Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 13.djvu/395

Rh invented by Mr. Charles E. Brush, of that city. The results were in the highest degree satisfactory, as will be seen from the following account of the experiment which we condense from the Cleveland Herald:

The machine is capable of giving a light of 12,000 candle-power, the electric fluid being distributed to four electric lamps, each having the power of three thousand candles. The exhibition was given in the establishment of the Union Steel Screw Company, where two of the lamps were placed on the third and two on the fourth floor of the immense building. The illumination was perfect. The rooms were flooded with a pure white light like the light of the sun, and it streamed out at all the windows, illuminating houses and streets for a long distance in every direction. The light was very uniform and steady, free from the flickering that used to be an accompaniment of electric light, and, considering the enormous illuminating power, the light was unexpectedly soft and endurable to the eyes. An opportunity was afforded to test the character and whiteness of the light. Worsteds, scarfs, afghans, etc., of brilliant shades were hanging against the wall at one side of the room, and it was noticed that the colors were brought out as clearly as by the full light of the sun. Estimates were made as to the amount that the light furnished by this apparatus would cost, if used by the Screw Company as it was used on the evening of the exhibition, and it was ascertained that the total cost of the whole light from the four lamps, including the items of consumption of carbon in the lamps, interest on the investment, and wear and tear, would not exceed thirty cents per hour. The light produced was photometrically equal to eight hundred gas-burners, burning five feet of gas per hour each. This amount of gas would cost eight dollars per hour in Cleveland.

Ascent of Mount Ararat.—In September, 1876, Mr. J. Bryce made the ascent of the greater peak of Mount Ararat, and at a recent meeting of the London Geographical Society gave an account of the feat. Mount Ararat is situated nearly in the centre of the region known as Armenia—a territory divided between three empires, and lying round the sources and upper courses of the Araxes, Euphrates, and Tigris. The mass of Ararat is about twenty-five miles long from northwest to southeast, and from twelve to fourteen miles wide. It consists of two peaks joined together by a sort of neck. The greater peak, Great Ararat, rises 17,000 feet above sea-level, and the lesser peak, Little Ararat, 12,800 feet; both are of volcanic origin. Mr. Bryce began the ascent from a small Tartar village on the northeastern face of Great Ararat, being accompanied by a friend and two guides, a Cossack and a Kurd. At the height of about 11,500 feet Mr. Bryce's friend abandoned the attempt to reach the summit. The remainder of the climb had to be made over beds of snow, and over bare, loose, broken stones; the latter course Mr. Bryce chose. At the height of 15,000 feet the Cossack and the Kurd refused to go any farther, so he was compelled to journey alone. The last part of the ascent was upon a slope of rotten rocks, rather soft and sulphurous, which crumbled under his feet, adding greatly to his fatigue. Near the top of this slope Mr. Bryce could just discern the edges of the plateau of snow, and hanging on this a curtain of clouds. After ascending into these clouds two strong blasts of wind swept them away, and then a wonderfully grand and extensive view lay before him. The Caucasus could be seen to the north, distant about 250 miles; the highest ranges of mountains round Erzeroum to the west; the mountains of Assyria, and South Kurdistan, the mountains in the direction of Nineveh, and the valley in the direction of the Zab, to the south; to the east, the enormous mountain-masses in Persia, and north as far as the Caspian. But in his fondest anticipation Mr. Bryce was doomed to a sad disappointment: he could find no fragment of Noah's ark!

Prevention of Contagions Diseases.—Two modes of fortifying the system against the attacks of zymotic disease are pointed out by Dr. E. M. Hunt, in the Medical Record, viz.: topical application of substances inimical to the development of contagia; and, secondly, the introduction into the blood of substances which shall prevent fermentive, defibrinizing or destructive processes. On the hypothesis that contagium vivum is introduced into the