St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1893-03-11
POPULAR SCIENCE NOTES.

marked upon, and the process which is
now claimed to be the most successful i'll
accomplishing this end is described as
neither complex nor costly. Starting
with the wcll-kuown understanding that
air is mixed with coul gas and with ny
'lrOcarbun EanorS, and the compouHd.
when burned, generates Il much greater
heat than if the air were absent ii
powerful air blast I:::Hg also Il great
ccono;nizcr in smelling and reducing
ores-the important fact presented in
this new method is that tn" fuel is the
air itself, which, as a powerful blast is
directed upon all incaudcSccnt substance
rs coal made white hot, pare carbon, or
any other materials that can be made to
glow. Coal, hydrocarbons, etc., may he
employed to give the initial incandrs-
cencc, but once the blast strikes the
| luminous body, the utmost intensity Of
heat is secured, apparently by the com
buStion of the mir, and may he main
tanned for an Indefinite period by merely
! pressing the incnudrS%tnrc of the surface;
this latter, it is stated, may E;e done by
slight manipulation of the surf;;rc
brought to inr#n,lr$crnrc, and with
some slight renewal Of carhomareous
MATERIAL
Is OUR GLOBE MOLTEN The curl
| oSity of people regarding Che inside o
the globe upon whicjl they live, SAYS the
". Y. Times, has u close analogy to the
incuriOsity of thravcragc individual man
regarding his own internal conStruy tion
Mr.. Alfred Russell Wallace in the F"ft-
night1y Reri'tr puts forth some interest
ing opinions upon tie nature of the
crrth's central mass. 70 be told that We
are separated from The molten liquid
with which, in his belief, the earth is
filled, by il crust only eighteen miles in
thickness is at first thought Il little alarm
in@. That however, is the view to
which Mr.. Wallace lends the weight OF
his authority. Mr.. Wallace is, indeed,
rather Il naturalist than Il gcoloyiSt,
but any views of his must have
Il certain interest. BY the way,
he considers that the suggestion which
has before been referred to in these col
umns, namely that some use for mankind
might be made Of the carth's internal
heat, is not at all imprarticab!c. There
is, of course, no doubt of the existence
of this internal heat. Among the indi-
cations of it are volcanoes, gcy>crS, and
hot springs Another evidence of inter
nal heat is the universal phenomenon of
an increase Of heat in descending below
the carth's surface. as is seen in mines
and wells This increase ha, been com,
putcd to be about 1 . FahrcnAcit for
each sixty feet of descent. There is some
variation, however, according to
the locality. In Il recent boring at
Wheeling the rate of increase of heat was
found to be greater as the depth in
creased. The average rate OF increase,
so says Mr.. Wallace, would imply a tenn
peraturc capable of melting rock at the
depth of about twenty miles. That the
carth's central heated mass is liquid is,
Of course, Il necessary part of Mr. WAL
lacc's theory. The favorte belief among
biologists for the past forty years has
been that the earth is solid This WAS
the opinion Of Sir Charles l.yrll and Sir
William Thomson. But Mr. Wallace as
scrts that the tendency Of recent geologic
cal opinion is in the direction Of the
liquid nature of the carth's mlss Mr..
Wallacc's opinions, we should add, are
1t is claimed that the fact, regarding tie |
strata OF rock found in mountain regions |
and the deposits at the mouths Of great
rivers like the Nile and Mississippi CON
form to this vicW The theory is that. as |
deposits arc formed, the carth's crust !
sinks from its increased weight and that |
the liquid condition of the "arth'S inner |
mass allows the crust to SO sink. \ lrpoS-
it is formed in shallow water and sinks |
from its own weight. Another deposit |
is formed on top Of that and the entire |
mass sinks still further. In mountain !
regions there arc piles Of strata. hundreds |
and even thousands of feet thick, which |
present throughout the indications of hay !
ing been formed in shallow water. The |
palpozoic rocks Of the Allegheny Noun !!
tains are not less than 5000 feet thick.
Yet the lowest Of these strata, the Pots |
dam sandstone, WAS not d~po>itcl in a |
deep sea, but evidently III shallow water |
near the shore, the beds exhibit
ing distinct river marks. The same |
phenomenon appear, in the geological |
records of the dcllAS Of existing rivers.
At Venice u boring Of 100 feet has been
made entirely in river mud, and near the
bottom were found beds of turf and |
vegetable matter. In the delta Of the
we'll at New Orleans, go
feet deep, passed through sands and
clays containing frcShwatcr shells Of
species still in existence. The specific !
gravity of the inner molten mass is, Of
course, according to this theory, some
what greater than that Of the calths
crust, and has about the same relation to
it as that water bears to ice. If this
were not 50, the formation Of
crust would he an impossible
ity, since the crust wolljtl always
be sinking into the liquid mass.
As ice remans and forms Il crust above
water by reason Of being slightly lighter
than water, 50 does the carth's surface
form crust above its molten liquid
mass. \ corolIary of this view of Mr..
Wallace, or, rather, we should say, of
Mr.. Fisher, is that mountains have
''roots"; that is, as iccb"rgs have great
masses under water, SO do mountains
have masses sinking into the carth's
liquid matter. The fact that in the st.
Gothard Tunnel the rate Of increase of
heat in descending was found to be less
than in level countries is claimed to
practical comfort from the theory of
Mcssrs. Wallace and Fisher. Mr.
Wallace assures us that we are really
much safer on this precarious crust than
we should be, living upon Il solid globe.