Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-05-12
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
Compiled for the SPECTATOR. I

SClENTlFIC MISCELLANY.
Compiled for the SPECTATOR
ARTIFICIALLY NODDED HEADs.-In q
paper read before the Anthropological So
ciety of Havana, Signor Juan de Armas has
denied that races of tropical America have
artificially changed the shape of their heads
by long-continued compression, and has
demonstrated to his satisfaction that the af-
frmation has neither historic, scientific nor
rational foundation. Nature has been quite
equal to the task of producing the forms of
heads supposed to have resulted from modifi-
cation effected by man.
LIGHTS SPEED.-From two determine
tions by Nicholson and one by himself
Prof Simon Newcomb concludes that the
velocity of light is 1856, 712 miles per second,
with probable error of about 20 miles,
Neither Nicholson nor Newcomb have found
any evidence in support of the hypothesis
of Forbes and Young that difference exists
in the rate travelled by rays of different col
ors.
The oil of an African bamboo is reported
by Catholic missionaries to be an excellent
lubricator, and, when refined, to form a
fair substitute for olive-oil in the cuisine
Its preparation bids fair to become an i'm
portant industry in the French Kongo re-
gion.
A gigantic sea-weed, more than 500 feet
long has been found near the equator by the
ship Clever, Captain John Stone, portions
being taken to Montevideo. The plant has
been botanically identified as Macrocystis
pyrJera.
Pulverized roasted coffee is stated by DIR.
Oppler, of Strasburg, to be superior an
tiseptic for surgical dressings.
By means of an extremely sensitive
sthermo- electric calorimeter, French
physiologist Is enabled to measure the heat
liberated by cold blooded animals, such as
frogs and fishes, and even by insects and
larvae.
A CURIOUS CLoCK.-A new French clock
contains a novel application of the magnet.
The clock appears like tamborine with
circle of flowers painted on it's parchment
head. Around the circle crawl two bees,
the larger requiring twelve hours to COM
plete the circuit. while the smaller makes it
every hour. The flowers represent hour
divisions, and the bees, which are of iron,
are moved by two magnets carried, just un-
der the membrane, by the clock work in
side the tamborine.
II NEW ILASIEh.-A u6W pldbttI Vi dIbl-
fetal fre-proof stone has for its chief con-
stituent the mineral asbestine, silicate of
magnesium. To this is added powdered
flint and caustic potash, with sufficient
water-glass (silicate of soda) to make it in
to an adhesive plaster. Sand also is mixed
with it before use. No lathing is necessary,
as the mixture adheres to any smooth wood
or metallic surface.
t. hot 70
of their growth by night. The fruit of the
cherry laurel, for instance, has been found
by DR.. Krauss, of Halle, to increase at the
rate Of 80 per cent at night and only 10 per
cent by day, while apples increase so per
cent at night and 20 per cent in the day
time.
A considerable time after the recent
burial of a number of men in French mine
an attempt was made to investigate the con-
dition of the wrecked galleries by means of
an electric Photographic apparatus lowered
through small hole. A successful picture
was finally secured. 1t showed man who
had not been crushed but had died of hum
ger.
A NEW FooD.-In certain Berlin hospi-
tails a food known as ''acorn-cocoa" has
proven very valuable in variety of chill
|
baked acorns, sugar and baked flour, and
seems to be very agreeable to the taste of
the little patients, whose only other food is
milk or soup. 1t is thought to have given
beneficial results in the cases of consump-
tive adults who have eaten it.
IMPURITIES IN METALs.-In recent lec-
ture Mr.. W. G. Roberts-Austen, chemist
of the British mint, remarked upon the
wonderful effects often produced upon
metals by minute quantities of impurities.
Slight impurities in metallic copper would
render ocean telegraphy impossible. When
purified, tin loses its Unknown ''cry," or
noise made when bent. A trace of arsenic
increases the huidity of lead so that it will
roll itself into small shot in sliding down an
inclined plane. Standard gold melt at
about 1850 degrees, but if a fifth of one
per cent of silica be added it will soften in
a candle-fame. A trace of lead added to
gold forms an alloy much dreaded at the
mint, the breaking strain of the gold being
reduced from twenty tons to five. Some
metals have a remarkable power of taking
up gases, palladium being capable of ab-
sorbing 900 times its volume of hydrogen
aud giving it out again when heated. A
remarkable late discovery is that an alloy of
rhodium and lead will absorb nitrogen and
oxygen, and when heated give them off
with explosive violence as gun-cotton does.
| THE NEW STAR.-The new star which
was discovered last August in the great
Andromeda nebula is reported by Prof.
Asaph Hall to have diminished from seventh
magnitude brightness to speck barely
visible in the largest telescopes. Some
twenty or thirty such stars have been re-
corded, but no really plausible theory has
| yet been advanced to account for the sud-
den flaming out and fading away Of these
mysterious bodies.
An Italian physicist, Signor Bombicci,
seeks to account for the fact that meteorites
are largely composed of iron by supposing
the earth's magnetism to be the influence
which chiefly attracts the floating fragments
of space. This view is supported by the
large finds of meteoric iron near the accessi-
BILE pole of our planetary magnet.
The curious observation has been made
that the cinchona-trees growing in the hot
houses of Europe develop no quinine in their
bark.
i High-handed proceedings putting up
Itelerraph wires.