The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1896-10-23
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
Energy Lost in Northumberland
fetal Globular Lightning-Tne
Hole in the Coral Reef-Magnet
Surgery-A Picture of the Entire
Internal Anatomy-A Scientlhc
Basis for all Old Belief-The Sew
age Problem in Germany.
I
Especial to the Citizen.I

Especial TO the CitiZen.I
A novel project advanced by M. IA
oul Piclet at the recent Geographical
Congress at Geneva, was the uilllZa-
ton of the energy of the lofty whlrl-
wind pillars of sand that are cont1nu-
ally travelling over the desert of the
Sahara. These may be studied in he
env irons OF Caro- " he re, at about a.
H., hits OF paper or feathers ON httle
hllocks are occasionally stirred III
circular path, the movement gradually
becoming steady and eyratory, then
/ the light objects rise, their velocity in
creas5s, and they aie lost TO sight IN
the sand that mounts alter them, ana
may reach heigth of 1000 yards III
about one hour. The upper part OF the
column is 400 or 800 yards in diameter,
its narrowest portion about dozen
+ Yards. Often ~ or II of The columns
are in sight at once, and their maxi
mum torce- tep 9nding upon their tenn
perature-is reached between noon and
| d. III. Some of the Ii lit objects pick
Ell up were afterwards found 10 or ~
! mile, away. Tie temperature Was III
vestIgated by means OF thermometers
| over a radius OF 500 yards on the ground
where the column Was expected to rise,
aud the sand was found TO be 10 de-
| grees or more hotter than the air, the
| neat-especially Oh the eastern side
| increasing very rapidly at the begin
| 4 Ia. pI..fG al
Calculates that the wasted neat for each
column is sufficient to raise quart OF
water about 10 degrees in Il minute.
| He suggests that the solar energy thus
dissipated be collected 10y covering the
ground with Immense heaters OF black
! ened sheet-iIon. He calculates that
the Nile water flowing through such
heaters could he quickly raised from
| 20 degrees To 100 deglees, and that "a
boiler Covering II acres would furnish
1000 hOrse-pow er for irrigation and
other uses.
A balloon was recently sent up from
Paris To bring down Il few quarts of the
upper atmosphere for anay sis. II car
rieu special reservoir with a clock
work apparatus To open il at the end of
an nOur anu close il after one minute.
| W Tie loI
| the balloon were placed III the basket.
The phenomenon of "lobular light
ming, which is so treakish and Elusive
that its reality has always been Doubt
ed, has been reproduced arlificially by
NJ. Right, of Boil gna. He has not
only made the movement of the lumi-
nous spin II moderate enough for the
eye to follow It, but has been able to
photograph the creeping mass. The
/ best results were OBJ aimed from "a pow
eriul Ho!iz electric machine with four
plates, which was run by hydraulic
motor. and which charged battery of
Leyde jars. TO achieve success It was
found To be- indispensable that the cir
cult of discharge have gI,at resistance,
which was given by introducing col
umn of distilled water; that the con
denser have great capacity, the motion
becoming slower and as the capacity is
increased; and that the gas in which
the dischage takes place lie properly
fairfield, this rarefactlon giving increas-
ed size To the flame as well as length
eniug its path.
The elaborate attempt made by Il
commission of the British Royal Socl-
! ely to bore iutO a coral reef for "A thou
sand feet or so, to secure "a St ction for
| studying its structure, has given very
| nrXpected results. The apparatus
was tried in two places on Funa
| futi, but i'll a depth of 65 feet in one
case and ~ in the other, the tube he
came 50 choked with material like
quicksaud containing small masses of
oral tEat further Progress was impos-
- he IL MI IL
appeared To be not solid coral, but more
like vast coarse sponge of coral with
wide interstices, either empty or filed
with sand
In case reported by French au-
thor a piece Of a needle has been re-
| moved, without Il surgical operation,
from woman's hand, III the flesh of
| which it had been for two months.
The hand was so placed near IA power
full magnet that tine needle was drawn
in the direction of its point. After nine
treatments, lasting altogether twenty
hours, the needle came through the
skin.
, The statement is credited to DIR. Bur.
ton Ward that lunatics seldom use the
thumb when writing, drawing, or SAL
ulliiSS ALL tudl iuG HOu-uSe OF UlllS Or
gan is an infallil lie symptom of insan-
ity, however rational The person may
appear.
The botanical garden at Buitenzorg.
Java, has 800 determined species of
palms, besides about 100 appear dis
tinct.
Marvellous as it was at birth. few
months ago, Roentgen photography is
already an infant of remarkable devel.
opment. 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 tie entire
skeleton of the living body, and 10
show it III a single picture of a trltle
more than life size. At a recent scien-
t1fic convention i'll Zurich, "a picture of
this kind created considerable astonish-
ment Ii was due to the efforts of
Prof. Ludwig Zehnder, the inventor of
new Crookes tube which is capabIe
OF working at greater distance than
earlier ones, thus increasing the size of
the plates that can be used and i'm
proving the pictures in sharpness. For
the nictIrQ pvhibifad A