Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1882-06-22
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

Sir Henry Bessewer would have burn
ed at the mines from which it is pro
: cured. The GOALS energy might then
be transmitted to the metropolis over
copper wire in the form of electricity,
q: a vast saving Of expense. He es
Inmates $4,000 horse power, requiring
an annual consumption Of over mil
lion TONS of coal, might in this way be
conveyed to London ever single cop.
per wire one inch in diameter. An
important advantage of the plan, in
: addi ion to the saving in cost, is that
the combustion Of S, la'ge an amount
of coal at distance instead Of in the
city limits wouli consider by reduce
the quantity of smoke in the London
atmosphere.
The great earthquake record Of NAL
let Catalogues between 5000 and 1000
earthquakes between The years 1905
B. G. and A. d. 1912, Probably the
most memorable Of these is the terri
BILE earthquake VII CHI destroyed Lisbon
in 1865. With scarcely moment of
warning rumble, violent shock came
which overturned t. e city, and in six
'minut 10000 persons lad persisted
and port II Of tho town was perma-
ncnt!y engufed at a depth IF 600 feet
below the surface Of the bay. The
shock was felt with greater or l,ss Sc.
verify over great area, extending
from the Baltic to the West Indies and
from Canada to Algeria. Humboldt
estimates that prtlon IF the arlhs
surface cqu.l to four times the size of
Europe was affected.
Herr Kohlrausch has recently made
experiments disproving a common no
ton that sunshine affects the draught
of chimney
Extended microscopical examina-
ations have convinced Prof. Rcinch that
coal is largely formed of remains of a
law urder of marine life, and not en-
tirely from land lants.
Ninety per cent. of the yellow sand
of tho Sahara dessr. i, found 10 he
quartz grains, the angles of which are
re narkably rounded--evidently by Ut
triton hrough the action Of the wind.
OF the inc 'nceivable minutencss Of
certain forms of life which are Of vital
concern to mank nd, Prof. Proctor
says: "The minute organisms capable
OF indac ng changes analagou, TO the
fermentation caused by yeast have re.
ceived great attention flate year, AID
several important discus are distinct.
~ traced to them. Bechamp es mated
that 5000, 100000 OF ger.us of Que
micro farmens' only occupied one cubic
twenty fifth Of an inch. Not one of
these minute bodies could develop ex.
cept by carrying on complicated pro,
'cesses OF chemical nature, involvin.
very active movements OF its atoms
and molecules. The n,athen. aticians
h-ye made calculations founded on the
pressure exer'ed by the gases, and
other considerations, which show that
particle Of the sort Of mat,er-such
- a'bumen and protoplasm y chiefly
concerned in lite processes, contains IN
o space OF one cubic thousandth of an
inch more molecules than any one
could possibly form any conception of.
Sorhy, taking probable mean of such
calcnlatlons, suppose one cubic thous-
andsh OF an inch Of water to contain
100000, 900. 100000 molecules. A
sheet Of ordinary note paper is about
Cne-hundredth Of an inch thick. One.
tenth Of this would, Of course, Le one.
thousandth OF an inch, aud a little
square box Of that size each way would
hold the amazing number If water
molecules mentioned. Perhaps few
thousands Of such molecules may suf
hce for some manifestations of life,
but even if many millions should be
requisite FIR the structure of the hum.
b!est and simplest germ, we could new.
er expect to see the actual beginnings
Of life"
Prot. Hofer states that the heat in
the deepest workings Of The Adalbert
silver mines in Bohemia-atout 3,4OO
feet below the surface-is far from be
Ing excessive. The temperature #
the rock is but about &c degrees Fab
renhei,, while that If the atm sphere
Is small fra.tion of degree higher.
In some parts OF the Comstock lode 10
Nevada the temperature is 1870 to 1877
de-rees at depth OF 1900 to 200
feet. 1t is generally known that geo
slos,s's lind the average increase in the
earth's Internal heat from the surface
downward to be che d gree for every
60 feet Vt descent. In tho case of the
Adalbert mines the increase-alowiny
the surface temperature to be SO dc
grers-would be one degree for each
l3l feet of descent; and the highes,
average in the Co,nstock lode cannot
ba less than one degree to every 10
feet.
Kal,enbach has described an aston.
Bhlng number of insects as found nm