The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1886-10-09
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

voLAPUK.
The Plan for a universal commercial language"
orgi, ated about five years ago by Herr Schleyer,
of Switzerland, seems to be meeting with greater
or than has been accorded other projects OF the
kind. 1t is reported that yolapuk is already
spoken with facility by thousands of Europesns;
knowledge Of it is being disseminated by fifty
three societies scattered over England, Germany,
Austria, Sweden, Holland, Asia Minor, and other
countries Voapuk grammars for the use OF Hot
tentots and Chinese, besides all the European ma
tons, are either in the market or in course OF
preparation and two reviews, one entirely in
VoIapuk and the other With translation on the
alternate pages, are regularly published. The
special advantage of the new language is the ease
with which it can be learned, eight lessons hav-
ing enabled Partisan class to correspond readily
with students in foreign countries.
SIZE OF HAIRS.
Measurements have shown the thickness of the
human hair to vary from the two-hundred-and-
fftieth to the six hundredth part of inch
The silk worms thread is one FIVE thousandth of
an inch thick, and the spiders's web only one
thirty -thousandth. Blonde hair is the finest, and
red the coarsest Taking four heads of hair of
equal weight, patient German Psychologist
found the red one to contain about 900 hairs !;
the black, 100000; the brown, 100000; and
the blonde, 100000.
THE WRITING OF TIE STARS.
The marvellous nature of star photographs is
keenly appreciated by Mr.. R. A. Proctor, the
English astronomer, who says; az know not how
it may be with others, but 1 find myself strangely
moved by Photographic records of the heavenly
bodies. To see on a small area of Photographic
film the ripple marks of light waves which have
travelled across the ilimitable depths of inter
stellar space, taking years or centuries on their
way, to close their career by writing down their
record for the astronomers on tiny earth-this,
surely, is among the most amazing, one may
almost say the most moving achievements of the
science of our day." Describing the process of
engraving zincographe plate, by sunlight, from
the tar-made negative, he concludes: "Thus was
an engraving formed by the action of the stars
and our sun alone-Or, remembering that our sun
is himself star, we may say that the zincograph-
ic plate from which charts are printed was the
work of the stars only No human hand has
touched the dish shaped hoiIows by which each
individual star has recorded its place."
THE CANDLE FISH.
One of the curiosities of the animal kingdom is
the eulachon or candle fsh (aleichthys pacifcus)
of the northeastern Pacific. 1t is about fourteen
inches long, resembles the smeit in appearance,
and is caught in large quantities ia the early
spring. 1t is the latest of oil known fishes,
for which reason its dried and smoked flesh is
highly esteemed as warming food for winter by
the Indians, by whom the oil also is eaten. So
fat is the fish that when dried it burns with a
bright fame until entirely consumed, forming a
candle much used among the Indians either with
or without q wooden wick passed through the
body.
PITCH OF RIVERS.
The average pitch of large rivers, excluding
regions of cascades seldom exceeds twelve inches
to mile, and is sometimes but one-thrd of that
amount. According to Humphreys and Abbot,
the pitch of the Mississippi from Memphis down
1855 miles) is only <Sz INCHES at low water; from
Cairo, at the mouth of the Ohio q ,OsS mies), "a
inches and above the Missouri, from its source,
only LIS inches. The Missouri, from its highest
source (2908 miles, descends about $500 feet, or
% inches mile; but from Fort Benton to St.
Joseph e., 1850 miies1, about IL 80 inches and
below St. Joseph to the mouth ASA miles,, OPS
inches. Dana gives the average pitch of the
Amazon as little more than inches a mile of
the Lower Mic, less than Z; of the Lower Ganges,
about 4. The Rhone 10 remarkable for its great
pitch, it being so inches per pile from Geneva to
Lyons, and 80 inches below Lyons.
HEIGHT OF TWILIGHT.
By observing how far the sun has to sink be-
meath the horizon before the topmost summit of
the air is cut off from its rays Mons. Bravais some
years ago determined the greatest upward limit
of twilight to be 37S,000 feet, nearly II miles
above sea-leveI. By observing the earths shadow
on the moon during ecpses, astronomers had in
ferred that the atmosphere must be sufficiently
dense to produce twilight for at least 10000 feet
away from the earth's surface.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Prof. SInson, a French biologist, concludes that
the use of animals is more economical than that
of steam engines in cases where the power reg uir
ed does not exceed that Of twenty horses.
It has besn noted rs . curious fact by Sir
Samuel Baker that pets neyar eeen in Africa,
and that negro has never been known TO tame
an elephant or any wild animal. The elephants
employed by the ancient Carthagenians and Ro-
mans were trained by Arabs and Carthagenians,
never by negroes.