The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-04-06

The third meeting of the Publii
Health Congress will be held in Turin
from the 9th to the 18th of next Septem
ber. The President of the Provincial
Council of Turin has offered prize O
$500 for the best treatise on the "Appli
cation of Hygiene to Rural Popula
ti1ns." Men ofseminence in. science from
every portion of the civilized world will
be present at the meeting.
Herr KerpeH contends that manganese
and silicon do not harden steel low in
carbon, and that their hardening effect
decreases, even if the percentage of both
is high, as the quantities of both grow
equal. AS long as the percentage of sill.
con is not much more than half of that
of manganese the hardening effect of
both is noticeable, provided the percent
age of carbon does not fall below 0. is pei
cent.
An apparently exceptional fact in
frictional electricity has been observed
by Prof, Guthrie. Flannel is endowed
with positive electricity when rubbed
with ebonite. Ebonite spositively cleo
tritied when rubbed with glass. A fair
inference from these two results would
be that when flannel is'rubbed with glass
the positive electricity developed in the
flannel would be greater than when
ebonite is the exciting agent. But ac-
tual trial shows that flannel rubbed with
glass is made feebly negative. This
would seem to point to an interference
of heat action.
The Stewart lamp is one of the latest
novelties in electric light regulators. A
carbon rod of considerable length de-
scends vertically through the center of a
metal tube formed into the shape of a
ring, piece of insulated carbon placed
beneath the carbon-rod preventing the
latter from falling. The electric arc is
formed between the inside edge of the
ring electrode and the lower end of the
carbon rod. There is a flow of water
through the metal tubes to keep the lat
ter cool. The lamp is lighted by an cleo
tro-magnet bringing the metal electrode
momentarily into contact with the car
bon rod. This lamp is said to burn a
long time without any attention.
Mr.. G. P. Girdwood, of McGill Col
lege University, Montreal, gives the fol-
lowing as probably new experiment by
which the property of transparency of
gold may be exhibited If solution of
gold in aqua regia be neutralized with
carbonate of soda, and the gold precipi-
tated by adding a solution of oxalic acid
to the hot gold solution, the gold falls
down as yellow powder with bright
colored spangles. A microscopic exam
ination of this precipitate reveals trian-
gular and hexagonal plates, which trans
NIT light, the color Of which depends
upon the thickness of the crystal. When
one of the crystals happens to overlie
another, the edges are sharply defined by
the difference of color.
In Les Mondes, Nos, Dubrunfaut has
a paper on the mechanical equivalent of
fat in cattle. He shows that an increase
of muscular fiber is not connected with
the fattening process. An adult OK prop
erlyfed does not materially change in
weight. If yoked to plow, it effects in
a day of nine or ten hours a.quantity of
work not less than that of a'good horse.
To perform this work the animal con-
sumes 20 kilos of good hay, land the work
may be estimated at 100000 kilogran-
meters, or $3.50 calorics. If, instead of
converting the food into work, the ami
NAL is permitted to develop fat, it is
found that fat is formed at the rate of
about one kilo day. But one kilo of
fat will give 5000 to 5000 calorics, or
double the above thermic equivalent of
mechanical work-both the fat and the
labor being produced from the same
quantity of food.
The Engineer says that the Council of
Magistrates Of the city of Berlin have
appointed a special committee of engin-
eers and architects to examine into and
report upon the proposal submitted by
Siemans and Halske for the construction
of an electric railway across portion of
the capital. 1t is intended to begin the
line at the Belle Alliance Place and run
it through Friedrich and Chaussee streets
on to Wedding Place. The tracks-one
for the up and the other for the down
trains-will be supported by iron col
umns IA feet 9 inches high and 33 feet
apart. The carriages are to be narrow
and short, having only ten sitting and
four standing places. The electro
dynamic machine to move the train will
be placed under the floor Of the carriage,
between the wheels, and steam-engine
of sixty-horse power to produce the cleo
tricity will be placed at the terminus.
There will not be many stoppages, and
the rate of speed is estimated at about 20
miles an hour.
A curious contribution to the investi-
CATION of the influence Of the electric
light upon vegetation, begun so promis-
ingly by DIR. Siemens, hasjust been made
by Mr.. Thomas Routledge. Hesays that
in India the bamboo rarely shoots with
vigor before the occurrence of thunder
storm, and that the heavier the storm the
more rapid the growth, many measure
meuts giving from 2 to q feet in "a
hours, and as much as 20 feet in 80 days,
the greatest activity occurring during the