
I went all through a factory, which
employs more than one thousand men
.exclusively in the manufacture of fine
weapons. They are now filling an order
for the German Government of a new
bayonet. Eight hundred thousand are
to be made, and the firm delivers 1500-
a day. The weapon is twelve inches
long.
Before a piece of steel is converted
into such an instrument of war it has to
go through quite a process.
In the centre of the room stood a large
machine where one man and a boy were
occupied.
“This is where the steel is cut before
it has received a stroke yet toward the
shape of a sword, so we might call this
the store room for raw material.” Thus
my kind informant began his explana
tion. The long pieces of steel, which
were about 2J- inches wide, were then
put under the raa hine, and by the
turning of a crank pieces of about twelve
inches fell one after the other into a
basket. The boy then handed the man
another piece of steel, put an empty
basket under the machine and carried
the short pieces into an adjoining apart
ment. We followed, and from the num
ber of fires all around i guessed that we
must have arrived at the forges. And so
it was. Eachoneof these pieces of steel
was put into the fyre, aud when it was
hot enough a man put it under
a steam hammer, which struck the
heated steel in rapid succession about
twenty times on every particle of its sur
face. When it was pulled out the piece
was about eighteen inches long. It was
now thrown into a large barrel tilled
with water. Now the would-be sword
had gone through the hardening process,
and a number of boys gathered them again
into baskets to carry them to the rolling
department. In the front of each of
these rolte I had my attention called to a
big coke Ire. This fire was stirred up to
an enormVus heat, and then the pieces
of steel weie one by one put into the fire.
There are two men occupied at each roll,
viz: the roller and his helper. As soon
as the steel is hot again it comes under
the roll, from where it emerges about
one-eighth of an in# thic and the
eventual shape of tie sword stamped
on it.
Again the pieces of steel are carried
off, and this time they go to the centre j
pre-ses, where they are put under a con- ;
trivance which cuts the margin off the
steel, and when they leave here you can
see that the thing looks like a sword..
Hitherto, however, you have seen
nothing but a dark blue piece of dirty
steel, while we now come into the de
partments where the metal is brightened.
The re is at first the “grind-mill.” -This
is a large place which looks like a barn.
From one end of the room to tlie other
I ob-erved rows of immense grinders,
some of them eight feet in diameter. In
this factory I saw forty stones, and iri.
the front of each sat a grinder. The
stones are turned by steam and watered
automatically. The grinding depart
ment is the most important in the entire
factory, and the grinder has to be very
skilful. He has to have a keen eye; he
must know when to press the steel hard
against the stone and when not. A sin
gle scraping of the stone too much spoils
the whole weapon, and it has to be
thrown away. Most of the other work
is mechanical, while here it is intelli
gence that does the work satisfactorily.
From the grinding stone the piece of
steel comes bright and sharp. It is now
taken to the burnishing rooms. This
p irt of the work is chiefly performed by
boys, who vary in age from 12 to lti
years.. In this place there are a number
of wheels, but they are very small.
Some of them are of stone, others are
covered with leather, which, if the arti
cle has to receive a polish, is covered
with a powder* which lends the blade a
high polish. The knob and the back
of the handle are now brilliantly burn
ished, and the weapon is already very
dangerous. But still it is unfinished.
The different holes which are made in
the handle, the one which fastens the
blade on the gun and several others are
now bored. This is done, however, by
machinery, and takes but a very short
time. Then the handle is covered with
leather, and now that the blade itself is
thoroughly completed it is taken to the
controlling room.
In this department we find, as a rule
a number of old men who have been at
work for the firm for long years. They
are not able to do actual hard work, but
still in this department their services are
indispensable. Their duty is, in fact, to
examine the article and see whether
there is a blemish anywhere. As soon as
he detects a flaw he knows wheie it was
done, whether in the burnishing, the
grinding, the rolling, or any other deo
partraent, aud the man who is found to
have made the mistake has to make it
good, or, in other words, he has to pay
for the damage.
