Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1903-09-18
III, }Sw11 ClenCe
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Benzine locomotives of eight horse
power, drawing freight trucks of ca
pacity of 25 tons on narrowguage tun-
mel roads, are changing the working of
German, Belgian and Austrian mines.
Piano-playing is found by German
physician to be common cause of
nervous disease, 600 girls out Of 1000
being affected among piano players un-
der IL, and only 100 in 1000 among
non-players. The music lessons should
not begin before 16.
A new improvement of the micro
scope made at Java University con-
sists in so arranging the illumination
that no light can enter the objective
except that reflected by the object un-
der examination. This, it is claimed,
brings into view objects about half the
size Of those formerly proving the linn
it of minuteness.
The unicorn, so long regarded as a
fabled creature, was horse-li like beast
with single horn sticking cut straight
from it's head. and it has been sup
posed that it was suggested by the
rhinoceros. Prof. Wilhelm Boelsche
points out that bones of huge, horse
like beast that actually did carry such
single straight horn are now known.
1t is called elasmotherium, and it was
a contemporary of the mammoth in
the Rhine valley and in Siberia
Prof. A. w. Goodspeed of the Uni
versity of Pennsylvania has recently
made X-ray photographs by means of
secondary radiation from his hand ex-
posed to the action Of Crookes tube,
which was so screened that its rays
could not directly reach the photo
graphic plate. Other things besides
the hand, such as pieces of wood, zinc,
similar property of being excited to
the emission of invisible rays by the
action of the tube On two occasions
Professor Goodspeed has suffered from
Inflammation of the eyes and throat
when sleeping in a room where X-ray
experiments had been conducted, and
he thinks the cause may have been the
secondary radiation from the air or OBJ
jects in the room.
Experiments made some time ago
by Messrs. e. G.. Nichols and G. F..
Hull were thought to prove that the
DETECTION of a comets tail on ap-
preaching the sun is due to pressure of
light. A mixture of dried puff all
spores and emery sand was poured
through kind of hour-glass hole in a
vacuum tube, beam of light forty
times as strong as sunlight being turn
ed on the particles, and the light puff
bail seeds-only tenth as heavy as
water-were blown aside while the
emery continued to fall vertically. Cor
rected calculations now indicate that
the problem is not as near solution as
was supposed. The effect is ten times
as great as the pressure of light could
produce, some unknown force seeming
to have taken part, and further expert
ments will be made, using, II possible,
lighter particles and more perfect
vacuum.
Development of the great natural re-
sources of the tropical belt of the earth
is, in the opinion of the Hon. o. P.
Austin, chief of the Bureau of Sta
tistics, necessity for the future prog
ress of the world. Although this belt
contains practically one-half of the
land area of the globe, it now contrib
utes but one-sixth of the exports which
enter into international commerce. With
the growing population of the world
and the increase of facilities for trans
portation, change should be wrought
in this respect. Science has shown how
life and health can be protected in the
tropics, and India, southern China and
other Oriental countries contain popu-
lations capable of laboring, and willing
to labor, in the tropics. Finally, Mr..
Austin points out that in comparative
ly recent years practically all of the
tropics, except tropical America, have
been brought under the control of tenn
perate-zone countries.