Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1891-03-13
POPULAR scIENoR.

A big meteor fell in Western Mis-
souri,, striking 3 big rock on the farm Of
William Apperson and smashing it into
q thousand pieces.
The British Balloon Society has Gu
tered sturdy protest agains. the threat
enCd choice of Jerusalem as the primo
meridian OF the world.
The velocity of sound in air at low
temperatures has recently been measured
by determining the interval between tho
Hash of agun 1913 meters distant and
the report.
Tho national powder mill at st. Med
ard-en-Jalle in France has recently been
lighted by incandescent lamps and is be.
heved to be the first mill of its class on
the continent to use electric lighting.
The sun gives 600, 900 times as much
light as the full moon, q, 600, 900, 600
times as much as the brightest star in
the sky and 1000, 900 times as much as
all the stars in the heavens combined.
Guttapercha derives its name from
the Malayan words guta, gum, and
peftcha, cloth, and was introduced to
the civilized world in 1912 by DR.. Mont
gomery, Scotch surgeon. The first
specimens were taken to London from
Singapore by jose Almeida, apd the
properties of the gum were announced BY
Hancock, Wheatstone and Faraday.
Among the natural productions OF
CANAAN, India, is the Strychnos nux,
yomica, forest tree Of majestic appear
ance, bearing sea-green and golden-col,
ored fruit. In the pulp are embedded
the seeds from which strychnine is ex,
tracted. The fruit and seeds are the ia:
vorite food of the grotesque bird known
as the rhinoceros horn-bill. Tho bird
fattens on the poisonous seeds, and yet
1t is eagerly sought as game, and its flesh
is excellent and perfectly innocuous a;
human food.
A Bohemian inventor named Won
Skoda has taken out an English patent.
for machine gun so constructed that all
operations required for firing automatic;
ally are effected by the recoil. Tho
breech is opened, the percussion lock Is
arranged, and a,cartridge nose or spoon
is fitted in such manner that it will;
when the breech is opened, be in an at!
titude suitable for the reception of the
cartridge passing out of the magazine,
The speed of firing is adjusted by alter,
ing the position of a weight on PEN
dulum, which actuates the trigger, so q,
to alter the period of oscillation.
A method is now on trial at the meteor.
illogical Office at Stockholm, Sweden.
which seems likely to throw some light
on subject which hitherto has been at
tended with some uncertainty, namely,
the determination of tho path taken by
storms. From the telegraphic weather
reports tables of the density OF the at
mosphere have been constructed, and
other data have been collected which
have been embodied in special charts.
These charts are found to give much
more reliable clues to tho movements
and origin OF cyclones than tho usual
method of the comparison of the isobar,
and isothoms alone. The latest investi-
cations show that storms move in the
direction of the warmest and datnpest
air, parallel to the lines of equal density,
leaving the rarer air to the right hand.
EFse, intensity of the light undes the
water diminishcs with great rapidity.
AT about ninety feet one sess ysry much
less, and when the sun approaches the
horizon, and the rays get much moro OBJ
lique, it seems as though night had come.
Horizontally, at 100 feet depth, rock
cannot be made out at greater distance
than twenty-five feet. Generally speak,
ing, at a greater depth than thirty feet
one cannot distinguish things under fhe |
conditions that ordinarily obtain. This
will account for the inability to see their
way on the part of those who attempt to
navigate submarine boats. AS soon as
an object is seen it is so close that there
is not time to steer clear of it. Naviga-
ton in deep waters can only be in diree- |
lions that have already been examined
and found clear, which naturally con-
fines submarine boats within very narrow
limits.
What the Baby Can Do.