The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1886-03-20
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
LIFE IN OTHER SPHERES.

LIFE IN OTHER SPHERES.
Proctor argues that every celestial body must
atsome time pass through alife-supporting period,
which must be very short compared with the du-
ration of the worlds own existence. Concerning
the date of the life era in other worlds than ours
he remarks: ain the presence of time-intervals
seen to be at once infinitely great and infinitely
ittle-infnitely great compared with the duration
of our earth, infinitely little by comparison with
the eternities amid which they are lost-what
reason we have, when viewing any orb in
space from our little earth, for saying is the
time when that orb is, like our earth, the abode
Of life? Why should life on that orb synchronize
with life on the earth Are not, on the contrary,
the chances infinitely great against such coinci-
dence? If, as Hemholtz has well said, the dura-
ton of life on our earth is but the minutest ripple
in the infinite ocean of time, and the duration
of life on any other planet of life minuteness,
what reason can we have for supposing that those
remote, minute, and no way associated waves of
life must needs be abreast of each other on the
infinite ocean whose surface they scarcely ripple?
1t is more probable that life is wanting
than that life exists at this present time. Never
theess, it is at least as probable that every mem
Der of every order-planet, sun, galaxy, and so
onward to higher and higher orders endlessly-
has been, is now or will hereafter be, life-sup-
porting after its kind"
PAPER RAILROADS.
The paper rail seems about to become practical
reality, a large establishment for the manufacture
of rails of compressed paper being projected at
st. Petersburg. Among the advantages claimed
for this material are extreme durability, cost
about one-third as great as steel ghtness, greater
adhesion to the driving wheels of the engine, and
"a reduction in the wear and tear of both the road
and the rolling stock.
MIsNAMED ANIMALS.
The weight of scientific opinion now favors the
view that 'fying fish, do not fly. The muscles
of flight in birds average in weight one-sixth of
the whole body those of bats one. thirteenth, while
those which have been supposed to enable the
fishes to fly are only one-thirty-second The i'm
pulse to the propulsion of the flying fish is prob
ably delivered while they still in the water by
the exceptionally powerful muscles which cover
both sides of their body.
ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA.
The principal astronomical event of 1886 will
be the total eclipse of the sun on the 29th of
August. The line of totality in this eclipse will
cross the Atlantic Ocean, traversing land in the
West Indies just after sunrise and in Southern
Africa towards sunset. On the coast of Benguela
the total phase lasts nearly five minutes, and at
Grenada in the West Indies, the duration will be
To four IF known
period are expected to return during the year.
Oilers comet, with period of III years, will
probably reach perihelion near the close of the
year. small comet discovered by Pons in 1919,
and rediscovered by Winnecke in 1858, is due in
1856; as is also one first seen by Temple in
1866, and again observed by Swift in 1880. The
period of each of these two comets is about 81
years.
SINKING IN GREAT PRESSURE.
1t may seem little surprising to a careless OBJ
server but it is nevertheless true, that piece of
iron or any heavy substance will rapidly sink to
the bottom of the sea even in the deepest places.
However great may be the pressure produced at
great depths by the superintendent mass, the
specific gravity of the water is but little greater
than at the surface. Hence such substances
stone, sand, mud, clay, shells, etc., exist at great
depths with little variation, except from the effects
of decreased light.
MISCELLANEOUS
Observations on the incandescent electric light,
which decreases in luminosity after certain
strength of current is reached, lead a French in
vestigator to conclude that heat radations, which
are at first dark and then luminous, passing from
red to white ultimately 60 beyond the violet rays,
and at very great intensity cease to be visible.
Prof. Lampey's recent researches have led him
TO conclusions which imply that, in the absence
Of the absorbing atmosphere, the earth would re-
ceive sufficient heat from the sun to melt an ice
shell about $50 feet deep over the globes entire
surface.
The extensive collection of meteorties at Wen
ma contains specimens representing 35S meteoric
falls. Other valuable collections are at London,
Paris and Calcutta.
1t has been suggested in England that the tele-
phone may be advantageously used to transmit
messages between sufferers from infectious diseases
and their friends.
Zinc dust has been found by an English investi-
gator to absorb hydrogen from moist atmosphere
at moderate temperature. 1t has, in fact, the
power of occluding the gas after the manner of
spongy platinum.
A long series of determination of the amount of
carbonic acid contained by the air has been made
at Liege, Belgium, the average result being s.
1858 by weight and 3. 1926 by volume in every
10000 parts of the air.
All the cables Of the Brooklyn bridge are found
to be magnetized in the direction of their diameter
the upper surface of the cables throughout their
length being of south polarity and the lower sur
face north.