The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1885-05-29
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

Mounds resembling those in Ohio ex-
list near Kalgan, China, and in one has
been found a stone Ratchet which is said
to be indistinguishable from those shown
as the work of the mound builders of
ancient America.
There is under contemplation the per
manent establishment of an "optical tel
egraph" between the islands of Mauri-
titus ana Reunion, in the Indian ocean.
Photographic signals will be exchanged
between two mountains, belonging to
the islands in question.
DR.. Wedding and DR.. Frank have
brought before the agricultural society
of Berlin the question of the value of
phosphorus in rural and domestic econo-
my. They propose the actual trial of
the manurial virtue of ammonia phos-
pilates of magnesia on large scale.
The light of the sun is estimated to
equal in quantity 1, $40, 600, 900, 900, 000,-
900, 900 candles; the lights intensity at
the suns surface being 80, 900 that of a
candle flame, $500 times that of metal
in Bessemer converter, 146 times that
of a calcium light, or 81 times that of an
electric arc. The temperature, accord
ing to Rossette, is about IS, 900 degrees
Fahrenheit. The mechanical equivalent
of the solar radiation, continuously act
ing is nearly 10000 horse power per
square foot of solar surface.
The so-called "horse-hair snake" is
known to be a parasite of the cricket. 1t
becomes active only under water, and
recent interesting statement by DR.. II.
c.. McCook makes it appear that the
crickets themselves are aware of this pc
culiarity and seek to take advantage of
it. A lady was troubled by frequently
finding the hair-snakes in her water pals,
and watched to learn how they came
there. She soon saw large cricket
mount upon the edge of one of the pals,
bring the tip of the abdomen just be-
meath the water, and, with few violent
throes, expel black mass, which re-
solved itself into one of the worms. The
cricket seemed much exhausted by the
operation.
The art of making paper from wood
originated long before man ever dreamed
of it. On drowsy summers day the
wasp alights on somebody's front fence
and slows away in his hind leg all the
loose fibre he can gather This he mixes
paper covering for his nest. The male
wasps usually die in the winter, and the
females, ALTERNATING in some warm,
sheltered nook come out with the sun
shine and become the mothers of new
broods. Wasps sccrete themselves in
leaves, pounce upon the young bees that
come out to gather honey, kill them,
and carry them home to feed their Larvae.
The wasp also kills for the same purpose
spiders and caterpillars.
Reports collected since the memorable
eruption of Krakatoa in August, 1888,
have shown that the explosions were
heard over a circle of thirty degrees
radius. A more astonishing announce
ment still is now made by Dr. A. Forel,
the well.known Swiss physicist. He
has learned that on the day of the great
eruption, startling subterranean noises,
resembling the rolling of distant thunder,
were heard in Caiman- Brac, small island
in the Caribbean sea- near the antipodes
of the volcano of Sunda strait. These
sounds cannot readily be attributed to
any neighboring volcanic disturbance,
and DR.. Forel is forcel to infer that they
may have been propagated through the
entire diameter of the earth.
At recent German scientific congress,
Or. S. Hoppe, of Hamburg, endeavored
to prove that the electricity of storms is
generated by the friction of vapor parti-
cles. This view was strengthened by
experiments in which compressed cold
air was allowed to rush into "a copper YES
sci containing warm moist air, large
amount of electricity being thus pro-
duced. lie concludes that the rise of
column of warm moist air into the colder
atmosphere above will be followed by
thunderstorm if it acquires sufficient
velocity to prevent naturalization of the
electricity generated by the friction of
the air. Hence, he regards open districts
as more liable to thunderstorms than
wooded regions, where the trees prevent
the rapid rise of humid air currents.
House Cleaning Reduced to Science.