The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1880-01-16
SCIENTIFIC M ISCELLANY.

occurrence, notwithsta nding the large
number Of meteors which annually
reach the eartb's surface
An English chemist claims TO have
succeeded In crystal izing carbon.
Specimens of the crystals are said to
have been shown to Prof. Tyndall, who
pronounces them undoubtedly dia-
monds.
Prof. Proctor expresses considerable
confidence In the success OF Edison's
electric light. He thinks 1t not i'm
probable that the heat of the sun may
be at some time utilized in driving the
electric generators.
A wick for petroleum and spirit
lamps is now manufactured entirely OF
glass by German firm. 1t Is said to
produce a more brilliant light than the
cotton wick. 1t is not consumed in the
flame but wastes away slowly by fu-
sion.
The stenographer of the Italian sem
ate has devised an instrument which Is
claimed to produce speech in ordinary
printed characters as rapidly as 1t is
spoken, word of several syllables be-
ing recorded by single touch of the
keys.
The metric system has now been
adopted by twenty-eight different ma
tions. including majority of the civ
ilized world. In eleven countries 1t Is
in exclusive use; while in several, as
Germany and France, there are penal
ties for using any other measures.
The tremendous energy concentrated
in flash of lightning is shown by Prof.
Mayer of the Stevens Institute, In an
observation from which he concludes
that at least five hundred square miles
of the earth's surface had its electrical
condition changed at each flash of the
lightning.
A German experimenter has proved
that, in hardening, steel undergoes All
increase in volume. The thicker the
bar is, the less the increase of mass,
and the less 1t is hardened. BY anneal-
ing the volume is decreased again until,
al the gray tint, it is ABOUT the same as
in the raw state.
A phosphoresccnt powder has been
produced which becomes very strongly
luminous under the influence of cleo
iricity. The inventors propose apply.
Ing it to the lighting of buoys. The
phosphorcscent substance will be placed
in current produced by the action oil
sea- water OH zinc and copper plates.
One of the hottest localities on the
globe ia along the Persian Gulf, where
rain seldom or never falls. At BahriD
Iho arid shore has no fresh water, yet n
considerable population contrives to ex-
list there, thanks to the oopious springs
If fresh water which Issue from the
bottom of the sea. The fresh water j.
secured by divers, and brought to the
surface in large goat-skin bags. The
source of these submarine springs is
hought to be In the green hill of o..
nam, some five or six hundred miles
distant.
The new Mexican inter.oceanic rail.
way across the lsthmus of Tehuante
pee is to pass through the state of CHA.
PAS, which probably contains the Onl,
population in the world which possesses
10 iron, nor anything of the nature OF
IN iron industry, even of the crudesi
form. For the distance of eighty miles
,ruund Palenque, the capital, not a sin.
gle blacksmith can be found, and the only
articles of iron are axes and nachetas
imported from the United States. Nails
are unknown, all the wood work being
| leId together by cords Or the tendrils
| IF vines; and even their tortilla, OF
corn cake, is prepared by grinding the
maize between stones. The new rail
way through this territory has clearly
a well-defined educational as well a,
commercial development to undertake
The mysterious power, electricity, /,
undergoing every kind of manipulation
by enthusiastic scientists In endeavors
to adapt it to the performance of man'i
work, and its many applications attes
its inestimable value. A new sugges
ion, and striking one, is the use o
electricity as means of executing the
death penalty. A German writer i'm
posingly describes the plan of execu
lion: :" In dark room, draped will
black and which is lighted only by 9
single .orch-the chamber Of execution
there shall stand an iron image o
Justice, with her scales and sword
Stern Justice is popularity supposed t.
have 10 bowels, but the German god
dcss will carry a powerful battery IL
her inside; aud this battery will b.
connected with an arm chair-the sea
of death. In front of the chair shal
stand The indoe's tribunal and only IN
indye. ;nry and other oficers shai, n
nresent with the criminal during IN
ceremony of execution. This will cor
sist in the judges reading the story Q
the crime committed bv the DrisOnei
who will he rigidlv n.uac,ad to ~
asnress;d arn.chsir and vvhsn ,h,s i
done' the judoe will breat b;s rod :
nfice. and toss n into one of The seal.
mans of .Justice' at the sswa ,;,rs 30, a,
iinyuishin0 the solitary torch The a,
scent of the scale-pan will comnlete m
: .Ie,tric lcircnit- and shoct tho wre,c
; ;nto ,hs next world - '"' w
The attention of sight-seekers has Il
more than year been attracted to II
Kane Gcyser, or spouting water wei
/ ;,ua,o1 l., ,ho .,olla,, ~ vU:Io..,y. d..