| Show scientific miscellany the reproduction of the truffle is a perplexing problem for botanists some landowners land owners of lot and correze have been experimenting to deter determine mine whether the spores are not diffused through the inter medium of cattle and particularly of certain domestic animals of quick digestion but M grimblot seems to have proved that the diffusion of the spores is effected by wood mice this throws doubts upon another common belief it has been supposed probably without good reason that both this valuable fungus and the common mushroom produce spores which will not develop until they have passed through the intestines ii of the cow or horse the walking of a fly on the ceiling is a familiar phenomenon not yet fully understood A recent paper by mr D H Di erhold mentions that the microscope quickly disproves the old theory that flies hold to smooth surfaces by means of suckers and that hookes idea that flies stick to glass by a viscous secretion was shown a dozen years ago to be only partly sound dr rombout has established the fact that the flies hang on by the help of capillary adhesion the molecular attraction between solid and liquid bodies it is true the foot hairs are very minute but as each fly is said to have or we need not be surprised at what they can do the method proposed by herr E for producing large artificial diamonds consists essentially in sealing pulverized coal iron chips and liquid carbolic acid in a strong steel tube and submitting to the action of the electric are arc unlike other methods this process generates enormous pressure during the operation of the electric current and it is believed larger diamonds will crystallize out as the mixture cools the british tales isles have now rainfall observers with one station in every 21 square miles in england every 36 square miles in wales 74 square miles in scotland and in ireland methods of overhead for electric cars without the use of trolley wires have been devised by a french and a german engineer M bochert and herr kottsieper Rott sieper the former places along the top of each car a conducting rail to which the current passes from arms projecting over the track from side posts and connects two or three cars together in such a way that constant connection is kept up as the cars pass in turn under the charged arms the drawbacks to this system are the great number of posts required and the necessity of running more than one car at the time th these e se objections are overcome by herr the use of a secondary battery which is fully charged at the terminal stations and partially wherever a stop is made the stopping stations being at charging posts post t s where the conducting rail which may be on on the side of the car instead of on top is a automatically brought into the circuit from the distributing station this system requires few posts while the accumulators being recharged at short intervals may be of the lightest character the current of course is transmitted from post to post by underground der ground wires few scientific deductions are more than the recent one of lord kelvin on the worlds underground fuel supply much of which instill ie Is still hidden the coal is the residue of ancient vegetation and the oxygen of the a air ir was probably all derived from this vegetation which experiment shows must have furnished three tons of oxygen for each ton of coal this Is the proportion of oxygen consumed in burning coal the surface of the earth has an area of millions or of square meters each square meter bearing ten tons of air of which two tons is oxygen and a simple calculation shows with great probable accuracy ra ey that the total fuel supply in the earth is millions of tons it 3 was determined in 1831 that england scotland and wales hadl had bulto multo millions of tons of coal surely available millions of tons more possibly available this is more than great grat britain could burn with its own ar air 1 that country having therefore more than an average supply in his latest researches M C can dolle finds that seeds of indian corn oats fennel and other plants are still capable of germinating after days exposure to cold of forty deg degrees mes below zero fahr our condition of hairlessness haa been a subject of study by dr exner a german biologist our ancestors he holds were totally covered with hair and its disappearance may be accounted for by the fact that its absence w was regarded as a beauty preference tie bi ing giving in choosing mates to thoi those having the least of it the hairs ace modified sense organs which have loa all connection with ith the nerves tive man was probably clothed in a att irregular covering of hair which mariec in length color structure and th teto ness with the functions for chIt 11 was intended the hair now remaining was left tor for a definite purpose aws tain hairs serve as organs of to notably the eyelashes and in a less de gree the eyebrows both serve to pro 3 hect the eyes dyes in animals the F a serves to maintain and regulate th body heat but in man the hair of scalp alone has such purpose incandescent burners having M mantra of ties similar to those used for aa a coad gas flame are now made for oil antt spirit lamps the kerosene is d draw gf up into a small chamber by a nu number of wicks vaporized vaporizer there by a small external flame and after two minutes aa and a half supplies sufficient vapor t tar keep the mantle at a white heat the disadvantage of this burner to is the de lay of two minutes and a half before is ready for use f thin sheets of wood are glued ed to ge gertherin gether therin ln a factory of warsow I 1 Rus sisi so that the grain crosses aa an n elastic plate which cannot be twisted twiste d out of et shape being thus obtained thew plates are used for roofing tiles TUV chest S stand the weather well ate after beffe pitched and can be made fireproof W saturation with potassium silk silicate atif soluble glass the roofing weighs 12 4 pounds a square yard A substance believed to be a new 1 element has been obtained from cast iiron and boiler dust by mr G G blocher Bu ocher an english chemist and hw haa been submitted to prof wm crooked for spectroscopic investigation anotn er assayer mr P F G ruddock has ha Z noticed a like material in steel drillings from the continent acetylene is now used for lighting z parts paris omnibuses omni buses generator and carbide weighing about 30 80 pounds the elder of the two men arrested september in portland or tor for holding up the oregon railroad an and navigation Nava gation companas comp anys train near clarnoe Clarn Cl arnle fe seven miles from the state capital has been identified by special officer james B hume of wells fargo co of san francisco as mil tittle little more than 50 years old has a long criminal record and is welt known in police circles along the coast he was sent to san in 1867 from santa clara count county toy two years and six months on ti a con diction for grand larceny me ile atta scarcely left prison before a of the same offense in san Bernardt eoA i county in 1870 gained for him a sea se tence of four years 4 3 |
