Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/348

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��making Kb cabEnelB, niuaeiims. ami library collections available to the stuilents of the aummer school, l9 worthy of note.

— In corumenLing on the automatic chemical telegraph, the committee on telegraph apparatus at the Philadelphia exhibition says that this system was at one time iu commercial use to a conaiderable ex- tent in this country, but has been abandoned for reasons prohabi j due more to peculiarilies hi the com- mercial re(|uirL'ments of American telegraphy than to any Inherent difficulties In the operation of the mechanism Itself. The automatic method of trans- mission, although full of promise, has in almost every Instance failed to realize the expectations of its advocates as a substitute for the ordinary proceu of manual transmission. This difficulty, whatever it may be, is inherent in the principle itself, and is not properly chargeable to defects in the operation of the apparatus.

— The Auk (or January contains the preliminary report of the committee on bird-migration, of the Ornithological union, from which it appears that observing- stations are now established in every slate and territory in the Union, except Nevada. Iteturns have been received from overone thousand observers, who are usually, not ornithologists, but, as a rule, intelligent farmers, who know only the very com- monest birds. The most eastern station is at St. John, Newfoundland; the moat northern, at Belle Isle, oS Labrador; and the most southern, at Boni- brero Key, Fla. Reports have also come from many points on the Poci&c, and even from as far north as Point Barrow, Alaska. The amount of iLiforraation so far received is so comparatively meagre, that It is impossible to generalize as yet; hut the various ob- servers are working with great interest in the matter, BO that it cannot be long before many valuable gen- eralizations can be drawn from the data which are so rapidly coming in.

— The third lecture before the San Diego Bociety of natural history was on the Sudan, delivered by Stuart Stanly; and the visit of Dr. Farlow was im- proved by engaging him to give the fourth.

— According to the Journal of the Iron and steel Institute, large deposits of iron ore have been discov- ered in Cuba, the extent ot which will cause the Island to take rank with other countries as a source of supply of the raw material for iron-making. An American mining engineer states that he Is familiar with most of the rich fields In the United States and In Europe, but that he has never seen any like those of Cuba. He adds that he has seen veuia of iron ore, but that there are on the surface Immense deposits, varying in thickness from ten to fifty yards, mostly In biocits of from two to twenty Ions' weight. At one place he found by actual measurement that there must be present about 1,837,450.000 cubic yards of ore. This deposit is situated only about half a tulle from the sea, where a good harbor can be opened to ship the ore. Farther in the interior there is another large deposit.

— The Royal society of New South Wales offers its

��medal and twenty-flve pounds for the best c cation (provided it be of sufficient merit) containing the result of original research or observation upon each of the following subjects: — to be sent In not later than May 1, 1S8(}, on the chemistry of the Aus- tralian gums and resins; on the tin deposits of New South Wales ; on the iron-ore deposits ot New South Wales; listof the marine faunaof Port Jackson, with descriptive notes as to habits, distribution, etc.: to be sent in not later than May 1, 1687, on the Bilver- ore deposits of New South Wales; origin and mode of occurrence of gold-bearing veins and of the asso- ciated minerals; influence of the Australian climate In producing modiflcations of diseases; ou the In- fusoria peculiar to Australia.

— The meteorological summary for February, 1885, at San Diego, Cal., gives the mean daily temperature at as.Q"; the highest temperature, 76°; the lowest temperature, 37.6°. Tlic mean dally relative humid- ity was 77.7, with only .01 of an Inch of precipitation, against 0.06 inches of precipitation In February, 18S1.

— Hev. E. L. Greene, of theUniversity ot California at Berkeley, intends making a botanical trip in April to the Guadaloupe and the Cerros Islands, oH Lower California.

— The applications for space in the Inventions exhibition at South Kensington have been enormous. If all the applications had been granted, it would have required an area six times as large as Hyde Pork to contain the exhibits; yet the Inventions are con- fined to the last twenty-three years, and the music, with the exception of the historical collection, re- stricted to this century. Steam engines and boileis have the largest share of space ; electricity, naval architecture, and mining and metallurgy, having the

— The total distance run by the cars on the Brighton (England) electric railway during the first six months of its existence was lifleen thousand six hundred miles. Two hundred thousand passengers were carried, at an expense of Ave cents per mile.

— It is reported that the experiment is to he tried in Berlin of running the sireet-cars by electricity. Storage-batteries of the form supplied by the Eleo- tric-power company of London will be employed,

— The Messrs. Orcult of San Diego, Cal., intend penetrating the Lower Callfornlan peninsula as far aa possible by wagon this spring, with the object of in- vestigating its flora.

— Mr, D. S. Smart. In a paper recently presented to the British Institution of civil engineers, descrlbea recent British practice in steam-boiler construction. He states that 'low,' 'soft,' or 'mild' steel, wtdcb has the valuable qualities of iron without its defects, is now extensively use<l for this work. It is ntkde usually from thirty to thirty-six per cent stronger than boiler-Iron, and is superior, when well made, in duc- tility. Some variation in this last respect lias led to considerable distrust of the metal; but thisdiatruit has been quite often due to unfainiliarity, on the part of users, with the nature of the material, (uid

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