The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1904-07-10
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY
Central Station Heat ana
Trees-Ashtning
hce-D"me Nature Upto-Daeword Origin-soarsone Theaa

The team-heating and clectric-light-
ming combination now being tested by
Dresden promises to open a new era in
municipal economy. A huge central
station of the Saxon Government con-
tains ten generators, producing over
$4,000 pounds OF steam per hour, and
this is distributed through street mains
| to the Royal Opera House. the Picture
Gallery, the Zwinger Museum, the Roy
al Palace, and\ other buildings. After
the morning heating. little steam is
needed to keep up the temperature SO
that most of the supply can be used
for generating electricity. for lighting
and other purposes. during the latter
part of the day.
The appearance OF solidity in photo
graphs-the stereoscopic effects
| usually given by two pictures taken
from a slightly different viewpoint
DR.. Gradenwitz describes a new single
lens that shows a far distant image
| of a photograph, free from distortion,
and under the same conditions of appa-
rent size. distinctness. perspective. light
and shade. as those under which the
objects themselves would be seen with
short Photographic objective. This
conveys to the eye a very natural eff
feet. suggesting unconsciously a cor
rect perception OF relief and distances
The influences of climate may be
studied in the forms OF trees. Mark
w. Jefferson points out that the prev
alent westerly winds from New Eng
land to Michigan cause the slender
twigs of the maple to be developed hor-
izontally on the east eide and vertically
on the west, and wind effects may be
seen also in the elm, oak, hickory, syca-
| more and black walnut. The tops of
tropical trees are made sided to
south or west instead of to east.
In a lecture experiment to show the
action OF lightning and lightning con-
cuctors, Sir oliver Lodge lately repre-
scented the electrically discharged cloud
| by a thin sheet of metal mounted on
non-conducting standards. and charged
| from a battery at pleasure. This
CLOUD" sloped downward from front
to back, so that the distance of con-
! ductors from the under side could be
varied by sliding them over the table.
| Copper, iron and wet string were tried
as conductors. and all proved efficient.
although the copper was the most in
tense and rapid. producing a sharp
| crack at the flash, while iron gave less
| noise, and the wet string hardly any.
| Professor Lodge holds that iron is an
| efficient a conductor as copper. with
| less tendency to set up the side-hash
that in most protected buildings has
caused the lightning accidents. He
divides lightning into two kinds-the
first being the normal discharge from
an over-charged cloud to the earth. and
| the second occurring when a large
cloud discharges into smaller one.
generally below 1t. suddenly over
charging the small cloud. and causing
| it to discharge violently to earth. The
second form. more sudden and violent
than the first is much more difficult
to protect against.
| A remarkable instance of apparent
mimicry in Ceylon has been brought
to notice by DR.. A Wiley. fish com
monty known as the sea-bat strikingly
resembles a decayed leaf, and re-
cent observer reports pursuing one of