The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-03-01
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
The rotation of a waterspout at the
surface of the sea mas been estimated
by Professor Bigelow as 354 miles per
hour. or nearly six miles minute. 9
The diameter of Jupiter. according to
Prof r j. j. Sees new determination,
is S. 203 miles; that of Mars, 4.155
miles, and that of Mercury, 1851 miles.
After an elaborate investigation. COW
ering ten years of time, Professor Will
son has calculated the suns tempera-
ture to be $500 degrees Centlgrade
Oils degrees FahrenheiD.
The following are found to be the
densities of the planets. water being 1:
Mercury, ;; Venus, 5.14: earth, $50;
moon, 3.34; Mars. 4; Jupiter. LBS; Sat
urn, 0.6S; Uranus. 1.69; Neptune, 2 %.
A peculiar fever, occurring in irreg-
ular attacks of a few days, for sew
eral months. has been reported by Dr.
J. E. Dutton in a European in South
Africa. A parasite from the blood re-
sembIes that OF the ''tsetse fly disease"
of cattle.
Lampblack seems TO have formed the
basis of ancient ink The contents of
two bronze cylinders from Roman
ruins in France have been found by
NJ. Leidie to consist of lampblack. con-
tanning traces of copper, tin, iron and
chalk. and this was undoubtedly ink.
1t must have been much like the In
dian ink of today.
The temperature of the earth is es-
timated to be at least 5000 degrees
Fahrenheit at depth of fifty miles,
and in many places comparatively high
temperatures are found very near the
surface. The utilization of this heat
is one Of the great problems now in
the minds of engineers. With the di-
rect and economical conversion of heat
into electricity on large scale, which
is looked for in the near future, the
earth's hot spots should become i'm
portant manufacturing centers.
Spontaneous combustion continues to
endanger coal-carrying vessels in spite
of all attempts that have been made
to prevent it. Successful protection is
claimed at last by Mr. Thomas Clayton,
of London. whose plan consists in in
jecting sulphur dioxide gas into the
hold after loading, and then battening
down the matches. Explosion and COM
buStion are thus made impossible. In
A recent test of this invention, torches
were eXtinguished in a chamber con-
tanning 6 per cent of sulphur dioXide,
and q red-hot iron bar failed to ignite
naptha soaked straw and was quench-
ed in a bucket of naptha as in wa
ter.
Gold and silver silk are interesting
products that we may expect from
South Africa. The fibers are spun by
two remarkable spiders of Rhodesia,
and an experimenter has found that
the creatures may be reared in captiv-
ity and that the silk can be utilized.
The webs are stretched on trees and
bushes, often in a vast network. Both
filaments have a brilliant metallic lus-
ter and are very fine and strong, the
fineness of the golden silk being about
that of the silkworm's thread, but the
strength being much greater. A thread
of steel of the same size, in fact, has
only two-thirds the strength of this
spiders thread. The golden silk spider
at least, the larger of the two kinds,
exists in vast numbers on the veldt,
where it feeds on the common fly.
Some interesting experiments with
electric waves-such waves as Marconi
has sent across the ocean-illustrated
a recent Royal Institution lecture by
Professor Fleming. The apparatus was
contained in two boxes, each open at
with a battery producing sparks be-
tween two brass balls, while in the
other was a receiver with nickel fill
ings come tied with an electric bell.
With the mouths of the boxes exactly
opposite, the passage of sparks between
the two balls set up a corresponding
current in the other box, ringing the
bell. When sheet-iron. tinfoil. carbon,
a bottle of water or a piece of moist
tobacco was interposed, the bell did
not ring, but wood a dozen sheets OF
window glass, leather, brown paper or
dry tobacco caused no interruption.
The waves-traveling with the velocity
of light-were stopped by all electric
conductors, while non-conductors were
transparent to them.
The flow of blood to the head in con-
centrated thought was shown several
years ago by Prof. a. Mosso, of Turin,
by means of a balance for the body.
The more sensitive apparatus, or mus
cle-bed," of DR.. w. G.. Anderson, of
the Yale gymnasium, is a couch ball
anced on knife edges, and capable of
adjustment by rolling from one side
to the other as necessary. This APP
paratus shows that the mental effect of
a written test shifts the center of
gravity of a student upward from
sixteenth of an inch to about two
inches and half. The balance is
turned IN the opposite direction Dy eN-
ercising the lower eXtremities after
study. and mere thinking of leg gym
nastics by perfectly poised man has
sufiiced to send enough blood down.
ward to cause the feet to sink. Muscle
weighing has proven that uninteresting
exercise has small value. When it is
carried out in listless or mechanical
way, the extra flow of blood to the
parts is small. but this is much in
creased by q conscious and interested
manner, and by pleasure in the ef-
fort.
SOCIETY