Things of that kind very often lead to
great unpleasantness, and were it not for
‘ the iron discipline which is everywhere
| maintained, Solingen would be the
scene of bloody war every day.
When the weapon leaves the control
ling department is is taken to the room
where the sheatli has been made, and
after that the thing is packed and
shipped.
This process is gone through with
every other article of cutlery, scissors,
knives, etc.
NEWS AM) NOTES FOR WOMEN.
Bed and violet do not accord.
Washington girls are taking un fenc
ing.
Oriental combinations of eolor are in
vogue.
Russia leather in all colors is worn for
house shoes.
Loose blouses are worn by young girls
and children.
Mrs. John Sherman is a devoted
student of horticulture.
Silver for personal adornment in
creases in fashionable favor.
, Queen Victoria has had wicker baskets
made for her cats to travel in.
Miss Mary Anderson, the actress, has
celebrated her thirtieth birthday.
The fall colors will be pearl gray,
olive, absinthe green and reseda.
Edith Thomasrtbe poet, will assist in
editing St. Nicholas next season.
White ename'ed sticks are seen upon
some of the p ettiest white parasols.
Mrs. Laura A. Bussell, of Bluffdale, <
111., is ninety-one and ioves to work.
Lace flouncing and net arc about
equally popular for costumes this season.
Thkty-five womeD are students in the
London School of Medicine for Women,
The fancy of the hour in jersey pins is
along rusty-looicing nail of oxidized sil
ver.
Miss Ella Transom has challenged Mrs.
Shaw to a whistling match for S3OO a
side.
Green and blue produce an indiiTerent
effect, but better when the colors are
deep.
bomber-colored costumes may be re
lieved with lueifer red or absinthe
green.
Draped bodices of soft wite silk, with
black Swiss belts aud braces,are in high
favor.
Novel white parasols are composed of
large petals of muslin overhanging each
other.
A new shade of green, rather dark,
is extensively used iu combination with
white.
Mrs. Livermore is engaged to give
her Fourth cf July oration one year in
advance.
Coiffures are worn higher than for
merly, although the Bsyche knot is still
in favor.
In fancy woole:i3 and gau/es pure
white is preferred to cream by young la
dies this season.
A pretty hat for a little girl is a wide
brimmed leghorn, trimmed with a curl
ing ostrich plume.
Mrs. George Westinghouse is credited
with an income of s7ooo a month from
natural gas stocks alone.
When two colors accord badly to
gether, it is always advantageous to
separate them by white.
The ex-Empress Victoria talks of
donating a large portion of her dowry
to German charitable work.
The long, loose-fitting tan suede glove,
with its wrinkles and generally rumpled
appearance, is again in style.
Mme. Patti’s castle in Wales will be
sold because its fair owner has been
robbed right aud left by her neighbors.
Pretty, cool-looking white dresses are
made of the sheer linen lawns, which
may be procured in various degrees of
fineness.
A club of society 4vomen in London is
going to start a large poultry farm near
London. Bee culture is aLo included in
the scheme.
At an Indian wedding in Bombay re
cently every guest received a splendid
bouquet on which attar of roses had
been poured.
Fashion has settled that body “linen”
is to be of foulard silk, aud in the case
of a blonde it must be of black, tender
blue or pink.
There are in England 347 female
blacksmiths who actually swing the
heavy hammers, and 9138 women em
ployed in nail making.
The two prevailing colors, lueifer red
and absinthe green, should compose but
a small part of a toilet. A complete
costume of these colors is atrocious.
Skirts are now provided with a loose
horse-hair plaiting instead of steels or
bustles. It is worn attached to the
waist-band, under the back of the skirt.
A fall gown much worn in England
and on the continent is made of bine
serge with leather trimmings and with
narrow straps of leather in place of but
tons.
An ugly color called crushed raspberry
is the latest in English costumes. It is
a bright color, but exceedingly trying
to the complexion, taking out all the
flesh tints.
