The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-07-28
POPULAR SCIENCE.

The Pittsburg observers say that tho
natural gas interferes more with their
telescope operations than smoke ever
did, the heat so agitates the atmosphere.
Among the wonderful products Of art
in the French crystal palace was shown
a lock which admitted of 1857, 1886 coms
binations. Henre passed 120 nights in
locking it. Fichet was four months in
unlocking it. Afterwards they could
neither shut nor open it.
The peculiar varnish-like lustre OF the
petals of the buttercup is attributed by
DR.. Mobius, who has recently, been in
vestigating it, to highly refractive yell
low oil existing in the epidermal cells,
increased by the fact that the layer of
cells of the mesophyl is densely filed
with minute starch grains.
The ice of arctic regions, according to
Major Greeley, does not usually form to
a greater thickness than FIVE feet, but
in Bafin's Bay, the Greenland Sea and
parts of the Arctic Ocean thicker masses
are produced by the jsmming together
of fees, which are thus piled up and
become frozen together. The ice OF the
Polar Sea is of almost lnconceivable
roughness, and it is doubted whether
any explorer has ever seen 800 square
yards Of it that is level.
French scientists are discussing the
peculiarities of Gambetta's brain, which
weighed only 1,161 grammes, while
Cromwell's weighed 1000 grammes and
Cuvier's 1929 grammes. The dlstin-
gushing feature of Gambetta's brain
was that it was particularly well derel-
oped in that portion of its structure
where most undersized brains are found
to be defective, that is, in the third
frontal circumvolution. The folds IN
this portion of it exhibited uncommon
richness and variety of complication.
The recent Frent h surveys have shown
that the magnitude of the Algerian sea
project has been greatly exaggerated.
No large part of Northern Africa can be
flooded, the desert of Sahara proving to
have an average height of 1, 100 feet, and
the only area below sea level being COM
prised in two 'Chotts" commencing
about one hundred miles due west of the
Gulf of Gabes and covering only about
3,1OO square miles less than half the
area of Lake Ontario. The flooding OF the
depressed region would give lake aver
aging seventy-eight feet IN depth. The
creation of new sea Of such size could
hardly produce the great effects upon
the worlds climates and upon the depth
of the ocean which have been foreseen
in the speculat:ons of some scientific
writers.
Professor Cerebotani, of Vienna, has
contrived all ingenious instrument for as
certaining the distances Of accessible and
inaccessible points from the observer
and from each other-in other words, an
easy method of range finding. The ap-;
paratus consists mainly of pair of tele-:
scopes mounted OH stand and fixed on
a tripod for use. The telescopes are
both brought to bear on the object, and
reading is then taken from graduated
scale on the instrument, which, compared
with set of printed tables, gives the
distance. Distances can be measured
between far off objects, and, by means OF
sheet of paper fixed on q drawing
board, rough plan of the country under
measurement may be sketched. In the
same way the distances of ships at sea or
of moving objects on land can be deter
mined. Thus the contrivance appears to
be we'll adapted not only for land survey
ing, but particularly for military pur-
poses. In fact, it is stated to have been
already adopted in the latter connection
by the German government, and will
probably be by that of England.