Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 February 1893 — POPULAR SCIENCE NOTES. [ARTICLE]

POPULAR SCIENCE NOTES.

Mind Conversation. —Mr. W. H. Preece, chief engineer and electrician to the postoffice, has put up a wire a mile long on the coast near Lavernock and a shorter wire on Flatholm, a little island three nriles off in die British Channel. He fitted the latter wire with a “sounder” to receive massages and sent a message through the former from a powerful telephonic generator. That message on the mainland was distinctly heard on the island, though nothing connected the two, or, in other words, the possibility of a telephone between places unconnected by wire was conclusively established. There is a possibility here of inter-planetary communication a good deal more worthy attention than any scheme for making gigantic electric flashes. We do not know if we can eommunicate by telephone through the ether to New York or Melbourne, with or without cables, but we do know that if we cannot the fault is in our generators and sounders and not in any prohibitory natural law. Will our habitual readers bear with us for a moment as we wander into another, and, as many of them will think, a supersensual region? The thought in a man’s brain which causes him to advance his foot must move something in doing it, or how could it be transmitted down that five or six feet of distance? If it moves a physical something, internal to the body, why should it not move also something external, a wave, as wc all agree to call it, which on another mind prepared to receive it—fitted with asounder, in fact—will make an impnet having all the effect in tlie conveyance of suggestion, or even of facts of the audibility of words? Why, in fact, if one wire can talk to another without connection, save through ether, should not mind talk to mind without any wire at allT None of us understand accurately, or e\ei as yet approximately, what the conditions are; but many of us know for certain that they have occasionally, and by what we call accident, been present to particular individuals, and that, when present, the communication is completed without cables, and mind speaks to mind independently of any machinery not existing within itself. Why, in the name of scienoe, is that more of a miracle, that is. an occurrence prohibited by immutable law, than the transmission of Mr. Preece’s message from Lavernock to to Flatholm?—[London Spectator. About Aerolites. - Many of the meteors that have fallen to the earth have been subjected to chemical auatysis. They are composed of elements all of which occur on the earth. There are seventy elements on the earth and twenty-four of them have been found in meteors. The produce of a shower of meteors may be divided into meteoric iron and meteoric stone, the latter being of volcanic origin. Not infrequently the fall of meteors is attended by a loud detonation. History records instances of considerable damage having been done to life and property by the descent of these bodies. A Chinese catalogue recites that a meteor that fell fn January, 616 B. C., broke several chariots and killed ten men. On the evening of Nov. 13th, 1835, a brilliant meteor was seen in the department of Aisne, France. It traversed the country in a northeasterly direeiion and burst near a castle, setting fire to a barn and stables ana burning the corn and cattle in a few minutes. A stony substance, supposed to be an aerolite, was found near the place after the occurrence, In March, 1846, a luminous sheaf, which tr&nsversed the air with great velocity and noise, fell on a bam in the village of Haute Jaronne and de-

atroyed adjoining buildings and whatever animals were unable to escape the conflagration. Astronomers have made out long lists of the aerolites that have thumped into the earth. The lists show that the monthly average of these visitors from December to June is less than the monthly average from July to November. That, moreover, the months of March, May, July and November exhibit the greatest numbers. The lists also indicate that the earth in its annual course round the sun would seem to encounter a greater number of aerolites between July and January than between January and July. It has been asserted to be a general rule that the area over which a shower of stones fall is oval, measuring from six to ten miles iu length by two or three in breadth; moreover, the largest stones may be expected to be found at one extremity of the oval. That’s only one of the odd pranks of playful meteors. When found entire the stones are completely coated or glazed over w:‘b a thin, darkcolored crust, formed of tae molten substance of their surface, fused by ignition iu the fireballs. The part which traveled foremost is sometimes distinguishable from that which was in the rear. Sometimes they break into fragments as they disappear. Sometimes you find a fragment, and sometimes you do not. The fall of the aeroline of 1627 was witnessed by the astronomer, Gassendi. He states that when in the air it was apparently surrounded by a halo of prismatic colors. This being the only aerolite or the fall ol which he had ever heard, he supposed it was the result of a volcanic eruption in some one of the neighboring mountains. The aerolite of Dec. 13, 1873, introduced itself with a loud explosion, followed by a hissing noise, heard throughout a considerable portion of the surrounding district. A shock was also noticed as if produced by the falling of earth of some heavy body. A plowman saw the stone fall to the ground. It threw up soil on every side and penetrated several inches deep into the solid chalk rock. It fell on the afternoon of a hazy day, during which there was neither thunder nor lightning. On April 20, 1876, a mass of meteoric iron, weighing between seven and eight pounds, fell at Rowton, England. Shortly before 4p.m. a sound of that like thundc, followed by reports of a cannon, shook the air, and was heard for many miles in that neighborhood, but no fireball was observed. The iron mass was found nearly an hour afterward iu a meadow, where it had buried itself in the earth to a depth of eighteen inches and when dug out it was still quite hot. March 14, 1831, four railroad hands near Middleshorough, England, heard a rushing, roaring sound overhead, followed immediately by a thud on the ground. Less than fifty yards away they found a round, verticle hole. One of the men thrust down his arm and . drew out the meteorite. The hole and the meteorite were quite warm three minutes afterward. It was of a low pyramidal or shell-like shape, measuring 5 inches by 6 inches, and about 3 inches high. It was completely enveloped in a thin black molten crust. One of the most extensive falls of meteoric stones on record was that which happened in Normandy, April 26, 1803. About Ip. m. a very brilliant fireball was seen traversing the country with great velocity. Some moments afterward a violent explosion was heard, which was prolonged for five minutes. The noise seemed to proceed from a small cloud which remained motionless all the time, but at a great elevation in the atmosphere. The detonation was followed by the fall of an immense number of mineral fragments, nearly 3,003 being collected, the largest weighing pounds. The sky wai serene and the air calm.