Richland beacon., 1873-07-05
CURIOUS AND SCIENTIFIC.

tardiuo influence oil the earth \ atfnOS-
pbere. often move with velocity sew
rral times that of cannon ball, at the
instance Of its discharge. If a cannon
ball. could be made to move with such
velocity, it would almost instantly be
DESTROYED, disappearing in streak OF
flame. MetcOrs which enter the atmOS-
pherc at any considerable angle from
direct line toward its center are DETECTED
from their course, and soon move from
its influence. Such Is, no doubt, the
case with many which are seen to fit
across the sky while many which enter
in a direct line are dissipated into i'm
palpable gases before passing half the
distance from the solar bounds of the
atmosphere to the earth, or reach the
earth in state of impalpable dust.
Hands are infinitely varied. Their
shape, tint, the nails, length, width,
roundncss, are as different as individu-
ais. There are hands that seem intel
lectual in their symmetry, beautiful
hexibility and grace of motion. Some
are soft and voluptuOus, and others
precise. striking and brilliant. The
form of the hand often expresses the
capabilities of the person to whom 1t
belongs. The strong palms, conical
fingers and small thumb Indicate in wo-
men Incidence, fancy and feeling. The
square hands belong to the intellectual
and ambitious, and those who love in
huence and rule The small, soft, al
most ileshless hands, but rosy and with
knOtted fingers, are brilliant and witty.
Fingers delicately squared at the ends,
like those of English women, love domes-
tic life. The small thumb and fingers,
broadening at the ends, desire activity
and practical knowledge of the world.
There are smooth and knOtted fingers !;
to the first belongs grace, to the second
reason. Conical hands with pointed
fingers obey inspiration and worship
the beautiful in painting, poetry, ro-
nance and nature. There are soft
hands more capable of tenderness than
of love, and dedicate fingers that are
formed of sensitiveness and sympathy
of touch, and made to ministe, to pain
and grief" hard hands that know not
tenderness, but are not ignorant of love ;
trough hands that the heart teaches
and guides and softens."
The TRANSIT OF VENUs.-In June,
1863, a company of English astronomers
sailed from London, IN the specially
appointed ship, the Endeavor, and in
remote and widely sundered regions OF
the globe, scanned, by detachments,
the face of the sun, to note the pith,
across its glowing sierra, of a little
black spot, which might, to an untu-
tored eye, have seemed a chance speck,
mere mote. In less than the space of
three years from this date, Decem-
Der, 1874, there will be another transit
of Venus, and the importance of it tc
science may be measureably estimated
by consideration of the fact that the
British government has appropriated 8
sum exceeding fifty thousand dollar,
for the equipment of various expedi
tions of learned men and scientific ex
perts TO take the closest possible cOgni
zance of its progress and phases. These
expeditions will doubtless go to the re-
mote zones of our globe, to Hawaii
on the one hand, and on the other tC
Crozet Island, or Mauritius, in order to
obtain favorable views of the transit.
1t will happen, not as il the last his.
torical account of it, in the "leafy June, y
but in the dead of our winter and ex.
treme northern points, otherwise most
desirable for sentinels, will be very
bleak, and perhaps utterly inaccessible.
In the antartic ATTITUDES, also, there
will undoubtedly present themselves
formidable barriers to the enterprise.
A hundred thousand dollars will moi
cover the cost of scientific observations
of this unusual event. The observers,
as the fruit of toll, perilous exposure,
patient waiting at some points for
months, will see, generally, q small
round disk of intense blackness, which
is the unillumined hemisphere of We
nus. impinge upon the suns glowing
border, and occupy four hours,
more or less by minutes, according &c
the observers position, in accomplish
ing its procession across the disk, when
the little pageant will come to an imme-
date close
CHEMICAL Ice MACHINES fact is
familiar one, that an intense cold is
obtained when salt is mixed with snow
or pounded ice, owing to the strong
tendency which salt possesses to dis
solve IN water, which forces, as it were,
the ice to hquify, in order to procure
water to the salt. If solid be forced
to iquify or melt, without giving it the
heat necessary as latent heat for this
llquifacation, it will take this heat from
the sensible heat, which will then
diminish as it will become latent in the
liquid, this sensible heat being the only
kind the thermometer indicates. A
similar effect is produced when dissolv-
ing other salts in water or any other
liquid, the descent of temperature being
very different according to the nature
OF the substances. Thus five parts of
sal smmoniac and five parts nitrate of
potassa dissolved in sixteen parts of
cool water will cause the temperature
to descend about 20 degrees. Nine
parts OF phosphate of soda dissolved
into four parts diluted nitric acid will
cause descent of temperature of fifty
degrees. Six pounds of sulphate of
soda gradually dissolved in five pounds
OF hydrochaloric acid will cause such
descent OF temperature that it will
freeze from five to six pounds of water
IN the course of one hour. The most
remarkable mixture of this kind. and
producing tue most intense cold, is the
following Two or three pounds of
chloride of lime is heated until il forms
porous mass, and is powdered and
passed through sieve, by which opera
ton it absorbs just enough moisture
as is necessary to cause it quickly to
dissolve in wet and it is then mixed