The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1881-11-02
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

Complied for tho Leader.
French authorities are investigating
the subject of the influence of school
room arrangements upon the eyes Of
pupils.
DR.. Danckwort has just tabulated the
positions of forty-six stars for the COM
mencement Of each century from 1000
B. c. to 1,800 A. B.
The preservation Of articles of diet
with salicylic acid has been prohibited
by the French government, it being
considered that this well-known pres
ervatiye agent is dangerous to health.
The h~ydro-carbon discovered some
time ago by a Frenchman still attracts
much attention on account Of its pecu-
liar property OF burning Mt a very slight
increase Of heat above the average of
the surrounding air. SO that, while its
light is very brilliant, its heat when
burning will not burn the hand or char
a handkerchief.
A curious electrical phenominon was
recently witnessed. during a thunder
storm In France, by NJ. Larague. The
tallest Of a group of lilies was envelop-
ed in a diffuse violet glimmer, forming
an auriole around the corolIa. The
light lasted eight or ten seconds. On
its disappearance the pollen of the
flower was found to have been scatter
cd, evidently by the electric fluid. 1t
is not stated that the lily was otherwise
injured by the remarkable manifes-
tation.
Observations by M. Rene Thure show
that the telephone Is remarkably SEN
sitive to lightning. He stretched a
metal wire between two houses, con.
Meeting me end with the earth and the
other with a telephone. During every
thunderstorm since 1879, he has been
able to hear sounds In the telephone al
the instant of the lighting-hash, and
this even when the lightning was esti.
mated to be twenty or twenty frye miles
away. At times the sounds became
quite loud.
In a recent paper on the principles
Of q copying ink to be used without a
press. Prof. Attwater, F. r. s., stated
that in practice he found the tbeoriti.
cal conditions of such an ink best filled
by the following preparations: Any or
binary black ink is reduced by evapora-
tion two-ffths Of its volume, when suf-
fcient glycerine is added to restore the
ink to its original quantity. A copy
from this ink is taken by simply press
} ing with the fingers a leaf of the copy.
ing-book over the writing.
A prize of $1,000, to be awarded in
Janury, 1884, is ioffered through the
Brussels royal academy Of medicine for
the best essay on diseases of lhe ner.
vous centres, particularly epilepsy. A
second sum Of 5000 is to be awarded
the essayist IL he makes a decided ad.
vance in the therapeutics OF such di.
seases-such, for instance, as the dis
covery Of a successful method of treat
ing epilepsy. Another prize:of $4,000
is offered by the Turin academy OF
medicine for the best essay on .the
physiopathology of the blood"
In the British golfers numerous ex-
periments have been made to determine
the cause of explosions in the mines,
and these results are now accepted as
correct by most of the experimenters: /.
Explosions are usually caused by the
presence Of coal-dust in air containg O
small amount of true fire-damp, the
Davy lamps serving to deteckthe pres
ence of dangerous gases When in suf-
fcient quantity to alone cause explos-
ion. .. Mixtures of coal-dust and air
without fire-damp are not explosive.
The researches have shown that air
containing no more than two per cent
of fire damp IA quantity SO small as to
escape notice. is unsafe in the presence
of coal-dust.
The earliest attempt to obtain light
by incandescence in a vacuum was
made by king, In lS43. who applied con-
%tinuous metallic and carbon conduc-
tors, and heated them by the electric
current in a Torricellian vacuum. He
was followed in 184S by Static, who used
an iridium, or an iridium and platinum
wire, and enveloped the holder in glass
or some other non-conductor. In 1872,
Konn employed graphite, and rendered
it incandescent In IN atmosphere Of
nitrogen, in which there was no vast
ing away Of the carbon. The same
principles have been followed, but with
greater promise Of success, In the more
recent attempts Of Edison, Maxim and
Swan at producing illumination by
means Of incandescence.
iet. Habituai Costiveness
is the bane OF nearly every American
No.. "a -.-Ir - -