The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1872-09-06
SCIENrTFIC NOTES.

The great pyramid weighs 12
76O, 900 600 tons, if anybody wants
to know. According to Herodotus,
it took the labor of 100000 men
twenty years to build it. To shew
the mechanical value of modern inn
provements, DIR. Lardner affirms that
4S0 tons of coal, with an engine and
hoisting machine, would have raised
every stone to its position. aaE
IT Is said that gold may be OBJ
tained from quartz veins much more
completely by means Of zinc than
by the ordinary methods of amalga
nation with mercury. The process
consists in first pulverizing the
quartz, and then introducing the
powder into a crucible partly filed
with melted zinc. The melted met
al Immediately takes up the gold,
leaving the quartz as a Stag on the
surface, which is to be skinned off.
After all the quartz has been used
up, the zine is. distilled off, leaving
the gold behind. Should the ores
contain any sulphur they must be
roasted previously TO the employ
ment of the zine.
a COMPOSITION for extinguishiDg
flame, claimed to be extremely eff
cient, has recently been introduced.
1t consists of the following prepara-
ton: Two hundred pounds of hy-
GrochlOric acid, saturated with lime,
are placed in a wooden vessel lined
with lead; to this eighty-eight
pounds of saturated solution of
ammonia salt and the same weight
of a saturated solution of bOrate of
soda are added. The mixture is
then stirred and allowed to settle,
and when clear is decanted and con-
centrated to capitalization. The
substance thus prepared is now in
troduced in liquid form, or in a
powder, into the water used to ex-
tinguish the fire. About one pound
per gallon for the first FIVE hundred
gallons should be used, and after
ward this amount will be sufficient.
WHEN q flea, under a miscroseope,
is made to appear as large as an ele-
phant, we can see all the wonderful
parts of its formation, and are as
| tonished to find that it has coat or
armor much more complete than
ever warrior wore, and composed
of strong, polished plates, fitted ovcr
each other, each plate covered
like a tortoise shell, and where they
meet. hundreds of small ouills pro-
iect like those on the back of por-
cupine or hedgehog. There are the
arched mock, the bright eyes, the
transparent cases, piercers to pune
ture the skin, a sucker TO draw away
the blood, six longjOinted legs, four
of which are folded on the breast,
all ready, at any moment, to be cast
out with tremendous force for that
Jump which bothers one when they
want to catch him, and at tho end
of each leg hooked claws, to enable
| him to cling on whatever he alighte
upon. A flea can jump a hundred
| times his own length, which Is the
same as ifa man jumped seven hun
dred feet and he can draw a load
two hundred times his own weight
EVERY one is familiar with the
singular phenomenon known as the
e new moon carrying the old moon
| in her arms" when, in addition to
the slender crescent, the whole disc
IS more or less distinctly visible q
few days after the new moon; the
same appearance, or ''the old moon
nursing the new" presents itself in
like manner In the wandering moon,
when she rises a few hours before
the sun but we fear there are few
who shake off dull sleep to see II.
This is what is called LuB,iere cen
dyee, or ashlight of the moon. Its
appearance used to be taken as an
| indication that the moon was phos-
phoresceut, or possessed some hight
| Of her own, independent OF that she
receives from the sun. Now, how
ever. it is satisfactorily proved to
/ arise from the sunlight reflected
from the earth upon the dark moon
for Il must be remembered that the
| earth is to the moon what the moon
i is to the earth, a reflector of the
suns light; and when it is new
to the earth it is fall earth to the
moon, aad Uice versa, and thus the
Opaque moon becomes illuminated
BY earth light-to use a term analo.
gous to moon light but on account
of the great size Of the earth com
pared to ths moon, this light is four
teen times as bright as OHr moon
light, and this occasional briiliancy
of this reflection Of a reflection" /.
| accounted for,