Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 May 1875 — MECHANICAL AND SCIENTIFIC. [ARTICLE]

MECHANICAL AND SCIENTIFIC.

—An unlucky mouse got into a beq» hive not long ‘since, and was not only stunts to death, but, on becoming odoriferously unpleasant, wtis hermetically sealed in wax by the high-toned hymenopterans. —The birds at Hyde Park, London, while destroying the yellow crocuses in the flower-beds, avoid the white ones, 1 and the scientists are pricking up their - ears at some hidden scientific reason for the same. —The French astronomers are using a convenient little celestial cliaft, being a l»ojection of the heavens as though the sky was reflected in a mirror. It is oriented by a contrivance, with the pole star as a guide. And by adjusting an eye-piece any star can be observed, with the aspect of the heavens, time of rising and setting, passing the meridian and other phenomena used in stellar calculations. —ln heating a church the janitor should see that his Fahrenheit is sixtyfive degrees four feet from the floor. At the close of the service, also, the doors and windows should be.open two or three hours, so that the immense volume of impurities and human emanations may be carried off. Otherwise these odors solidify in part and ary on the walls, glass and wood work; and when the temperature again rises they, like bird's of Hl-omen, fly down from their roosts to pollute the air - again.—Springfield (J ltm ) Republican. —Certain philosophers say that our world has long since passed its one hundred millionth birthday, and its end, though remote, is a gloomy one. It is said that the sun is going out, which fact would seem to find corroboration in the coldness of the present spring; and that in regard to the whole universe, if we were to travel forward in time we should come finally to a great central mass, all in one piece, which would send out waves of heat through a perfectly empty ether, and gradually cool itself down. As this mass cooled, it would be deprived of all iife or motion ;_it would be just a mere enormous frozen block in the middle of the ether.

—By the investigations of Mr. Emerson, an English chemist, it appears that the fly is good for something besides milk and molasses pitchers and spiders. Every one is familiar with the usual gymnastics of a musca domestica after alighting, the rubbing of the hind feet together, then hind feet and wings, then the fore feet. By these movements the animalcules, which are in impure air and which adhere to the fly as it circles about a room, are collected together and eaten. Thus it is constantly at work removing the seeds of disease. Leanness in a fly is prima facie evidence of pure air in a house" while corpulency indicates foul wall-piper and bad ventilation. —A series of highly interesting and successful experiments with a new explosive have, it appears, been recently made in Wales, nearly 500 civil engineers and others interested in mining operations being present. Among the special advantages supposed to be possessed "by this new powder, as compared with other kinds now use, and which these experiments seem to have demonstrated, are that its explosive force is exceptionally great, that it throws off only a very small quantity of smoke or injurious gas, and that, together with these qualities, it is at the same time quite as safe for use as any ordinary powder, not being liable to explode by increased temperature, exposure to the sun, percussion or sejf-ignition. —The usual explanation of the warmth of woolen clothing is that, being very porous, it is filled with air, which forms a non-conducting jacket. Dr. Pettenkpfer experimented on the amount of air actually included in various fabrics, witff tne following result: It flannel is taken at 100, other fabrics contain proportionately the following quantities of air: Linen, fifty-eight, silk forty, buckskin fifty-six, tanned leather one, chamois fifty-one. His conclusion is that a current of air passes constantly through our clothing, the strength of which current depends upon the difference of temperature between the internal and external air and the velocity of the surrounding atmosphere. The function of clothing is to regulate the admission of air to the body so that the, nerves shall not perceive the movement.