The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-27

made. with all its parts beautifully worked
and distinct. A tiny bit of mechanism
makes 1t possible to demonstrate the
has represented the development of the
frog In eight models of plaster, each ten
times life size.
good fiuorescent screen for experiments
with Roentgen rays. states correspondent
of the Scientific American. can be made by
coating piece of cardboard with prepared
glue and sitting on a coating OF common
zinc white Soxide Of zinc2 This fiuoresees
somewhat less brilliantly than calcium
tungstate, but makes a really excellent
screen.
1t has been suggested that the recent ex-
Extraordinary death rate in New York from
heat apoplexy was due more to the use of
ice and iced drinks than to the heat alone.
No unusual death rate, it is pointed out
was reported from the Britsh-Afriean
army in the Soudan, though the troops
We're working at the same period in a shade
temperature of 100 degrees
A new fireproof paper made in Berlin by
L. Frobeen, is reported to be capable Of re-
sisting even the direct influence of flame
while it may be placed in a white heat
without harm. It consists of % parts of
the pest asbestos fiber. which is washed in
a solution of permanganate of calcium and
then treated with sulphuric acid and five
parts OF ground wood pulp, the entire mass
being placed in the agitating box. with the
addition of some lime water and borax
After thorough mixing the material is
pumped into q regulating box and allowed
to flow out of a gate into an~endless wire
cloth, where it enters the usual paper
making machinery.
The phenomena of rain are initiated by
Professor Errera, of Brussels Univer-
sity, in a beaker The glass, eight
inches tall by five in diameter, is
half filled with go per cent. alcohol
covered with a saucer. and thorough
" heated over water bath without boil
to wooden table. Soon the alcohol vapor
is condensed into visible clouds by the cool
ing SAUCER, innumerable minute droplets of
ram ram ran ana the clouds become gradually
lowered away from the saucer. The min
nature storm may last half an hour. The
action is intensified if the warm saucer is
squalls are, produced when the alcohol is
very warm. and if the liquid is warmer on
one side the clouds may be seen to rotate
around a horizontal axis.
Ruined temples are stated byaMr Robert
M. W. Swain, an English anthropologist to
be so numerous in MashonaIand that one
might safely undertake to find a hundred
within ten miles of Salisbury. while the
number in the entire country between the
Zambesi and Limpopo rivers must be enor-
NOUS These remains of the people who
built Zimbabwe take the form of circular
arcs, II not complete circles. One of the
temples vislted-about three hundred yards
east of the Lundi river-is 169 feet 61h inches
IN circumference and the foundation di-
VergeS only few inches from true cir
Gle. 1t is of small rectangular naturally
shaped blocks of granite. laid in very regu-
lar level courses in a finely built double
wall. Inc two doorwayS sixty feet 815
inches apart. One of them forms. with the
center of the temple a north and south
line. so that it is supposed that the wall be-
tween the two doors was intended to face
the sun at the summer solstice. 1t is sug-
gested that these remarkable structures
We're not temples in the ordinary sense
but simply religious SYMBOLS
One of the latest of the numerous con-
trivances for enabling the mining engineer
to detect the presence of marsh gas or
firedamp depends upon the variation in
sound produced by the density change of a
gas. The air under test is forced through
a small organ pipe and the note thus OBJ
tanned compared with one given out by a
second pipe fed with pure air, the number
of beats per second giving measure Of the
methane present. Carbonic acid, moisture
and possible variation in temperature are
prevented from having any effect upon the
result. In the fixed type of apparatus micro
phones the organ pipes are placed in
connection with a telephone at any con-
venient place, enabling the manager in his
office to count the beats and instantly to
part of the mine from which the air is be-
ing draWn-1 per cent. Of methane giving
about three beats per second. Two other
types-the portable and the self-recording--
are constructed. The apparatus, which is
described by the French Society for the
Encouragement of National Industry is
somewhat expensive especially in the self
recording type. but is extremely simple and
convenient in use.
The copper mines of Sinai, the most an
cient mentioned in history, We're the sub
ject of recent communication by NJ.
Berthelot to the French Academy of
Sciences. Authentic documents show that
these mines were worked since the time of
the Egyptian dynasty (about five thousand
years b. CO until the end of the Rames-
seides (about 1900 to 1900 B. CO. While their
possession was the object of several wars,
they have been abandoned for three thou
sand years on account of the poor quality
of the ores. From these mines came the
sceptre of Pepi ], king of the sixth dy-
ish Museum, and which Berthelots analysis
showed to be of pure copper. The adits
still exist, do ruins of the furnaces. the
crucibles, the huts of the miners. and frag-
mentS of their tools In specimens obtained
by M. De Morgan are three ores-turquoise,
copper hydroSilicate and copper impreg
mated sandstone. These are superficial ores,
derived from the alteration of deeper py
rite beds which the miners failed to reach.
The turquoises contained 1872 per cent. Of
copper oxide. the cupriferouS gritstoneS be-
ing equally poor. Slags and cinders are in.
GUIDED in the debris, but there is evil
dence of the of fluxes. Some tool frag
ments contain arsenic, which used by
the Greek and Egyptian alchemists for
hardening copper