St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1883-03-17
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

& 4
S DIR. Caudeze has recently proven the
of photographing land
scapes from railway trains running at
as high Il rate of speed as forty miles an
hour. He uses for the purpose a modi-
fed camera which he calls the gyIO-
graph. and with, which it. is said
wonderfully distinct views can be OBJ
tained after little practice. An expo
sure of only a hundredth of second
may be had. l,3a
Among the curious phenomena re-
vea!ed by the sinking OF wells in Alge,-
ria is the existence of fishes, crabs and
fresh water mollusks at considerable
depths in the subteranean waters, as
has been found in the artesian wells
called Meier, situated in the desert of
Jed Rir, quite near one of the brackislI
lakes so common in the region. These
creatures were still alive when brought
by the sounding line from a depth OF
$50 feet, and one of the crabs was boiled
by its captor and proved to be of ex--
cellent taste. The fishes were covered
with sand-mud, but the shells of the
crabs were quite bright and glittering-
water. sss Az ..s, .5.5
An electric battery which gives cur
rent only when exposed to the light
has been devised by Mons. Saur. The
intensity of the current moreover varies
with the intensity of the light.
By vaporizing two quarts of tobacco
Juice over slow fire, Baron Rothschild's
gardener at Paris, Mons. Boizard, des-
! troys all the troublesome insects that
may be contained in the hot-house in
which the operation is performed. He
considers the remedy infallible, and
says it rarely iEjures the tenderest
plants.
| Among the creatures which attracted
Prof. HaeckePs attention during a re-
cent tour in Ceylon was the great black
found to exist in such numbers that he
4 collected half dozen specimens in the
4 course of an hour. Snakes were also
4 noticed in great abundance. Slender
green snakes hung from almost every
bougl,, and at night the great rat-snake
4 hunted rats and mice over the roofs OF
the huts. Although these rat-snakes
are harmless, Prof. Haeckel considers
it by no means a pleasant surprise
, when one of them, five feet long, sud
denly drops through hole in the roof
into ones room, perhaps alighting on
( the bed.
It is reported that Mr.. Werderman
has succeeded in dispensing with the
vacuum in incandescent electric lamps
by using crystalline silicon in place of
carbon. The silicon can be fused into
bars which may be heated to whiteness
t in the air without undergoing any
a changes.
Mr.. Grant Allen says that changes III
!, color of flowers appear to follow reg
6 nlar and definite order. All flowers it
!, would seem, were in their earliest form
yellow !. then some of them became
white after that a few of them grew
: to be red or purple, and, finally, q
:, comparatively small number acquired
Il shades Of lilac, imauve, violet or blue.
e Even the successive stages or a single
r. flower sometimes afford US hints OF
: progressive law of color-change from
l. glish forget-me-not. Myos0tss Uersicotor,
= Is pale yellow when it opens, gradually
Z becomes family pinkish, and ends boy
# heing blue; and a Lailtals0 noticed IN
i SontI, America by Fritz Muller was
. yelIoW on it's first day, orange on the
lt second, and purple on the third. Such
id changes are not rare among flowers
and the color always varies IN the same
- general direction.
f, A system of pipes and tanks is beint
IN nlaced at the entrance to Aberdeen
harbor to serve as permanent mean
= for pouring oil on the water to calm
sf IN stormy weather, and thus facilitat
II the passage of vessels. 1t is cOnfidentl
- - believed that the scheme will prove en-
n tirely successful, the only difficulty tina
y has thus far presented itself being tina
", the pipes will obstrueb dredging opera
- tions. Common fsh-oil. procarabie
he low price, is the material which will Q
used to soothe the troubled ocean.
Tt seems probable that the electrl
light may be found very valuable.
~. submarine work, snch as the examlns
tion@ Of wrecks, etc. In adn apparatu
devised for the purpose by Dir. Bazin
Yas nowerful arc-lanap is placedin cylll
ms der closed by glass plate at the 90
on tom and by a reflector at the top, ana
ng circular space at least one hundred Ie'
us. in diameter is brilliantly liihmihase y,
mt while the light reaches much tarthe
rha spectacle presented by such snbm
in rine Illumination is said to be remark
red bly, fine.
e1 It5is we'll Known that minute metal
ver narticles are often collected IN .plat
the remote from terrestrial sources OF du
yer Recent investigation shows that ma
his of these particles musE nave unueisu1
Bo- fusion, which evlslentiy proves VI
not they have come IfOm iae snohe
and factories, from volcanic nres; OF :,
by chemical analysis that, in addit
to iron, they contain nickel and cob
&c and neither Of these two snbstan