The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-06-23
coEaptIed for The ASkans0W Tr0veter. SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY,

| - ASSN 4 44 4~ AS440SAS4@4@&4AN AS4 ~
 Austria now has S80 meteorological stations, no less than nine being in Vienna alone.
 Siciiy's sulphur is estimated at about 30,00O, 900 tons, from which the world draws 100000 tons yearly.
 Two substitutes for the high priced gum arabic-one from fax-seed and the other from starch-are expected to serve all purposes for which the genuine gum is used.
 A prize of 25O francs is offered by the Belgian Society of Electricians for the best essay on the elementary prin- ciples of electricity, workmen lacking technical education being especially invited to compete.
 The new radio -micrometer of Mir. c. Vernon Boys-a thermo- electric circuit suspended by torsion fiber in magnetic field-will show a change in temperature of one ten- -millionth of Centigrade degree.
 The natural desire to simplify speech is leading to. an unnatural epi- demic of new languages. Volapuk, Pasilingua, Spelin and Lingualumina are few of many systems lately de- vised to supply universal lan- guage."
 Recent tests of three types of stor- age batteries, intended for street-car service, gave encouraging results. The accumulators showed an efficiency of 89.3 to 91 per cent when tested for quantity, and 78.5 to S3.4 per cent when tested for energy.
 In work on meteorology Camille Flammarion declares the atmosphere to be huge machine, on which every living thing is dependent. There are in this machine neither wheel work, pistons. nor cogs, nevertheless it does the work of several millions of horses, and this work has for its end and ef- feet the preservation of life.
 The curious observation is men. tioned by MT. W. L. Wilder that wasps, bees and hornets can be ham, dled with impunity by person hold ing his breath. Even the most deli cate skin becomes sting proof, though it is quickly penetrated if the small est quantity of air is allowed to escape from the lungs. It is surmised that holding the breath partially closes the pores of the skin.
 It is expected that the dictionary of the North American Indian tribes, upon which the United States Bureau of Ethnology has been at work for many years, will be issued within a few months in volume of about 500 pages. The aim has been to give alphabetically the name of each lin- guistic family, tribe and village of the Indians at the time of the settlement by Europeans, with important partic- ulars concerning each.
 THE GREAT CLIMATIC CYoLE.-Ac- cording to the calculations of M. Adolphe dAssier, based on the as- sumption that the coincidence of the earth's perihelion passage with the summer solstice every 2l,000 years marks the regular recurrence of northern glacial period, the last gla- cial period, culminated in 925O B. C., the alternating period ot greatest northern warmth occurred A. D. 125O, and the ice period now approaching will reach it's greatest height A. D. ,15O. Evidence of the slow cooling during the past 600 years is seen in the changes recorded in the northern limits of the growth and ripening of certain fruits.
 AN UNDEvELoPED ART-The atten- tioD of experimenters is being directed to the subject of photography with out lenses, which offers possibilities yet unknown. The plan yields an impor- tant advantage in the fact that images of various sizes may be obtained with single apparatus by simply chang ing the distance of the camera front from the plate and varying the open ing from one-fiftieth or one. sixtieth of an inch for small pictures to one- twenty fifth of an inch for large ones. The negatives lack the sharpness given by lenses. A curious result of this has been obtained by Captain Colson ID copy oi an engraving in which no trace of lines can be seen without a msgnifyiDg glass. A present draw back to this kind of photography is the length of exposure necessary, but this will doubtless soon be shortened.
 TIE BIRD OF THE GOLDEN EGGs.- Early in the present century the great auk was found in large num- bers on certain northern coasts, but it has since become totally extinct, and | there is no authenticated notice of ;fs existence at later date than 1s44. The bird was about as large as goose, had wings too short for flight, but was rapid swimmer, and seldom left the water. Il lived in Newfoundland, Labrador and Iceland, occasionally visiting NOrvSnv and Sweden .,a AZ