The number of women engaged in ac
tive journalism is constantly increasing.
The latest addition to the ranks of news
paper women is an lowa lady who is
managing a daily paper.
Mrs. Gladstone recently appeared at
the Irish Exhibition in London with a
white Irish lace shawl thrown over her
poplin dress, and her little grandson
dressed in Irish costumes.
Miss Mary A. Greene, of Boston, who
recently received from Boston University
the degree of Bachelor of Laws, has
been admitted to the bar. and in the fall
will open a law office in Boston.
Dowager Empress Victoria, widow of
Frederick 111., has an annual income of
$200,000, $40,000 of which is derived,
from England. Bhe will be obliged to
make Germany her nominal residence
and to visit Berlin every year.
An English viceroy in India once re
ceived a bundle of petitions from Eng
land, which had been addressed by sev
eral of his English subjects to the
Queen direct. They were written in
rude and almost illegible characters, in
the vernacular, and set forth a number
of grievances, which the petitioners
wished her majesty to redress.
HISTORY OF OCEAN CABLES.
the thinks that closely con
nect TWO HEMlSPHEßES
■Difficulties Encountered In Laying
tlio First Atlantic Cable—Fes
tivities that Commemorated ft.
The first suggestion of the practica
bility of an Atlantic cable was made by
Professor Morse in 1843, nearly two
years before his first telegraph line was
in operation, and the first submarine
cable known to have been laid was
completed in September, 135!, and con
nected England and Frauce. April 15.
1854, the New York, Newfoundland and
London Telegraph Company was in
corporated, and on May (5 the first meet
ing of the Board of Directors was held,
and preparations were begun for laying
a cable between America and Europe.
In July, 1856, soundings were made
in the Atlantic for a cable route, and
the next summer the work of laying it
was begun, hut on August 10 the cable
end was ost at sea and could not be re
covered and spliced, and hence the first
attempt proved a failure.
In the meantime, however, a second
Atlantic cable company, called the At
lantic Telegraph Company, had been
formed, of which Cyrus W. Field was a
prominent member, and he became the
manager of the company before the work
was complied. On April 24, 3857, the
steamship Niagara sailed from New
Y"ork to assist in laying this second
cable, and August 15 the cable squadron,
comprising the Niagara and the British
naval vessels, the Gorgon and Indus,
sailed from Queenstown and commenced
the work, which was pursued until in
terrupted by winter and resumed again
June 10, 1858. The end in mid-ocean
was successfully grappled and spliced,
but a few days later the cable parted
again but was again spliced, and on
August 5 the work was completed. On
the 10th, .the shore connections having
been made, the President of the United
States and the Queen of England ex
changed congratulations over the com
pletion of the cable, and New York be
gan preparations for one of the biggest
celebrations known up to that time. The
city and surrounding country went
fairly wild over the accomplishment of
the great undertaking and put in two
days and one night making it memora
ble. The city was overrun with visitors
and the streets were described as con
taining ‘"'over half a million of jiibilant
people,” and nearly every building was
decorated. From the Battery to Union
place, as it was called then, Broadway
was so densely packed that the Seventh
and Seventy-first regiments, acting as
escort to a grand procession, could
scarcely ciowd their way through. There
were services during the day in Trinity
Church, where Bishop Doane delivered
an address, and there were services else
where and a grand re eption to Mr.
Field and the officers of '* jls at
the Battery.
During the festivities . ',ay the
snnounceinent was made U ' bug had
got into the cable” and it was wisely
concluded t’o postpone further rejoicing
to celebrate the eviction of the “hug.”
It was never got out, however, and the
cable was useless from that date. Mr.
