Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1882-07-19
CURIOUS, USEFUL AND SCIENTIFIC.


upon the Island of Goa, near Bombay.
The flowers, which have fragrant odor,
appear soon after sunset the year round,
and close up or fall off as the sun rises.
MIXED METAL TIRES.
Tires of mixed metal, half iron and
steel, are now being manufactured tn
France, and it is claimed that such tires
have the hardness of those made en-
tirely of steel without their fragility.
The body of the tire is composed of
ring made of pieces of puddled steel,
and inserted between two hoops of the
iron which form the outer sides of the
section. The whole is welded together
by the hammer.
THE SILK GRASS PLANT.
A aival of King Cotton is being in
PRODUCED IN the south. 1t is the pita or
silk grass plant, which is a native of the
West Indies and which will grow peren-
nially in the gulf states and along the
Atlantic coast. The experiments made
SO far with the pita have been satisfac-
tory. A fabric of fine fibre was exhibit
ed in Washington recently and the COM
missioner of agriculture is said to have
danced the Virginia reel on sight of it.
WATERMELON SUGAR.
The Rome, Ga, Courier gives an &C
count of some experiments made by W.
W. Seay, Of that city, whom it calls one
of the best chemists in the state. His
study has been the feasibility of extract
ing sugar in paying quantities from
watermelons. 1t says his experiments
so far induce him to believe that fair lot
Of o1
cent. of saccharine matter, or pure sugar.
He estimates that on one acre of good
land, suited to their growth, 81, 900
pounds of melons would grow, and these
would produce, at per cent. of sac
charine matter, 2,415 pounds of sugar,
and worth, at ten cents, $241.5 so.
SCIENTIFIC PITCH-AND- TOSS.
M. Barber, French mathematician
of eminence, has for the last twenty
years been investigating the subject of
pitch-an6- He has Tipped up a
common penny piece and collected and
analysed the results in groups of 10000
clips" coming to the conclusion that
in any 10000 clips" there will be
5000" heads and 1000 tails" Some
times the "heads will come out Is or
20 ahead, but on the next 10, 600 tails "
will catch up, or Uace UerSa. 1t is not
stated whether M. Barber investigated
a more interesting and practical part of
the subiect-his own personal equa-
ton in the game of pitch-and- and
the possibility OF winning thereat by sci
entific play. For instance, if q penny is
tossed up 100 times. it would probably
come up "head" 80 times and "tail"
so times; but if player undertakes to
call each toss he will not be right 50
times.
AIR SHIPS IN WAR.
Germany and Russia are both push
ing forward experiments in flying
machines for war or otherwise. The d.
rection in which these are working
ignores the inflated gas-bag, which is
enormous in size, difficult and costly to
fill In war, and fioats-a gigantic derelict
at the mercy of every current of ar, O
huge mark for the first gunner who can
hit and bring it to the ground. Baum
garteD, in Germany, and Baranovski, in
Russia, adopt the principle of the
inclined plane pressed against the air,
and thus capable of making some at
tempt at least to regulate its own course.
In the kite the force that presses the in
clined plane is IN the hand of the boy
acting through the string. In the sail OF
the boat the resistance of the water to
sidelong motion keeps the sail pressed
against the wind. In flying machines
the pressure is given by an engine car
RED by the machine, and acting by
means of fans of one sort or the other.
The difficulty at present is the weight of
engine and fuel; but, with the develop
ment of electrical practical knowledge.
accumulators may be fairly expected to
supply the maximum Of power with the
minimum of weight. Then the problem
of flying in still air will probably be
solved.
THE SIGHT OF FISHES AND FROGS.
At recent meeting of the Berlin Phy-
Biological Society, Prof. Hirschberg
communicated the results of his dioptric
measurements of the eyes of fishes and
amphibia (pikes and frogs), as further
contribution to the comparative dion
tries of the eye. According to his meas
urements, the cornea in the pike has
large radius OF curvature, which exceeds
the length OF the optic axis; consequent
~, these animals are very myophic in
the air; when, however, the eye was op-
automatically examined under wa
ter, the distance Of distinct image forma-
ton wasmuch greater. The eye in fishes
g both those of the pike and roach were
examined) behaves quite differently in
air and in water. This fact is contra
dlction of Herr Rateau's statements, who
also found the seeing distance of fishes
almost the same In both media. The eve
of the frog also behaves differently in
water from whatit does in air; the radius
of curvature of Its cornea is much
smaller in proportion to the length of
the optic axis, and it's myopia in air is
much less than in fishes. It is remark
able that III the case of the eyes of both
the frog and the pike, neither solution
of atropine nor of eserine produced any
alteration IN the distance of the forma.
ton of images; it is hence probable that
the accommodation of the eye. if it oc-
cur at all in these animals, takes place
by some other mechanism than that
which effects it in the higher verte-
brates.