The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1881-05-19
SCIENTIFIC NOTES.

Pasteur states that nt a farm near
Senlis cattle which had died of carbun
cular fever twelve years ago were buried
at certain spot within walled gar
den. Some specimens of the soil were
after that lapse of time lixiviated and
concentrated, and some guinea pigs in
oculated with the matter thus obtained
died soon afterward, developing all of
the well-marked symptoms of carbuncle
Seven sheep were allowed to pass q few
hours day at the place where the dis.
eased animals we're inferred, and the re.
suit OF this experiment was that two of
the sheep died of fever in ehoat six
weeks. The vitality of the germs of
this disease is remarkable.
On August 25, 1880, during thunder.
storm in broad daylight, NJ. Trecul saw.
as he states in paper read before the
French Academy of Science on March
%, a very brilliant elongated body,
about thirty-eigh to forty centimeters
long by twenty-five centimeters broad,
with conical ends, pass from one part
of dark cloud to another and before
disappearing and dividing above the
houses a small part of its substance fell,
as if influenced by gravity, and devel-
oped path of luminous nature mark
ed on the sides with round protuber-
ances of q reddish color. The author
adds that in other thundei>storms he
has repeatedly noticed feeble light,
band-like in shape, lighting up the
width of the street in whole or in part.
The MekarskI air engine is about to
be introduced for street railroads in
England. 1t can be used in combina-
tion with Ger or separately. This
locomotive weighs about rs tons, and
consists of cylindrical steel reservoirs
that are charged with air at pressure
of 450 pounds TO the square inch before
starting, a special regulating apparatus,
and ordinary cylinders and driving gear.
The air passes through reservoir of
hot water and steam to the regulator,
and thence to the cylinders. The heat
thus impaired to the air increases its
volume and prevents the freezing of
moisture in the exhaust passages.
When this engine is working there is
no noise, and there is the further and
obvious advantage of an absence of
smoke, This type of motor has been
in successful operation in Nantes for
about two years.
1t was discovered few years ago that
trees decreased somewhat in girth dur
ing the winter season. 1t was supposed
before that, their liquors freezing, as
other liquors do, they should rather ex-
pand than shrink. Nature, however, is
not ordered after the wisdom of men.
Water expands in proportion as it rises
above the freezing point, and it also
expands when it goes below. So long
before it was proved by the carefully
conducted observations of Dr. Hayes,
in the Arctic regions, the laundress
knew that the colder the weather the
more the linen dried, that low tenn
perature as well as high temperature
favored evaporation. Trees evaporate
from their branches in winter, and thus
the colder the weather the more they
shrink. Some new facts in this class
have recently been added by two Ger
man scientists, Kravs and Kaiser Trees
not only vary their diameters from win
ter to summer, but also from day to
day. They are larger from noon to
twilight next morning, smaller from
twilight till noon. Although not so
stated, this is also no doubt, due to
evaporation, which is probably greater
in the morning growth than at any
other time. The demand for moisture
shrinks the vessels and lessons the girth.