The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1882-05-13

es the tremendous velocity of 500 miles
an hour-592 miles being the average.
The appropriations of tue British
Government for scientific purposes this
year include $1,000 to the Meteorological
Council for furnishing weather forecasts
to newspapers without cost. The same
liberal patron of science will be called
upon to contribute SIS 600 to defray the
expenses of observing the transit of Venus
in December.
A London medical officer, DR.. Glib
bon, is authority for the statement that
the Jews OF London average twice as long
period of'life as the Christians. Pull
monary consumption and scrofula are
almost unknown among the Jews of the
metropolis. Their children seem to suf-
fer less from disease than do those of the
English and Irish Gentiles in neighbor-
ing localities.
Prof. Nordenskjold during his Arctic
voyages was perplexed by the question,
what becomes of the bodies OF animals
which iie natural deatb2 He worry SELL
dom found such remains, and declared
that on Spitzsdbergen it was easier to
find vertebrG &C monster extinct reptiles
than the bones OF the seal, walrt,s or bird
of the present day The problem is yet
unsolved.
The micro-te elephone has been ap-
piled by Count Won EuRenberg, in the
Tyrol, to the discovery of underground
streams of water. He buries several
microphones in the soilj connecting each
with telephone. With this atrange-
ment he is enabled, in the quiet of night,
to distinguish the gurgle OF flowing water
at considerable depth in the earth.
The havoc wrought by lightning is
often frightful. 4 few weeks ago a thun-
derbolt struck chimney $50 feet high
located in town in the north of FrInce
and cut deep fissure in its entire
length, Among other examples of like
powerful effects, Arago states that in 1862
lightning destroyed the turfet ola church
at Co-nonaillcs, and threw stone weigh.
ing not less than 2l5 pounds to a distance
If $50 feet; aud, 10 1909, wall near
Manchester, weighing more than rs tonsj
was lifted from its foundation and re-
moved nine feet at one end by very
violent thundcfbolt.
An oriental writer has recently given
an interesting description of an ancient
burial in the Chinese empire. Ii was the
custom for the wealthy man to procure
his coffin when he had reached the age of
forty. He would then have it painted
three times year with composition
resembling silieate paint or enamel which
formed an exceedingly hard coating The
process of making this paint is now one
Of the lost arts of China. Ii the owner
of the coffiu lived long enough, the fire.
quent painting each coat being of con
siderabl thickness caused it TO assume
the appearance of a sarcophagus. with
| foot or more of this hard. stone-l like shtl II.
After death the veins aud cavities of the
stomach were filled with quicksilver for
the purpose of preserving the body, A
piece of jade would then be placed in
each nostril and tar, aud in one hand,
while a piece of bar silver would be
pl iced in the otherhand. The body thus
prepared was placed on layer of quick
silver within the cofinj the latter WAS
sealed, and the whole deposited in its
final resting place. When some of these
sareophagi were opened after lapse OF
centuries, the bodies were found to be
perfectly preserved, but they quickly
crumbled to dust on being exposed TO
/ the air.
-Colladon lorg ago noticed incident
ally that distinctions in the path of
sound decide dly lessons the intensity OF
the vibrations. These ''sound shadows
are known to be much more distinct in
donse medium like water than in mir,
Prof John LIE Conte has recently given
results of some further experiments on
the subjects in which he took advantage
of some dynamite blasts being made nm
der water. He immetsed a vertical pile,
about foot in diameter. at a distance Of
about forty feet from the explosive cara
fridge Bottles and glass tub,s were
sbiVersd BY the conclusion OF the e&plo-
sions when placed outside the geOmelri-
cal shadow of the pile, but protected
when within it. TIE sharp q, Huition of
these sound shadows has lea Prof. lie
Conte into an exposition Of the theory of
the effects. Like shadows OF light, the
distinctness of the sound shadow should
depend on shoItness OF vats-leugth and
the sudden detonation of dynamite must
generate very short aud intense wave,
making n very SHARPLY shadow
whenever an obstacle is met. Il follows
/ that less sudden sounds like the explo-
sion Of gnnpowder, must produce less
definite shadows.