, 1902-12-26

Lead poisoning. affecting many per-
sons, a been traced by a German
! physician to a curious source. Deep
/ holes in the stones of an old mill were
found to have been ignorantly filled
with lead. and flour ground by these
| stones showed as high as one part OF
metal IL foul thousand. 1t was this
flour that produced the poisoning.
The ingenious apparatus of II. Gallo
pin records continuousiy-at intervals
| Df ten minutes or so-the flow of any
fluid, such as air or water, and 1t may
serve as. q ships log or for measuring,
| the velocity of a stream of water. II
depends upon the detection of a PEN
dulum by the moving liquid or gas.
| The DETECTION is shown upon a dial
and the record is made by a suitable
mechanism driven by clockwork.
The chief of the fire department in
Rouen, France, has invented a fire
pump which can be operated by tap
| ping the current of any street-car or
electric-light system. The pump is
small enough to be drawn easily by
one horse, In a light, two-wheeled cart,
but sufficiently powerful to throw a
stream of water 100 feet high. In a
trial the new pump developed its full
energy in three minutes, while a
steam-pump required fourteen minutes
to get up the same pressure.
The novel invention of Professor Ar
temieff gives security to- workers in.
laboratories using high-tension electric
currents. 1t is a safety dress of fine.
but closely woven wire gauze, weigh
ling 3.3 pounds, and completely enclos-
ing the wearer, including hands. feet
and head. The cooling surface Is SO.
great that a powerful current passed
for several seconds from one hand to
the other without perceptible heating.
Clad In this armor, the inventor re-
ceived discharges from currents of TO-
900 to 10000 volts, and handled live
wires at pleasure. all without any
sensation of electric shock.
Sea-level does not, as Is generally
supposed. represent the NEAR figure Of
the earth. The attraction of noun
tains and continents and variations Of
density cause the water to be heapsd
I'D in places, and Colonel Clarke has
calculated that the diameter of the
equator ending in Singapore and Peru
is two and one-half miles. shorter than
the diameter ending in Rhodesia and
the Pacific. Major s. G.. Burrard esti-
mates that in the region of the Hima-
layas actual sea7level is about eight
thousand feet higher than it would be
If the shape were not deformed. An
other source of error in surveys Is the
detection of the plumb line, and this
cause makes the position of India on
the globe uncertain to some seven sec
onds.
astro' oSqy is aware that the outermost
planets W the solar system, Uranus
and Neptune, are believed to rotate
backward, that is, In a direction con
trary to the rotation of all the other
members of the system. But the. evil
dence that, they do thus rotate is indi-
rect, such, for instance, as the fact
hat their satellites revolve backward
in their orbits. Recently. however,
Henri Deslandres of the Meudon OBJ
servatory has applied a method of de-
termining the direction of rotation by
snectroscopic observation. which gives
direct evidence that in the Ease of
Uranus. at least, the rotation is really
backward. The method is based ON
the inclination of the lines in the spec
trum of a rotating body, and resembles
that by which, a few years ago, Pro
fessor Keller demonstrated the mo-
lions of Saturn's rings. 1t is. to be ap-
piled next to Neptune.