The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1880-02-22
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY

All eleclric log TOT Salllng vessels is
among the late practical applications OF
electricity.
The international conference on Arc
tic exploration, which has been in ses-
sion at Hamburg, advocates the gradu-
al establishment of a chain of stations
towards the polar regions.
A large workshop in France has been
lighted during the present winter by
means of Clamond's thermo-electric
light, the electricity being generated by
the heat used to warm the shop.
Mr.. Henry E. Vennor claims to be
fast reducing to rule the principle of re-
curing periods in the weather, and ex-
poets to soon be able to prognosticate
the general behavior of entire seasons.
In one of a series of photographs of
the moon. taken by Mr.. George Ber-
wick on very sensitive plates, three
well-defined rings around the moon are
shown. The cause of the singular ap-
pearance has not been determined.
The rare and beautiful phenomenon
of the Jata morgana was lately observed
at Freiburg, in Breisgau. While the
sun was shining brightly the fine pyra-
mid of the Cathedral tower was reflect
ed in the atmosphere just above its
summit, of course with the point down.
ward.
Measurements of trees, taken in Scot
land in the summer seasons of 1878 and
1879, show a growth from ten to forty
one per cent less during the latter year
than in the former. The mean temper
allure of the summer of 1878 was fully
five per cent higher than in the corre-
spending period of 1879.
Wasps' nests are frequently ignited
by some chemical action. supposed to
be that of the wax upon the paper-lKe
substances of which the nests are form
ed. Spontaneous combustion of this
nature is believed to have been the
cause of many mysterious fires in hay
stacks and farmers buildings,
Thu. annual prize of $4,000 francs.
given by the king of the Belgians for
works of a scientific character, is now
offered for the year 1881. 1t will be
awarded the author of the best work on
the means of improving seaports situat-
ed upon low and sandy coasts-such as
Belgian ports. The competition is an
international n open to all. All works
must be sent to the "Ministere de PIN
t~erieur" at Brussels, before January LIST
next.
The inhabitants of the Andaman Is
lands carry necklaces composed of frag-
ments of the bones of deceased relatives,
while the widows among them are stat
ed to actually wear the skulls of their
late husbands on their shoulders. In a
recent lecture on ethnology, Prof. Flow.
er exhibited the skull of an Andamese
man, to which was attacked a very ell.
egant webbed sling by which it had
been suspended from the neck of the
widow.
Mr.. R. Russell calls attention to the
fact that the essential conditions requir.
ed to enable men to fly to a moderate
distance now eXist-namely, the mean:
of conveying force with ease, and, sec.
ondly, the convertibility of force thu.
conveyed into the mechanical rotation
or oscillation of vanes. 81 cannot, ;
says he, ''be wrong-in assuming tha|
a stream engine sending an electrical
current apparatus might cause the ap
paratus Clearing a mar to direct it, tt
ascend to a considerable height above
the earth"
Concerning the possibility that So
dom and Gomorrah were destroyed by
meteors, Prof...Proctor writes: sit cal
readily be shown that Trempel's comet
in whose track the November meteor!
travel, must have passed near, and ma,
have passed very near, to the earth, a
the time when, according to tradition
Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed
by fire from heaven. Now /
so happens that at the time mentioned
in the verse: ''The sun was risen up
on the earth when Lot entered int
Zoar; then the Lord rained upon Sodon
and Gomorrah birthstone and fire from
the Lord out of heaven these cite
lay almost centrally on hat disc of tn
earth which was turned at the tim
towards the radiant of the Novembe
meteors. \ ~ If ever a specia
and not any large district of the cart
could be so rained upon by meteors tina
towns in it could be destroyed, the cat
astrophe would unquestionably be at
tended by just such circumstances
that is, the region would be as fully a
possible exposed to the hail of meteors
and this hail would be as heavy rs pos
sible, which would requiie that eithe
comet or a part of its meteor train yer,
close to the comet should be the source
of the meteoric hail The velocity will
which, under such conditions, the mete
ors would rush through the air would
amount to about forty miles an hour. /
is noteworthy also that the Noyembe
meteors have been found under spectre
scopic analysis of their light to contain