The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1900-12-15

Roentgen rays have been found to act
on vegetation like very weak light In
experiments by Signor G. Tolemei.
Surveying by photography is gaining
ground. Over 10000 square miles have
been photographically plotted and sur
veyed by the surveyor general of Can
ada.
Prof. Dolbear says that what is called
stupidity is simply the indication that
a certain brain area is not properly
nourished or is without communication
with the nerve fiber.
DIR. Won Welsbach, inventor of the in
candescent gas burner now very much
in vogue, has recently taken out pat
ents on an electric lamp working on a
similar plan. He is an Austrian chem
list.
Among recent inventions specially in
teresting to those who sail the sea is a
device for launching boats from the
davits of a ship without loss Of time,
and in such a manner that the boat is
certain to reach the water on an even
keel. With this device, which has been
tested at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, one
a can easily raise, or lower, a boat
weighing four tons.
w. Saville Kent, the naturalist, who
has made snapshot photographs of the
curious little creature called the frilled
lizard in the act of running on two legs,
suggests that it is only necessary to
magnify the animal to a gigantic size,
in order to see how the immense dino
saurs," whose remains are among the
wonders of geological museums, looked
when they lived on the earth. The friIli
ed lizard when running on wet sand
makes ~three-toed impressions resem-
ding in shape the tracks of some Of the
monsters of Mesozoic time.
The coolest inhabited country an
pears to be the province of Wercho-
1ansk, in Oriental Siberia, says the Ma
tional Druggist. The mean altitude of
the terrain is about 1O7 metres (about
$50 feet above the sea. A Russian sa-
want passed n entire year in this in
h~ospitable region, and kept a daily rec
ord of the temperature, which he has
recently published, and from which it
appears that the deadly mean of the en-
tire year is 1913 degrees c., or 2.74 de-
grees F., below zero! The daily mean
for January, 1896, was SO degrees c., or
GA degrees f., below zero.
The toad does not take dead or mo.
tionless food. Only living and moving
insects, centipedes, etc, are devoured,
while worms or other larvae disturbed
by their hopping are safe SO long as
they remain curled up; but as soon as
they move they are captured. The
toad's tongue, its only organ for seizing
food, Is soft, extensile, attached In
front but free behind, and is covered
with a glutinous substance that adheres
firmly to the food seized. So rapid is
the motion of this weapon that a care
full watch is necessary in order to see
the animal feed.
Prof. John TrOwbridge has been max
ing some most interesting investiga-
tons in high tension electricity, using
only a very high voltage storage bat
terry and a system Of c~ondensers. The
apparatus gave a four-foot spark. Moth
ing could insulate 1t; not eve a acuum
tube. 1t proved satisfactorily the fulfil
lty Of endeavoring to insulate a light
ning-rod. The great spark represented
over a million Of volts tension. For a
lightning-lash a mile long this ratio
would give something like a thousand
million of volts. The experiments are
of special interest, as the absence of an
induction coil enables the voltage to be
more accurately estimated.