The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1886-07-28
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

A gradual increase in the average size
of the skull among the natives is believed
by a Bombay physician to be taking
place as an effect of civilization in India.
The interesting discovery has been
made in Switzerland of a bright green
moss growing on calcareous rocks 200
feet below the surface of Lake Leman.
No other moss has been known so far
under water, and how chlorphyl-the
green coloring matter-could have been
SO richly developed in place so remote
from the light is problem.
The largest dynamo in the world is
being set up in Cleveland, Ohio. 1t will
be thirteen feet long, five and one-half
wide, and weigh ten tons-four times the
size and ability of the "Jumbo" machine
exhibited by Edison at the Philadelphia
Exposition in 1884. Five hundred
horsepower will be required to drive it,
and its current will furnish incandescent
lights of about 5000 candle-power.
The new French gun, weighing twen-
seven tons, has thrown a projectile
weighing 900 pounds over eight miles.
The English forty-three- ton gun has a
English sixty-three-ton gun is credited
with the theoretical range of over ten
miles. 1t is true that these extreme
ranges are attained with elevations which
may not be secured in the turret ports of
a vessel.
A genius in Morelia, Mexico, has made
picture with feathers of humming birds
which represents the discovery of pulque.
The work is gem of art as well as
most ingenious and original representa-
tiOn of that romantic episode. The fig
ures of Xochitl, the beautifuld Toltec
princess, and of Tecpancaltzin, the SOW
ereign, as well as all other figures, are
exqui,iteIy made. The picture was pur-
chased for 500 by German of Guiana
juato, who sent it to Germany.
An interesting experiment, showing
the influence of electricity on the growth
of roots, has been made in Germany.
Plates of copper were thrust upright into
the earth and connected by wires with
similarly placed zinc plates about 100
feet distant, an electric battery being
thus formed, with the earth between the
copper and zinc in the circuit. Both
potatoes and beets planted between such
plates gave an increased yield-beets ff-
teen per cent, potatoes twenty-five per
cent.-as compared with other parts OF
the same field.
All carpenters know how soon the butt
end of chisel handles split when daily
exposed to the blow of mallet or ham
mer. A remedy suggested by Brook
lyn man consists simply of saving or
cutting off the round end OF the handle
so as to make it fiat, and attaching by a
few nails on top of it two disks of sole
leather, so that the end becomes similar
to the heel of a boot. The two thick
nesses of leather will prevent all further
splitting, and if in the course of time
they expand and overlap the wood of
the handle they are simply trimmed off
all around.
The results of experiments made thus
far in the publication of water by aera-
tion have attracted much notice. This
method is we'll known to be based on the
discovery that the action of air in puri-
flying water is greatly increased by mix
ing the air and water under pressure. A
Paramount, Philadelphia, turbine engine
was converted into an air-pump, which
delivered twenty per cent, by volume,
of free cir into the water main, this being
the proportion found necessary to sur
charge the water. Analysis showed that
the quantity of free oxygen in the aera-
ted water was seventeen per cent greater
than before aeration, while the quantity
of carbonic acid was fifty-three per cent.
greater, and that of the total dissolved
gases was sixteen per cent greater.