Brenham weekly banner. [volume] (Brenham, Tex.) 1877-1907, 1891-09-10
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.


Sanitary measures in England are
said to have caused a deminution Of
30 per cent in the death-rate from
consumption since 1861.
Mr.. G. Carus Wilson reports that
he has succeeded In producing mu.
steal notes from sand never before
and in restoring the reson-
anee to sand which had been de-
prived of it.
A French physicist has taken a
series of instantaneous photographs
OF the movements of the lips during
a speech, and finds that it is posi-
BILE to distinguish the letters of the
alphabet when the pictures are spun
in zoetrope.
In the past year so plans for
utilizing Switzerland's water power
have been in progress. The power
is largely used for electric lighting.
A wooden mill at Siebnen is to be
run by electricity, the Rhine at
to supply $4,000 horse
power.
An electrical thermometer for low
temperatures has been devised by o
Russian physicist, who utilizes the
in the resistance of a plati-
mum wire at different temperatures.
The instrument is very sensitive.
but is slightly inaccurate when used
for widely different temperatures.
The apparent total disappearance
Of .Jupiter's satellites occurs every
% years, and was first recorded by
Calico in 1911. The phenomenon
was observed by Flammarion, the
eminent French astronomer, on july
l5, when three of the moons we're
passing over the disc and one was
behind the planet.
The fresh water fishes of Switzer-
land number 81 species, as enumer-
ated IN a new work by NJ. Victor
Fatlo. Of thes AZ are found in the
Rhine, and 5 in that river only.
Only 5 species exist above a height
of about 5000 feet, but the trout
has been successfully introduced
into lakes up to $500 feet.
ELECTRIC LIGHTING BY GAS.
In a communication to the Paris
Academy, III. A. WITT states that the
efficiency of an arc light is about IS,
while that of a standard candle is
only 'O1, and that of the best regen-
erative gas burners is perhaps OF.
He mentions that in the town of
Lille gas lighting has been sup
planted by system of glow and arc
lamps, driven by a gas engine, and
they have proven so much superior
that Is per cent more light is OBJ
tanned, while the consumption of
gas in the engine is II per cent less
than was before required for direct
lighting by gas.
sELF-REPAIRNG ARMoR FOR VESSELS.
The use of substances which swell
greatly on exposure to water has
been often recommended as a pro-
tectiye armor for war-vessels. The
Danish ship Hecla is provided with
a belt of cellulose 3 feet thick, and
has recently been the subject of
some interesting experiments. A 5
inch shot was fired at this belt, and
passed completely through the YES
sci, leaving two sharply cut holes in
the cellulose. The holes closed up
to such an extent that the water
passing through was not sufficient
to interfere with the working of the
vessel, which steamed about without
difficulty for 3 hours.
SURVEYING RIvER-CHANNELs.
A German engineer, Herr Stech-
ner, has designed an apparatus for
automatically tracing the profile of
a river-bottom from a boat travelling
from 3 to 6 miles an hour. 1t CON
sists of a curved arm, hinged at the
upper end, and so long that the
lower curved portion trails on the
bottom of the stream. By means of
a suitable recording mechanism, the
variation in the inclination of the
arm registers the depth on revolv-
ing drum as the boat progresses.
Soundings on the Elbe have been
made with this instrument oyer a
distance of POT miles in 10 days.
SCIENCE IN LOFTY PLACES.
The proposed observatory on the
top of Mont Blanc, for which plans
have been made and funds provided,
is to be of iron, and to have length
of IS feet and a breadth of 20 feet,
with a roof like the turret of an
ironclad. A building difficulty to
be encountered-even more serious
than that of transporting the ma
terials to the spots that of secur-
ing solid foundation through the
unknown depth of glacier. A pre-
liminary study of the formation and
position of the rock is to be made By
driving a horizontal gallery through
the ice and snow. Temporary Oh