The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1898-01-27
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

sugar Ia B.-is-Autorna'ic win d w.
snsd-.-JsmsicA's Gsrdsns-Iron salt
The Law 81 Grsyitstion FAIIs-Typhoid
Fever From y.gs,.bi-.-An n-ctivs
Bset.ptcide.
The old view that the quality Of
sugar baets depends On the number
of developed leaves and ~,he length |
Of life Of the plant has been confirm
ed, according to Frederick Strohmer
in "a pc per to the London Chemical
Society. Sugar is produced in the
leaves, passing through the leaf
ste ms to the roots. The production
of sugar depends on the amount OF
light, and the form and position of
the leaves are of importance. Yellow
| light causes the greatest develop
IA ent Of roots, blue or chemical rays
the largest per centage OF sugar.
Field experiments have proven that
sugar production begins at an early
stage in the leaves, but is greatest
from the beginning of August to the
middle of September.
A window shade operated auto
maticallY is a Berlin novelty. A U
tube partly filed with mercury, is
connected with a bulb containing
black wool and one containing all ,
and when the sun shines, the alb
sorption of the rays by the black
wool causes the mercury to rise In
the opposite side of the tube, clos
ing the circuit of a motor that lets
, down the blind when the sun is not
out, the mercury is level in the two
tubes, closing d circuit that winds
up the blind.
The suggestion having been made
that typhoid fever may be spread
through the direct watering of veg
etables with sewage. DR.. Paul Rem
} linger has made experiments to de-
. ,ermine whether rabbits and rats
d. could be infected by feeding them or
r vegetables soaked with typhoid bac
ill. In both cases typhoid fever
was induced-only, however, when
3 the doses of bacilli were large snd
frequent.
Surveying by photography is gain
ing ground. Over $4,000 square
miles have been geographically
,, plotted and surveyed by the Survey
, or General of Canada.
) The material now being manufact
ured near Berlin under the singular
name of Iron felt" consists of long
, strong wool fiber, which is impreg
, mated with petroleum grease, and tt
7 certain depth with glue rendered
insoluable by bichromate of potash
or formsldehyde. The surface il
some cases is coated with vulcanit.
rubber and then vulcanized. Th,
substance is highly compressed into
plates about two feet square an(
, two-iifths of an inch to two inches
& thick, these plates being elastic, ca
pable OF outstanding pressure O.
] nine tons to the squire inch, and hav
l. ing q surface of great hardness. L
. is also claimed that the material doe
q not rot. The plates are intended fOl
/ use under the rails of railway track
for deadening the noise, and for thu
b same purpose under stationary en-
3 gines and other machines. They
? may serve also for electrical lnsula
ton.
The Newtonian law of gravitation
). that every body in the universe at
b tracts every other body with fore
varying directly as the mass and in
! versely as the square of the distance
is questioned by Prot. 81. Seel,ger
of Munich, who is the first to offe
evidence that the law must be in OK
act or not universal. This has arts
en- from an attempt to extend the lay
h mathematically to intiuite space
s Prof. Seeliger was forced to assum
r either that the sum total of the mass
y es of the universe is infinitely great
II in which case Newton's law under
:. rates the attractive forces, or tina
;. the Newtonian law is strictly exact
i in which case the infinite spaces o
e the universe cannot be filled wit
If matter of finite destiny. He IS force
Il to conclude that Newton's great la,
s. is inexact.
The first Botanic Garden in Jamai
ca, according to Mr.. w. Fawcett
was established about $50 years az
o by private individual. This wa
"a soon acquired by the government
= and divided into a European and
~ Tropical Garden, but these did littl
l in determining the value to the Co
$, ony of new and imported plants ur
e til about thirty years ago. Their
IS are now six gardens-large an
10 small--with greatly varied cond
tions of climate. The native fora
5 estimated to embrace $50 ferns an
a 2,1S0 species of lowering plants.