Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-06-27
BRIEF NOTES OF SCIENCE.

required for the gulf waters TO travei
! from Florida TO the coast of Norway.
/ Ebony wood is hardened after telling
by immersion in water for periods
| varying from six to eighteen months.
| The Brockport, \. Y, electric wight
plant has been equipped with auto
matte Sprinklers in the boiler-room
and all wires in the dynamo-room viii
be run in porcelain tubing under The
floor.
| The velocity of wind is constantly
changing. 1t varies every second AMI
! while the average velocity may De
! twenty-three miles an hour, in the
! course of one minute it will be altered
, several times.
! A 22-ton Armstrong rifle in The
British navy throws a solid shot
; twelve miles, much further than its re-
! port can be heard. At It's highest
point for this extreme range esshot
, would be over three miles above the
earth's surface.
, At 50 cents :. cylinder, Silas Leach
, man, of Chicago, has filled 100000
photograph cylinders with comic and
other songs lit is said that he makes
about $50 a day, and that in the west
he is the only man that has been
found with voice of the right quality
for the work.
At the Germany army manoeuvres a
new shoe sole for soldiers will re
tried. 1t consists of a kind of paste
of linseed OIL varniSh and iron filings,
with which the soles of new shoes are
painted. 1t is said to keep leather
flexible and to give the shoe greater
resistance than the best nails.
1t is estimated that for every degree
of change in temperature during the
cold half of the year throughout the
territory in which anthracite coal is
used the consumption is influenced :
per cent. The temperature effect is
largely upon the coal used in heating,
and is a definite factor for calculation.
The outer ear of a mouse is thin,
almost transparent membrane. anu re-
cent experiments show that 1t is highly
sensitive to NOV ementS OF the alr
which to human ears do not represent
sound at all. 1t is asserted ON Soou
authority that mice are sensitive to
music. and the stories of their singing
have been fully confirmed. They have
pleasant, musical note resembling
that Of the cricket.
Lake Superior is i'll danger OF losing
its distinction of being the largest
fresh water lake i'm the world. African
explorers begin to think Lake Victoria
Nyanza is larger. Superior covers
81 200 square miles, and NyanZa mas
been credited with about 10000; but
recent explorations have discovered d
hitherto unknown bay OH it's Soudhern
side. which so increases its known
area as to make it question whethe:
it is not larger than Superior.
# is now believed. and with hgh
probability of the truth of the theory
that the shooting stars which some
times fall to the earth IN semi
| molten condition are almost or wholly
| devoid of heat when they enter the at
mosphere. They are set Oh nre by
| friction against the air, cue to the
rapidity of their motion. 1t is possIple
that the force of the ealfth'S attraction
| soIidifies such meteors from a gaseous
condition in which they may exist IN
space.
In hemp and fiax-plnning works
the noils. as waste or by-product, have
always been used for paper stock; but
! the price of wood pulp has reduced the
price to a very low figure. A Belgian
Inventor has now devised a machine
! for spinning this into yarn which is
said to be remarkably regular ana
strong. and to be available for most
of the purposes for which vegetable
fibres are employed. 1t is expected
that the chief use of this yarn WIFI De
| i'm carpet mills, where cotton yarn has
been coming into general use IN ac'
! count of it's cheapness.
An electric gun has just been ill.,
vented for which the following advan-
| taiges are claimed: 1t may be made
very light in proportion to its capacity
! for throwing balls; it cannot possibly
| explode: it is economical in operati On,
and the limit Of the number of balls
| it will throw within a given time is
| the number of balls that can be put
| into its breech. For field service 1t rs
claimed it will far surpass anything
| now in use. The inventor estimates
| that from seven hundred to one thou
sand shots per minute can be fired.
| Tests have already been made that are
said to have been highly successful
The most powerful light in the world
| is now being set up ON Fire Island
| beach. ON the coast of Long Island.
1t will be ready for business July
| /. 1t will be visible ito ships 100
miles at sea. Not the light itself, of
course, but an intermittent glare may
be obsery ed by a watchful skipper that
distance from the shore. The light
will be electric, having a power OF
; 100000 candles without the lens.
The lens, which was made in Paris, is
! Of enormous siZe-about ten feet in
| diameter. 1t will increase the power
/ to 25OOOO,O00 candles. The light IS
! generated by enormously powerful
| dynamos, of which there are two, SO
! that if one breaks down the other may
be used.
! One ton of good camel coal, when
distilled in gas retorts, leaves twelve
! gallons Of coal tar, from which is pro
T5Ioad q rlnI1nd nf hanZinQ a p0ITn6 of