22 



POPULAR SCIENCE EEWS. 



[Fi:i!i!U.\iiy, 1S89. 



All acids are not equally dangerous. Hy- 

 drochloric or muriatic is perhaps the least 

 risky. Sulphuric acid comes next, as it does 

 not evolve any gases. The greatest care, 

 however, must be exercised with nitric acid, 

 and still more so with aqua regia. 



When compelled to work for any length of 

 time with acids, it is well to have a vessel of 

 fresh water close at hand to wash off any 

 drops that may have come in contact with the 

 hands or face. Sometimes it may be advan- 

 tageous to wear India rubber gloves, though 

 most of those sold for this purpose are rather 

 clumsy. 



In storing acids, equal care must be exer- 

 cised. As a rule, they should be kept in a 

 place so arranged that, if the containers should 

 be broken, the acid would be unable to reacli 

 other substances. 



When diluting acids with water, remember 

 always to pour the acid, gradually and under 

 stirring, i7ito the ivater, and not the water inta 

 the acid. In the case of sulphuric acid, for 

 instance, the latter method may develop such 

 an amount of steam at once that the whole 

 liquid may be scattered about and do much 

 damage. The last time we saw tliis happen 

 was about a year ago, when several carboys 

 of acid accidentally fell from the rear end of a 

 truck in front of a factory of mineral waters. 

 The acid collected in a pool in the gutter, and 

 one of the workmen connected with the es- 

 tablishment, wanting to wash it into the 

 sewer, turned a small stream of water into it 

 by means of a hose. The consequence was, 

 a violent evolution of steam, almost re.seni- 

 bling an explosion, and a number of the by- 

 standers received more or less of the spray, to 

 the damage of their skin and clothes. — 



American Druggist. 



<♦» 



THINGS THAT NEVER WILL BE SETTLED. 



The Engineer S'^y^ that among them are the fol- 

 lowing : 



Whether a long screw-driver is better than a short 

 one of the same family. 



Whether water wheels run faster at night than 

 they do in the daytime. 



The best way to harden steel. 



Which side of the belt should rvm next the pulley. 



The proper speed of line shafts. 



The right way to lace belts. 



Whether compression is economical or the re- 

 verse. 



The principle of the steam injector. 



+•+ 



RAILROAD NOTES. 



Why Rails in Use Rust Less Qiiickly than 

 Rails at Rest. — W. Spring finds that preserva- 

 tion of rails in use is not the result of vibratory mo- 

 tion, or of anel ectric action due to the passage of 

 the trains, but to the formation of magnetic oxide 

 produced by the compression of the rust on the 

 metal. The rails are thus protected against the ac- 

 tion of moist air in the same manner as is iron ox- 

 idised by fire. 



The First Railway in China. — The first an- 

 nual report of the first railway in China has l)een is- 

 sued by the directors. The line runs from Tongsan 

 to Yungchong, in the province of Chihli, in North 



China. Its length is 90 li, or 17 miles, and it owes 

 its existence to the Kaiping coal mines, from which a 

 considerable portion of its revenue is derived. The 

 gross receipts were 53,944 taels (about £13,000), 

 and the net profits 19,606 taels (£4,900). A divi- 

 dend of 6 per cent has been declared on the paid-up 

 capital of 25.000 taels, the nominal capital being 

 1,000, taels, or £250,000. The principal items of 

 the goods traflic were 170,588 tons of coal, 81,543 

 tons of brick, 15,566 packages of general merchan- 

 dise, and 4,000,000 pounds of lime. 



Some Difficulties of Railway Construction 

 IN Japan. — From the report of the Japanese Rail- 

 way Bureau for the past year, which has just ap- 

 peared, it would seem that, rapidly as it is progress- 

 ing, railway construction in that country has to 

 meet unusual difficulties, or rather an unusual num- 

 ber of difficulties, owing to the physical geography 

 of Japan. One line of 350 miles in length involves 

 the construction of 16 tunnels, i6>ooo ft. long, and 

 the bridging of II rivers. One of these has a ve- 

 locity in time of flood of 27ft. per second, and in 

 another the brick piers have to be sunk to a depth 

 of 86 ft. A range of mountains is crossed at a 

 height of 1,468 ft. Part of another line ascends to 

 a height of 3,144 ft. and during five months of the 

 year work is rendered impossible by the snow, and 

 sometimes in the summer months an epidemic of 

 cholera has the same effect. 



Electric Postal Railroad, — Three hundred 

 miles an hour is the proposed speed for the electric 

 postal railroad of the future. An experimental line 

 has been erected at Laurel, twenty miles from Bal- 

 timore, Md. A compromise between the pneumatic 

 tube and the ordinary railroad, carries a miniature 

 train of two cars solely for mails and light parcels, 

 without any attendance. The road has three rails, 

 one above the car for carrying the current, and two 

 below which carry the cars. The cars are built of 

 sheet iron and are two feet square and twenty-pne 

 feet long. Speed will be regulated and power or 

 brakes applied by electricity solely. If the experi- 

 ment at Laurel succeeds, it is stated that similar 

 roads will be laid between Baltimore and Washing- 

 ton and elsewhere. 



