The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1903-01-02
rl{nwSCienCe
II ~ AND
= s;ssssell1ventiOn


Lead poisoning. affecting many per-
sons. has been traced by a German
physician to curious source. Deep
holes in the stones of an old mill were
found to have been ignorantly filed
with lead, and -four ground by these
stones showed as high as one part of
metak in four thousand. 1t was this
-four that produced the poisoning.
The ingenious apparatus of H. Gallo
pin records continuously-at intervals
of ten minutes or so-the flow of any
fluid, such as air or water, and it may
serve as a ships log or for measuring
the velocity of a stream of water. 1t
depends upon the detection of 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 light, twO-wheeled cart,
but sufficiently powerful to throw a
stream of water 100 feet high. In
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
ing 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-
600 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 mean figure of
the earth. The attraction of noun
tains and continents and variations OF
density cause the water to be heaped
up in places and Colonel Clarke has
calculated that the diameter of the
: equator ending in Singapore and PERT
is Two and one-half miles shorter thar
the diameter ending in RhOdesia anC
the Pacific. Major S. G. Burrard esti
. mates that in the region of the Hima
[ layas actual sea-level is about eigh
) thousand feet higher than it would b,
: if the shape were not deformed. An
other source of error in surveys is tn,
DETECTION of the plumb line, and this
cause makes the position of India OF
the globe uncertain to some seven sec
, onds.
Everybody who takes an interest il
astronomy is aware that the outermos
planets of the solar system, Uranus
and Neptune, are believed to rotat,
| backward, that is. in a direction con
| trary to the rotation of all the othe
members of the system. But the evi
dence that they do thus rotate is indi
rect, SUCH for instance, as the fac
that their satellites revOlve backwar,
in their orbits. Recently, however
Henri Deslandres of the Meudon Oh
servatory has applied a method of de
!. termining the direction of rotation b,
spectroscopic observation, which give
direct evidence that in the case o
Uranus, at least, the rotation is reall
backward. The method is based o.
- the inclination of the lines in the spec
trum of a rotating body. and resemble
that by which, few years ago, Pro
fessor Keller demonstrated the me
tons of Saturns rings. 1t is to be al
piled next to Neptune.