The new age., 1906-11-10
'PopuleT 5ienoe.


Modelling In breadcrumbs, which are
soaked in liquids of various colors and
are made elastic and almost unbreak-
able by a special process, is the curious
new art Of Suzanne Meyer, a French
woman.
The human breath has been found to
be a fair conductor of electricity,
spark from a Wimshurst machine being
/ longer in breathed than in pure air.
Investigating further, Dufour has con-
cluded that the lung and skin exhala-
tions sensibly increase the leakage from
an electrically charged body, and it is
suggested that the vapors rising above
flock of sheep or cattle may explain
the tendency of lightning to strike the
huddled animals.
A novel charge Is brought against the
common bedbug (Clmex lectularius) by
DR.. w. ]. Goodhue, medical superin-
tendent of the Molokai leper settlement
who regards it as a chief agent in
spreading leprosy. 1t is believed to
have greater influence than the gnat,
for it comes noiselessly, and during the
patients sleep, and bedding among
iepers is too little disinfected. After
long research DR.. Goodhue has demon
strated the presence of the bacillus Of
leprosy in the mosquito (Culex pun
gens) as well as in the bedbug.
An ingenious apparatus for drawing
the profile of river bottom Is used by
Italian engineers. 1t consists of a wheel
affixed to the bottom Of a graduated
rod, which is fastened vertically at the
side Of boat In such a manner that
as the boat advances up or down or
across stream, the wheel at the end of
the rod runs continually upon the bot
tom, the rod rising and falling with
variations of level. By noting the depth
at chosen intervals of time, the ele-
ments are obtained for tracing an ac-
curate representation of all the sinuOsi-
variations of depth. In the saving Of
time this simple apparatus possesses an
enormous advantage over the ordinary
method of soundings.
Germany has for some time possessed
dozen factories for the liquefaction
of carbonic acid gas issuing from the
earth in the neighborhood of extinct
volcanoes. Last summer large fac
tory of the same kind was opened near
the Puy de Dome famous extinct vol
cano in central France. The liquid OBJ
tained by the condensation of these vol
canic gases Is said to be purer than
that produced by solely chemical proc
esses. From an excavation at Aigue-
perse, near the Puy de Dome, the guam
tity of gas given forth every day is
reckoned at about half a million liters.
The place is known as the poison foun-
tain" and the bones of many animals
have been found In the excavation, in
Guiding those of horse, bison and a
mammoth.
According to Cosmos, the employment
Of circular disks of iron, turning with
great velocity, but possessing no teeth
on the edge, for saving metal, has be-
come common In many workshops
Among other places where such saws
without teeth are used is the celebrated
Krupp gun works, where armor plate
is sometimes cut in this manner. The
process Is not q newly discovered one.
AS long ago as 1924 Darrier and Cola
don, at Geneva, experimental with
swiftly rotating disks of iron They
found that when a disk about seven
inches in diameter turned with a per-
ipheral velocity of ten meters per Sec
ond, 1t could be cut with steel tool
pressed against 1t, but that when the
velocity was increased to twenty-one
meters per second the iron was unaf-
fected, but the steel tool was damaged.
At velocity of sixty meters per second
the iron disk even cut quartz and agate.