The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1878-04-20
Scientific and Industrial,

blruS Wnlcn nave open nests usually
produce colored or notified eggs, while
those having covered or concealed nests
have white eggs. The color serves as a
protective, and is possibly due to the
action of the principle of selection.
A summer school of Zoology for the
benefit of Union College, Schenectady,
N. Y, istalked of. 1t will be established
either on one of the Bahama Islands,
or at some point on our Southern Coast.
At recent sanitary Congress in Eng
land the cremation of the dead on the
field of battle was advocated. Rapidly
acting portable crematories were recon-
mended. This course would prevent the
pollution of the air and of springs &C.
casioned by the interment of bodies by
the thousand
A recent German invention consists
in bank note album, made with leaves
of asbestos paper, between which the
notes are placed. If the book is firmly
clasped, the notes, checks or valuable
documents so placed will be legible, even
after exposure to fire which reduces
them to cinders
The younger engineers of Philadelphia
have formed an Engineers Club, for
mutual improvement and interchange
OF ideas upon practical questions con-
nected with that branch. Meetings for
discussion of scientific subjects and the
reading of professional pal ers, are held
twice a month, at the residences of the
members.
On. ~ gentleman TO do away with ship
canals, and to transport vessels across
the land in tanks mounted on trucks
and run on marine railway. He thinks
the system can be applied to the Cape
Cod Peninsula and also to the Isthmus
of Darien.
The Charleston rs. CO. artesian we'll
has reached depth of 1910 feet, and
flows about ninety gallons per minute
1t is proposed to go two thousand feet,
and should the supply meet expectations,
a group of wells feelings reservoir and
the water pumped directly into the
mains, will probably constitute the fu-
ture waterworks of the city.
Mr.. Edison, the inventor of the
photograph, is experimenting upon
some adaptation of compressed ar, by
which the sounds emitted by the instru-
ment may be intensified. He says he
can, in time, make the machine talk SO
loudly that it can be used on vessels to
warn off other ships during fogs. His
last astonishing proposal is to construct
a huge monograph to be placed in the
proposed statue of Liberty in New York
harbor, so that he figure can make a
speech audible over the entire bay.
The difference between morning and
evening milk is a subject which has been
recently put to the test of chemical
analysis. Evenings milk is found to be
the richer. The solids in evenings milk
(thirteen per cent? exceed those of
mornings milk (ten per cent, while
the water contained in the fluid was di-
minished from eighty-nine per cent. to
eighty-six. The fatty matter gradually
increases as the day progresses. In the
morning 1t amounts to two and one
fourth per cent, at noon three and one
half per cent, and at evening five and
three-fourth per cent The practical
importance of this discovery is that
while sixteen ounces of mornings milk
will yield but one-half ounce of butter,
about double the quantity can be OBJ
tanned from evenings milk.
The absence of snow in the Wisconsin
pineries this winter has driven the lum-
bermen to devise means for transporting
their lumber, which is usually hauled
On sleds. Flat cars have been made to
hold the logs, and provided with grooved
wheels. Common poles were laid along
the bare ground, and are bolted together
at the ends. No ties are employed, the
grooves in the wheeles keeping them in
position. The cars are drawn BY horses,
and are said to move easily with heavy
loads. In some regions where it was
cold, but no snow, the roads were sprink,
led and allowed to freeze, SO that sleds
could be drawn over them. The ex-
ceedingly mild and open winter has
been very detrimental to the numbering
interests of the Northwest.