Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1903-09-15
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A new French life preserver ID q
belt filed with calcium carbide. It 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 Tar
made tend to prove 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 1893 to
1906.
Adding fine sulphur to the dissolved
material, then heating, preferably with
pressure. is found by Isidor Kitsee to
more than double the resistance Of cell
lulose as an insulator for electric
wires. Flexibiltty varies with the per-
centage of sulphur, and resistance to
acids and moisture Is increased
In the Smithsonian report on scien-
tific work for 1902 Prof. Langley re-
marks that when the bolometer was
invented, some twenty years ago. 1t
was able to measure temperature to
about one-one-hundred-th OF
degree. Since then the instrument and
its adjuncts have been 80 far improved
that temperature can now be meas
ured to less than one-one-hundred mill
lionth Of a degree readily and with
precision.
The Italian government is awakfng
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 Quanti-
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 few
years ago the expectation Of wine bot
tie corks from that country amounted
in value to $5.0OO.0O0.
The weights of 1.173 human brains
have been collected by M. Marchand,
Of Marbourg. At birth the average
weight is found to be 9.8 ounces in
boys and 9.5 ounces In girls. At the
age of one year, 2 pounds 1.5 ounces
and pound 11.6 ounces, respectively; i;
and at the end of three years the
4 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 pounds ounce
in males and 2 pounds 10 ounces In
females. Loss by senile atrophy be-
gins in man at about forty y-eight years
and in women at about seventy. Tur-
geneff, the Russian author, had one Of
the heaviest brains on record, weigh
ing Al pounds; and Gambetta's, 8,
scarcely 2.6 pounds, was one Of the
lightest.
The first butterfly farm" is said to
have been established only year or
two ago by the English entomologist.
William Watkins, at Eastbourne. but
already several similar farms have
come into existence in France. The
object is to rear rare genera of the
l Bombycidae, the silkworm family.
They have. by crossing, obtained some
new varieties, which are sought after
by museums Of natural history. They
are also endeavoring to acclimate In
France species of silkworms indigen-
Gus to other countries. The farms con-
tain oaks, ailanthus trees. pines, plum
trees, castor Oil plants, and other
plants the leaves of which serve as
food for the caterpillars. Cocoons
are Matched on branches protected by
gauze, and, for the sake of uniform
Temperature, the insects are often kept
in room until after the first molting
when they are placed on bushes in the
open air, and protected from birds
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