The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-11-22
ARTS, SCIENCES, ETC.

"A SUNAPowER ENGINE.-AIr. Ericss o,
!; tne inventor, best known as the originate
! OF the Monitor during the late war, Ina
completed an engine to be driven by su
power. His apparatus has not yet bee
: publicly described, but must partly consis
: OF some arrangement for collecting til
rays OF the sun, as is done by q burnin
glass, and using the heat to make steam q
expand air. 1t is estimated by him tia
the heat derived from the sunshine on
surface 10 feet square 600 square feet
equals one horse power. If this be correct
then the sunshine upon u moderate size,
barn would give power enough to drive tn
thrashing machine, thrash out all the grain
cut all the wood, pump all the water need
ed, and perhaps do most of the chores, be
sides warming the boys fingers in colo
weather, and boiling the pork for dinner
Seriously, it is not impossible that a large
portion OF the work heretofore done by en-.
gines burning wood and coal may be &C.
| compllshed by the mere use of tho suns
rays. In fact, the sun has already supplied
power for all our steam engines. Its rays
impaired power to the growing forests. In
ages gone by forests were buried in the
earth and changed to coal. When coal is
burned, it gives out the power which was
stored up in the wood, changing water to
| the steam which drives the engine and the
machinery attached to it. So that, after
all, Mr.. Ericsson has not invented or dis
covered new power, but gone to the sun,
the fountain head, for it, instead of draw
ing it from the reserved stores already con-
tanned in the earth. If this new arrange
work wonderful changes. The boy may
now be living who will yet harness his bal
loon to sunbeam and explore the ocean of
air above us.
The REPUBLICAN SPARROW. At the
Vow <NFN
known by the name of the republican spar
row, which is named in science phiiGterus
socious. This little creature builds reg
ular square. With a number of its congo
ners it takes possession of a tree, and con-
structs around its summit an immense nest,
containing, perhaps, two hundred com
partmcnts. Each has it's own snug little
dwelling, where he lives with his wife.
bringing up his family, and enjoys the most
absolute liberty. They are communists, so
far as is required for constructing their
habitation, repairing it, defending it in
case OF danger, aud going in search of pro-
visions. Does any bird display an unsocial,
disobliging disposition, he is sure to be Wis.
tied by a select detachment of police, who
turn him out with merciless thrusts of their
strong little beaks, and never allow him to
rc-enter the common precnts. Does some
felonlOus reptile try to wriggle in, Il civic
guard is formed instantly, and as soon as
liant troop sends forth shrill cry, hastens
to reinforce the regular garrison, and al
most always forces the enemy to retreat
before a mass of threatening beal.s,- which
form bristling and impossible blockade.
Our ANcEsToHs.-Were they pigmies, or
giants, apparent apes, or possible plIloso-
piers {? Have We improved upon their
or are we physically degenerate
Strangely enough, this question of fact is
> i NJ l..4
sion of the Societies Savantcs, gave an ac-
count of his scientific explorations in Dor
iognc, and of the bones, including three
,rania, which he examined, and of which
he age is fixed as of the earliest q,iartenary
Deriod the age OF the mammoth. He
lwells on the remarkable length and pro-
iigiOus strength of the bones of the limbs.
With this, the crania are remarkably large;
md the brains which filed these capacious
asses must pcrforcc have been of consider
lble size. These skulls, he adds, are far
rom presenting the characters OF interiority
which the school OF :: development" would
lttribute to our uccstors.--BritiSh Medical
Journal
TIE GIANT OSTRICH OF MADAGASCAR,-
II the year 1850 two enormous eggs, found
IL the bed of IL stream in Madagascar, were
ent to Paris, accompanied by II small por-
ion of II skeleton, and on a careful exam
ny inc HalufuIlStS vi CHc GGrucD
'lants, it was asccrtained that the remains
belonged to Il species of the ostrich family,
f vastly greater size, than any now known
o exist. The largest of these eggs meas
red about thirteen and a half inches by
inc, and was estimated to be equal in
apacity to six eggs of the African ostrich,
welve of the American, and to twelve doz-
n of those of the common hen. A cast of I
his egg is, we believe, in the magnificent
nuseum ofour Academy of Natural Science.
The bird itself was supposed to have been
early fourteen feet high. Another nearly
erfect egg of this bird, named epyornis
naximus by the Paris naturalists, was sent i
short time ago to London, where it sold for
n enormous price, and during the present
ear still another has reached Paris. This r.,
,as found in a sandy alluvium, at n depth
f about five feet, and is exception of