Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-02-03
BITS OF SCIENCE.

/ The extra cost OF steel nails has been
| reduced to l cent per pound. They are
coming more and more, into use, and can
| be driven into the hardest woods as easily
as ordinary nails.
| Magnifying glasses are traced back to
! the days of Confucius, AIS B. G. He says:
| 'As we use a glass to examine the forms
! OF things, so we must study antiquity to
understand the present"
| In putting on a new belt or taking up
/ an old one great care should be taken to
| have the ends perfectly square, and the
lace or hook holes exactly opposite to
| each other. Many fail in these respects,
and in consequence have crooked belts.
A single plate of perforated zinc about
a foot square, suspended over a gas Jet, is
said to retain the nOXious emanatiOns
| from burning gas, which, it is well
known, destroys the binding of books,
furnishes the gliding and vitiates the at
mosphere for breathing.
Some persons walking by the shore of
| Loeb Etine, in Scotland, found that they
cast a double shadow. Upon examina-
tion they ascertained that one was pro-
| duced by the direct, and the other by the
reflected rays of the sun; the latter COM
ing from the surface of the lake.
A common trouble in country black
smith shops is the going out of the fire
while the smith is doing work away from
| it. This annoyance can be prevented by
keeping at hand box containing saw
dust When the fire seems to be out
throw a handful of sawdust on the Goals.
and good blaze will quickly follow.
This may seem a small matter, but there
are many who will find the suggestion
useful one.
The Pharmaceutical journal says that
in Canada honey is extracted from the
comb by a centrifugal machine and the
comb replaced; the bees, when in good
condition, will fill it again in four days.
After two seasons use the comb is melted
into 'fOundation comb" upon which the
bees quickly put the finishing touches.
Canadian wax is practically out of the
market; the supply is principally obtain
ed from Africa.
An officer OF the British army has pat
ented waterproof match, specimens of
which have ignited readily after having
been wrapped in damp rag for twenty
four hours. This is accomplished by coat
ing the phOsphOrlZed end of the match
with solid paraffine, which, while it pro-
tects from slow oxidation, being imper-
fectly impervious to water, does not in the
slightest degree interfere with the ready
in1amability of the match.
In lecture at the Lowell Institute,
Boston, Professor Wood gave some very
interesting details regarding the pheno-
mena of spider life. The female is much
larger and fiercer than the male, who.
whilst paying addresses, is constantly in
a state of danger. Three different kinds
of thread are spun by spiders for their
webs. A scientific eXperimenter drew
$3.50 yards of thread or spider silk from
the body of a single spider. Silk may be
woven of a SPIDERS thread which is more
glossy and brilliant than that of silk
worm.
Among the recent communications to
the AnthrOpOlogical Society of Paris, says
the AthenRunl, is a paper by M. Manou-
vrier on the criminal type as developed
by the study of the skulls of assassins, in
continuation of a discussion to which
French anthropOlogists have recently
been devoting much attention. He finds
small forehead and heavy jaw general
characteristics of this type. He tests first
not only by direct measurement of the
frontal cerebral curve, which, gives 101
millimetres for assassins as against Ill
for Parisians as rule, but also by sum-
ming up the several auricular angles,
which gives like result. The degree of
heaviness of the jaw in assassins and in
Parisians is represented by Is to 10.
1t is well known that many fish soon
perish when transferred from their native
salt water to fresh, and that fish that had
lived in fresh water die when placed in
contact with the sea, as, for instance,
when the locks of a fresh water canal are
opened to an estuary. The cause of death
in both cases has been sought, and, it is
thought, discovered, by NJ. Paul Bert
| Salt water fishes perish in fresh water on
account of the absence of chloride of So
dunn, and fresh water tishes die in salt
water owing to the presence of chloride
of sodium. Neither the salts of soda nor
Of magnesia added to fresh water formed
a substitute for the chloride of sodium.
| Glycerine, sugar and similar substances
added to fresh water to give it the con-
sistency of the water of the sea did not
have the desired effect; the marine fauna
died in the mixture.