Field and his associates, although sadly
disappointed, were not entirely discour
aged, but the war came on before they
could get to work agai i and the third
Atlantic cable was not ready to lay until
about the Ist of June, 1065. On July
22 the shore end was laid, and the next
day the Great Eastern, which had failed
to find any other field of usefulness, com
menced paying out the cable. Ex
perience gained from the two previous
ventures proved valuable to the third
enterprise, but even yet there was much
to learn about ocean-cable laying. Ow
ing to the immense size of the Great
Eastern the woik could be done more
perfectly, and as coil after coil of the
cable was wound off the reels and
dropped into the sea extreme care
was taken to make the splices to
the following sections as strong as the
body of the cable was, but, nevertheless,
on Aug. 2, the cable parted and much
difficulty was experienced :in grappling
the ends and splicing them. . As the
cable was completed, section and sec
tion, tests were made through it to the
shore. After a few months' delay the
Great Eastern resumed work again in
1865, recovered an end winch had been
lost and completed the cable, which was
opened for business July 2., the tariif
being fixed at SIOO a message. 1 our
days later the cable parted in mid-ocean
and the Great fasten again grappl. d
the ends. Communic itiou was restored
heptember 8, and the ealde worked
twelve years, having been abandoned in
1878. in the meantime, however, other
cables had been laid, and the tariff was
reduced first to $25 and later in 1830 to
sls, and then cables began to multiply
so fast that the rates got much lower.
The difficulties encountered ,n the first
ventures have to some extent retarded
all efforts to lay Atlantic cables, but
nevertheless there are now twelve of
them in operation, ten from .North au«l
two from 8 uth America.
Atlant c cables are usually constructed
of seven small copper wires wound to
gether so as to form one cond ictor, and
covered with a heavy coating of composi
tion insulation, largely composed of rub
ber and parafiine, around who h other
and larger iron or steel w res are wound,
protected by another coating of insulat
ing material, and protected on the sur
lace by other and still heavier wires, al
though some have another coating out
side the wires. The shore ends are abo t
two and one-half inches in di meter and
the mid-ocean sections from au inch to
an inch and a half.
The work of transmitting messages
over the,cables has been materially re
duced of late years by impro ements in
the machinery. The first effort made to
transmit messages was by means of the
Morse code of signals as used on orr) nary
telegraph lines,tliut owing to the *niro
duction of the curreut, which, does not
affect aerial line* to an appreciable ex
tent. it was found that only one or two
words a minute could be sent. Sir W.l
liam Thomson, the g eat t.nglish elec
trician and scientist, then devised a
means of signaling by the aid of a needle
and looking-glass.
A small needle is vibrated to and fro
by the alternate currents. Attached to
the end of the needle is a siphon about
the hundredth part of an inch in diame
ter, th ough wh th ink flows constantly.
The point of thesiohon or pen rests on
a strip of paper which is automatically
pulled under it, and ae the needle vi-
brates thi pon marks the vibrations is
zigzag lines on the paper. The operatoi
reads the signals off as they pass before
him and writes them on the usual blanks,
while an attendant coils up the papei
strip and files it away. The paper goei
along continually and when the operatoi
at the other end of the cable has a mes
sage to transmit he goes right ahead with
it. The sending operator sits to the
right of the receiver and manipulates
t wo- keys side by side, one for the posi
tive and the other for the negative- cur
rent.—-Ncm York World
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.
Lightning can be seen by reflection a
distance of 20(3 miles.
During the last fifty years the climate
has so changed that a man can live at an
altitude of a tenth of a mile higher.
By a system of dry cold storage,
strawberries can be kept for several
months with- unimpaired freshness and
solidity.
A Rhenish firm has invented a new
explosive called “carbonite.” It does
not ignite coal dust or firedamp, -and
will be useful in mines.
According to Pasteur and Chamber
land, typhoid bacillus is in ninety-nine
cases out of a hundred communicated
through drinking water.
What may be of great value in ship
building and watchmaking is the discov
ery that steel mixed with twenty-four per
cent, of manganese been vxs non-mag
netic.
A citizen of Winneconne, Wis., has
succeeded in tempering brass, and has
exhibited brass knives and ax *s that will
cut seasoned hemlock knots without
turning the edge.
