The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1880-11-13
NUMBER 70.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

The manufacture of fine sewing
thread from wood is . now Swedish il
dnstry.
| "A California inventor has devised q
process for pressing and drying potatoes
so TINT they will keep for years, without
loss of flavor.
Another feat in telegraphy is re-
! corded. A me ssage Of sixty nine words
was lately sent from Melbourne at / p.
NJ, and reached London at 3:43 A. n, on
the same day! Allowing for difference
Of time between the cities, the message
| was but q minutes in transit. Distance,
Is, ,39s miles.
According to Sir j. H. Lefroy, the
ground in British North America, ut Fort
Norman, on the Mackenzie river, IS per-
manently frozen to n depth Of Is feet;
and at York Factory, on Hndson Bay,
but 23 feet; while at Yakntsk, Siberia,
in about the same latitude, II Is frozen
$50 feet deep.
"A disease of Salmon, caused by .
fungus. prevails extensively in England
and Scotland. Scientists have been In
vestigating the matter, but have been
unable to find u remedy, although the
chief agents in the development Of the
disease are believed to be. tho pollution
Of waters and oyercrowding.
AT the August meeting of the Ameri-
can Association Prof Bell showed tho
startling fact that light may be made
to produce sound. II. Treve now claims
that he has succeeding in reversing this
| result, and has described to the French
Academy an experiment by which he be-
lieves transformation Of sound into
| light is produced.
Large quantities Of pottery are man.
nfactured in Brazil from the harl, silice-
ons bark of the caraipe-tree. In the
| process, the ashes of the bark arc pOwd-
eret, and mixed v It'll, the purest clay that
can be obtained from the beds of the
rivcrs-this kind being preferred, as it
takes up Il larger quantity Of the ash,
and thus produces stronger kind Of
ware.
IA curious phenomenon has leen OBJ
served in the Valley Of the Rhone, In.
France. A very violent wind often pre-
! walls in the neigl.l,orhool Of Uzes,
which forcibly drives large quantities Of
sand against a band Of quartzose pebbles.
The oft-renewed friction of the sandy
particles against tie surface Of the peb-.
bles has worn deep cavities in the latter
50 smooth and regular that they might
| readily he regarded as specimens OF
| mIn's llaDdiwork.
"A very successful experiment with q
compressed air locomotive was lately
made at Woolwich, England. The en-
gine was provided with . reservoir Of 100
cnbic feet capacity. With air filing this
chamber at 1000 pounds pressure on
starting, ru, of 16 miles was easily
made at fair rate Of speeti. So great
are the advantages Of the bottled air !"
for street railways, tunnels, etc, that an
| early adoption Of this class Of motors in
many localities is sanguinely expected.
The compression Of the air is effected by
| means Of stationary steam, engines.
Commander Cheyne, r. n, we'll
known as the leading spirit in the pro-
jectcd balloon exploration Of the polar
regions, expresses himself rs convinced
that the failure of Sir John FrankIin's
expedition was due to starvation,
brought about by. the fraud Of con-
tractor in supplying the party with pre-
served meats which could not be eaten.
He cites several Instances in which the
| meats put mp by this contractor have
been found to be simply preserved filth,
totally unfit for food, more than five tons
having been thrown overheard on one
| occasion from q vessel in the Arctic seas.
Ocean sonndings show that along the
| entire coast of California depth Of 1900
~
| tance Of from twenty to seventy miles
| westward from tile shores, the greater
part of this sudden fall occurring in the
last ten to fifty miles. At one hundred
| miles west of San Francisco the bottom
| is found to be over $500 fathoms deep.
| The bed of the ocean continues of q uni
form depth greater than 1900 fathoms
| until the Sandwich Islands are reached,
the greatest depth being 5000 fathems, at
: a distance Of about four hundred miles
east of Honolulu, which great depth is
maintained until within ninety miles of
that place.
| The eruption of Mount Etna in 1869,
according to French journal, was the
most formidable of historic times. Tho
side Of the mountain opened for a length
Of about four miles, and there issued
| from it q torrent Of lava four miles
broad, which, after destroying several
villages and half Of the city Of catane,
| flowed into the sea and formed . prom
ontory twa miles long by half mile
wide and sixty feet high. At the same
time the scoria and sand thrown ont by
the craters formed mountain with ,
double crest, to which the name Monti
Rossi has been given. Tie higher of the
two crests is about 900 feet above Etna,
aud 5000 feet above the sea. The cone
Of MoEti Rossi contains two immense ex-