The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-08-09
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY
PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTING BY
 CONTACT.
Mineralogy and Life-Microscopic Power Doubled-Comet's Tail a Mystery Still--A Unique
 Phenomenon-Insect
 Ingenuity.

''Catatypy" is the name given by Ger man photographic chemists to the new process of printing without light. Hydro- gen dioxide is poured over the negative, after which piece of paper-sized or un- sized, rough or smooth--is laid on, and by a contact of a few seconds this receives the picture, hydrogen dloxide being des- troyed. Several prints can be made from a single application. The invisible image on the paper is developed by being drawn through a solution of ferrous oxide, when the protoxide is transformed Into oxide, and the iron oxide gives a yellow positive. Instead of iron salts, those of chromium, manganese, etc., may be used, or pig ments with glue solutions, giving wide range of possible tones of color. The process is simple, the pictures perma- nent, and 1t is believed that A new epoch in photography has been reached.
 'science," says M. Herrera~ made great step when she succeeded in obtain ing limitations of protoplasm, whose structure was once looked upon as an almost supernatural phenomenon. But the progress was stllI greater when she succeeded in preparing perfect limitations of organic bodies with inorganic material, such as calcium chloride, sodium phos- phate and calium carbonate-substances IOunu everywhere. NG .Cd1nOI ueny LH0 importance of the 500 organic substances extracted from plants, but neither can we deny that living beings proceed out of inorganic forces and substances. If my views are correct. living beings must be regarded as mineral colloids. and zoology and botany as chapters of mineralogy."
 A new improvement of the microscope made at Java University consists in so arranging the illumination that no light can enter the objective except that re- fiected by the object under examination. objects about half the size of those for merly proving the limit of mlnuteness.
 y
 Experiments made some time ago by Messrs. F. c. Nichols and q. P, Hull were thought to prove that the Reflection of comets tail on approaching the sun is due to pressure of light A mixture of dried puff-ball spores and emery sand was poured through a kind of hour-glass hole in vacuum tube. a beam of light forty times as strong as sunlight being turned on the particles, and the light puff-ball seeds-only A tenth as heavy as water-were blown aside while the emory continued to fall vertically. Corrected calculations now indicate that the prob | lem is not as near solution as was sup posed The effect Is ten times as great as the pressure of light could produce some unknown force seeming to have taken part, and further experiments will be made, using. if possible. lighter par. ticles and more perfect vacuum.
 The most marvellous of all rockinf stones Is that of the island of Cephalonia off the coast of Greece. This is a grea rock, about a rod square in the edge O
 the sea. and 1t is in perpetual motion
 alternately touching the land and reced
 ing from 1t about twenty times a min
 ute. The regular oscillations of this nat
 ural pendulum are unaffected by calms O by tempestuous seas that break com Ipletely over 1t. The weight of ten per