The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1888-02-25
EEriiteai for the Pdldttd Neics. I
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

SCtENilflC MlSCtlLAkY.
> MECHANICAL GIANT.-What is be-
lieved to be the most powerful and eff
Gent tool yet made, is the gigantic by
draulic forging press OF the Atlas Works
at Sheffield, of which Krupp, OF Essen.
has ordered duplicate. 1t exerts a
nominal force of 1000 tons, though its
actual maximum power is considerably
greater. The work is made ready for
the great machine by three furnaces,
each capable of heating an ingot of 100
tons. and two travelling cranes. each
easily lifting $50 tons, convey and ma
nipulate the forgings. One man oper-
ates four valves to raise, lower, advance,
retire. move sideways or rotate the forg
ing, and another man regulates the
strokes of the press with the utmost del
icacy and accuracy.
A DISTANT PossIBH.ITY.-A curious
speculation has been made concerning
what would happen were the earth's ro-
tation to cease. The equatorial diane
ter beirg twenty-six miles more than the
polar diameter, the earth would present
an equatorial zone of solid ground miles
high above sea-level, the water being all
drawn to the poles. This land zone
would then be like our Arctic regions,
and would be banded by a ring of
permanent ice and snow.
A deaf race of men seems to be the
inevitable result of continuance of
schools for deaf mutes. The close as
ISOLATION with one another naturally
leads to intermarriage, with offspring in
heriting the common infirmity.
Women are gradually becoming ae-
tive in scientific work. The Royal
| Geographical Society has decided to adj
nit them to fellowship, and other promi-
nent societies will shortly follow the ex-
ample.
The average age of all the people of
France is given as 30 years, 2 months
and II days; the average in the United
States is only "a years, 10 months and
| "a days.
SOURCES OF PAINTS Materials for
the painters colors-animal, vegetable
and mineral-cone from many lands.
The cochineal insects furnish the gor-
geous carmines, and crimson, scarlet
and purple lakes; sepia is the inky fluid
by which the cuttlefish conceals itself
| ivory black and bone black are made
from ivory chips; and Prussian blue re-
suits from the fusion of impure potas-
| SUM carbonate with such animal refuse
as horses hoofs. The vegetable lakes are
derived from roots, banks and gums
| blue black is from vine charcoal; lamp
black is resinous SCOT; turkey red is
made from the madden plant of Hindos-
tan; gambege, from the yellow sap of a
Siamese tree; Indian ink, Chinese Sc
cret. is probably made from camphor;
| mastic is from a tree of the Grecian
/ Archipelago; blister is the SCOT of wood
| ashes. A natural earth from Sienna,
| Italy, furnishes raw and burnt sienna;
| and raw and burnt lumber are from an
earth of Umbria. Real ultramarine is
obtained from the precious lapsis lazuli;
| Chinese white is from zinc; scarlet is
iodide of mercury, and cinnabar, or ma
| tive vermilion, is from quicksilver ore.
| A WIDE FIELD FOR PSYCHOLOGISTS
The insect world is vast almost beyond
our conception. President Sharp, of the
London chronological Society, states
that, while Linneus knew only 5000
species of insects one hundred and
twenty years ago, the collections of the
world probably include at present 200,-
| 600 or 100000 species. Certain data lead
to the inference that we do not yet pos
sess more than one-tenth of,those existing
so that even the present rapid rate of
discovery viii not complete our collec-
tions of insects in less than 200 years
Before the end of that period many
species of to-day will have become ex-
tinct, and DR.. Sharp urges that those
likely soon TO disappear should be es-
pecially sought.
A company has been formed in Berlin
to manufacture electrical watches. Two
small cells and small electric motor
take the place of the ordinary watch
movement.
SCIENCE AND CREaTIoN.-'The re-
searches of science" says DIR. w. II.
Dallinger, +. r. s., are physical. I ne
observable finite contents of space and
time are the subjects of its analysisss
Existence. not the cause of existence;
succession, not the cause of succession;
method, not the origin of method, are
the subjecst of physical research. A
primordiai cause cannot be the subject
OF experiment nor the object of demon
stration. 1t must forever transcend the
most delicate physical reaction, the
profoundest analysis, and the last link in
the keenest logic. Absolute knowledge
concerning it can only be the rrerogative
of itself.
CURIOUS CoMMENsALs. = Fish para
sites. eel-shaped and very small, have
only recently become known, though ten
species have now been found in the
Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic
and Indian Oceans. These parasites