Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 15.djvu/731

, subdivided, conveyed, and distributed to any number of distant places. If we inclose the main beam in a tube or pipe, and every secondary beam in smaller tubes, branching out from the larger one adjoining it, and we keep the above said reflectors at the elbows and intersections, or T-pieces, formed by all these tubes, we obtain a net or system of pipes or tubes similar to those used in the distribution of gas and water.

"Such is our system: in front of every side or face of our chamber of light, we place a box or pipe inclosing the main beams of light; these pipes are laid along the streets; at every side street a smaller pipe will branch out from the main one; at their junction we will place a reflector which will divert into the side street the desired percentage of light. And thus we can provide every street of a city with one or more pipes carrying a known amount of light. Then, from said street-pipes, service-pipes will be run into every lamp-post and every building, and at the intersection of the latter pipes with the street main we will insert proper reflectors, the size of which will determine the amount of light supplied by every service pipe. In the same way that at present the gas-burners of all the rooms in a house are in direct successive communication with the gas-meter or service-pipe, for said house, through a net of pipes laid along ceilings and walls; similarly in our system, a net of properly branched-out pipes will put in communication every room of a building with the above-mentioned service-pipe; only that we will place at every junction, occurring in said net of pipes, a proper reflector, which will determine the amount of light carried by the corresponding pipe. Thus, the light may come into the rooms through the ceiling or through the walls, every room having as many outlets of light as desired. But the light will enter in a beam of parallel rays; therefore, in order to properly shape it for use, we will place at every outlet of light a diffusing lens, called a secondary lens, which will send the light around in any predetermined shape; thus completing the system of division and distribution of light from a single station to any or all the rooms in a city, and with any desired intensity."

Primitive Innocence.—In a letter read at a meeting of the Academy of Natural Science, of Philadelphia, Dr. Charles A. Siegfried, U. S. N., writes as follows: "We visited an island called Botel Tobago while surveying a rock, eighty miles east of South Cape, off Formosa. We found a race of aborigines, probably from Malay stock. They knew nothing of money, rum, or tobacco. They gave us goats and pigs for tin pots and brass buttons, and would hang around us all day in their canoes, waiting for a chance to dive for something thrown overboard. They wore clouts only; ate taro and yams mainly, though they have pigs, goats, chickens, and fish, and cocoanuts also. Snakes abound, of the boa variety, I judge. Their thatch houses are low, with much overhang of the roof, surrounded by stone walls, strongly made of laid stone, to protect them from monsoons. Their paddy-fields contain immense quantities of taro—Colocasia aroidea, my botany says. They are peaceful and timid, do not mark the body or deform the face or teeth, and seem happy enough in their condition. I found them fairly healthy. They had axes, spears, and knives, but all of common iron, the axe being made by imbedding the handle, instead of the handle piercing the iron, as with us. Their canoes are beautiful, made without nails, and are ornamented usually with geometrical lines. The hair is worn naturally, the men partly clipping theirs. I saw no valuable metal. They wore the beards of goats, with small shells, as neck ornaments."

New and Interesting Fossils.—While examining the "Atlantosaurus beds" of the Rocky Mountains, Professor Marsh discovered several interesting fossils, among them the lower jaw of a small mammal—a diminutive marsupial. This is the second mammal known from the Jurassic in this country. The specimen, which is from the left side, has the larger part of the ramus preserved, with a number of perfect teeth in position. Most of the symphysial portion is lost, and the posterior part is missing, or only faintly indicated. The jaw was remarkably long and slender. The horizontal portion is of nearly equal depth throughout, and the lower margin nearly