The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1902-06-25
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

The experimental underground efec.
trio railway of Paris, France, which,
although eight and three quarter
miles in length, handles 100000 fares
a day, has been SO satisfactory that
two important branches will be added
to 1t during the current year.
The new cutting of diamonds. Just
introduced. does away with the fiat
table of the brilliant and increasing
number of facets from So to 80. This
cutting gives the diamond a form so
scientifically accurate that 1t scintil
lates equally from every point of view.
The beauty of the stone Is heightened
to an extent never known before.
Whether Hertzian waves reach us
from the sun Is a question that as
tronomers are about to investigate.
Reasons are found for believing that
the sun must emit such waves. and
M. Charles Nordmann shows that the
emissions must be particularly intense
DDS Of maximum sun-spots. This view
is made to explain the form Of the
solar corona and the spectra of com.
cts.
Both Regnier and Didsbury advo-
cate the use of D'Arsonval's high-fre.
quency electric currents for purposes
OF painless dentistry. The current may
be applied through a mould Of the
part to be anaesthetized. The inte.
rior of the mould Is covered with a me-
tallic powder and q layer of tin foil.
To absorb the heat layer of asbestos
| is used. In fifteen cases described
in a recent issue of the Arch. dElect.
Medlcale there were thirteen of com.
plete anaesthesia. A nervous patient
will sometimes make a gesture of de-
fense. but usually admits afterward
that there was no pain.
Professor Thurston of Cornell, who
is an expert on the steam engine, has
been making experiments with steam
pressur of 1000 pounds to the square
| inch. and thinks that these can safely
| be doubled in the course of time.
| These would greatly increase the eff
| cheney of the steam engine. which
| Is now we'll known to be very waste
full, even in its most economic forms.
| Hgih pressures are produced by super
heating the steam after 1t Is general
ed, thus increasing its expansive pow
| er. In some of the steam automobiles
the presssures go as high as 500
pounds. In the common steam boiler.
| as It Is easy to see, large fraction
of the heat is lost in raising the water
to the boiling point, and it is only the
heat which the steam absorbs above
that point that counts, all the rest
being wasted.
| In the Journal of the British Astro-
nomical association Gavin j. Burns de-
scribes a method employed by him to
determine the intensity of the light
received from the sky on clear,
moonless night TIE says: "The re-
suits obtained were discordant, but
indicated that the total light derived
from one hemisphere is roughly equal
to that given by 1000 stars of the
first magnitude" AS has already been
stated in these columns, Professor
Simon Newcomb and ]. f. Gore have
each recently dealt with the same
problem. The former reached the con-
clusion that the light of all the stars
combined, visible and invisible to the
naked eye, equaled that of 600 or pos
sibly 500 stars of the zero magnitude,
while the latter fixed the light more
definitely as that of $50 stars of zero
magnitude. A star Of this magnitude
is two and half times as bright as
one of first magnitude. Mr.. Burns
estimate--400 stars of zero magnitude
for each hemisphere-is in very close
accord with that Of Professor New
comb. He thinks 1t probable, how
ever, that this sky light does not all
come from stars. but may be partly
| solar light reflected from particles OF