Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1901-11-16
i,ssSClenCe
IN o. ANo
: invention


The fishes of Amerca north of the
Isthmus Of Panama, as listed ny Jor-
dan and Everm,nn, embrace three
classes. thirty Gders, 225 families,
Lib genera, 335sub-genera, 500 spe-
cies and 1873 subspecies.
A Belgian engineer Tobiansky, has
invented an apparatus for producing
light from smoke. 1t appears that the
origin Of the smoke is matter OF in
difference. 1t is simply forced into a
receiver, where it is saturated with
hydrocarburet, and can then be burn
ed, giving a brilliant illumination.
An interesting meteorological station
is that of Mammoth Tank, on the line
If the Southern Pacific Railway, in
Diego County, Cal. The mean annual
rainfall for twenty-three years has
been ISL inches; maximum tempera-
ture 100 degrees, on Aug. II, 1878; hot
test month July. with a mean Of 9S.5
degrees.
The best test for rubies and emeralds,
SOY DA' II LlCNlldcuuSI VI
Berlin, Is microscopic examination.
Nearly every ruby and all emeralds
have many defects which are so char
acteristic that the expert can recognize
them, and which cannot be produced in
artificial stones. True emeralds have
minute enclost fires Of liquids and curl
Gus IDENTIFIES. Sapphires also show pc
culiar net-like formations. a magnify
ing power of 100 diameters sufiices to
reveal the characteristic defects. For
diamonds a g1od test is that of hard
ness. A genuine diamond cannot be
scratched by file or by quartz, and a
ruby should stand a similar test; but
emerald is not much harder than
quartz, and cracks easily.
During the firing of minute-guns by
the English fleet at Spithead, on the
occasion of Queen Victoria's funeral,
the sounds were heard at surprising
distances inland, and the English scien
titic journals have since published
many interes ting facts about these phe-
nomena 1t seems to be established that
not only the direction of the wind, but
its relative velocity at different eleva-
tons from the ground affected the d.
rection of the sound waves. In some
cases, contrary winds refracted the
sound over the heads of observers be-
tween 10 and 45 miles from the ships,
so that they did not hear the guns, but
the same waves were afterward
brought to tBk ground by favorable
upper cdrrenH wondering the sounds
audible at fiffg miles, and even as far
as 40 milesi while at 81 miles they
were so loud that laborers In the fields
put down their spades and listened to
them.
In several parts Of the world a resin
GUS substance called ozocerite, and
bearing considerable resemblance to
beeswax, is found, usually In connec-
ton with rock salt and coal There
are deposits In Austria, Russia, Rou-
mania, Egypt, Algeria, Canada and
Mexico, but, says our consul at Trieste
Mr.. Hossfeld. ozocerite has, so far, not
been discovered in sufficient quantities
to pay for mining anywhere except In
the district of Boryslav, In Austrian
Galicia, and on an island on the west
coast of the Caspian sea. In mining
this mineral wax, shafts are sunk until
q bed, or nest" of ozocerite Is struck.
Then connecting galleries are driven.
There is considerable danger, and many
lives have been lost In consequence OF
the sudden forcing up of the soft wax
into the shafts by the enormous pres
sure to which 1t is subjected. 1t is used
largely for manufacturing ceresin.
which is employed, together with bees
wax, for making wax candles. as well
as in the manufacture of Photographic
cylinders, and flor many similar pur-
poses.