The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1884-01-02
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

Professor Holeman, of Philadelphia,
has made experiments in the effect Of
sound on the colors and shapes of soap
bubbles. Being reflected on q screen,
they were at first a BLUSH gray. An In
tonation of the voice through a tube con-
nected with q bubble, first brought out Il
number of black spots III the reflection,
and these were succeeded by a bright
green mingled with pink. The same
tone always caused the same formation,
but had no control over the color.
The ]stupendous works erected by the
early Peruvians. which have recently been
found by travellers, must give us a high
opinion of the state of civilization which
existed in that country several hundred
wears ago. The large aqueducts, the
building of reservoirs by the erection Of
dams. the careful cultivation of the land
and the manifold uses which they found
for their products, all tend to prove that
ancient Peru was in almost every respect
far superior to the Peru of the present
day.
The clock and watch trade of Berlin
has grown to enormous proportions IN
recent years. and in some of its depart
mcnts the German capital bids 1alr to
lead the world. A very large business Is
done in curious timc-picces designed to
crafty capricious and whimsical
tastcs-in watches set in coins, ivory.
gutta- percha, etc, and in bookcases
carved in fantastic shapes. For instance,
one can buy a clock in the form of Il dog,
the face appearing among the ribs OF the
animal, whose tail serves as the pcndu.
lum, while his red tongue slides IN n
out at every tic-tac.
The first bread is supposed to have
been made by the Swiss lakc-dwcllcrs, at
a period to which no date can be as
signed, although it may have quite
closely approached historic times. Spccl-
mems of the bread, which was baked be-
tween two red-hot stones. have been
found in the form of little circular cakes,
four or five inches in diameter by All inch
thick. Wheat and barley were the
cereals used. but a cake made from poppy
seeds have been found among the runs
of the lake dwellings. The grains were
impcrfectlv ground, or crushed, in stone
mortars. and the bread was unlcarcned.
A Norwegian plant gcographer, Pro-
fcssor Schubeler, called attention a short
time ago to the remarkable fact that
most plants in high ATTITUDES produce
much larger and heavier seeds than in
warmer regions near the cquator-an CT,
feet which he ascribcs to the prolonged
influence of sunlight during the warm
summer days of the high ATTITUDES. In
some cases the difference of seed devel-
opmcnt is most astonishing. Dwarf
beans taken from Christiania to Dron-
thcim-less than four degrees further
north-gained more than sixty per cent.
in weight, and thyme from Lyons, when
IN Dronthcim, showed a gain of seventy
one per cent. The grain of northern
fields is heavier than when grown Ill
more southern localities, and seed from
Norway planted at Brcslau decreased
greatly in the first year. The leaves also
of most plants are larger and more
deeply colorcd in higher attitudes, as was
first noticed by Grisebach and Martins.
The same is true of flowers, and many
which arc white in Southern climates be-
come violet in the North.