The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-04
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY
EIHcrRaC COPPER sMELTING.-PossI-
 HIE BOOK FLOW IN MINING.
New Light on the Mocns-Westher Problem Curious Home sharing. - Moss on Trees-Electric Fish-Hunting. A Mstor Amphibian.-The
 New Insulator.

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 rhs rich cooper mines of Chile have been little worked on account of the scarcity of | fuel and the cost of transporting the ore. Water power Is abundant. and for several years an electrician has been employed in Paris to devise an electric furnace for smelting the ore at the mines thus reduc ing inc quantity of material to be carried. After making and demolishing ninety-eight | furnaces Imbert de vanoy. who has had charge of the work. believes he has pro-
 duced e practical type. He uses two arcs
 between two pieces of four-inch cartoons, obtaining an easily-regulated heat up to l q. ooo degrees Centigrade. and the mixture l of ore and Aux. is brought under the action of this heat without direct contact with the electrodes. Two feeders empty buck cts of the mixture into hoppers at the ends | of the furnace. while the fused copper matte is drawn off into ingots about once an hour. For a ton of mixed ore and flux. . current of no volts and 5000 amperes is 1 needed. and the cost of treating this amount | per hour is less than S1. co. The furnace is expected to work necessarily for a,year be- fore wearing out.
 The proposed bore-hole twelves miles deep | has brought out the objection that the great
 pressure of forty tons per square inch would l cause . viscous flow of rock material. mak- I ins the feat impossible. The Hon. C. A. | Parsons replies that this idea can be tested l by subjecting a piece of quarts rock to a
 pressure of one hundred tons per square | inch in e fitting cylinder having a
 small hole in its centre. This pressure is
 that expected at depth of thirty-eight
 miles.
 | The perfection of pharmaceutical products and the prevention of the great waste of
 food materials are the two lines which j..
 F. Moulton. F. R. S.. finds the chemical in- vention of the day to be following. A marked influence of the moon on the
 weather is easily shown. in the opinion of l c. Lamprecht. a German astronomer. when 1 rainfall is considered in relation to the moons phase at perigee. Tn his investiga- I tion he has used the monthly data of rain-
 falls at forty North German stations tor | the years 1857 to 1894 and of about ninety | eight stations in Java and Madeira for 1879 | to 1902. and 1t appears that a dry period is
 likely to result when both moon and sun are upon the same side of the earth at the | moons nearest approach. That is. in both
 North Germany and Java a drouth has ap- peared when perigee was nearer to new moon than to full moon. The rule applies | to all countries where the greatest rainfails occur with the highest position of the sun. New moon last July fell near perigee. and dry weather was predicted. the forecast
 proving remarkably accurate.
 An extraordinary use of the same sIeep- ing quarters by diurnai and nocturnal anil mals is recorded by a naturalist of Ceylon. Barberyn Lighthouse Island. thirty-five miles south of Colombo. is inhabited by day by fruit-bats or flying foxes and at night
 by crows. and at sunrise and sunset may
 he the curious spectacle of two i'm
 mense flocks flying in opposite directions t.1a- RrorS
 the mainland. the flying foxes at a greater
 elevation than the crows. The cross migra- tion, lasting about half an hour. is attended by great chattering of flying foxes and caw-
 ing of crows.
 The idea that moss grows thickest on the
 north or east side of trees seems to have
 been disproved A French botanist. Leon
 Bede. now concludes that moses prefer the parts of the tree that retain most moisture. being thus more abundant on rough or cracked parts. on the upper part of a
 branch or inclined trunk. on knots or
 bosses. at the fork of branches. and at the base of the trunk.
 The cat. besides its liking for valerian. has shown a taste for caffeine. which brings
 painful and fatal results.
 Electricity is now made to serve the fish 1 erfndu Dy bHoWlnB the presence ana extent | of shoals of fishes. The apparatus Is the | subject of 8 German patent. and it consists 1 of a microphone, which Is enclosed in water tight case and connected with an
 electric battery and telephone. As long as the microphone hangs free on being lowered | into the water. no sound is heard When fishes strike against the case, however | their presence Is revealed by tappings, and I the length of the rope supporting the micro phone gives the exact depth at which the | shoal Is encountered.
 | The novel automobile of a Russian en- | gineer is a combination of a sleigh and boat. It is in the form of boat with two bars or runners beneath and 1t is intended for | the of Prince Khilkoff in crossing Lake Baikal. A gasoline motor supplies the power. wheel with points to grip on the ice propels the sleigh, and when the boat is in water a clutch connects the motor to a propelled.
 Lieonite. the new substitute for xutta percha. is a mixture of asphaltum, petroIe- um and gum. Dissolved in turpentine, 1t Is used for insulating electric wires. and costs less than 8 twentieth as much as gutta percha. It can be mixed with either caoutchouc or gutta percha The material is expected to serve important uses. but its durability in exposed places remains to be shown.
 Tn tests of the durability of woods beech and aspen have decayed in three years. willow and chestnut in four years, maple and birch in five years. elm and ash in seven years.
 The ordinary burglar alarm is liable to MznnnnznnnmA.zzzzzs.nuzu..u