Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1872-09-07
SCIENTIFIC NOTES.

76O 600 600 tons, if anybody wants
to know. According to Herodotus,
it tool; the labor of 100000 men
twenty years to build it. To show
the mechanical value of modern i'm
proycmcnts, DR.. Lardner atlirms that
lSO tons of coal, with an engine and
hosting machine, would have raised
every stone to its position.
IT Is said that gold may be OBJ.
tanned 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 pulycrizing the
quartz, and then introducing the
powder into q crucible partly filled
with melted zine. The melted met
al Immediately takes up the gold,
leaving the quartz as Stag on the
surface, which is to be skinned off.
After all the quartz has been used
up, the zinc is distilled off, leaving
| the cold behind. Should the ores
contain amy sulphur they must be
roasted previously to the employ
mcnt Of the zinc.
A COMPOSITION for cXtinguishing
flame. claimed TO be extremely ehi-
cicut, has recently been introduced
1t consists Of the followingprcpara-
ton: Two hundred pounds Of hy-
Grochloric acid, saturated with lime,
are placed in a wooden vessel lined
with lead; to this cighty-cight
pounds OF a 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 dccantcd and con-
ccntratcd to cryStalization. The
substance thus prepared is now in
troduccd in liquid form, or in a
powder, into the water used to cX-
tinruish 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 Il flea, under microscope,
is made to appear as large as an eIe-
phant, we can see all the wonderful
parts of its formation, and are as
tonishcd to find that it hts coat or
armor much more complete than
ever warrior wore, and composed
of strong, polished plates, fitted over
each other, each plate covered
like a tortoise she'll, and where they
meet, hundreds of small Quills pro
iect like those on the back of por-
cupino or hedgehog. There are the
archcd neck, the bright eyes, the
transparent cases, picrccrs to pune,
trc the skin, a sucker TO draw away
the blood, six long -iointed legs, -four
of which are folded on the breast
all ready, at any moment, to be cast
out with tremendous force for that
lump which bOthcrs one when they
want to catch him, and at the end
of each leg hooked claws, to enable
him to cling on whatever he alightS
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 load
two hundred times his own weight
EVERY one is familiar with the
singular phenomenon known as the
"now moon carrying the old moor
in her arms" when, in addition Il
the slender crescent, the whole disc
Is more or less distinctly visible ;
few DAYS after the new moon; the
same appearance, or "thc old moor
nursing the new," presents itself ii
like manner in the wandering moon
, when she rises u few hours before
the sun; but wo fear there are few
J who shake off dull sleep to see it
: This is what is called litmiere cen
dree, or ashlight of the moon. 1T
appearance used to be taken as III
indication that the moon was phos
phorcscent, or possessed some hgh
of her own, Independent of that sh,
receives from the sun. Now, how
ever, it is satisfactorily proved tt
arise from the sunlight reflected
from the earth upon the dark moon
Tor it must be remembered that tn,
earth is to the moon what the moor
is to the earth, a reflector of tn
suns light; and when it is ncy
, to the earth it is full earth to tn
: moon, ald uice UerSa, and thus tn
. opaque moon becomes illuminate,
by earth light-to use a term analo
gous to moon light but on accoun
r of the great size of the earth com
D pared to the moon, this light is foul
teen times as bright as our moon
. light, and this occasional brillianc,
Q Of this "reAection Of q reflection" j