The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1896-06-12
written for the CITIZEN,

The fossil remains of more than fif-
teen species of great wingless birds, re-
sembllng those of Madagascar and
New Zealand, have been collected by
Carlos and Florentino Ameghino from
the most ancient tertiary strata of
Southern Patagonia. The best known
of these species is the PhorOrhacos in
flatus, comparable to the ostrich in
size but more robust, and with a vult-
ure-like bill resembling that of the
Dodo, a Maurtius bird that became
extinct near the close of the seven
teenth century. Another species of
the same genus, the p. longissimus,
was larger. Its skull was 26 inches
long, being much greater than that
of the horse, camel or giraffe of the
present day, and its stature was scarcely
less than that of the EpynOrisingens
of Madagascar. But the giant of them
all, and the most gigantic bird yet
known, was the Brontornis Burmeis-
and must have been more than 13 feet
tall, the total length of the leg being
63 inches, or about 9.5 longer than
that of the Epynorisinges, while the
femur was inches in diameter and
the head of the same bone was not less
than inches. Its bill was strong and
hooded, and it Is believed that, unlike
the @pyornis and dinornis, it fed upon
moilusks and reptiles as we'll as vege-
table products, and was really fero-
cious beast of prey.
The discovery has been made by Ed
ward ZOhlab that peat can be convert
ed into almost pure carbon, and that
with this mOderate-priced fuel-free
from phosphorus ana sulphuI-better
iron and steel can be made than by
any other process. In the production
of amor plates, new departure is the
forcing by hydraulic pressure of sheet
of this carbon into the surface OF the
plate to be hardened. The carbon dis
appears into the metal, and a superior
plate in third of the time now taken
! is claimed.
A process for separating gold from
sea- water at a cost of $l.00 for each
$40, 900 of metal obtained, every ton of
water yielding to cents worth of
gold, is claimed by Prof. Hunicke.
| The calculated mass of the ocean being
1920, 900, 000, 600, 900, 600 tons, the posi-
bilities of this new source of wealth
are open to computation.
Heat and moisture are the cOndi-
| tions on which the electrical activity
of the atmosphere chiefly depends, aud
A. Klosserky, Director of the MeteOro-
logical Service of Southwestern Rus
STA, has found that rough general
chart of the distribution of thunder
storms over the globe might be traced
from map showing the temperature
and amount of rainfall. An electrical
zone of great intensity extends on both
sides of the equator, expanding from
northwest to southeast over each con-
tinent crossed. The first division of
this zone-that of Asia with Oceanica-
extends from the beginning of the
Himalayas and across Indo China
and the Sunda Islands to the Island
New Guinea. The storms number
from 80 TO 100 or more annually. The
second continental area in the zone of
| great intensity passes across equatorial
| Africa, where the storms range from
nearly 200 year at Johannesburg to
| 46 at Zanzibar. On the southern coasts
of both sides of this continent the thun-
derstorms are much more frequent
than on the northern. The third con-
tinental section of the electrical zone is
tropical America. where the thunder
storms average 100 year or more be-
tween 200 and 300 north. The general
course of the zone is southeasterly to
Ind In ndi
In higher southern ATTITUDES a great
difference exists in the electrical activ-
ity and rainfall of the two sides of the
continent, the minimum being found
in the warm region of the western
coast, where are places, as at Lima, of
no thunderstorms. North of the equa-
torial zone the thunderstorms decrease.
The region OF continental deserts offers
little moisture, and is marked by weak
electrical activity; but north of the
zone of deserts the thunderstOrms are
more numerous, though easily affected
by temperature and local conditions
In Europe the annual average of thun-
derstorms is from Is to 20.
The problem of the suns tempera-
ture has been attacked in a variety of
ingenious ways. Rosetti has recorded
temperature up to 100000 c., using a
| thermopiIe; LIE Chatelier, 10000 g., by
comparing the absorption of solar rays
with that from not object; Wilson
aud Gray, $1,000 c., by balancing in
Boys acknowledgements, the radiation
from the sun against that from glow
ing strip of platinum; Scheiner, be-
tween 10000 and 100000 by measuring
the breadth of the magnesium lines in
! the spectrum. Prof Paschen, the latest
/ observer, considers the wave length of
maximum energy in sunlight as in
versely proportionate to the absolute
temperature of an incandescent body,
and gets 5, 1902 G.
From many measurements, it APP
pears that the luminous clouds observ-
ed in Central Europe since 1885 have
had mean height of about 81 miles.
|