Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1873-02-22
SCIENTIFIC NOTES.

0Cl6NT1f1O NULL Id.
GREAT PYRAMID OF CHE0IS. 1T is
admitted to be the largest structure on
the globe reared by human hands. For
ages it has been described by travellers
and all imaginable uses have been
assigned to it, but in these latter days
men of science begin TO confess the OBJ
ject is still mystery. No doubt Cheops
intended to be entombed in it some
where, but Herodotus had the testi-
mony Of the priests and the traditions
of antiquity that the hard-hearted old
Pharaoh's mummy was tucked away
where he never intended his royal body
should repose-to the day of judgment.
Suggestions respecting the exact pur-
pose contemplated in the building of
that monster of ancient stone masonry
might be quite as unsatisfactory as any
that have been discarded. Therefore,
without troubling readers with notions
based on onr own personal examination,
it is quite enough to show its actual di-
mensions to astonish those who have
not seen it. The original dimensions
were 764 square feet at the base, 4O8
feet high, covering 43 acres, l rood and
q perches of Gizeh, ON the margin of
the Libyan Desert, now about eight
miles from the right band of the river
Nile. 1t contains SO, 9,02S,OOO cubic feet
of rough split blocks of limestone. To
build another like it now, in the United
States, would cost one hundred and
sixty millions of dollars, provided the
commissions were honest men.
FORESTS AND DBoUGHT. Sardinia and
Sicily, once the granaries of Italy, have
suffered the penalty of their thought
lessness by exterminating the forests.
Two thousand years ago, those lands
were celebrated for their wonderful
productiveness, and were said to be the
most beautiful in the world In 1900,
Humboldt visited Venezuela, South
America, and was informed by the ma
tives living in the valley of Araguay
that they had noticed, with great aston
ishment, that lake which lay in the
middle of the valley has decreased in
volume every year; the cause Of this is
clearly traced TO the telling of a great
number of trees which grow on the sur
rounding mountains In Hungary the
periodical droughts are universally at
tributed to the annihilation of the
forests. In Cairo, Lower Egypt, great
many years ago, rain fell but seldom,
only once in three or four years but
since the time of Mohammed Ali,
twenty to thirty millions of trees have
been planted, aud the result is now that
the people have from thirty to forty
rainy days every year Surely these
few of the many examples are warnings
sufficient to put us on our guard
SINGULAR CHANGES IN IRoN.-Prof.
Mayer gives some interesting statements
the result OF careful and prolonged
researches made by him-regarling the
effect of magnetism on iron. He states
that he has discovered by means of the
Saxton cOmparator, that rods of iron
suffer permanent elongation by mag
netization of one hundred and fifty mil
lionts of an inch English refined
iron gives the maximum of this elonga-
ton, and scrap iron the minimum.
Whether the current is gradually I'M
creased in intensity, or whether it is
sent full charge at once, it produces the
same degree of elongation. Prof.
Mayer found, on his experiments, that
with one cell the elongation took place
In six-tenths of n second with twenty
five cells It took place in two-tenths Of
q. second. It is thought that this
elongation of iron under magnetism |
being fact, it might make, in its effect
on the earth, an appreciable difference
in the length Of the day. This can be
detected BY the means which astronomy
affords; even so infnitesimal a change
in the day as that Of seven-hundredtbs
Of a second would be perfectly easy to
discover now.
SOLAR PHENoMESA. One of the most
remarkable phenomena at present en-
gaging the attention Of astronomers is
what are, known rs the solar prominen-
ces Observations made with the largest
telescopes, declare these pgominences 10
be streams Of intensely heated hydro
gen, which are elected from the sun |
viii s..Oii seloei,y tAat si.eJ would
reach the earth in a few hours if Of suiii- |
eisnt volume sTlast there il enough |
llydregeninthesunto produce such
golameis not at ~ doubtful. Il only |
the forces which leads to tho eruptions |
should unite sufficiently at one time. |
MOveovor, such thing is not without |
precedent. In hlay. 1908. The star u. I