The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1882-02-18
Wonderful Strength Of Insects.
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erful microscope. The drop OF Croton
water was fairly alive with little round
or oval bodies. There was nothing
specially remarkable about them; but
soon wonderful creature rolled upon
the scene from distant part of the
drop. In appearance il resembled a crys-
tai bell. The edges were ornamented
with delicate fringe, and the entire
mass was as transparent as glass. The
mouth of the bell was evidently the
mouth Of the animal, because the obsery-
er saw it rush along like a scoop, and,
turning down, fasten its edges to the
bottom, as if TO secure some minute ami
NAL that was resisting, and second later
some object could be seen passing up
into the body.
IF you had the strength Of that ami
NAL the naturalist said, ''in proper
ton to your size, you could take Trinity
Church by its steeple and toss it over
into New Jersey There are animals in
this drop that we can't see with this pow
erful glass. Suppose there was this same
difference in size among the higher ami
mails. Elephants would be'as large as
the State Of Rhode Island. Ifthis bell ami
NAL was rs much larger than man os it
is than these little creatures it is eating,
VIC would see a gigantic scoop Of jelly,
larger than the Forty-second street
| reservoir. coming down on us, whrng
in the water and causing such a suction,
! that a regiment Of men would, if in the
| az Ha ft,ft- tod but
encompassed by it. The strength Of the
creature can be imagined when it is
| known that the smallest section Of the
| finest hair that could be cut seemed Ike
a mountain beside it, yet the micro
scopic creature moved the end Of an en-
tire hair placed over the glass, In NOV
ing about it threw aside bits of algm and
mud. That could be compared to the
act Of single man striking down one
| Of the giant trees Of California or kick
ing over block Of houses am devils
| ing an instrument to measure the power
OF these microscopic giants You 500
| among the lot there are always a num-
Der that seem, from no special cause to
be in great terror, rushing about wildly,
stopping at nothing, passing through
masses Of weed and mud in direct lines.
! Now, the force with which they bring
up against a barrier is certainly the
maximum of their strength; SO | arrang-
ed machine after the plan Of one that |
| have seen 10 measure the velocity Of q
shot, the latter striking frame, and
the force Of the blow being recorded on
scale. For my partition took what
was evidently the egg shell or cover Of
some microscopic animal. attached
it by one end to larger body, and tho
whole thing stood over delicate scale
that was cut on the glass slide, and as
the animals rushed along they struck
the partition or hand and pushed it
around the scale
"What was the result?n
"Well, to tell the truth, the first one
that came along broke down the parti-
ton, aud | haven't been able to adjust
il again. When do III let you know.
! haven't sold any stock yet, and haven't
even applied for patent, so the general
| public won suffer have in hand an
other instrument with which intend to
| measure the movements Of the wings
and legs of insects per minute and
second, and | think they can be photo.
! graphed as well as the feet of trotter
while in motion. This will be fine work,
as with simple instrument / have
shown that the wings OF common
house-ly move more than 200 times per
second, and the machine lost more than
half the vibrations. | have watched a
fly for five minutes hanging almost in
one spotunder chandelier kept up by
the continuous movement Of the wings,
and estimated that the operation requir-
ed over 100000 beats of the wings, or
over 400 q second or 500 simple oscilla-
tons; and the house-hy is not as lively
As some others of the tribe. have, in
following wild bees TO find their nests,
found that they are often on the wing
thirty minutes in forty-liye, the allow
ance being for the time in which they
were on flowers, and during that period
they must have beat their wings $4,000
times. A spider can bind fly securely,
winding twenty or thirty cables of silk
| about it. in less than second and u
half These rapid movements show the
wonderful physical powers Of small ami
mails. Here are some contriyanccS TO
measure the strength of beetles and
large insects"
One was n long box. sanded on the
bottom, with glass sides. At the end
was a small friction wheel, over which
ran silk thread. On one end was at
tached n tissue paper receptacle for
weights, and the other was tied in a slip
moose. A large black ant was taken
from flask, the moose caugS around
his body, and, on being released, rushed
away up the miniature street, hosting
the scales and three grains of corn with
the greatest ease. A small red ant was
then brought out, and, after several false
starts, and showing evidence of n de-
cidedly mulish disposition, it ran oil,
hosting very heavy pea,
can ant can carry weight about
seventy-iive times It's own the natu-
ralist said. If you had the muscle of
one of these little creatures in proper
ton to your size, you could lift about
1000 pounds"
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