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SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
Some drawings of reindeer , horses-
bears and mammoths in a grotto at
Perigord are held by M. Emil
Riviere to be 200,000 years old.
The peat beds of the German Em
pire are estimated to cover 4,942,000
acres. To make use of this fuel in a
profitable way is a problem for
science to solve.
The influence of hypnotism upon the
lower animals has attracted little at
tention. But N. Vaschildo of Paris ,
who is still working with dogs , cats ,
guinea pigs , rabbits , chickens and
snakes , declares the mysterious power
has real action , and that it may pro
duce complete anaesthesia and brain
paralysis. Mile. M. Stefanowski has
found half-starved frogs susceptible ,
the cataleptic state produced often
persisting for half an hour. In various
experiments , especially by simply look
ing them in the eye , M. Vaschilde has
succeeded in hypnotising frogs , even
when well fed and free to move about
on a table or in a tank. The sleep ,
though not lasting long , was so pro
found that needles and hot iron
brought no signs of sensation.
In the Marconi system of telegraphy ,
the electrical impulses known as Hert
zian waves are projected into the air
through wires hold up by tall masts ,
and are received through similar ele
vated wires. The receiving apparatus
is made possible by the coherer. This
is a small tube of metallic filings ,
which is placed in an electric circuit
and becomes a conductor closing the
circuit and permitting the current to
give an audible or visible signal
only when acted upon by an impulse
from the distant transmitter. In the
new Orling-Armstroug system , the
impulses are sent through the earth
instead of the air. This removes the
necessity of tall masts , and a new re
ceiver is claimed to bo effective with
out expensive apparatus and with cur
rents of very low voltage. An electro-
capillary relay supplants the coherer
in this receiver. An inverted siphon of
mercury has one foot in a vessel of
mercury , while the other foot , con
tracted to a very fine opening , rests in
a vessel of dilute acid at consider
ably lower level , and the action de
pends upon the fact that the passage
of a electric current narrows the mer
cury column and causes a drop to fall
from the lower end of the siphon.
This drop gives a signal by closing a
relay circuit or in some other way.
Earth telegrams by this metho'1 ,
known as the Armorl invention , have
been sent twenty miles with a current
of only four volts.
Hydrogen , hitherto regarded as
harmless , is believed by Dr. J. 0. Mc-
Walter , of Dublin , to act as a mild
poison when long inhaled. The ill
effects observed were in workman of
stations whore'accumu-
electric-light , -
lators , giving off hydrogen , were used
during a part of the day.
In a recent comparative test of pave
ments , the average temperature of
macadam was 102 degrees ; of asphalt ,
113 ; of granite , 115 , and of wood , 124
degrees. Wood , instead of asphalt ,
is thus shown to be the hottest ma
terial. Other tests showed advantages
for macadam , especially over asphalt ,
as it retains water longer after sprink
ling , and the dust on it can more
easily be kept laid. Asphalt is dustier
than macadam , as its surface is being
constantly pulverized and it is not
easily kept wet.
Scientific men and certain savages
are aware that insects may servo as
palatable food. M. Dagiu , a French
entomologist , has tried several hun
dred species , both raw and cooked in
various ways , and has further made
himself an authority by collecting
travelers' experiences. Spiders , which
he has eaten , he does not recommend.
Cockroaches , however , make most de
licious soup ; caterpillars are light and
easily digested , and are relished not
only by African and American natives
but by Frenchmen ; and locusts fried
or made into flour and boiled in milk ,
are prized by the Bedouins. Cambou ,
the Jesuit father , suggests that locust
flour might become a popular condi
ment in Europe.
The most sensitive heat-measuring
instrument thus far devised is the
radiometer of Prof. E. F. Nichols.
This consists of a block of bronze , 2
inches square and 4 inches long , bored
to serve as a case , in which is hung
by a delicate quartz fiber a tiny glass
arm carrying at each end a blackened
mica disc or vane about one twelfth
of an inch in diameter. The heat rays
reach the vanes through a fluorite
window , while a piece of glass in
the back shows both vanes and source
of heat. Crooks has made known that
a blackened surface in a partial
vacuum is pushed back by heat , and
when the rays of a star are reflected
upon one of the vanes the arm is
slightly rotated , the quartz being
twisted to a degree that is carefully
noted on a scale. At the Yerkes Ob
servatory , it has been shown by this
means , that the heat from Arcturus
corresponds to that from a paraffine
candle six miles away , if none of the
caudle's heat wore absorbed by the
atmosphere , while that from Saturn
only equals that of a candle ten miles
off.
A primitive process that is a marvel
of old time ingenuity is claimed in'tho
Russian method of storing petroleum.
No strong and expensive iron tank is
built , but instead a bottomless tank of
cheap sheet iron is suspended in
water on piles , the top projecting a
foot or so above water-level. This
tank is filled through a pipe passing
to its centerrthe water sinking as the
oil enters. The plan has other advan
tages besides inexpensiveness , for if
the oil should tal/e fire some of it may
be drawn off from the bottom , and as
there is only water at the bottom sand
and dirt do not accumulate in the
tank.
Animal fiber that has been treated
with [ "soda solution is found by O.
Frcyman and Charles Tolman to have
the curious property of elongating on
exposure to smoke. The treatment
consists of boiling the fiber which
may be silk or horse hair for twenty
minutes in a 6 to 10 per cent solution
of commercial soda , and then drying
while slightly stretched in a tube from
which the air has been exhausted.
Just what change is "produced is not
understood. The presence of smoke
is found to have invariable effect , how
ever , and a smoke detecting alarm has e
been patented which is made to act
through the closing of an electric cir
cuit by the lengthening of the fiber. < 4
NOT ON THAT LINE.
London Spare Moments : A porter
at a certain station on the Caledonian
railway had been granted leave for
the purpose of going to Edinburgh to
be married. In addition , he was
given the customary return railway
pass.
During his absence a new ticket col
lector had been put on , who , upon
Benedick's return , demanded his
ticket.
Benedick , who had put both pass
and marriage certificate into the same
pocket , by mischance tendered the
latter.
The "collector opened and gravely
scanned the ' ' lines , ' ' then returned
them with a slow head shake , and :
"Eh , eh , mon , its a teeket for a
verra lang ride , but nae on the Cale
donian railway. "
ABOLISHING A CURVE.
The famous "horseshoe curve" on
the Pennsylvania road in the Alle
gheny mountains is likely to be
abandoned. Engineers of the road
have recommended that the curve bo
forsaken and a seven-mile tunnel con
structed. Such a tunnel would be the
second longest in the world , surpassed
only by the St. Gothard hole between
the Alps in Switzerland. Three miles
running distance and many steep
grades and sharp 'curves would be
"
saved by the tunnel. Its cost would
be several million dollars.
