The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1859-09-17
Select AlisfeIlanp.
Interesting Varieties.

Inc Celebrated leaning tower of Pisa is g. s
leet high and has an inclination from the
perpendicular of IL feet.
A ball OF iron, weighing 900 pounds at
the level of the sea would be perceived to
have lost two pounds OF its weight if taken to
| the top OF mountain in four miles high - q
spring balance being used the attraction of
gravitation being less at the top of mountain
than at the level surface of the earth.
A thick piece of iron. Weighing half an
ounce, loses in water nearly one-eighth of its
weight: but if it is hammered out into a plate
or vessel o! such size that it occupies eight
times as much space as before, it loses it's
whole weight in water, and will float Just
sinking TO the brim. If made twice as large,
| 1t Will dsplace one ounce of water, conse-
quent'y twice It's own weight. Every sub
stance becomes lighter in water, in proper ton
to the amount o. water displaced
Most of the engines on the Great North of
Scotland Railway have been provided with a
smoke consuming appara tns, the invention of
Mr.. ID. *. Clark. The apparatus is very
efficient produces saving Of fue., and the
passengers are relieved from great annoy
| ancc.
| Wilmington, in North Carolina, is now
| lighted with wood-gas. which, it is stated,
can be obtained more cheaply than coai-gas.
tun Of coal yields about 10 900 cubic feet
of gas, while one cord of wood produces
$4,000 feet, in the production of light: being
as seven to three in favor Of ligneous gas over
coal.
Cotton is best adapted for lamp-wicks.
because the arrangement of the iibers of the
cotton.wck is such that the whole forms a
bundle Of minute tubes in which the oil
aScends and supplies the fame by capillary
| attraction.
The estimated force of gunpowder, when
exploited is at least 4,15O pounds on every
square inch Of surface which confines it.
Pract' cal experience has demonstrated that
the largest piece ordinance which can be cast
perfect, sound and free from flaws is a mortar
II inches in diameter; this would weigh
about five tunS. The French, at the siege of
Antwerp, made mortar having a bore 30
inches IN diameter but it burst on the ninth
time of firing.
The highest mountain in the world is
% 600 feet. Human footsteps have assembled
10000 feet to that hgh,h NJ. Boussingault
and Col. Hall clamored on the side of Chm.
borazo. in the Andes, the greatest elevation
yet attained by man without leaving the
| surface in a balloon.
Madrid, the capital of Spain, is the highest
of the European capitals: 200 COO people
dwell at the elevation Of . 200 feet, on a
naked desert plain, chilled by biting breeze
nine months of the year, and are baked
the remaining three. The highest permanent
residence in Europe is in the pass Of Santa
Maria-0,212 feet. In the Andes of South
America, where tropical temperature pre-
walls. man dwells much more aloft than in
Europe. Po'osi, the highest city on the
| globe, on the celebrated mctalliferous noun
| tain, is 1880 feet above the sea and a
| poSt-houSe at RumhuaS is 10 $40 feet W hitch
| is but lritlc below the peak of Mount Blanc
where mortal never stayed above two hours.
The pods Of the bush known as chap
paral are about The size Of large pea. and
when they come TO maturity, instead Of open
ing IN a quiet sort Of a way, they do so with
a report like pop gun, shooting the seeds
10 or 10 feet into the air
Alta temperature Of lob degrees. liquid
ammonia freezes into cololess so.id heavier
than the liquid itself.
salt of Tactic acid, gently heated
with five or six parts of oil of vitrol, Yields
an enormous quantity Of perfectly pure car
bon c oXvd gas
The balance made by Ramsden for the
Royal Society of London was so delicatelv
poised that Mr. Pond, the astronomer royal.
found that the radiated warmth of his own
body, when standing within few inches of
either extremity Of the beam, was suttici ent,
by the produced expansion of that extremity,
TO cause it to prcponderate.
Marine glue was patented by Mr.. j. fiery,
IN 1872. 1t is formed by dssolving one
pound of caoutchouc, in small pieces, in four
gallons OF coal naphtba, with frequent stirring.
the solution occupying 10 or II days: two
parts OF Shellac are then fused in an iron
vessel and one Part Of the solution being well
| stirred in, the glue is poured out on slabs to
cool. joint made with this glue between
two peces of wood becomes stronger than
the tibers Of the wood itself
The brilliant prismatic colors of the pearl
are attributed to the decomposition and
reflection of the light by the numerous minute
grooves in Its surface. Scientific american.