The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1881-05-19
SCIENTIFIC.

1t is said that, during hail-storm ir
Geneva on Jan. 10, Prof. Colladon OBJ
served that the hail-stones repelled
each other as they fell, and that after
lying quiet for a moment or two On the
ground, bounded about like the electric
hail experiment of Newton with pith
balls.
Prof. Tidy, in paper read before the
London Chemical society, restates, in
reply to DR.. Frankland. his firm con-
viction shat fairly rapid river. having
received sewage in quantity not exceed
ing one-twentieth of its volume regains
its purity after run of a few miles,
and becomes wholesome and good fol-
drinking.
In a centigrade photometer invented
by S. Coglievina, there is an attempt
made to remedy the imperfection OF
other instruments by substituting for a
single source of lis ght. defined by the
substance of the combustion. or its
hourly consumption. a name of variable
size, which can be reduced 10 any par
ticular degree of Illuminating power.
1t is the intention of Coglievina to APP
ply the same principle in dealing with
electric and other sources of light.
Prussic acid remains for a consider
able time in the bodies of animals poi
soned with it, and arrests their decay.
M. Brame killed rabbit and rat by
administering to each a gramme of this
acid. A month afterward their bodies
were found perfectly preserved, the
dose being sufficient to permeate the
issues, and to become intimately incor-
porated with those of the stomach.
Rusty-colored spots were noticed on
some hammock-canvas used by the
French army in Algeria. DIR. Tripler
reported that when the canvas was
washed dark spots appeared, and the
material soon fell to pieces. M. Balland
made this matter the subject of a paper
read on Feb. % before the French Aca-
deny of Sciences, and said that the
spots were probably due to iron sui
phite. produced by alkaline sulphides
in the artificial soda, and by iron oxide
fixed by the stuff in manufacture. The
sulphide passed into the state of sui
phate under atmospheric influences by
a combustion which caused q destruc-
ton of the canvas.
Prof. Goeppert, of the University of
Breslau, while journeying through
Rhineland by the Bergisch-Markische
railway, stopped for a short time at
Elderlield. Something struck him as
peculiar in the structure of certain
blocks of stone only lately uncovered
in making an excavation. Subsequent
ly he secured these blocks, and had
some of them sent to Breslau and some
to Bonn. They were found to contain
a fossil tree of the araucarites family.
The rock inclosing the fossil was the
upper Devonian of Elberiield. This
affords evidence of terrestrial flora
existing long before the great bogs
were formed which gave us our coal
seams. The fossil tree has received the
name of A'uaca,Ites elte,1eldensis.
MIR. j. w. Swan, in a paper on the
subdivision of the electric light, does
not hope for any extensive and eco
nomical subdivision of the light by
lamps in which there is combustion.
The true incandescent lamps prevent
the combustion of the carbon in one
OF two days-either by the entire ex-
haustion of the air from the chamber
in which the heated carbon is placed.
or by the filling of the chamber with
an inert gas such as nitrogen. Both
these expedients were tried by the early
inventors. and both have still their ad-
VocaCeS. 1He carry eApeflmeHtcfS IalIeu
to accomplish what they sought from
three causes, any one of which was
sufficient to bar the way. First, the
carbons employed were SO thick as to
require a large current to produce the
temperature in them; second,
the carbons were not durable, and
third. the lamp-glass speedily became
obscured. He showed that it was the
invention of the Sprengel pump, and
the use Mr.. Crookes showed could be
made of it, that has caused modern
to be so successful as they
are in obtaining electric light by in