Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-11-28
FACTS FOR THE CURIOUS.

The Word STARVATION. Strange
as 1T may appear, says the London
Notes and Queries, it is nevertheless
quite true that this word, now unhap-
! ply so common on every tongue, as
representing the condition Of so many Of
the sons and daughters of the sister
lands of Great Britain and ireland. is
not found IN our own English diction-
aries; neither In Todd's johnson"
published in 1926, nor in Richardson's.
published ten years later-nor in Stu
art's-Walker's remodeled published
about the same time as Richardson's.
1t is Webster who has the credit of i'm
porting it from Lis country into this
and in supplement issued a few years
ago Mr.. Stuart adopted it as "a trivial
word, but in very common, and, at pres
ent, good use."
HAIR GROWING AFTER DEATH.-Wul-
zerus, IN Philosophical Collections"
| gives an account of woman buried at
Hornberg, whose grave being opened
forty-three years after her death, there
was hair found issuing forth plentifully
through the clefts of her coffin mas
much as there was reason to imagine
the coffin had some time been covered
all over with hair. The cover being re-
moved, the whole corpse appeared in its
perfect shape, but from the crown of the
head to the sole of the foot covered
with thick-set hair, long and curled.
The sexton going to handle the upper
part of the head with his fingers, the
the whole structure fell at once, leaving
nothing in his hand but a handful of
hair there was neither skull nor any
other bone left, yet the hair was solid
and strong enough. Mr.. Arnold, ia the
same work, gives a relation of a man
hanged for theft, who, in little time,
while yet hung from the gibbet, had his
body strangely covered over with hair.
Hot IcE.-A correspondent OF Nature,
after numerous experiments on the boil
ing points of substances under low pres
sure, came to the conclusion that it
would be possible to have solid ice at
temperatures far above the ordinary
melting point. He says: CATER sew
eral unsuccessful attempts, I was so
fortunate as to obtain the most perfect
success, and have obtained solid ice at
temperatures so high that it was impos-
sible to touch it without burning ones
self. This result has been obtained
many times, and with the greatest ease;
and not only so, but on one occasion a
small quantity of water was frozen in q
glass vessel which was so hot that it
could not be touched by the hand with
out burning it. l have had ice a con-
siderable length of time at temperatures
far above the ordinary boiling point,
and even then it only sublimed away
without any previous melting. These
results were obtained by maintaining
the superintendent pressure below
46mm. of Mercury e., the tension of
aqueous vapor at the freezing point of
water Other substances also exhibit
these same phenomena, the most nota-
bic of which is mercuric chloride, for
which latter the pressure need only be
reduced to 420mm. On letting In the
pressure the substance at once hGuifes.
PHILOSOPHY OF THE ECHO.-A man
somewhat unfamiliar with acoustics who
wanted to experiment with his own echo
proceeded to the vicinity of large rock.
He spoke, but no returning voice came.
He spoke loud with no better success.
At length, after straining his vocal or
gans to their utmost pitch, he left the
place and consulted man versed in
physical science "You stood too near
the rock, my friend" said the naturalist.
"Go back and stand at least 100 feet
away from it and you will hear the echo
This is explained as follows Reckoning
one-fifth of a second as the time of pro-
nouncing one syllable, the space trav-
ersed by sound in this time is about
200 feet. Consequently an object must
be at least half this distance before it
can send back a single syllable, for the
sound must travel to the rejecting body
and then back. Surprising five sylia-
bles to be pronounced in second and
taking the velocity of sound at LOO
feet per second, a distance of $50 feet
from the speaker to the rejecting body
would enable the speaker to complete
the fifth syllable before the return OF the
first. This is at the rate of 10 feet per
syllable. At distances of less than 100
feet there is not time for the distinct re-
Election OF q single syllable, but the re-
fected sound mingles with the voice Of
the speaker. This is particularly OBJ
servable under vaulted roofs.
BOILING WATER IN a SHEET OF PAPER.
Nature is publishing a series of at
tractive articles on "Physlcs Without
Apparatus. In the latest number are
given experiments for boiling water and
melting lead ON a piece of paper: Take
o piece of paper and fold it up, as
school-boys do, into a square box, with
out lid. Hang this up to walking
stick by four threads and support the
stick upon hooks or other convenient
props. Then lamp or taper must be
placed under this dainty caldron. In a
few minutes the water will boil. The
only fear is lest the threads should catch
fire and let the water spill into the lamp
and over the table. The flame must
therefore not lie too large. The paper
does not burn, because it is wet and
even if it resisted the wet it still would
not burn through, because the heat i'm
parted to it on one side by the flame
would be very rapidly conducted away
by the water on the other. Another ex-
pertinent of similar nature, but, per-
haps, even more striking, is as follows
Twist up the edges of a common play
ing-card or other bit of cardboard, so as
to fashion it into light tray. On this
tray place layer of small shots or bits
of lead, and heat it over the fame of a
lamp. The lead will melt but the card