The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1880-12-11
Compiled for the "Union."
INTERESTING VARIETIES.


| Noah's ark was 54S English feet long,
81 broad, and 81 high.
A bushel ofwheat weighing 60 pounds
contains $50, 900 kernels.
Fossil remains on the Ohio prove that
IL waslonce convoted by water.
ThAcarth is 7,6I6 miles in diameter,
and 1880 miles in circumference.
In Greece, it was the custom at meals
for the two sexes always to eat seperate-
ly.
Gold may be beaten into leaves so
thin ISo, 900 would be only an inch
thick.
Vinegar boiled with myrrh or cam
phor, sprinkled in a room corrects pu-
tridity.
The walls of Nineveh were 100 feet
high, and thick enough for three chari-
OTIS abreast.
Babylon was 60 miles within the walls,
which we're seventy-five feet thick, and
900 feet high.
The Romans lay on couches at their
dining tables, on their left arms, eating
with their right.
Australia is of, almost exactly the
same extent as the United States, includ-
ing the territories.
Some of the comets, while at their
greatest distance from the sun, do no,
move as fast as 4 man can walk.
Astronomy is the oldest of the scien.
ces it was first studied by shepherds,
while watching their flocks at night.
The great mass Of almost all rocks
consist Of metallic ores, more than half
of them being composed Of oxygen and
some metal.
Aggasiz made drawing Of fish from
single scale, and afterwards, when the
fish was found, the drawing proved to
be very good likeness.
An animal which does not reach
across the wire Of pin appears, under
microscope of high power, more than
an inch and a half in length.
AT different times, quite 4 number of
new stars have appeared in the sky, and,
after blazing while with great bright
ness, have ceased to be visible.
The stars, sun and moon apparently
roll around the heavens once in ~ houIs:
the pivots being north and south poles
Of the heavens the north star.
Expresses are known to be 500 or goo
years old. They rise Iao feet, and are
from IS to 20 feet round. Strabo
speaks Of one in Persia s,5oo years old.
observations on the comets. especial
/ iyiof the last brilliant one, which show
that there are properties Of matter, at
all events OF some matter, which are not
understood.
The largest steam engine aiioat, is the
one on the ASk,YpOkis, which plies be-
tween New York and Fall River, Mass. !;
it is larger even than those upon any of
our steamships.
Plumbago and charcoal are composed
of the same substance, carbon; but,
while charcoal is very combustiblc,
plumbago is used for making retorts to
resist an intense heat.
Some Of the latest inventions IN :hc
steam engine, made by our r.Jy; :ro-
found philosophical mechanics, are ef-
forts to utilize one form of it which was
known before the Christian era.
Arago, the great French astronomer,
expressed regret that the observatory
Of Paris contained no telescope equal to
the magnificent refractors Of Washing
ton and Cambridge, in the United
States.
The Aurora Borealis is one Of the
things about which hardly anything is
known the recent display caused, rs
usual, pcrturbations in the magnetic
needle, and in the workings Of the tele-
graphs.
II model OF the universe were con-
structed on scale OF o,ooo, 600 miles
to an inch, ESQ that the sun should be-
come oS of an inch in diameter and the
earth's orbit be I6 inches in diameter
the nearest fixed stars would still be
eighty miles distant.
In this latitude, men, with their
houses and farms, are carried along by
the rotary motion of the earth, just about
as fast as cannon ball moves, while the
revolution Of earth around the sun car
ries us all with avelocity more than sixty
times that Of cannon ball.
The recent ball oon ascension seems to
confirm the probability Of there being a
current of air at the height of 10, 900
feet, blowing constantly from the west to-
wards the east the top Of Mount'Wash-
ington reaches into the lower edge Of
this current, and generally feels its ef-
fects.
Welfare in the days Of Caesar, was
mere child's play. In nine days he had
conquered 900 tribes, 500 cities, slain a
million of men, and taken min.on
prisoners. After he had become mas
ter of the world, he entertained the whole
Roman populace, at $4,000 tables fur
nished with every luxury. He made an
artificial lake, for the purpose Of show.
ing the assemblage sample Of naval
warfare.
When Lavoisier, who has been called
the father Of modern chemistry, was ar.
rested, by order Of the Committee OF
Public Safety, during the "reign Of ter.
tor" Of the French Revolution, he asked
for fortnight's lifetime to finish some
experiments. The reply was, "The
Republic does not need them," and his
head was cut of by the guillotine. He
was accused Of fraud in his Office OF
Farmer general.
Comparative anatomy illustrates for.
cibly the uniformity Of the works Of na.
ture. We were walking on the shore Of
Staten Island with gentleman who had
paid some attention to this science, and
observing a little bone on the beach,