Clarksville evening chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn) 1886-1890, 1888-12-07
soIENTIr1c m1scEL1ANv.
Written for the Chronicle.
A NEW FLORA.

UOd was lObdliy destroyed Dy the erup
ton in 1888, not living germ beinG
| left. Three years later the island
was visited by DIR. NJ. Treub, who
now reports having found six species
of miscropic algae, which coated the
rock and seemed to have formed the
soil on which eleven species of ferns
had taken root. A common grass OF
Java was growing, and there were
quite number Of such species OF
Towering plants as first appear on
coral islands. Seeds or fruit ofseveral
coral island trees were found on the
shore. Krakatoa is ten miles from
the Island of Sibesie, containing the
nearest terrestrial vegetation, twenty
miles from Sumatra, and twenty one
from Java.
INTELLECTUAL INFLUENCE OF THE
NOSE.
Aprosexie is the name of DR.. Guye,
of Amsterdam, chooses for inaten-
tiveness, and he quite singularly finds
that the nose is one cause of il. A
dull boy became quite sick to learn
after certain tumors had been taken
from the nose; and a man had been
troubled with vertigo and buzzing
in the ear for the past twelve years
found mental labor easy after like
operation. In third case, a medical
student was similarly relieved. DIR.
Guye supposes that these nasal trOu-
bles affect the brain by preventing
the cerebral lymph from circulating
freely.
BOILERS Exploded BY GAS.
After prolonged official investiga-
ton, the most extensive and complete
destruction of steam boilers on record
has been attributed to the sudden
ignition of coal gas, mixed with air,
that had accumulated in the flues.
The explosion occurred July rs, 1887,
in Upper Silesia, Germany. Twenty
two boilers, each with more than
one thousand square feet of heating
surface, were intantly blown to pieces,
buildings covering half an acre were
destroyed, and three men were
killed.
WASTE OF ENERGY.
In the ordinary sixteen candle
power incandescent lamp, according
to Prof. f. Merritt, only from four
to six per cent. of the energy actually
expended is available as light, the
remainder being wasted in heat. To
lesson this loss is one of the greatest
electrical problems now awaiting So
luton.
FUTURE SCIENCE.
"What would one not give" asks
Lubbock, ''for a science primer of
the next century? for, to paraphrase
well-known saying, even the boy
at the plough will then know more
of science than the wisest of philoso-
pliers do now.
DELICATE MEASUREMENT.
The new radio-micrometer of Mr..
C. V. Boys, thermo-electric circuit
suspended by atorsion fibrein a mag
netic field shows temperature
change Of one ten -miliionth of a
Centigrade degree.
A. MECH A MICAH, NOVTTTY
The remarkable Mannesmann pro-
cess of making seamless tubes is de-
scribed by Mr.. F. Siemens as consist
ing in passing the red-hOt bar of solid
metal or glass between revolving
conoidal rolls. These rolls are so ar
ranged that the varying velocities of
revolution with which the different
parts of the bar are brought into con-
tact cause the formation of hollow
through the bars center. Tubes a
foot in diameter, with a shell only a
quarter of an inch thick, may be pro-
duced in this way, and great strength
is claimed for them. Tubes with
sealed ends may be made, the hollow
center being vacuum.
HOMES OF ALL AGES.
An interesting feature of the Paris
Exhibition will be group of forty
nine structures intended to give a
history of the human dwelling. The
different types of shelters represented
will include those of the prehistoric
period-under rocks, in caves, on
water and on land; and from later
times those of early historic civiliza-
ton, of Aryan civilization, of Roman
civilization in the East and in the
West, and of rude civilizations dis
connected from the general progress
o: humanity-the Chinese, japanese,
Eskimo, African, Aztec, etc. The
interiors, the costumes of the occu-
pants, and the surroundings, will be
those of the different epochs studied.