Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1893-06-01
vised by which heavy rails are brought
together and welded solidly in few min
utaa

Many country people IN Italy, says q
traveller, foretell the weather by means of
q leech In an open mouthed bottle partly
filled with water. The water must be
changed once q week, and a spoonful of
blood poured In 1t about As often. When
the weather Is good the lesch will remain
coiled up at the bottom of the bottle;
whenever rain is near At hand It will creep
up to tho top and stay there until the
weather Is settled again. If wind is i'm
minent 1t will be very restless and dart
about in the water ss though in pain,
| while before q thunderstorm 1t will appear
to be in oonvulsions. 1t is so generally
trusted that at haying kline and other ses-
seasons when fine weather Is important the
| leech Is one of the moss useful members of
| the household.
American naval cadets are apparently
able to take care of themselves. Two more
have won highest honors in foreign schools.
At the British school Of naval architecture
in Glasgow, Assistant Naval Constructor
Lawrence Spear has just graduated at the
head of his class of fifty and has won the
fret prize of $500. He graduated at An
napolis, in 1890, second in his class. Naval
Cadet Richard NJ. Watt, who graduated
from Annapolis in 1891, stands third in his
GLASS at Glasgow and has another year to
study there. For six years our naval Ca
diets have always taken tho places of honor
in their class, and one of them. Naval Con-
structor David W. Taylor of Virginia, on
graduating four years ago, made the best
record ever attained at Greenwich. What
makes the success of young America all
the more remarkable is the fact they are in
Glasses with men whose ages range from 80
to 80 years.
NJ. Ardaillon, of the Ecole Francaise
d'Atheues, who has been investigating the
causes of the Zante earthquakes, says that
they are due to the phenomena of plication
or folding of the earth's upper strata. The
same tension and compression which pro-
duced many of the mountain ranges is here
in action. As the interior OF the earth
cools, 1t contracts and tends to leave the
outer crust behind. The weight of this
outer crust, however, is greater than 1t
can sustain and 1t is therefore compelled to
wrinkle. Thus geologists explain the great
ridges and furroys which constitute CONT
nents and river basins, and they compare this
folding of the earth's crust with the wrink-
ling of the skin of a dried apple, While
this process of wrinkling or folding is go.
ing on the mighty movement, of course,
destroys the equilibrium of the rock strata;
and in consequence earthquakes occur
and continue with greater or less violence
until equilibrium is again restored. Un-
fortunately for Zsnte 1t lies in the line of
disturbance and must suffer until the
same causes that reared our Appalachian
mountains cease to operate In Its neighbor-
hood.
The most popular scientific lectures of
the day in London are those which Profess
sor Dewar is delivering upon "Atmos-
phere" in the theater of the Royal Institu-
ton. His experiments with liquid oxygen
are peculiarly interesting. On a recent
occasion he explained tho construction of
the glass Aasks containing the liquid oxy-
gen. He showed that they were simply
glass bottles provided with double walls
and bottoms, the outer wall being distant
The interior bottle was open at its neck to
the atmosphere in the usual way, but the
outer bottle was fused securely to the
inner one at the neck, leaving an empty
space all round the inner bottle. From
this space the air was exhausted by
powerful air pumps, and tho result was
that anything placed in tho interior bottle
could not absorb heat from the atmosphere
or other surrounding objects. Sometimes
two vacuum jackets were used to secure
complete isolation, and, In addition, the
outer surface Of the inner bottle was coated
with deposit of mercury. Prof. Dewar
then proceeded to demonstrate the various
qualities and properties of the liquid oxy-
gen. He poured the fluid about from vss-
sci to vessel like 80 much water, noting the
fact that it was nearly always boiling and
rapidly passing back into its gaseous state.
He inserted q Thermometer into it and
showed that the fluid was boiling at a tenn
| perature equivalent to several hundred de-
grses below the freezing point of water.
Absolute alcohol thrown on the surface
promptly gave up all its heat to the oxy-
gen, and turned to q mass of ice, which
was shown to be quite ineombustible until
remslted. Drops of the liquid thrown on
q piece of rock salt bshaved exactly as
spots of water on a red d-hot plate, assum-
ing the spheroidal shape and spinning
about.