The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-25
SCIENTIFIC.

Helium, being more permanent than hy
drogen, is a thermornetric substance
for very low temperatures.
The high note of cuckoo has been de-
termined by an English observer to be usu-
ally from + to E fiat; the low note from d
to B.
Specimens of firedamp have been recently
collected from many sources, all contain
ing nitrogen, with. apparently. about the
. same proportion of argon as is obtainable
from the nitrogen OF the air.
Lucium, new element discovered by M.
P. Barriere in monazite sand, dssolves in
sulphuric, nitric or acetic acid. forming SOL
uble salts either white or slightly rose
tinted. Its atomic weight is calculated as
10i. The discoverer proposes to use the sub
stance for an incandescent gaslight on the
Welsbach principle.
The four great tunnels of the world are
cited as an Illustration of the marked di-
minution of the cost of engineering works
during the last quarter of a century. The
$500 a foot; the Mont Cents, the next in
date, $40; the ST. Gothard 1866, and the
Arlberg. the most recent, only $500.
The gas engine which, in Europe, has al
most supplanted the steam engine for mod
crate power, is being used in France for
ships. A new gas boat on the Havre-Rouen-
Paris line is one hundred feet long, with
seven feet draught. and attains d speed of
seven knots. The gas is stored in steel
tubes under a pressure of n1nety-hVe at
mospheres. The engine is a two-cyiinder
one, and is of forty horsepower.
The improved field glass of a London in
ventor may be carried in the pocket, and
put on and worn like a pair of spectacles.
The spiral telescope tubes are very light,
being made of aluminium, and close up
into a small space. A head-Strap holds the
glass in place for use. The apparatus is de-
signed especially for officers in the field,
for correspondents reporting military man
euVers, and for all persons VINO make OBJ
servations at a distance and take notes at
the same time
A remarkable popularity IN the law of
solar rotation has been reported by Mr..
Lewis Jewell. a result of spectroscopic
work at Johns Hopkins University. The
outer and inner portions of the suns at
mosphere are found to have a difference in
rotation period of several days, the period
increasing the philosophers is APP
preached. The measures also show much
the greatest equatorial acceleratlon for the
outer atmosphere, there being little differ
ence at lower levels in the period for diff
ferent ATTITUDES.
The prediction is made by Sir James
Grant that the gold output of Canada. es
pecially of British Columbia, will astonish
the world at no distant date. In Nova
Scotia, where gold mining has been lucra-
tive during the last ten years, the total
production had reached 81, 500 900 at the
close of 1895. In the province OF quebec,
where gold has been known since 1881, an
examination, last year, brought out enough
of the metal to cause a fever OF excite
ment and an eager taking up of all obtain
able land.
The cheapenng of acetylene is one of the
great scientific problems of the day. OF the
numerous inventions to effect this object.
one of the most promising appears to be
the new furnace of NJ Raou Pictet. which
is designed to economize electric current by
using other source of heat for part of the
work of forming the calcium carbide. The
furnace is vertical one. divided into three
parts or zones of temperature. The charge
of lime and coke is supplied from the top,
and the materials descend gradually
through two preliminary zones, where a hot
blast raises them to progressively increas-
ing temperatures, until they reach the
floor, where an electric arc flashing be-
tween two strong electrodes completes the
operation. The carbide flows through an or
ifce to the receptacle provided
The very ingenious theory has been adj
vanced by NJ. C. Fourlinnie, a French
chemist, that the differences in the proper
ties of the chemical elements can be
planned by differences in the geometrical
form of the atoms. Limiting his research
to the nonmetals. he has reached the con-
clusion that the members of one family of
ronmetals possess atoms of the same form.
but of different dimensions. while the non
metals of different families have dissimfiar
atoras He reasons that these atomic forms
must be regular poiyhedra. Comparing The
different regular polynadra inscribed III the
same sphere, he finds that the volumes of
the hexahedron, the octahedron, the dodaca-
hebron and the icosahedron are relatively
as the numbers 10. 16. IA and T. which are.
relatively, the atomic weights of fiuorine.
oxygen. nitrogen and carbon He. there