The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-09-30
SCIENCE IN SCRAPS.


seventeenth year to have been only thlr-
teen years, wss in the eighteenth increased
70 twenty, and in the nineteenth TO thirty
six. Men used TO be considered old when
they passed fifty.
Careful scientific Investigations show
that the average speed Of the transmission
OF earthquake shocks is nearly 10000 feet
per second.
The mightiest Of gunpowder blasts in
connection with railway works, ii not the
greatest blast exploded, was that by which
Sir William Cubitt blew away, with one
charge of $4,000 pounds Of gunpowder, the
entire mass Of the Round Down cliff, which
rose TO the height of $50 feet above the
level OF the sea, within few miles of
Dover. The dislodged stuff covered
space of more than fifteen acres.
1t doesn't require an expert to tell
whether diamond Is genuine or not TDe
test is very simple and can be made in any
place and ia moment. All you need Is q
piece of paper and lead pencil. With the
latter make a small dot on the paper, then
look at it through The diamond. II you can
see but one dot you can depend upon 1t
that the stone is genuine, but if the mark
is scattered, or shows more than one, you
will be perfectly safe in refusing TO pay 10
cents for stone that may be offered You st
1900.
Observations on live rattlesnakes show
active as soon as the snakes begin to shift
for themselves, which must be very soon
after birth. Experiments on the young
ones six days after birth proved the pres
ence Of venom in small quantities. Expert
ments made three months after birth
showed that considerable venom is Sc
GREETED, as pigeon, inocculated at this time,
died in two hours with the usual symptoms
OF chronic poisoning
The largest oak now standing in England
is the "Cowthorpie, which measures rs
feet in circumference at the ground. AT
one time this tree and its branches covered
more than an acre of space The gigantic
old parliamentary oRk'' in Clipstone park,
London, is believed to be 1,500 years old
The tallest oak on the British Isles is called
the Dukes Walking-stick. 1t is higher
than the spre OF Westminster abbey. The
oak Of Gelsmos which was felled ia 1910,
realized s, $50 for it's owner; the bark was
sold for 81 900 and the trunk and branches
for So, $50 more.
HollRnder, in the year 1880 first discovered
method for indicating changes Of temper
Rture by means OF glass bulb.
The bell bird or csmpanere, which is
found in South America and also in Africa,
Waterton, the famous traveller and natural
list, Dtates. can be heard a. distance CT
three miles. Its note is like the tolling of
a distant church bell, and is uttered during
the heat of the day, when every other bird
has ceased to sing and nature is hushed
and silent. How lac bell bird utters this
deep loud note is not known, though it is
supposed that flesh protu berance on
Its head, which, when inflated with
air, stands up like horn, Is in
some way the cause of it. The
hornbill, bird which is widely distributed
in India the Malay archipelago and Africa,
has also very loud note Its call has been
described Rs between the shrek OF To-
connective and the bray OF donkeyn and
can be heard distance of about couple
of miles. The barking pird also utters
very loud note; indeed, 1t is impossible to
distinguish Ii from the bark of dog. Its
English name, says Darwin, is well given,
for defy anyone at first TO feel certain
that small dog Is not yelping somewhere
in the forest The Toucar has also the
same popularity.
The sea is not of uniform sadness at all
depths, for the sadness generally in
creases with its depth. The Investigations
II the CHALLENGER ehoW that as q rule the
sadness OF the sea decreases from the
surface to q depth of from 500 to 1000
fathcms, and after that increases IN til the
bottom is reached. This cannot be taken as
3 liked rate, however, as different seas are
subject TO different conditions These vari-
atoms depend upon the currenta OF fresh
rivers. Thus the Caspian sea contains
eleven pounds of salt TO every ton Of
water. and the Red sea ninety-three
pounds. In the Mediterranean the Baltness
increases with the depth, while in Bafin's
bay the surface water and deep water are
the same It has been calculated that If all
the salt were extracted from the sea and
spread oyer the surface of the land 1t
would form layer thirty feet deep.
Curious and interesting is the fact that
the playing Of children on the slopes of
Flameteed hill, on which the observatory
of Greenwich stands, sets the hill into
vibration to such an extent as to interrupt
observations which depend upon the mo-
tionlessness of tray of mercury Hun
dreds of children are accustomed in the
evening TO romp upon the hill outside the
observatory walls. Joining hands they
run headlong down the slope ano tumble
in heap at its foot. The result is that the
solid hill is thrown into such q state of
tremor that the vibrations continue to be
felt at the observatory until long past mid
night, and for many hours after the tired
children have been asleep
There are no family names in NADIA
gascar. and almost every personal name
has some distinct meaning, being, with
few exceptions, the names of things
birds. plants, inanimate objects, or names
describing color, quality, etc, or words
deDoting actions Of various kinds, so
that the names of the chiefs most al
ways con tain some word in common nse by
the people. In such case, however, the
ordinary word by which such thing or &C
ton has hitherto been known has been
changed Tor another, which takes its place
in daily speech.
The division of time into hours was
practiced among the Babylonians from re-
mole antiquity, but it was Hipparchus, the
philosopher, who introduced the Babylon
ian hour in Europe The sexagesimai sys-
tom Of notation was chosen by that ancient
people because there is no number having
SO many divisions as sixty. The Babylon
ians divided the daily journey OF the SUM-
the ruler of the day. into twenty-four
parasangs. Each parssang or hour was
eubdiylded into sixty minutes, and that
again into sixty seconds. They compared
the progress Of the sun during one hour at
the time OF the equinox to the progress
made BY good walker in tbs same period
Of time, both covering one parasang, an d
the courss Of the sun during the full equi-
noctiai day wss fixed at twenty -four para
sangs.
men once played great role IN history for
1t was they who colonized Galatia and
brought home the treasures of Greece and
italy TO Toulouse; who overthrow the
Roman empire in the west and won Eng
land from the Britons. II is equally GER
tain that tais physical type was once much
more dominant and widely distributed than
IL is now, and that IL is tending TO die out
This Is especially true of that pronounced
form Of blondes which is distinguished by
red hair. Red haired persons do NOT now
constitute the majority In any known tribe
or nation; but DIR. Bedd0e sets forth
grounds for thinking that red hair was