Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-03-03
y SCIENCE, -

The old method of obtaining deposits
OF copper by electric decomposition or it's
solutions has been steadily gaining
ground, and it is estimated that the pure
copper produced in this way now
amounts to 500 ton daily. An early
difficulty was the slowness of the pro-
cess, a weak current being necessary
to ensure a smooth and adhering de-
posit. Various devices have made it
practicable to work with more powerful
currents, and in a given period several
times as much copper may be deposited
as was obtained from a similar bath ten
years ago. One means of overcoming
the tendency of the rapidly made deposit
to become granular was the continuous
passing of ar agate burnisher over it's
surface. An oiled sheepskin was then
used as a burnisher, and by the new
plan of Sherard Cowper-Coles the cop
per is deposited on a rapidly rotating
vertical mandri1, the centrifugal force
and the wash of the electrolyte keep
ing the surface clean and free from gas
and ensuring a smooth and dense deposit,
A new bullet-proof shield, made at
Sheffield, weighs only about seven pounds
yet is claimed to protect the soldier from
the service rifle at a range of 400 yards.
THE steel1plate is an eighth of an inch
thick. the area covered being about
$50 square inches. The shield can be
DELI, puIpcIfeQ UF drilled, out OHerS great
obstruction to penetration by projectiles.
The uppe strata of the atmosphere
still offer great opportunities for inves-
tigaftioEt.s Near BERLIN a systematic
study is to be made-day and night when
possible-at heights of two to three miles.
kites and kite-balloons being made to
take up registering apparatus that will
record automatically the pressure, tenn
perature, humidity, and wind velocity.
Phototnophy is the name given by Will
helm Marckwald to a change of color
by light without alteration of composition
or structure. Chloride of quinoquinoline
is turned from yellow to intense green.
heating for a few days in the dark re-
storing the original color.
In attempts to photograph lightning
flashes at Dover, Eng, Sydney Webb
has stumbled upon a very curious. phe-
nomenon. The field Of the camera in
cluded a number of arc lights, and on
developing the pictures it was found
thai an Irregular luminous line passed
from each lamp to the ground whenever
a flash occurred in the clouds. On one
OCCASION. he has since succeeded in see.
ing, with the unaided eye, a stream Of
electricity descending from al arc lamp.
The pictures nave interested Sir George
Stokes, who notes that the iron lamp
posts may have had some effect by at
lIG4CtlIS daIllUSpiySIStC GltCLIlClly, anu
that the discharges may have been in
fluenced by an underground high-tension
electric cable toward which they SEEM
ed to pass. He thinks this may be a
case of Natures wireless telegraphy.
The resisting air ABOUT the lamp seems
to act like the coherer of the Geographic
receiving apparatus, a difference Of elec-
trical condition or potential between the
lamp and some other point may take the
place of the battery current that is held
in restraint by the cOherep, and the elec-
t~ro-magnetic waves from the flash may
open a path for the current through the
air as in the coherer.
Those who speculate upon the inhab-
ftants of other planets usually forget
how slight a change of present condi-
tions on earth would suffice to extin-
guish the forms of life we know. Mr..
Lowell has suggested that the Canals
of Mars may be the stupendous works
Of beings akin to the human race, but
English astronomer points out that
the force Of gravity is only about a tenth
as great as ON earth. and that a conse-
quence OF this must be a failure to re.
the lighter gases and probably even
water. In a waterless world, under an
atmosphere of nitrogen, argon INK car.
bonic acid, life must be very different
from anything we a imagine.
Some years ago vanadium was detected
in coal ash from the Argentine Republic
and has since been found in Peruvian
If common in coal. this metal
Nf~h hN vHp% 10 NNNA