Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 September 1891 — SCIENCE. [ARTICLE]

SCIENCE.

It has been discovered that alma-; nacs date-back to the year 100 A. I>. It is estimated that every sea! consumes about ten pounds of fish daily. An electrical expert says that no light has been found that will penetrate a fog better than the old oil lattip. Humboldt calculated the mean level of North America to bo 748 feet above the sea, and he found that in 4,500,000. years the whole of North America might be worn down to the sea level. White tar is one of the latest inventions or discoveries. It will not become soft under the sun’s rays in any climate, and it is expected to be used largely ip calking the deck seams of fine yachts. > Experiment has proved that if a delicate piece of lace be placed between an iron plate and a disk of gunpowder and the latter be detonated, the lace will be annihilated, but its impression will be clearly stamped on the iron. John London Macadam, the inventor of the road that bears bis name, labored for years to perfect his ideas, and, although Parliament voted him 130,000, it hardly covered his outlay. His monument is the roads of England. A handful of raw pig iron, weighing about five pounds, isjvorth sc; it would be about sixty table-knife blades,, worth sls; converted into steel watch-springs there would be about 110,200 of these little coils, which, at the rate of $1.75 a dozen, would be valued at $1§,070.83. It has been shown that an incandescent electric light does not smoke the ceiling, as has been claimed, but that the smoky effect is due to dust. The heated lamp causes a current of heated air to rise, and the consequence is there is more dust deposited above the lamp than anywhere else.

The lobster is greatly in dread of thunder, and when the peals are very loud numbers of them drop their claws and swim away for deeper water. Any great fright may also induce them to drop their claws, but new claws begin at once to grow, and in a short time are as large as the old ones, and covered with hard shells. The lobster often drops its shelly when it hides until the new shell is hard enough to protect it. A correspondent of the New York Press answers the oft-asked question as to how fast a type-writer can write. He states that the best record was made at Toronto on Aug. 13, 1888, by Miss M. E. Orr. She wrote 987 words in ten minutes. Five minutes of the time were spent in writing correspondence and the other five minutes in law the matter dictated being entirely new to all the contestants. The rate of travel of thunderstorms has been studied by Herr Schonrozk from the record of 197 such storms in Russia in 1888. The velocity is found to have varied from thirteen to fifty miles an hour, with a mean of 28.5 miles an hour in the hot season and increasing to thirtytwo miles an hour in the cold season. It was least in the early morning, increasing to maximum between 9 and 10 p. m. The storms traveled most quickly from southwest, west and northwest.

In the general report of the commission in Prussia in charge of mining matters, which has recently been published, the commissioners state that in their opinion electricity is perfectly safe for mine use, providing care is taken to see that conductors are properly insulated, lamps well protected and the current not too intense. A more extensive tee of electricity in mines would be possible were a portable electric lamp devised combining simplicity, duration of power and cheapness. A plantation of India rubber trees was started by the government of Assam, in 1873, in a forest at the foot of the Himalaya mountains. Seedlings were planted in the forks of trees, and by 1885 they reached the ground. The trees were subsequently placed in beds forty feet wide, protected by the surrounding forest. In 1890 the plantation extended over 1,160 acres, and contained 16.054 healthy plants besides 84,000 seedlings. The experiment will not begin to be profitable until after several years more.

The practicability of telegraphing without wires has recently been demonstrated by the success of several experiments. Not long ago Mr; Preece, the head el ictncian of the postal telegraph system in England, succeeded in establishing communication across the Solent to the Isle of Wight, and telegraphed also across the river Severn without wires, merely using earth plates at a sufficient distance apart. IL is now proposed to make practical use of this system in communicating with lightships.

' A curiosity was discovered at Sewickly station, on the Baltimore A Ohio railroad, in the shape of an iron chain Imbedded in the body ol a big sycamore tree. The chain had been originally used for tying up a skiff. It was evidently placed there a number of years ago, and the barb on the opposite side from the river cut to hold it in position. Both the bark and wood have long since "grown over it, and tt.e chain novr passes completely tnrougli the trunk nine inch s from the surface. It is held as firmly as a ruck. Patti is a lit le shot t of c*sh, and she is going to make another farewell tour in the T ToiV'-i estates.