The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1906-06-13

According to a report of the Geologi'
cal Survey, an Alaskan glacier is NOV
ing at the rate of two inches year.
Magnetized places-spots attracting
iron like the lodestone-are often no.
ticed in volcanic rocks. They have
been ascribed by Folgheraiter to light
ming, but he knew of no magnetized
rocks that had been tested before the
lightning struck.
Two Investigators had been testing
rocks near Mount Etna when, during
the night lightning fused a telephone
wire, from which an uninsulated earth
wire ran along a basaltic wall, which
had previously shown scarcely trace
of magnetism. Next morning the
stones of the wall were strongly mag
netic for five inches on bon, sides Of
the wire, the polarity indicating that
the current passed upward.
To enable people to send their voices
10 their friends through the mails is
the ambition of Ihree French inventors,
who have united their ingenuity in the
production of waX-like material
called "sonorine," which may be spread
upon a postcard. Spoken messages
may be impressed upon the prepared
cards by placing them in phonogra-
phic apparatus, into which the sender
speaks, and the receiver of such card
has only to put it through receiving
phonograph in order to hear the voice
of his friend as in telephone.
What is now known as hypnotism
was heralded nearly half century
ago as of great Importance in medical
diagnosis and as a moral aid in train
ing children, and much greater powers
have been assigned TO it in recent
years. A late French writer has shown
that its usefulness has been greatly
exaggerated. 1t affects only wills too
weak to be aided, and it can have no
value in systematic education. Gras-
set has concluded that it is so often
harmful that it should be employed
only by the practiced physician.
Forgery by phonograph is new
crime discovered in Hungary. The son
of wealthy peasant proved an oral
will of his father by testimony of serv-
ants who heard voice from the dying
parents bed, saying, II leave all my
property to my eldest son, Alois, and
my other children are to get nothing"
Such statement is valid in Hungary.
subsequently, however, the police
were informed that the voice the serv-
ants heard was not that of his father,
but that Alois had spoken the words
into phonograph. He had placed the
instrument under his fathers bed, and
when the old man lost consciousness
The police searched his house and
found the phonograph record as de-
scribed. Alois is now to be charged
with fraud.
While the transmutation Of elements
at will is still dream, the alkali met
ais have given ]. J. Thomson a sugges-
tion Of control of the change. Ennis
sion from these metals in light has
been long known, and he has now prov
en- that they give off slow electrons,
or Beta rays, even in darkness, and
that the process is greatly influenced
by light, heat and chemical forces.
These act as detonators, splitting up
atoms which have become unstable.
This atomic breaking up is thought to
be going on in all matter, with the set
ting free of enormous energy, and it is
calculated that If the action extends
throughout the earth, the emission by
every atom of an electron once in
thousand million years would account
for the earth's internal heat The
atomic modification may explain the
fatigue" of platinum and other sub
stances after long incandescence.
British Clerks Mistake.