The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-07-21
Compiled for The Arkans0U Traveller. SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY


 Well-supported is said to be the theory that many deaths were caused by suffocation in last winters bliz- zards in the northwest.
 The germ of the dreaded cerebro- spinal meningitis has been discovered, and experiments in preventive inocu- lation with it have given encouraging results.
 It has been observed in Italy by PalmieIi, that on a clear day, with every indication of continued fine weather, the electrometer will indicate a change long before the barometer.
 Signals flashed from an arc lamp upon the clouds at the Cape of Good Hope, have been seen at distance of fifty miles. This method of signaling may prove useful at sea, especially for vessels in danges.
 Sable Island, in the north Atlantic, is fast disappearing. Some years ago it was forty miles long by two and a quarter wide, but it has shrunk to nineteen and half miles in length and less than one in width.
 An instrument called the phonozen- ograph is intended by the Due de Feltre to indicate the direction of any distant sound. A microphonic plate of peculiar construction is moved about until the maximum effect is ob- tained.
 From an estimate by W. Kohl rausch, it appears that if the energy of lightning were stored up and distrib- uted for electric lighting from seven to thirty-five flashes would be re- quired to keep one incandescent lamp aglow an hour.
 Two German experimenters find that the Illuminating power of naph- tha gas is reduced one-half by twenty per cent of air. The mix ture becomes explosive when it con- tains from about five to eighteen vol umes of air to one of gas.
 THE ORIGIN OF PoTTERY.-Grant Allen suggests that the evolution of pottery may be traced to the gourds of various forms used by the primi- tive savages for containing water. The gourds were probably smeared with wet clay to protect them when held over the camp fire, as is still done by savages, and the durable coating thus produced, outlasting the inner shell, gave the accidental lesson in molding dishes from natural objects.
 PLATING WITHOUT BATTERIEs.- By the hydro-plastic process of M. A. Levy, thin coats of metal are de- posted upon other metals without the use of batteries or dynamos. It de- bends upon a double decomposition, and permits of the electrolysis of ali metals. The article to be coated is suspended by zinc or iron wire in solution of suitable salt-as chlo- ride of nickel for an iron or copper object-when the metal is deposited from the solution and the wire is at- tackled and dissolved.
 WHERE DOCTORS DIsAGREE.-An English writer states that one of the most serious points at issue between science and agricultural practice, ap- pears to be the comparative values of farm- yard manure and artificial fertil- izers. So far as absolute experiment goes, the evidence seems to be in favor of the application of the latter, while, on the other hand, the preponderating opinion among farmers is on the side of farm yard manure. The settlement of the question must depend to some extent upon the character of the soil treated.
 ELECTRICITY FROM THE WIND.-The power of windmill has been suc- cessfully applied to the generation of electricity for domestic purposes by Prof. Blyth, of the Glasgow Philo- sophical Society. The wind was of the old-f fashioned kind, with four arms each thirteen feet long. The dynamo was belted directly to the fly-wheel of the mill, and charged twelve cells of storage battery. The current was used both for light and for driving turning lathe. Ten S-candle power incandescent lamps were supplied, with current to spare and a good breeze for half day stored electricity enough for the light required on four evenings of three or four hours each.
 WARNING TO WoULD-BE BLONDES. Recent analyses are said to have shown that the various nostrums used for imparting golden shade to the hair all depend for their action upon the decolorizing and corrosive influ- ence of nascent oxygen or nascent chlo- rine, the bases employed being perox- idle of hydrogen, aqua regia, and bronzer's acid. The first of the bases is the least harmful, but this produces scalp sores and skin affections, and in time turns the hair an unnatural gray.