The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-03-03
sCINTILLATIONs OF SCIENCE.

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chine for whole day.
The engineer of the st. Gothard Rail
way, having the lesson of the Tay Bridge
disaster before his eyes, has concluded to
build the main piers of the Kerstellen-
bach viaduct, near Amsteg. Of stone, and
not of iron, as he first intended.
There is to be an international exhibi-
tion of earthenware, chalk, cement and
gypsum industry at Berlin this year from
June 29th to August 10th. The United
States is now quite able to make such a
display at this exhibition as will surprise
some European countries.
Mr.. A. w. hutchinson, a graduate of
the University of Leipzig, who has spent
much of his life in visiting tropical re-
gions, holds that personal habits have
mich more to do with the preservation
OF health in those places than the more
extraneous circumstances of climate and
exposure to malarious influences.
Cares process for making cast-iron
magnets has been published. The Nature
says that soft and slightly carburetted
meual is melted in earthen crucibles, and
bfore the metal is poured into the
moulds from ten to fifteen per cent of
steel filings is added. An addition of l
to 10 per cent. of nickel, and OBS of
copper, or 90 per cent. of tin and 0.5 per
cent. of copper, is also made, in order
that the metal may stand tempering at
a cherry red heat.
At the meeting of the French Academy
of Sciences, on February I'd, NJ. Gaudin
submitted a method of dividing masses
of ice by placing on them flexible tube
of lead, or of an alloy OF tin and anti
mony, of small calibre, connected with
steam boiler and open at the end to let
the water of condensation escape. The
tube penetrates the ice by its weight and
heat, having trenches, which can be kept
open by inserting boards, and into which
dynamite charges may be placed.
A water-resisting cement which looks
as though it might prove serviceable, has
been proposed by a German chemist
He dissolved from five to ten parts Of
pure dry gelatine in a hundred parts of
water, and then adds ten per cent. of a
concentrated solution of bichromate of
potash. The articles united with this
glue are exposed to the light of the sun,
when the bichromate becoming reduced,
the gelatine film attains great strength
and fexibility. Glass ornaments and
utensils when broken are said to be
neatly and efficiently repaired with this
mixture. OF course, the very principle
upon which the utility of the cement de-
pends requires that it be kept in the
dark, in order that it may act as desired
when used.
The Journal of Science reports that
Herr Faber lately exhibited his new
speaking machine before the Physical
Society, London. 1t is designed to imi-
tate mechanically the utterances of the
human voice by means of artificial Or
gans of articulation made on the human
model, and it is worked by keys like a
musical instrument. A bellows made of
wood and india rubber serves for lungs.
A small windmill is placed in front Of
the bellows to give trilling sounds. The
larynx, is made of single membrane of
hippopotamus hide and india rubber.
A mouth with two lips, tongue and al
india rubber nose complete the organs of
the apparatus. Fourteen distinct sound;
were uttered by it, and by combining
these any word in any language can bt
pronounced. Laughing and whispering
were also produced, and the pitch wa
raised or depressed at pleasure.
DR.. Staub has recorded the results o
his observations in various parts of Hun
gary on the effect of temperature on tn
Ieafng and Towering of various trees
: Unless the mean temperature of tn
month is 3.50 Fahrenheit higher than tina
of the same month normally, the flower
ing stage is not hastened. An exception
to this general law occurs when the tenn
perature of the preceding month o
: months is above the average mean, TO
in such case vegetation is under the in
fuence of the secondary effects Of ten
e perature. The smallest fall in the avel
age mean temperature of the month en-
: tails corresponding retardation Of tn
| Towering period, and the retardation
g all the greater the more the temperatur
' of the preceding month has been belo,
e the average mean. Should the mel
;, temperature of the preceding months b
d higher than the average the lower ten
0 perature of one month is. unable to hir
e der the development Of veget tiol
}, Woody plants, in their struggle with ii
climatal factors, strive to keep with
/ the limits of the certain Towering seaso
e to which they have been accusteme
e during generations.
e e The editors of the Scientific America
. have been at the pains to reduce the da
collected in the course Of the practic
use of the Brush system of electric ligh
. ing in large Rhode Island msnufactol
and those CLEANED during the expel
6 mental tests of the Edison method
/ Menlo Park, so that a comparison can
!. made at once between the economy
, : these two ways of securing illuminate
:, and that of gas lighting. They find tn
i while the Brush lights cost .0005 of
cent and the Edison lights oil Of ce
6 per candle an hour, gas lights cost as his
- as .O82 of cent. A standard candle