The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-07-18
SCIENTIFIC.

AT a recent conference of engineers in
London the advantages of nickel steel for
ship-building were urged. and the necessity
was pointed out of finding new deposits of
nickel and reducing the cost of its metal
lurgy.
Veneer cutting has reached such perfec-
ton that single elephants trunk thirty
inches long is now cut in London into a
sheet OF ivory $50 inches long and twenty
inches wide and some sheets of rosewood
and mahogany are only about fiftieth OF
an inch thick.
The apparent uncertainty of bird archi-
tects al the beginning of the season has led
to the supposition that they build by imita-
ton and that their memory is at fault. DR..
a. q. Butler reports, however, that cana
r1es turned loose in presence of different
nests at once began building the nest of
wild canaries.
Felt seems to antedate weaving. This ma
terial, Professor Beekman points out, is the
principal substance of the clothing and even
the habitations of the Tartars and other
nations inhabiting middle and northern
Asia. where manners and customs appear
TO have remained unchanged from the
most remote antiquity.
All fungi, says Professor Jelliffe, are bo-
tanical beasts of prey. The types that live
upon the human body are the germs that
produce cholera, typhoid .ever. consump-
tion etc. Yeast lives upon the flour and
sugar in the process of breadmaking;
moldS upon fruits, preserves, etc. Toad
stools and mushrooms, the higher fungi,
lived upon decayed vegetable and animal
matter.
In a study of the possibilities of wind as
a source of power, NJ. Macmillan Plesseur
has reached the conclusion that the old
windmill and the aeolian wheel are not suit
able motors. but that this energy can best
be utilized by means of vehicles driven by
sails on circular railways, the sails to be
kept trimmed automatically, and the power
to be transmitted to an axle and thence to
machinery Where the wind Is fairly con-
stant such an apparatus, especially If used
to drive dynaInoS and charge electrical ac
cumulators, should prove serviceable and
economical. similar arrangement could
be established on water boats being used
instead of cars, and the poWer-of which
considerable could be kept in reserve-could
be transmitted to a distance.
On observing an explosion of 100 pounds of
nitro-compound, from a distance of 300
yards, Mr.. E. j. Ryves lately saw what he
supposes to have been the shadow of the
sound wave start from the point of detona-
tion and travel in the bright sunlight for at
least half mile down the valley. This led
to camera experiments by Prof. c. V. Boys,
the result being a series of pictures by AN
animatograph, showing the wave as COM
Plete circle, instead of semi-elllpSe, as 1t
should be on the sound-ShadOW theory. The
''RyVeS ring" is aStonishingly black to the
eye, though appearing as a circular light
shading in the photographs. What is the
cause is still uncertain, but it is pointed out
that the explanation given may be tested
by noting whether the phenomenon appears
when the sun is clouded.
A striking feature of modern science is
the rapidity with which the possibilities Of
fered by any new discovery are followed up.
The Roentgen rays have been known but a
year and half yeti they have taken a
permanent place in the hospitals of the
world vast improvements have been made
in apparatus for producing them, and 1t is
become a necessity of our daily life. In
England Roentgen Society has been
formed, with Prof. S. p. Thompson as pres
ident Some of the members will study the
sources of the rays, others the applications;
some the induction coils, others the tubes
and other apparatus. These systematic eff
increase of the efficiency and applications
of this epoch making discovery.
An interesting review of the meteorology
of London from 1713 to 1896 was given by
Mr.. r. c. Mossman at 2 late meeting of the
Royal Meteorological Society. In this long
period the average number of thunder
storms was 81 per annum, the maximum
occurring in July and the minimum in Feb
ruary The average number of fogs was 24.4
and of dense" fogs 5S, comparison of de-
cades showing steady and uninterrupted
increase of fog since 1S4l, The average num-
Der of days with snow was 1876 per annum.
The snowiest winter was that of 1875, with
43 days while in the winter of 1923 there
not single fall of snow. The mean
date of the first snowfall was Nov. 8. and
of last snowfall March 80. Hail is essen
TALLY, a spring phenomenon, reaching a
maximum in March and April, the mini
mum being in July and August. The days
with hail averaged SO per annun1.
Students are cautioned by Prof. o. T.
Mason against confounding the migration
of ideas with the migration of tribes In in
vestigating the origin of industrial forms in
America it should be remembered that daily
mails have been delivered on shore from
the eastern continent since the renotest
antiquity. The Uuited States navy has
dropped bottles into the Atlantic at the
Azores along the coast of Spain, and
southwark along the coast of Africa. The
recovered bottles have been found on the
coast of South America, from which it can
be inferred that every buoyant object
which has been dropped into the ocean dur
ing the present geological epoch by prehis-
toric or historic Spaniards, Portuguese or
Africans has found it's way to America and
been stranded somewhere between the
tenth parallel south and the thirtieth paral-
lei north. In the northern part of the At
lantic the currents run the other way, and
the daily mails have been taken from
America to Europe. In the Pacific, the daily
mail received on the American coast
started the Malay Peninsula and
passed through the China and Japan seas;
while further south the current passes the
other way, taking materials from Chill and
and the various groups of Polynesia. There
is also a counter current" between the
equator and the tenth parallel north
which delivers articles on the west coast of
current is from east to west and it has
brought the mails from the Eskimo country