The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-18

near a very powerful magnet that the
needle was drawn in the direction OF It's
point. After nine treatments. lasting alto
gether twenty hours. the needle came
through the skim
Land irrigation as a means of disposing
Of sewage is said TO be growing In favor
in Germany. The sewage farms of Berlin,
whose population is 1.666, 900, have an area
of 28,sS0 acres; Breslau, with 3oo.oo0 inhap-
itants. has 3.427 acres, and smaller towns
are rapidly adopting the system 1t does
the cost is less than that of chemical
treatment as rracticed elsewhere.
French peasants have a belief that IL a
fire with much smoke is made in the stove
on the approach of a storm safety from
lightning will be insured. Shuster shows
that the custom is based on f-ason, as the
smoke serves as a very good conductor
for carrying away the electricity slowly
and safely. In one thousand cases OF
mills have been struck, but the number or
factory chinneys was only o.
The elaborate attempt made by a commits
sion of the British Royal Society to bore
into a coral reef for a thousand feet or
so to secure a section for studying its
structure. has given very unexpected re-
suits. The apparatus was tried in two
places on Funafuti. but, at a depth of six
ty-fve feet in one case and seventy-two
with a material like quicksand containing
small masses of coral that further progress
was impossible. So far as the reef was
pierced. it appeared to be not solid coral,
but more like a vast coarse sponge of coral
with wide interstices, either empty or filled
with sand.
The phenomenon of globular lightning.
which is so freakish and Elusive that its
reality has always been doubted, has been
reproduced artifcially by NJ. Right, of
Bologna. He has not only made the move
ment of the luminous sphere moderate
enough for the eye to follow it, but has
been able to photograph the creeping mass.
The best results were obtained from a
ppWerfu wb HAT w sleetri run ma S1 a I HVdra foac
motor, and which charged a battery of
Leyden jars. To achieve success, 1t was
found to be Indispensable that the circuit
of discharge have great resistance, which
was given by introducing a column of dis
e tia,e q I Wa'e Tie th mot ioe c beeomief, h sIowe gre as
the capacity is increased; and that the gas
in which the discharge takes place be prop
erly rariied. this rarefaction giving in
creased size to the flame as well as length
ening its path.
Marvellous as it was at birth a few
months ago. Roentgen photography is al
ready an infant of remarkable develop
ment. Since the first crude pictures of the
bones of the hand, improvement has been
made step by step until it is now possible
to photograph the entire skeleton of the
uNIUS DCUy, Inc &c SHOW II III Il SllSle PFC
ture of a trif1e more than life size. At a
recent scientific convention in Zurich a pic
ture of this kind created considerable as
constituent. 1t was due to the efforts of
Prof. Ludwig Zehnder. The. inventor of a
new CrCokeS tube which is capable of
working at q greater distance than earlier
ones, thus increasing the size of the plates
that can be used and improving the pic
lures in sharpness. For the picture exhib-
tied the tube was arranged exactly over
the middle of the body about twenty-three
inches from the dry plate on which the
subject lay. The different parts were TAX
en- separately, the head requiring an ex-
minutes Ii3Ire the knee FONTS fifty minutes. the
pelvis sixty minutes, the feet, arms and
hands fifteen minutes each. By uniting the
several proofs a complete picture, six feet
six inches long, was obtained. All parts
are penetrated by the Roentgen rays, CIV
ing absolutely clear pictures of the skel-
eton and the joints, and distinctly reveal
ing any impenetrable object in the cavities
of the skull. The heart and other organs
are distinguished. and with the fuorescent
screen these can be seen in the actual per-
Torrance of their functions.
A novel project advanced by M. Raoul
Pictet at the recent Geographical Congress
at Geneva was the utilization of the en-
ergy of the lofty whirling pillars of sand
that are continually travelling over the des-
ert of Sahara. These may be studied in
the environs of Cairo, where, at about Q
a. M, bits of paper or feathers on little
hillocks are occasionally stirred in a cir
cular path, the movement gradually becom-
ing steady and gyratory. then the light OBJ
jects rise, their velocity increases and
they are lost to sight in the sand that
mounts after them, and may reach a height
of 1000 yards in about an hour. The
upper part of the column is four hundred
or six hundred yards in diameter. it's mar
rowest portion about a dozen yards. Often
ten or twelve of these columns are in sight
at once. and their maximum force-depend-
ing upon their temperatures reached be-
tween noon and 3 p. m. Some of the light
objects picked up were afterwards found
fifteen or twenty miles away. The temper
allure was investigated by means of Their
mometers over a radius of five hundred
yards on the ground where the column was
expected to form, and the sand was found
to be fifteen degrees or more hotter than
the air, the heat especially on the
eastern side increasing very rapidly
at the beginning of the phenomenon. M.
Pictet calculates that the wasted heat for
each column is sufficient to raise a quart
of water about ten degrees in a minute.
He suggests that the solar energy thus dis
sipated be collected by covering the ground
with immense heaters of blackened sheet
iron. He calculates that Nile water flow
ing through such heaters could be quickly
raised from seventy degrees to $50 degrees,
and that a boiler covering 22 acres would
furnish 1000 horse power for irrigation and
other IlSpc