The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1882-07-13
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

SClENIlElC MlSt EkANIs
Herr Kohlrausch has recently made
experiments disproving common mo-
ton that sunshine affects the draught Of
chimney.
Extended microscopical examinations
have convinced Prof. Reinsch that coal
is largely formed of remains of low or
der Of marine lire, and not entirely from
land plants.
Ninety per cent. of the yellow sand of
the Sahara desert is found to be quartz
grains, the angles of which are remark
ably rounded evidently by attrition
through the action of the wind.
The coal required in Lond IN for
lighting purposes and motive power Sir
Henry Bessemer would have burned at
the mines from which it is procured.
The GOALS energy might then be trans
mitted to the metropolis over copper
wire in the form of electricity, at vast
saving of expense. He estimates that
a. 900 horse power, requiring an annual
consumption of over a million tons of
coal, might in this way be conveyed to
London over single copper wire one
inch in diameter. An important ad-
vantage of the plan in addition to the
saving in cost, is that the combustion of
SO large an amount of coal at distance
instead of in the city limits would con-
siderably reduce the quantity of smoke
in the London atmosphere.
The great earthquake record of Mallet
catalogues between 5000 and 1000 earth
qaakes between the years 1905 B. @. and
A. D. 1842. Probably the most memo
rable of these is the terrible earthquake
which destroyed Lisbon in 1855. With
scarcely a moment of warning rumble,
violent shock came which overturned
the city, and in six minutes 10000 per-
sons had persisted and portion OF the
town was permanently engulfed ut
depth of 600 feet below the surface ct
the bay. The shock was felt with great.
er or less severity over o great area, ex-
tending from the Baltic to the West In
dies and from Canada to Algeris. Hum
boldt estimates that a portion of the
earth's surface equal to four times the
size of Europe was affected.
Prof. Hofer states that the heat in the
deepest workings of the Adalbert silver
mines in Bohemia-about 3400 feet be-
low the surface-is far from being ex-
cessive. The temperature Of the rock is
but about rs degrees Fahrenheit. while
that of the atmosphere is small fraction
of degree higher. In some parts of the
Comstock lode in Nevada, the tempera-
ture is 100 to 1877 degrees at depth of
1900 to 1000 feet. 1t is generally
known that geologists find the average
increase in the earths internal heat from
the surface downward to be one degree
for every sixty feet of descent. In the
case of the Adalbert mines the increase,
allowing the surface temperature to be
so degrees, would be one degree for
each 13l feet of descent; and the highest
average in the Comstock lode cannot be
less than one degree to every 10 feet.
OF the inconceivable minuteness of
certain forms of life, some of which are
of vital concern to mankind, Professor
Proctor says: 'The minute organism
capable of inducing changes analogous
to the fermentation caused by yeast,
have received great attention of late
wears, and several important diseases are
traced to them. Bechsmp esti-
mated that s, 900, 0O0, 900 of germs Of one
only occupied one cubic
twenty of an incn. Not one OF these
minute bodies could develop except by
on complicated processes of
nature, involving very active
of its atoms and molecules.
The mathematicians have made calcula-
tons founded on the pressure exerted by
the gases and other considerations,
which show that q particle of the
sort of matter-such as albumen
and protoplasm-chiefy concerned
in this processes, contains in q space of
ono cubic thousandth of an inch more
molecules than any one could possibly
form any conception of. Sorby, taking
. probable mean of much calculations
supposes one cubic thousandth of an
inch OF water to contain $500, 000, OOO,-
900 900 molecules. A sheet Of ordinary
note paper il about one-thousandth Of an
inch thick. One tenth of this would
be one-ten thousandth Of an inch, and
q little square box Of that size each way
would hold the amazing number Of wa
ter molecules mentioned. Perhaps .
few thousand molecules may suffice for
some manifestations Of life, but even II
many millions should be requisite for the
structure of the humblest and simplest
germ. We could never expect to see the
"A. Il Aa~s-sN~~ 81 liz "