Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 December 1891 — Speed of the Gulf stream. [ARTICLE]

Speed of the Gulf stream.

Three miles an hour is about the average of the Gulf Stream,though at certain plnces it attains a speed of fifty-four miles per hour. In the Yucatan Channel, for instance, where it is ninety miles wide und 1,000 fathoms deep, tho current is not over the fourth of a mile un hour. In the Straits of Bernini the current is so rapid as to give the surface of the water the appearance of being a sheet of fire. If an electric current be passed through a solution of a metallic salt, such salt is decomposed and the metal may be deposited 011 a plate suitably arranged for the purpose, iu treating a solution of u cold salt, chloride of gold for example, the first deposit of the metal will appear of a beautiful and most delicate pink color. As the deposit thickens it changes to a deep, rich purple. The purple then turns to a fine green color which darkens perceptibly as the process goes on, finally changing to tho metallic lustre of burnished gold.