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Show SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. -Gas has been successfully introduced as an illuminant on the street cars of the British metropolis. The holder, which is charged at the end of every night trip, is placed under the seats. -Metallic pens were first introduced for sale about 1803, though iron pens are mentioned in 1685. Up to 1835, or thereabouts, quill pens were almost universally used. Now they are rarely seen. -A dark green and blue marble vein has been discovered along the Shawangunk Mountains, New York. It is of a very fine grain and easily worked. The stone throughout is veined with dark lines. As soon as the proper leases are perfected the quarry will be worked, and it promises to be a bonanza. -The Oil and Drug News says that a nearly bald servant of Mr. Stevens, a British Consul, used, after trimming lamps, to rub his hands on his head, and after three month had a much finer head of glossy black hair than ever before. Mr. Stevens tried the experiment on animals which had lost their hair, with equal success. The petroleum should be rubbed in vigorously and quickly with the palm of the hand, six or seven times, at intervals of three days, except in the case of horses' tails and manes, when more applications may be needed. -Dr. Amat says that sea bathing "has proved of great benefit in many cases of disease of the eye. The improvement appears to be due to two causes: 1. The influence which such a course has upon the general health by curing anemia and elevating the tone of the system, since sea bathing is in the highest degree restorative. 2. Sea water and occasionally, also, the atmosphere of the sea has a local irritant action which should be watched, since it is most serviceable when there is a chronic, torpid and indolent inflammation, while it is exceedingly dangerous when the inflammation is of the acute kind." -The common idea that a volcano is a burning mountain, from the summit of which issue smoke and flame, is declared to be erroneous by Prof. Judd, of the Royal School of Mines. In a work lately published by him on this subject, he asserts that the action of volcanoes is not due to burning or combustion, nor is it necessary that they should be. On the contrary, according to Prof. Judd, the volcano hole is very often not on the summit, but on the side, sometimes at the base of the mountain or hill, and it sends forth steam rather than smoke-the supposed raging flames being simply the glowing light of a mass of molten material reflected from these vapor clouds. This work claims to be the result of the latest and most scientific investigations of the subject in all countries.-Chicago Tribune. -A steam generator has been devised on a plan by which, at each stroke of the piston of the engine, a certain quantity of water is projected against two strongly heated metal plates, the steam so produced going directly into the cylinder-an arrangement by which not only a special generator, but also the valve system for the entering steam, is superfluous. In a description given of this mechanism, the vaporizing surface is said to consist of two metallic cones. one within the other, with an interval of about 0.04 inch between; the hollow space is divided into tow chambers, each of which is connected with one side of the cylinder; and the gases play first on the inner surface of the double cone, then on the outer. This arrangement, as far as tested, has given quite satisfactory results.-N. Y. Sun |
