Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1873-04-19
cuRIous AND SCIENTIFIC.

aAANHAANAANaAANAN
who announces IN Philadelphia news
paper that We are approaching a climax
Of pestilental period. From 1880 to
1885 Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Nep-
tune will come nearer the earth thau
they have been for eighteen hundred
years. The result will be, as the Doc
tor says it has been before, that we shall
have all manner Of npleasantness--
plague, famine and awfully hot and cold
weather. One planet would have been
bad enough-now we are to have four
in combined approximation and, unless
we adopt strict sanitary measures, we
may expect calmity indeed. Gluttons,
tobacc-chewers and smokers and tight
lacing young ladies will never survive
the perihelion of all the large planets Of
the solar system. So says the dreadful
DR.. Trail.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF SINGING
FLAMES. The singing fame" which
at first view might seem to be merely
curious phenomenon, is found to be, in
fact, a discovery Of very high impor-
tance for science and the useful arts.
One of the latest applications of this
principle is that made by DR.. A. K. r.
vine, of the British Iron and Steel In
stitute, who makes use OF the singing
fame in the construction of a safety
lamp for mines. If an explosive mix
ture of infaminable gas and air be
passed through and ignited on the sur
face of disk OF wire gauze too fine to
suffer the fame to traverse it, and then,
surrounded by a chimney, to prevent
air from entering, save through the
gauze, the fame vibrates, and, the Vi
bration being communicated to the as
cending gases, produces sound vary
ing in pitch and intensity according to
the height and caliber of the chimney.
A lamp constructed on this principle
will give timely warning to the miner
whenever the atmosphere and the fire
damp are coming together in the pro
portions requisite for an explosion.
SCIENCE AND INTELLECTUAL DEVELOP
MENT.-It is not, however, merely the
material wants Of man that are gratifed
by the results of science; it admins
tiers also to his highest intellectual de-
velopment. Placed in a universe Of
constant change, on an isolated globe,
surrounded by distant celestial objects
on all sides, subjected to influences of
various kinds, it is a sublime occupa-
ton to measure the earth and weigh the
planets, to predict their changes, and
even to discover the materials of which
they are composed; to investigate the
causes of the tempest and volcano, to
bring the lightning from the clouds, to
submit it to experiment by which it
shall reveal its character, and to estl-
mate the size and weight of those invis-
ible atoms which constitute the universe
of things. 1t is the pursuit, above all,
which impresses us with the capacity Of
man for intellectual and moral progress,
and awakens the human intellect to as
pirations for higher condition of hui
manity, and gives pleasurable con-
seriousness to those who successfully
pursue it, of contributing, in however,
small degree it may be, to such a de
sirable consummation. The effect OF
such pursuits on the mind Of the indi-
vidual himself can not be otherwise
than salutary. While it exists the un-
derstanding, it exercises the imagina-
ton, and awakens and constantly cher
ishes love of truth for its own sake.
The man imbued with the proper spirit
of science does not seek for immediate
pecuniary reward from the practical
applications of his discoveries, but de-
rives sufficient qualification from his
pursuit and the consciousness OF en-
larging the bounds of human contem-
plation, and the magnitude OF human
power, and leaves to others to gather
the golden fruit he may strew along his
pathway
PHYSICAL SCIENCE AS A CIyILIzNG
FoRCE.-It is said that hundred thou
sand slaves were employed at one time
in the construction OF the Pyramids Of
Egypt; one hundred and twenty thou
sand were engaged in hewing the obo-
lisks of Thebes, and an equal number
in digging the ancient canal which join
ed the Nile and the Red Sea. These
slaves were treated as beasts Of burden,
or as mere machines, of which Athens,
in her palmy days, had four hundred
thousand, and but twenty thousand free
men. Now, we owe the abolition OF
this condition of humanity, in the high
er civilized nations of the world at the
present day, to the study OF the laws OF
the operations of nature. By know
ledge of these laws the energies of the
elements of nature are substituted for
human labor, and by this substitution
mankind is not only relieved from
brute-labor, but also given control of
energies which enable him to produce
effects which could only result from the
muscular power of beings of a superior
order. 1t may be shown by a simple
calculation that about fifteen tons OF
anthracite coal burned in the furnace If
one Of our best steam-engines exerts an
energy equal to that of an able-bodied
slave, working ten hours day for thir-
ty years of his active life. 1t is this
substitution of the energies of nature
for the power of human muscle that, as
we have said, has abolished slavery and