Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-01-30
~ SCIENCE, y.

The use of the balloon as an astronomi-
cal observatory is one the later
adaptations Of science that would have
seemed very strange a few years ago. In
some ways, says Rev. j. M. Bacon, it
affords the student of astronomy and
optics opportunities not to be otherwise
obtained, and the steadiness and bril-
lance Of celestial objects viewed with OPP
teal aid from a balloon 10, coo or u, GEO
feet above sea level is astonishing, the
full moon through an ordinary f~ield-glas5
becoming intolerably bright at even half
that height. The same advantages can
not be had at mountain o~bservatories, as
those are never free from the peculiar
earth stratum of air. The observer from
a balloon may watch ccilpses and meteors
quite undisturbed by clouds, and is able
to gain much enlightenment on questions
of refractiOn, SpectrOscOpic lines from
atmospheric substances, and may even
succeed in photOgraphing the solar corona
without an eclipse. Many balloons will
doubtless be ready for ensuring observa-
tons of the great meteoric shower eX-
pected next November.
Air whose oxygen is oZonized by the
brush discharge of an electric current of
$4,000 to 100, 900 volts is used at St. Maur,
near Paris, for purifying water. The
Ozonized air is pumped into lofty cylin-
drical sterilizers of cast iron. These are
divided internally by numerous cclluloid
plates with very fine holes, and the
water, being made to descend slowly and
in a state of fine division, undergoes long
and perfect contact with the ozone, en-
suring complete destruction of dead or
ganic matter as We'll as of living germs.
The establishment supplies Paris with
about %, $1,000 gallons of pure water
daily at a cost of l4O francs.
An apparatus set in motion by light
has been devised by a Vienna genius, who
aplies it to a bomb hat can be exploded
from a distance by a stream of light.
Phosphorus is now produced in the cleo
trio furnace from q mixture of phoS-
phatc of lime and coke.
The remarkable property of aluminium
lately discovered by Messrs. Hans Gold
schmidt and Leon Franck is expected to
find valuable applications when the
phenomenon has become more familiar.
These investigators have shown that
when metallic aluminium is heated with
the oxide of another metal, the oxygen
leaves the other metal to unite with the
aluminium, complete reduction taking
place, with the production of a high tenn
perature, but without forming an alloy
with the aluminium. Similar results are
obtained with sulphideS, much less heat,
however, being generated. The high tenn
perature can be utilized for making al
Toys, for soldering, for perforating iron
plates, and for other purposes, but the
special promise of the discovery is the
readiness with which metallic oxides may
be reduced. The process has already
Yielded chromium, manganese, iron,
titanium, barium, wolfram, molybdenum,
nickel, cobalt, and Vanadium-mostly
metals very difficult of reduction.
In an official French investigation of
recent boiler eXplosions-15 in number
not one of the boilers was found to have
had tubes of iron or steel, the tubes be-
ing of brass in IA cases and of copper in
one. In eight of the boilers the tubes
were more than four inches in diameter.
A novel arrangement OF the propeller,
preventing the usual loss of efficiency In
light craft through taking down air, Is
q striking feature in a new steamer bullt
in New South Wales for the shallow
streams of New Zealand. Under the
stern of the vessel is a sem~f-cylindrlcal
tunnel, whose top is a foot above the
waters surface when the loaded vessel
is at rest, but which fills with water when
the engines start, n in which the pro-