Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-06-18
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY

OF ELECTRICITY anu entirely independ-
ent OF wind.
According to a recent patent, pa
per may be rendered non-combusti.
bic by treatment with a solution Of
s;licate of soda.
The longest reeprded dr. ought in
America is said to have occurred in
1762. No rain fell from the first of
May to the first of September-a
period of 1923 days.
The negatives of Muybridge's in
stantaneous photographs of moving
animals are taken during an expos.
ure to the images of only the fve-
thousandth part of a second.
Basing his calculation upon the
rate at which the delta of the Missis-
sippi is deposited, Prof. Nudge
reaches the conclusion that man has
been on the earth not less than two
hundred thousand years.
Recent discoveries have shown
the interesting fact that the ancient
Chaldeans and Babylonians attribu-
ted changes in the weather to lunar
influence, and kept up a system of
regular observations Of the moon for
practical purposes.
A Gramms machine is being built
for French establishment which,
by the electric current, will trans
init over wires to considerable dis
lance normal power equivalent to
that of ten horses, with large iu-
crease of power under special con-
ditions.
The phylloxera was lately aiscov-
cred upon wild vine of Panama
which grows in forests far removed
from localities where the cultivated
grape is found. This fact seems to
confirm the opinion that the destroy
er of so many French vineyards is of
American origin.
During several hours on the night
OF March Goth, q shower of meteor
ic dust, containing fragments of
metallic iron together with organic
particles. fell at Catania, Sicily.
Such showers are supposed to be of
not frequent occurrence, although
they are not often observed.
His studies upon the influence of
forests on moist currents of air pass
ing over them, have convinced M.
Fautrat that pines and other needle
leaved trees have strong attraction
for watery vapor. He believes that
resinous trees absorb much more
water than other other trees, and
exhale it more rapidly.
M. Simmonar has produced Pc
culiar effect in portraits. A mega
tive of the sitter is taken with his
eyes wide open, and another with
his eyes shut. One of these is print
ed on each side of the paper in such
a way that the front and back i'm
ages exactly coincide. When the
two sides are then alternately illum-
mated by lamp q portrait is pre-
sented with the eyes opening and
shutting, and ii The light is moved
rapidly the singular spectacle of
winking photograph is shown.
An interesting novelty is embodied
in new safety lamp proposed by
Freiberg mining student. The &C.
ton of the lamp is based on the
property of platinum black of con-
densing on its surface not only oxy-
gen but also light carburetted by
drogen. In wire. gauze chamber
are placed pieces OF pumice-stone
impregnated with platinum black;
and as all the air for maintaining
the combustion passes through this
chamber, all fre-damp is destroyed
before reaching the open fame.
Ocean waves and currents exert
an aggregate power of which we can
form but a faint conception. In the
west of Scotland, Stevenson found
the average force of the waves strik-
ing the coast to be GIL pounds per
square foot during the Summer and
2,068 pounds in the Winter. A
ground-swell beating against the
Bell-Rock Lighthouse he estimated
to give pressure OF nearly three
tons ner square foot, Several in