Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/242

 [Vol- v.. No. no.

��— Tbe AnnaU* induitriellea glvea an accouut of the mKk[ng of cork bricks, now being employed [or

coitlng steam-bollerB, ice-cell«r», etc. The cork is wlniioweil from impurities, ground In a mill, kneudeil up with B. luitable cemsnt, and pressed Into bricka; then dried, BrBtin the air, and afterwards by artificial beat. They are not hard, and not liable to deeom- poalEion; they keep out moiiiture, heat, cold, and

— The Kuaalan government is preparing an ex. peilitlon to western Siberia for the purpose of ex- amining some Bolphur depoBlts recent); diacorered there. The nalires have for many yeara had knowl- edge of these depoalts, but the government baa only recently been made cognizant thereof, through a report by Lieut. Kalityn. Tbe deposits are said to rival those of Sicily. In Russia, sulphur has blLherto been found only at Iclilrkots, nut (ar from Fetroffsk In Dagbestan, which taaa chiefly been delivered to the powder-mills.

— The Journal of the Iron an<l steel institul« states, tliat with a view lo lessen the noise caused by the trains crossing the railway-bridges In Hannover. Ger- many, due to the violent vibrations of the rail-joints, the oilginal rails have been taken up, and sieel unea, eighty-eight feet six incites long, laid down In their place. Tbe new rails were manufactured at the Os- nabruck steel-works, and the result of the innovation is in every way satisfactory.

— In the Medical chronielt. Dr. D. J. Leech dis- cusses the properties of paraldehyde, a new stiinnlal- ing sedative drug which is likely to take a prominent place in the pharmacy of the future. It Is intermedi- ate, apparently, between opium and chloral. It is well known that chloral has been freely used as an intoxicant, mainly because It leaves no after-odor, and may be taken without detection. Par.ildehycle has the advantage, from one point of view, of present- ing a distinct and easily identi(ie<l smell. Dr. Leecb speaks of having employed paraldehyde na an aid in breaking off the habit of opium-tahlng, and in help- ing a patient to pass through the miseries wlilcb fol- lowed the abrupt discontinuance of long- continued and large doses of morphia.

— The exhibition of metal work, lo bu held at the quaint old town of Nuremberg, is in a sufficiently forward slate of preparation to show what it will be like. Berlin exhibits principally vessels, lamps, and bronze ligures. England is badly represented, leaviog the more space for Austria and Prance. On the other hand, Spain and Portugal show no modern work at all, but Italy is represented by several towns. Ameri- ca shows only work in aluminium. Japan has sent so much that a special commissioner ba^ come with the goods. The Chinese war baa prevented many exhibits from there. Turkey and Persia send a great deal. Greece nothing. Other countries have sent national

— Every one has noticed that the sun and moon, in rising or setting, appear unusually large. Paul Stroo- banl points out iliuU. acail, roj. hely.) the absurdity of the vulgar explanation that intervening objects

��enable us better to estimate the real siie of the heaven- ly bodies, in that the same eSect is visible at sea. and indicates the fallacy of several other ihiwries. He believes that there are two real causes of the phenomenon in ijuestion. both purely physiolt^Ical. — one, the greater sejisltlveness of the eye to angular magnitudes near the horizon; the other, a illrecl effect of the feebler light In the enlai^ment of the pupil, which, it woTild appear, tends to magnify ob- jects, even when artiflcially produced. His theories are supported with numerous illustrations and ex- periments, the most interesting of which are to show that the distance between two luminous points williiti a room suffers the same apparent change as in the constellations, when, without altering the distance from the eye, the altitude Is gradually increased: and the maximum augmentation is estimated in either case as about one part in tour.

— It ia stated in the Journal of the Iron and sie«l institute that an accident at a foundry in Uelboume. by which a red-hot iron casting was dropped inla water, and was afterwards found to have beciinn remarkably soft, originated a process for annealing chilled and other iron castings, which has just b«en patented in the United Kingdom, It consists in plunging the metal wheu it Is reduced to a very dull- red heat, and juat as the redness is about to disappear, into a mixture of treacle and water having a specific gravity of 1.005. The inventors do not couBne ihem- aelves to this solution only; but it la found to give better results than any other that they have trieiL The process is said to soften castings in auchadegree that they can be punched, bored, and tapped as resr dily as wrought metal.

— IV. T. Chamberlain of Norwich, Contu, has Invented a cartridge In whicb the metal shell fa filled with compressed air, and attached to the base of the projectile. A valve in the base of the shell pemifto^ tbe air to esci^>e at will Into the chamber of the ~ and the bullet ia thus projected. He states, notwithstanding the Imperfection of hit apparati he baa secured a range of half a mile with two dred pounds' pressure.

— The Acaileaiy announces that the syndics of the University press (Cambridge, Eng.) have undertaktm the publication of a ' History of the malhemaUcil theories of elasticity,' left In manuscript by tb« li Dr. Todhunter. The work of editing and completl has been intrusted to Mr. Karl Pearson. The blal will contain a complete bibliographic c aa poasible, of all the writings on the subject of eli licity since the lime of Galilei, Including an analj

of the more Important memoirs. The flrst is already passing through the press.

— By reference to the table given below, it wil seen that one of the most noticeable features of observations made at tlio Russian polar station Sagastyr, during the two seasons 1662-83 and If S4, was the relative steadiness of the temper*! In comparison with other stations iu high lalitud) Only iu November, February, and March did means for the two years iHffer by more than 2"

�� �� �