Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1859-01-21

sustains, % lbs. &ss
A tirewire, the thirteenth eff an inch,
sustains but Al lbs.
Sun-metal is II lbs. Of tin and 100
lbs Of copper.
| The emerald is ranked among the
gems, and is now only found in Peru.
It is of an intense green color, harder
than quartz, and always in crystal. ORR,
entail emerald is green sapphire.
The European mountains consist of
primitive and transition recks.
/ The surface of the earth Is 1885,
256 square miles, and its solidity is
$50 ,626 ,035, AIS cubic miles.
The sea is to the land, in round mil
lions Of square miles, as 1GO to 40, or
4 to l. ess-t
The narrowest part of the Atlantic
is more than t9o, miles deep. In other
parts about one and a-half miles.
Bullock describes fossil lizard $50
feet Icng.
| Rounded pebbles are broken frag-..
ments Of rocks rendered smooth BY.
mutual attrition, in long time, BY wa
ter and the tides. 77t
Bones Of ninety species of quadru-
peds have been foand, which are now
unknown. So e..
The Amazon falls but foot in fifty
miles the Rhine foot in one fourth
of mile; the Loire foot in one and
a-half mile.
{ The waters of the Red Sea appear to
be thirty-tw feet higher than those of
the Mediterranean, and the Gulf of
Mexico is % feet higher than the Pa
cifc. -e s..... .,.
The Mediterranean makes a tide of
only one or two feet.
The Caspian is 800 feet lower than
the Baltic and 3i5 feet lower than the
Euxine
| About thirty fresh water springs are
discovered under the sea, on the south
of the Persian Gulf.
No certain theory is yet formed as to
the cause of earthquakes but the most
general and rational ascribe them to
steam and the force of gases formed by
water and metallic oxydes. Fourteen
earthquakes, in different parts of the
world, were recorde in 1927, and per-
haps this is an average number.
The Sandwich Islands are volcanic.
Owyhee is in cone Of a volcano
higher than Mt Blanc.
Count Rumford, by boring cannon
without water, so heated it by the fric-
ton that he made it boil, and actually
boiled piece Of beef in it.
One gallon of ahter in steam will
raise six gallons from SO to 212.
-Four pounds Of beef lose 1 Id. in
boiling; l ID. 5 q. in roasting, and
l lb 8 OF. in baking. -Four pounds Of
mutton lose IA OF. in boiling; l ID 6
OF. in roasting, and ID 4 OF. in bak-
ing.
+ Lamps were used by the ancients,
and candles are an invention Of. the
middle ages. At first wicks we. made
Of hemp, papyrus, and the pith Of
rushes. Cotton is now preferred.
| One pound Of hydrogen consumes or
fixes 7 IL lbs. Of oxygen, which melts
$40 lbs Of ice. One pound Of wax, oil,
or tallow, consumes or fixes 2 lbs. of
oxygen, which melts 104 lbs. of ice.
The invisible radiations from heated
bodies may be acted upon by refraction
and reflection like light, but they do
not pass through transparent bodies.
A volume Of ice is melted by as much
heat as will raise an equal bulk Of wa
ter no degrees.
Animals die il their vital heat is in
creased 1-12th.
Extreme cold produces the same per-
ceptlon on the skin as great heat. When
mercury is frozen to ~ dogs. below re-
70, the sensation is the same as that Of
touching red-hot iron.
Acids combined with water, condense
it and produce heat. When a bulk Of
lime and water are combined. the heat
is caused by a condensation equal to
the bulk Of lime, for tie mixture re-
talns the same bulk as at first.
i Melted snow produces but 1-8 Of its
bulk in water hence snow two feet
deep will produce three inches Of wa
ter when thawed.
In Cornwall, certain steam engines
have lifted forty million pounds, one
foot, with one bushel of coal and at
Wheel Towan another lifted sixty two
!. millions with an 8 in cylinder.
Water saturated with nitre oses II
dogs. of heat; and with nitrate of am
monia 46 dogs. of heat
All solid bodies become luminous at
800 degrees.
Water .boils at 127 degs., on the top
Of Alt. Blanc.
One volume Of any gas will combine
with one Of another, or with two or
three exactly.
The coolest hour Of the twenty four
is 5 in the morning; the warmest from
2 to 8 III the afternoon. The mean
heat is from 1-2past 8 to IL past
nine. The greatest range is in July,
and the least in December. @
L 1$ 1t is better to yield little than
t quarrel a great deal. The habit Of
standing up, as people call it, for their
\ Qittle) rights, is one Of the most dis
agreeable in the -world. Life is too
r short for the perpetual pickering which
{ attends such disposition and unless
|, in very momentous affair indeed,
i where other peoples claims and in
terests are involved, we question If it
is not better to, lose somewhat Of our
precious rights, than sauabble to main