Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1893-09-22
POPULAR SCIENCE NOTES.

A Russian physician has been making
some curious experiments to find out
how far animals can count. He declares
that the crow can count up to ten and is
hereby superior in arithmetic to certain
Polynesian tribes of mon, who cannot
get beyond five or six.
MICROSCOPIC SCREws.-Thc smallest
screw in the world is that used in tho
movement of watch. Some of these arc
so minute that box of them appears to
the casual observer to be filled with fine
black sand. With strong glass, how
ever, they arc seen to be perfect in every
part, though only 410O0 of an inch in
diameter. A thimble will hold over
100, 900 of them. They are not counted,
but sold by weight. ~.s,
The SIZE OF THE SEA.-One gallon of
water weighs ten pounds, 80 the number
of gallons in the Pacific is over 200, OOO,-
600, 900, 900, IN amount which would take
more than a million years to pass over
the Falls of Niagara. Yet, put into .
sphere, the whole of the Pacific would
only measure 726 miles across. The At
lantic could be contained bodily in the
Pacific nearly three times. The number
of cubic feet is 1T followed by seven
teen ciphers; a number that would be
licked off by our million clocks in &c.,
900 tons, and ihe nutnbef Il gatlotS'
in it $4,000, 900, 900, 900. A sphere
to hold the Atlantic would have
to be 1884, miles in diameter. If it were
made to fill circular pipe reaching,
from the earth to the sun-a distance Of
5000, 900 miles-the diameter of the
pipe would be l 1887 yards, or rather over
mile; while pipe of similar length to
contain the Pacific would be over mile
and three quarters across. Yet the dis
lance to the sun is so great that. as has
been pointed out, if child were born
with an arm long enough to reach the
sun it would not live long enough to
know that it had touched it, for sensa-
ton passes along our nerves at the rate
Of 100 feet second, and to travel from
the sun to the earth at that rate would
take a century and half, and such an
abnormal infant is an unlikely centen.
arian.-[Longman's.
A New WAY TO PRESERVE PICTURES.
"A recent invention of w. .. Simpson,
which promises to do away with the
dangers which all pictures, and espe-
cially water-color drawings, have hitherto
undergone from the disastrous effect of
light on pigments. Mr.. Simpson has,
by an exceedingly simple device, made
it possible to frame all pictures, large or
small, under this desirable condition.
The canvas or painting is placed in
chamber or box, either copper or
aluminium, according to the size
and weight of the picture. The
front of this chamber is of aohro.
matte glass, and by the use of an air
pump all air behind the glass is ex-
hausted and vacuum created.s Tho
picture is then replaced in the original
frame, the only difference being that the
colors appear considerably brighter and
every detail is more distinct, owing to
the absence of the air formerly imprisoned
between the glass and the painting, and
the substitution of achromatic for ordi-
nary glass. Under these conditions tho
most delicate Turner water color NAV be
exposed to the full light of the sun
without any danger Of fading. A pic-
ture once inclosed in vacuum neede NO
further cleaning or busting.