Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1902-06-09
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

The early horses OF the United States,
whose remains have been found in the
eastern grayels and western preglacial
sands have been assigned TO at least
twenty-five different species. The care
ful revision by Mr., ]. W. Gidley OF the
American Museum, seems 10 show the
following as the valid species. Equus
fraternus, a small horse Of the south
eastern states +. compicatus. about
the size OF an ordinary draught horse.
from the southern and middle western
states; r. occidentalls, OF the size OF
the preceding, from California: Il. pa
clficus, very large horse Of middle
California and Oregon: T.. conversions
from the Valley Of Mexico T.. tau, the
smallest true horse, also from the Valley
OF Mexico, +. slmplicatus, from vest
ern Texas. closely resembling f. asinus;
Il. pectlnatus, from the Port Kennedy
bone cave OF eastern Pennsylvania. r.
scottl. a long faced small-sIzed, ass
shaped horse from the Staked Plains OF
Texas. The type OF the last named
species. now In the American Museum.
Is the only complete skeleton of a Pels-
tooene horse discovered In America. A
new species, Il. gganteus Gldley, IL
the largest of all. its teeth being a
third larger than those of any draught
horse.
The X-rays Of NJ. A. Rodon are pro-
duced directly In the air, without a
Crookes vacuum, under the smutane-
Gus action Of ultraviolet rays and an
electric field. When an electric field
Is set up between the plates OF an air
condenser and pencil OF ultraviolet
rays Is directed upon one Of the plates.
the Roentgen rays are propagated along
the direction Of the lines OF electric
force of the field. and have greatest
activity II the Ultraviolet radiation Is
In this direction.
The blood collected in great guam
titles IN abattiors Is by rapid Ger
man process dried by spraying into
h0t-alr current In an oven-shaped
chamber. The powder collected In the
receiver Is claimed to be tastelcss, and
contains 14,S per cent Of dgestible al
bumen.
An Ingenious surveying instrument Is
the tacheometer-theodo upon which
Dr. h. Hammer Of Stuttgart, has been
at work since 1893. II is designed TO
show the observer in a simple manner
both the distance OF any selected spot
and the difference in altitude between
that spot and the point OF observation.
The telescope OF the apparatus Is
focused by moving the object glass.
and an essential part IL carefully con-
structed diagram whose image, In lines
that shift 10 right or left as the tele-
scope IL tilted up or down, is thrown
into the eyepiece by pair off prisms.
The changes In the place where the
lines cross the vertical wire In the eye
piece indicates the inclination. Adj
justments are so made that the dis
placement Of one line multiplied by 20
shows the difference OF altitude In
meters. and another displacement multi
piled by 100 gives the distance. From
experiments II appears that the maxi
mum error in distance may be reduced
TO about fifth OF one per cent, with
corespondingly greater average ac-
curacy in elevation.
The photo-electric properties OF
selenium offer striking possibilities to
the student. In one OF several expert
ments described by Mr. ]. W. Giltay, a
selenlum cell Is mounted In drum re-
sembling a horoscope, and is placed In
circuit with telephone, when inter-
mlttent illumination OF the selenlum Is
made audible In tones OF corresponding
pitch. In another experiment. an
acetylene flame is yibrated by speak
ing into a microphone. the vibration
being re-converted into sound by tho
selenium cell and telephone. This ex-
pertinent Is varied by enclosing the
selenium cell In a box with three small
incandescent lamps connected in series.
these lamps being fed by l6 accumula-
tors and inserted In the secondary cir
cult OF an induction coil. with car
bon microphone in the primary circuit.
Speaking into the microcphone sets up
variations OF lumnisity which are
changed back Into sound by the sele-
mum cell.
Glacial periods. II appears. may re-
suit from quite moderate changes OF
climate. Assuming that some cooling In
the polar regions lowers the mean tenn
perature, MIR. II. n. Dickson concludes
that the changes Of temperature and
rainfall necessary TO produce all known
glacial phenomena are much less than
has been supposed.
The earths atmosphere Is found to
be orange the sun 20 be blue, and
problem for the astronomer Is 10 de-
termlne the real colors OF the planets
besides the earth.