Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1881-12-29
POPULAR SCIENCE.

Steel Institute, England, DIR. Siemens
showed how steel could be economical.
y melted by the electric arc. An or
binary plumbago crucible is placed in a
metallic jacket, or case, ana the inter
yening space is filed up with charcoal
or some other bad conductor of heat.
Through the bottom of the crucible a
rod OF platinum or dense carbon passes.
A hole In the cover of the crucible ad-
mits the negative electrode, which is
suspended at one end of a beam by
means of a strip Of copper. The other
end OF the beam is attached to hollow
cylinder Of soft iron, free to move up
and down In coil of wire, one end of
which Is connected with the positive
and the other with the negative pole of
the arc. Five pounds of steel were
melted in 25 minutes.
The survey of Palestine east of the
Jordan is proceeding rapidly under the
superintendence of Lieut.. Condor.
When be last wrote several hundreds
Of miles had been measured with ac-
curacy, and a number of places having
more or less modern names were identi.
fed as those mentioned under different
titles In ancient history. He discovered
great many cromlechs, or fat stones,
supported like table with others set
on end. Not less than fifty of IN, Sc
monuments were sketched in tlree
days. Some Of them had small cl m
bers near them from three to five f.. :
long and three feet high, excavated il
detached cubes Of rock~ten to fifteen
feet on each side. The interest in the
work is increasing, and the results cam
not fail to be of great archaeological
Importance. !
An electric-magnet Of enormous di-
mensions has been made by Won Fell
itzsch and Holtz for the University of
Griefswald. The case is formed of %
iron plates bent into horseshoe shape
and connected by iron rings so as to
form cylinder 195 millimeters in di-
ameter. The height is 125 centimeters,
and the total weight is 275 kilo-
grammes. With so small Grove ele-
ments the magnet will fuse in two
minutes 40 grammes of Woods metal
in the Foucault experiment. The
plane of polarization is rotated in flint
glass after single passage. The core
OF the largest magnet hitherto known,
that of Plucker weighed "a kilo-
grammes and the wire IS kilogrammes.
From the Investigations of Profs.
Kedzie, Nessler, Barth, Fleck and
Schmitz, it appears that potato sugar
contains as impurities, sulphuric acid,
iron sulphate and lime. Its most dam
gerous Ingredient, however, is a bitter
matter which remains after the sugar
has passed into fermentation. and
which occasions cold sweats, oppress-
ion of the chest, headache and other
dangerous or annoying symptoms
Wines treated with potato sugar are,
consequently, pro ta1sto poisonous, and
the authorities given above question
ehether 1t should be permitted to be
employed in brewing.
The composition of buckwheat has
been examined by NJ. G. Lechartier.
He states that the proportion of min
eral matter in the straw increases with
the weight. The straw may indeed
become richer in phosphoric acid than
the grain, differing thus completely
from that Of the other cereals. The
straw of crop of buckwheat may con-
tain more mineral matter than does
the grain. The sum of the principal
fertilizers removed from the soil by an
entire crop is much more considerable
than for crop of wheat containing
the same quantity of grain.
A number of secondary batteries
have been arranged by NJ. Rouse. In
one he has for a negative pole palla-
dunn plate, and for a positive pole a
lead plate, using as liquid solution
Of sulphuric acid. He obtained good
results from another made of sheet
iron, lead and a solution of ammonia,
employing the lead either pure or COW
cred with htharge, or pure oxide, or
sulphate, or all these mixed. A third
form consisted Of sheet-iron and ferro-
manganese with sulphate of ammonia
ISOLATION.
BY securing variety in temperature,
through planting oysters in different
depths OF water, as practiced in Con-
necticut, the Scientific American says
oysters can be obtained in a fit condi-
ton for the table every week in the
year. The greater the heat the earlier
the oysters will spawn. Those in
deeper and colder water feel the heat
later. Some portion of the oyster field,
so to speak, will therefore be ready for
harvesting at all times.
An important undertaking has been
suggested by the opening of the st.
Gothard railroad. 1t is proposed to
connect the Adriatic with the Lago
Maggiore by system of canals, of
which the termini will be at Venice
and Magadino. This project presents
neither financial nor engineering diff
culties, and it will probably be actually
accomplished.
An egg deposited long ago by an os-
trich was discovered in subterranean
columbarium at Gonzaga. 1t has been
submitted to chemical examination
by NJ. Ballaud, and its composition was
found to differ from a recently laid
egg in that it had more carbonate and
phosphate of lime, and less of carbon
ate Of magnesia, etc.
A comparative crystallographic ex-
animation of the true diamond, of
bort and Of supposed amorphos carbon
has been made by Herr Baumhauer,
and he states that the difference is
merely one of more or less crystalliza-
tion, as the three forms pass into each
other by insensible gradations.
MN. Moleschott and Fabini find rea-
son to believe that the elimination of
carbonic acid from animals increases
under the influence of light, and that
light acts not ouly through the eye,
but over the whole surface of the
body.
Aluminium sulphate combined with