A Frenchman claims to have invented
a thermometer so sensitive that its index
needle will deflect two in hes upon the
entrance of a person into the room where
it has been placed.
It has been stated that railway trains
in England are now driveNj at an average
speed fourteen per cent, higher than it
was twenty years ago, with scarcely more
than half the quantity of coal.
The heaviest casting ever made in
southern Massachusetts was made at
New Bedford iron foundry recently. It
was a square col;mu twenty-eight feet
long and three teet square, and weighed
about eleven tons.
A new use for the te’ephone is pro
posed in the infectious wards of French
hospitals, to enable sick people to have
the comfort of hearing their relatives'
voices without any risk of conveying in
fection by an interview.
A Portland (Me.) man has invented a
bicycle engine. The machine contains
one large ground-wheel which will run
on two rails, one on the ground and one
suspended over the engine. The i*an
intends to put the thing to a practical
test.
By a Canal lift recently finished at Ar
ques, Fiance, by Edwin Clark, the, En
glish engineer, tive or six locks are done
away with, and the boats, often with
loads of as much as 280 tons, are lifted
fifty feet at a single operation in a few
minutes and with no loss of water.
Professor Nordenskjold’s experiments
over the star dust question show conclu
sively that the remains of meteors buried
in our atmosphere are deposited upon
the earth's surface. He caused a large
mass of snow to be melted first iu Stock
holm and then in Finland and obtained
a deposit of mine metallic iron in both
cases.
German scientists have just laid bare
the latest haunts of bacteria. The sur
faces of coins are found to be coated
with them, and with a species charac
teristic of putrefaction. Old bank-notes
and eveu new ones, are alive with micro
organisms, which, in fact, would seem to
abound on all objects exposed to fre
quent handling.
It has been proposed to do away with
the use of explosives iu mines where
their use is attended with danger and
substitute the lately invented cartridge,
one portion of which is fil ed with a mix
ture of finely-divided zinc and zinc oxide,
which collects iu the condenser of the
zinc retort, while the other part is filled
with diluted sulphuric acid.
It is stated that a German manufac
turer of earthenware, Ludvig Rohrman,
has succeeded in substituting clay for
wood in the construction of violins. A
concert was recently given in Brussels
with one of these instruments, whose
tones are pronounced to be but little in
ferior to those of a wooden violin. The
process of manufacture is a secret.
Blindness is Not Sickness.
Judge Maguire rendered a decision re
garding the liability of beneficiary socie
ties for sick benefits, in San Francisco
that will be of much interest. Emanuel
Samuels sued the Scandinavian Society
for S4O in sick benefits. Samuels has
been a member since January, 1877. In
June of that year his eyes became weak
and he lost his sight to the extent that
was unable longer to pursue his ordinary
business. He received benefits for one
year, when the society refused to continue
payments, unless he was taken to a hos
pital. He refused to consent to go. and
the society refused to continue the bene
fits. The constitution of the society pro
vided that all recipents should go to a
hospital after a certain period of sick
ness. Judge Maguire further said that
blindness is not sickness per se, and that
Samuels could not claim benefits when
his sickness was only blindness.
re; nenio'f Cal.) Bee.
Sheep Shearing by Machinery.
The process of sheep shearing by ma
chinery is now performed in Australia
by au ingenious kind of device, the re
suits, as repre-ented, being very satisr
factory. The apparatus in question is a
very simple one, being made on the
same, principle as the cutter of a mower
or reaper, and the knives are worked by
means of rods w.thin the handles, these
in the r turn being moved by a core
within a long flexible tube, which is
kept in a rotary shaft, and wheels
driven by a stationary engine. The comb
is in the form of a segment of a circle,
about three inches in diameter, with
eleven conical-shaped teeth. Each ma
chine is worked by a shearer, and. as the
comb is forced along the skin of the ani
mal, the fleece is cut. The machine can
be run either with a steam or gas engine,
or by any ordinary horse power, and
does not easily get out of order.—
York Sun.