Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-07-20
BITS OF SCIENCE.

1t is said that the wings of the common
fly vibrate at the rate of $50 strokes per
second, and those of the mosquito about
1000 times.
The fibre Of cotton is a fat cylinder
thickened at the edges and twisted into a
spiral. The better the fibre the more per-
feet is the spiral.
Able Renard, after examination, de-
cides that the dust found in the snow of
Ben Nevis, Scotland, contains too much
organic matter to be Of cosmic origin.
If writing upon glazed paper is done
with solution of three parts of good Jet
black ink and one of Gelatine, several
good copies can be obtained without the
aid of a press.
A French writer regards the familiar
yet mysterious phenomenon known as the
zodiacal light as simply reflection of
light from the illuminated part of the
earth upon an upper stratum of the at
mosphere.
The city of Caracas was destroyed with
10000 lives in about half a minute. Lis
bon was overthrown in five or six min
utes. There is thus great variation in
the number of shocks of earthquakes and
in the intervals between them.
A tube containing mixture of triethvl-
anime and water exhibits turbidity at a
temperature of 26 degrees &. Noting this
fact, Prof. j. I'll. Poynting considers that
such tubes may prove useful in indicating
the temperature of fever patients.
The employment of an invisible actinic
ink, of which there is no trace on the pa
per or in the image upon the focusing
screen, it is said will prevent forgery Of
bank notes. AS soon as one begins to de-
yelop the plate the word forgery" writ
ten with the ink, appears on the negative.
The Compagnie Beige and Hollandise de
PElectricite have been trying street cars
provided with 10S Faure accumulators
weighing less than two tons, the total
weight of the car being under five tons.
Although the grades were very sharp the
expectations of the company were fully
answered.
Heavy caIcined magnesia may be pre-
pared from the light preparation by slight
ly damping it in a mortar with absolute
alcohol, and rubbing it, at first gently,
then theoretically. BY repeating this
process three or four times, the magnesia
is reduced to about one-ffth of it's bulk.
1t is then passed through a sieve.
Mr.. Crisp showed at a recent meeting
OF the Microscopical Society, London. a
very curious microscope bearing the date
1872. Besides possessing other peculiari-
ties, it had three detectives attached to a
sliding plate at the end of a nosepiece in
a manner similar to that adopted in the
construction of the modern Harley and
other microscopes.
According to q recent authority, Jap
anese fish known as the fuku is so poison
Gus that death follows almost instantane-
ously after eating only a moderate piece
of it. 1t is not lnfrequently the cause of
death among the lower classes, who be-
lieVe it to be possessed of certain marvel
Gus properties, on account of which they
risk the danger of being poisoned.
The railway engines of fifty years ago
weighed eight or nine tons, had eleven
inch cylinders, and cast-iron wheels four
feet in diameter, the working pressure
being fifty pounds to the square inch.
The engines of our day have seventeen
and eighteen inch cylinders, wheels seven
or eight feet in diameter, and. weigh from
thirty-fiye to forty-fve tons. Instead Of a
speed of sixteen miles they travel from
forty to fifty miles an hour.
In Germany pile-driying has been done
by means of dynamite. An iron plate five
inches thick was placed upon the top Of
the pile, and upon it pound and half
charge of dynamite was exploded by cleo
tricity. 1t was driven into the mud as
far as it would have been by a weight of
3,259 pounds falling upon it FIVE times
from a height of ten feet. The expert
ments were tried by Herr Pradamovic,
Civil Engineer of the city of Pesth.