The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1880-10-29
Scientific Miscellany.

Prof Marks recently stated that he had
made some calculations as to the maxi
mum speed at which locomotive engines
could be driven before the centrifugal
force on the tires of the driving wheels
would become so great rs to cause them
to burst. These calculations, which were
only approximate, gave limit of speed
in the neighborhood. of $50 miles por
hour. OF this speed, 78 miles an hour,
or more than half, has already been at
| tanned.
Two alligators, the first specimens ever
found in the Old World, were lately cap
tured in the Yang-tse-kiang.
A very simple model enables us to
realize in some degree the vast size of
the sun as compared with the earth
When the sun is represented by ball of
three inches in diameter, minute ball
of 3-100 of an inch in diameter must be
placed at distance of 30 feet from it TO
represent the earth and its distance from
the sun.
\ Probably few PERSONS while watching
! the light of the glow-worm or the FREELY
have failed to wonder and speculate az
to its cause. A French naturalist, after
series of observations, believes the glow.
worms phosphorescence to be due to an
omission of phosphureted hydrogen gas.
The Public Health Department of Ger
many has officially sanctioned the use of
the following coloring matters in confec-
tlonery, etc: For white-four and starch;
for red-cocheniel, carmine, madder-red,
ana the JUICE of carrots, and cherries
Tor saffron, safflower, and turner
lc; ior bue--indigo and litmus for green
Juice of spinach and mixtures of the
above blues and yellows; for brown
Durnt sugar and Spanish juice; and for
black-lndian ink.
Near Beaver lake, in the National Park
OF the Yellowstone, u recent party of ex-
plorers came upon a remarkable noun
tain Of obsidian or volcanic glass, which
rises in columnar cliffs several hundred
feet in height 1t being desirable to pass
that way, the party cut a road by build
ing huge fires on the glass to heat and
expand it and then dashing the cold
water of the lake against the heated sur
face-the sudden contraction thus pro-
duced breaking large fragments from the
side of the mountain. In the grand can
yon of the Gibson river the explorers also
found precipices of yellow, black and
" ~.
The natural glass of these localities has
from time immemorial been dressed by
the Indians to tip their spears and arrows.
Some experiments with various soils
as filters for removing organic matter
from water have shown that gravel pro-
duces little result, sand being much more
effective in removing the impurities and
fine loan forming still better filter
The British Museum contains wig
which was found in a good state of pres
ervation at Thebes, and is probably 5000
years Old.
In selecting location for house, ad-
vises prominent physician, make a note
of the prevalent winds, that they be from
the house tow ards all swampy and MAS
matte localities and not from miasmalic |
localities towards the house.
Gelose is the most valuable constitu-
ent OF the substance known in commerce
as China moss. 1t has the property of
absorbing and solidying into a colorless
and transparent jelly five hundred times
its weight of water.
The numbar~o of yoloanoes- -diseovered
constantly increases with the progress OF
geographical knowledge-highly volcanic
regions being found in the least explored
countries. A. Won Humboldt enumer-
ated 407, of which 227 were active. Sew
era thousand are now known and, ac-
cording to M. Fuchs, the number OF ac-
tive volcanoes known at the present
time may be set down as 1923. 1t is diff
cult TO draw the line between active and
extinct volcanoes, for the reason that the
greater portion of the former have peri
DDS of repose, sometimes a century or
more in length. The ancients considered
Vesuvius harmless mountain up to the
time of the great eruption of A. d. 70,
when Herculaneum and Pompeii were
buried and it was quiet from 1906 to
163l-more than three centuries.
1t was recently remarked by Prof
Maudsley that one striking feature OBJ
served by medical men in cases of hallu-
cination is that the patient cannot be
convinced that the objects they see, the
sounds they hear and the smells they
perceive nave no real existence, and that
the sensations received are the result of
an excited state of their nerves. Hallu-
cination often extends to but one sense,
the person affected being otherwise in
perfectly normal condition. 1t may arise
either from an idea on which the mind
has dwelt closely, or from excitement OF
the sensory nerves. 1t is said that New
ton, Hunter, and some others of eqnal
eminence, could, at will, picture forms to
themselves until they appeared to be
realities