The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1879-11-21
SPARKS OF SCIENCE.

Caledonia. He was 56 years of age, anC
leaves a wife and six children.
SPARKS OF SCIENCE.
ARISTOTLE, Davy, Dalton and Scheele
were all druggists.
The use of the variety of sea-weed
botanically known as fucus yesciculosui
for reducing obesity has obtained recog
milton in Professional circles abroad.
In the publication of hydrogen, oxide
of copper in the cold arrests all the com
binstions hydrogen that may be pres
ent as impurities, except the hydrogen
carbides.
DURING 1873 the number of applica.
tions for letters patent for inventions in
Great Britain was Only 5,343, being,
however, 1874 more than that of the pre-.
cedipg year.
GLASS is made iridescent by exposing
it at high temperature to the fumes OF
stsnnic chloride, to which barium or
strontirm nitrate is added when deep
colors are required.
ACCORDING to the Bergman, Mr.. j.
Turnbridge has extracted $34 worth of
gold from q ton of the residues from
petroleum stills. The source of the
petroleum was not ascertained.
HEMP plants are recommended to be
cultivated in vineyards, orchards, ETC.,
for the Punishment or destruction of
noxious insects. 1t is said there are no
harmless insects in hemp fields.
NOTHING can live on Saturn with
more brains than a fish. Calico first
discovered the rings which are probably
clouds of satellites too small to be seen
individually. Its moons are ten times
as large as ours.
PROF. LIEBE contends that in the
second diluvisl period the hills of
Southern Bohemia and Moravis were
the starting point from which the virgin
forests invaded the great diluvial steppes
of Central Europe to the north of the
Alpine chain.
NINETY-FIvE thousand pounds of
cinchona bark were exported from Cey-
~ between October l, 1878, and April
8, 1879, and company called The Hau.
tame Coffee, Cocoa and Cinchona COM
pany has been started on the leland, with
a capital of $4,000 rupees.
PRoF. KLINKERFRIEs, of the Observe
tory of GOttiDgen, is said to have in.
vented telegraphic device by which
eight different messages may be sent by
one wire at the same time, and printed
separately and simultaneously by means
of an apparatus at the receiving end.
The distance from Paris to Msrseilles
is 600 miles, and, by a recent arrange
ment, train of the Paris, Lyons and
Mediterranean railway. makes this long
journey in fifteen hours, leaving the
capital at s A. NJ. and reaching the shores
of the Mediterranean at IL p. NJ, an av.
erage continuous speed of 40 miles per
hour.
In a letter addressed to the French
Academy of Sciences, the minister OF
agriculture and commerce desires that
body to indicate q practical means of
detecting the adulteration of olive oil
with oil having very different sources.
This fraud in oil has become 30 common
that it is prejudicial to the cultivation
of the olive,
A GERMAN scientist has succeeded In
obtaining a chemical composition by
means of which a mirror image may be
fixed and sold as a photograph. With
this composition the mirror surface il
painted, and the back part of the mirror
received also coating of oil. The mir.
ror thus prepared is held before the per.
son who is to be photographed. The oil
coating evsporates, and the likeness Of
the person remains in natural colors or
the light surface. The image 70 fixed Ii
brought into a bath, and is exposed ar
hour in the sunlight before delivery.
A REMARKABLE feat in engineering
wss brought to successful issue in tn,
latter part of September, at Dinard
France. In carrying railway across
the River Rance, the novel plan wa
adopted Of Building the bridge on shor
and pushing it bodily across the stream
The bridge weighed 1900, 900 pound; it
heighth above the river was 100 feet sut
the length of the main span 3l4 feet
Twelve windlasses were used in rolling
the bridge into position. 1t was ealcu
lated that about four or five days would
suffice to put the bridge into position
but, owing to breaksge in chains, it tool
two weeks.
THOUGH the Esquimsux are general!
below the middle stature of man, tbei
heads are as large as those of NOR
favored races. According to Prof
Flower, the average capacity of an E
quimaux skull (male) is |, $40 cubic cen
timetres (94 8 cubic inches), almost ex
actly the same as the average Englisl
skull of the lowest class, whole 1t exceed
BY II cubic centimetres the average &
seventy.four modern Italian skulls
This large size of the brain seems no
necessary to be connected with actua
development. Another distinctive char
acteristic of the Esquimaux skull, a
pointed out by Prof. Flower, is it's grea
length and narrowness, especially in tn,
upper part. The base is fairly broad
and the msstoid processes well devel
oped; but, instead of expanding upWart
to the parietsl region, 1t narrows, and
toward the median line above, contract
80 rapidly that the upper part Of tn
skull has the form of the roof of house
The affinities of the E.quimsux race az
declared to be more with the inhabitant
of Northeastern Asia than with tn
American Indians; and probably the,
are derived from the same stock as tn
lana nese- PoDuInr Science Monthly.