Custer County Republican. (Broken Bow, Neb.) 1882-1921, 1903-10-08
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A new French life preserver is
belt filed with calcium carbide. 1t is
quickly inflated by acetylene on being
wet.
Great mountains on Venus are sup
posed discovery of Herr Arendt, OF
Posen. These elevations appear to pro-
ject through the clouds from time to
time, and the observations thus far
made tend TO prove a rapid rotation in |
about twenty-fOur hours.
The magnetic pole in Northwestern
America is supposed to have shifted
considerably since its discovery by
Ross in 1881. Taking with him seven
companions in small schooner"
Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer
expects TO make observations on the
present site of this pole from 1898 to
1895.
Adding fine sulphur to the dissolved
material, then heating, preferably with
pressure, is found by Isidor Kitsee to
more than double the resistance of eel
lulose as an insulator for electric
wires. FleXibility varies with the per-
centage of sulphur, and resistance to
acids and moisture is increased
In the Smithsonian report on scien-
tifc work for 1902 Prof. Langley re-
marks that when the bolomcter was
invented, some twenty years ago, 1t
was able to measure temperature to
about -hundred-thousandth of
degree. Since then the instrument and
It's adjuncts have been so far improved
that temperature can now be meas
ured to less than one-one-hundred mil
lionth of degree readily and with
precision.
The Italian government is awaking
to the necessity of protecting what re-
mains of its forests and to replanting
devastated areas. The most valuable
tree is the cork tree, which now
abounds most in Sicily and Sardinia
the cork forests of Calabria having
been almost wholly destroyed for char
coal. The present use of vast quaint
ties of cork in the manufacture of
linoleum and for shipbuilding empha-
sizes the Importance of preserving and
extending the cork forests. Spain also
possesses great cork forests, and Il few
years ago the expectation of wine bot
tie corks from that country amounted
in value to $5,000,000.
The weights of Lib human brains
have been collected by NJ. Marchand,
of Marbourg. At birth the average
weight is found to be 9.S ounces in
boys and 90 ounces in girls. At the
age of one year, pounds 10 ounces
and ! pound 11.5 ounces, respectively;
and at the end of three years the
weight has trebled. Increase is then
slow Full growth is attained at nine
teen to twenty years in men and six
teen to eighteen in women, the mean
adult weight being 3 pounds l ounce
in males and pounds 10 ounces in
females. Loss by senile atrophy be-
gins in man at about fOrty-eight years
and in women at about seventy. Tur-
geueff, tile Russian author, had one of
the heaviest brains on record, weigh
ing IL pounds; ard Gambetta's,
scarcely 90 pounds, was one of the
lightest.
The first "buttcrny farm is said to
have been established only Il year or
two ago by the English cntOmologist,
William Watkins, at Easthourne, but
already several similar farms have
come into existence in France. The
object is TO rear rare genera of the
Bombycidae, the slkworm family.
They have, by crossing, obtained some
new varieties, which are sought after
by museums of natural history. They
are also endCavOring to acclimate in
France species of silliworms indigen-
Gus to other countries The farms con-
tain oaks, allanthus trees. pines, plum
trees, castor oil plants, and other
plants the leaves of which serve as
food for the caterpillars. Cocoons
gre patched on branches protected by
gauze, and, for the sake Of uniform
temperature, the insects are often kept
in room until after the first melting,
when they are placed on bushes in the
open air, and protected from birds
by coverings of muslin or tulle.