Railroad Across Asia Minor. — The consu- 

 lar reports lately issued by the English Government 

 include a paper which presents some interesting de- 

 tails relative to the projected railway from Scutari, 

 the Asiatic suburb of Constantinople, to Bagdad on 

 the Tigris. In August last an imperial order was 

 issued sanctioning the construction of the proposed 

 line by a syndicate of English financiers. A French 

 company, in favor of adopting a narrow gauge sys- 

 tem, also made a bid for the contract, but the Sultan 

 decided for the British conTpetitors and for a wide 

 gauge road. It is estimated that the line can be 

 built at a cost of $77,500,000. Its length is 1400 

 miles, or more than loo miles greater than that of 

 all the present Turkish railway systems, European 

 and Asiatic combined. 



A Useful Cement. — The following mixture lias 

 been used with the greatest possible success for 

 the cementing of iron railing tops, iron gratings to 

 stoves, etc. ; in fact, with sucli eft'ect as to re- 

 sist the blows of a sledgehammer. This mixture is 

 composed of equal parts of sulphur and white lead, 

 with about one-sixth proportion of borax, the three 

 being thoroughly incorporated together, so as to 

 form one homogeneous mass. When the applica- 

 tion is to be made of this composition, it is wet with 

 strong sulphuric acid, and a thin layer of it is 

 placed between the two pieces of iron, these being 

 at once pressed together. In five d.ivs it will be per- 

 fectly dry, all traces of the cement having vanished, 

 and the work having every appearance of welding. 



^oi^e, Barnj, and Garden. ,■ 



--._ - - _ - — - ___ — .^ 



fOriginal in The Popular Science News.] 



MAIZE. I 



by fredk. lerov sar(;ent. 

 part II. 



It is natural therefore that maize should belong to 

 a family which stands pre-eminent in the u.sefulness 

 of its members, for, as one of the graminea: or 

 grasses it can claim relationship not only with the 

 .other cereals, but .with sugar-cane, sorghum, bam- 

 boo, and the host of species used for hay. 



At first sight, such a large plant as maize appears 

 to be , rather ungrasslike, but closer study shows 

 that although it is peculiar in certain wavs i 

 quite like other grasses in essential particul... ... 



The characteristic jointed stem, fibrous roots, and J 

 linear leaves arranged alternately in two ranks 

 along the stem, are as well marked in maize as in 

 any of the grasses. (See Fig. i.) All the essen- 

 tial parts of a typical grass leaf are also well shown. 

 There is the sheath (S) which springs from the 

 stem-joint, and wrapping around the stem forms a 

 protective covering lor the tender growing region 

 where elongation is taking place; the sheath finally 

 broadens out into an ample blade (B) and just 

 where the sheath ends and blade begins, comes a 

 slender vertical outgrowth, the ligule (L) which 

 forms an effective dam to the water that in time o{ 

 rain flows along the trough-like surface of the blade, 

 and which but for the ligule would enter within the 

 sheath and interfere with the healthy condition ol 

 the stem. 



. When we examine the flowers we find that thei 

 are of two sorts — staniinate flowers in a loose pan! 

 cle (M) tertninating the stalk, and pistillate flower: 

 of dense spikes or ears (F) arising from joints 01 

 the stem, and enclosed by husks. Of these, tin 

 staniinate ones (Fig. 2) are most like the ordinar 

 grass-flower, for here the paperyor husk-like glume 

 (G) which form the protective organs, are well (k 

 veloped. In the pistillate flowers (Figs. 3 aiu: 

 these glumes (G) are reduced in size (the enshe.i;, 

 ing husks being sufficient protection) and the styl 

 (BY) is very much elongated so that the stigra j 

 (SM) can protrude beyond the husks : but althoug 

 peculiarly developed, all that is essential to a grasJ 

 flower is present. 



It sometimes happens that these glumes gr(;n 

 about an inch in length, and form little lui 

 around each grain (Fig, 5) and in such cases II 

 resemblance to an ordinary grass flower is \x' 

 close. Specimens of maize have also been foui 

 In which both stamens and pistil were developed 

 the same flower, and these have a special interc 

 for the evolutionist who believes such freaks to 1 

 examples of reversion to an ancestral condition, ai , 

 in the present instance to indicate that the tvj 

 kinds of flowers which maize has today, were devi) 

 oped through natural selection from flowers 

 which both stamens and pistils were present. 



The grain (Fig. 6) although unusually well ( 

 veloped is thoroughly typical. It consists wli 

 ripe of a hard, protective covering (C) a copio 

 supply of starchy food (A) and a large embrvo ( 

 in which the following parts can be distinguislu 

 Astern (ST) bearing at its upper end se\ ir.il 1 

 leaves (P) and terminating below in a liiili r> 

 (R) while from the side a short neck of tissue C( 

 nects the whole with a broad shield-like structij 

 (S) which being in direct contact with llic foi| 

 supply, acts at the time of germination, as ihe 

 gan through which, the nutritive material is'; 

 sorbed and transmitted to the growin.g emhr\.). 



Grasses are pre-eminently wind-lovin;^ |>l,ii 

 their favorite home being an extensive pl.iin o 



