The evening times., 1895-08-21
OF SCIENTIFIC INTEREST.

A scientist places the age OF the earth
| at 6Sv,vuU, 900 years
| A French matchmaker at Geneva has
substituted for the sounding mechanism
in clocks and watches a photographic
| system which speaks the time.
In perforating postage stamps a die
| plate Is placed before the needles of ma
| chine carrying 800 needles. As about
| 1S0,00o.Oo0 holes are punched per day the
wear on the die plate is excessive Brass
plates wear out in Il day aud even steel
plates are rapidly destroyed. The use of
aluminium bronze has caused the die
plates to last for months without renewal
The submar rne Indicator used in search
ing for wrecks on the sea bottom has a
metallic siuker which is trailed along
nearthcbottom. Whenitapproa chcSo mass
of metal, such as that Of the Russian mon
itor recently lost IN the Gulf of Finland,
the indicator On the searching ship is elec-
trically disarrauced I'D a bell is rgng
The Hughes induction balance suggested
the plan OF the appara tIls.
Prof Dewar, the chemist, has compressed
oxygen under an intense degrec of culd
degree almost beyond the power of
Imagination, into pa Il biIe fIuid. thing
which, although it has been done before,
has not been done t. such an extent or in
such quantity; has soIdified oxygen into
a Jelly: has made ozone into deep lapis-
lazul-bluc liquid, and has also iiquefied
air. He has made the suggestion thai pos
sibiy the vast shining night-clouds, con-
cerning whose composition, whether of
congregated stars at immeasurable dis
tances or OF nebllnus matter slowly concen-
trating into stars, astronomers havcarrived
at no fixed conclusion, may really be only
masses of carbonic- acid gas frozen in the
unspeakab.e cold of the inter-steiiar spaces,
which is probably the zero of absolute tenn
perature
1t is supposed that the moon is a dead
and cold body that the earth VIII one day
become so. tkat the sun Itself will bank
its fires and be a dark object in space.
Butexperments of Prof. Dewar have shown
that the life of vegetable seeds and of
animal bacteria is only suspended and not
cxiinguishc.. :nder a degree OF cold greater
than that Iequired for the reduction of
oxygen-a fact that gives one a strange
sensaiion OF cheer out of void and blackness,
since in that moon even now may be
slumbcring life, ard since these future ap-
parcntIy dead spheres ostAe sun ard p,anets,
hanging still in srace, may meet with re-
ai.ina,ing conditions and Will then stin
contain bacterial life ard the life of spores,
all that is reeded suspended and ready for
fresh action and renewed peoplng of the
hills once called with authority the ever
lasting hills, wherever the sphere may find
itself and under whatever conditions. tend
ing toward different results the rcpeopling
may take place.
The statement that in 1894 only nine
deaths occurred out OF q population of
IL, 600 persons who tcBented Penton- |
vile prison is a very suggestive one. OF
these nine deaths probably not one was
due 10 the prison environment. Everybody |
knows that of the deaths which do occur
in a house OF detention the larger proper |
tion will arise from disease contracted |
in the previous life of the prisoners Strange |
as il may seem. the modern prison is really !
the type of the healthy home. Nor is it |
difficult to account for the extremely |
sanitary state of the jail. Life there pro- |
ceesis with q regularity as regards food, |
exercise, rest, and the other conditions |
of health, which it Is only to be regretted |
we cannot in some fair measure initiate |
tine prison walls Again, total !
abstin Is q condition of prison life |
which must exercise very beneficial |
effect on large section OF the inmates. |
The absolute cleanliness which reiSns in |
side the walls is another and an aI-im- |
portant influence In wardiDg Off disease |
and in determining for prOlongation OF life |
II in our homes We could initiate, even /
afar off. something Of the regularity Of |
life in the jail and something OF tire living |
according 10 rule tnot necessarily q rigid |
or inflexiblc onc) which therein prevails, I
we should all be physically the better for
the sanitary discipline. We offend against
30 many Of the canons Of hygiene. even In
. fairly well ordered existence. that It
ID little wonder we suffer as we do from
preventible ailments.
You'll read the Morning Times, II