Show scientific miscellany the latest apparatus for telegraphing images to a distance is the idea of dussard Dus sand the inventor of the mic rom rox the image is received in a camera passed through a rotating shutter pierced with small openings arranged in a spiral and falls upon a selenium plate through which is passed an electric current traversing the primary circuit of an induction coil the apertures aper tures of the shutter bring the light of successive parts of the image to the selenium setting up currents in the secondary Aary circuit of the coll coil that vary in strength with the intensity of light according to EL a well known law the varying currents pass to the receiving instrument where a very sensitive telephone diaphragm is displaced more or of less in front of a fixed plate more or less weakening a beam of light that passes a shutter exactly like that of the transmitter ano ana moved in unison with it and is thrown upon a screen by a system of lenses the light reaching the screen has the same intensity as the corresponding part of the image the result is theoretically cally at least that when both shutters are rotated over the entire image in 91 tenth of a second the time visual impressions persist the entire image is seen on the screen A rainfall of inches in 24 hours la in reported to have occurred last december at in the northern province of ceylon where the total fall for 1897 1997 was inches although the average yearly rain is but other great rainfalls rain falls on record are inches in 22 hours at joyeuse Jo JQ prance france 80 30 inches in 26 hours at genoa 33 inches in 26 96 hours at gibraltar 24 inches in one night near bombay and 20 80 inches on each of five successive flays days on the chasta hills india the greatest annual fall to is inches the record of the chasia hills the number of known asteroids to is tiow now of which have been discovered by frenchmen 70 by americans and 64 by germans chariots Char lols claims the last two the smoking of tea cigarettes is pronounced one of the most harmful dangerous of our end of the century fads the are made from green tea of unbroken leaf and little dut dust this being made pliable by moistening before being stuffed into the paper cylinders and the finished cigarettes being laid away tor for a few days before use the wise beginner who uses only one cl cigarette carette on zia his first trial will never re peat the experiment he experiences a thickening of the head and a desire to sit alt down but if the smoke to is continued a feeling of intense exhilaration follows the first effects and lasts until the last cigarette la is finished an observer of this habit declares that the agony of the opium fiend is a shadow to that of the e nauseated victim of the tea cigarette food cannot be looked at for hours yet a cup of tea is the first step toward relief and Is followed within an hour by craving for a claw cigarette tte the surgeon general of india has haa made a favorable report upon dr haff kines method of preventing bubonic plague by inoculations with weakened virus it is proved tb that at the inoculations prevent from 80 to 90 per cent of deaths and reduce the plague from an epidemic form to the position of a sporadic disease the bengal government has decided to encourage this system or of prevention it is not made compulsory but completely inoculated families are made exempt from liability to removal to a plague camp if any member is attacked by the disease so called wireless telegraphy it is pointed out cannot become practicable for long distances until the energy now scattered profusely in all aal directions direct lona can be concentrated in one narrow path eventually eventual ly though probably not at once it may become possible to focus the electromagnetic wave the rays mys of a searchlight search light upon a point a great distance away under present conditions it is calculated that at a distance of one mile the frao fraction tion of the total energy received on one square f foot oot is les las than one three hundred and fifty millionth of the total energy radia radiated tied A photograph of a landscape by the light of the aurora borealis bore alls with an exposure of only two minutes is a unique achievement from scotland cast iron pipes are given extra strength by winding with wire and the wire wound pipes can be made of un usual lightness this is the idea of a french iron master M jacquemart who makes the castings with projecting rings or bands to hold the wire in place annealed steel wire is used and this is wound the pipe in a lathe the whole being then painted or dipped in asphaltum A pipe 6 feet in diameter cast in lengths of 13 feet has been satisfactorily tested the result showing the wired pipe to be capable of withstanding pressures much beyond those tor for which the cast iron is safe french soldiers have been found by M vincent to be on the average a hundred times more subject to typhoid fever than native algerian soldiers this discovery becomes more surprising when it to is considered cons dered that the dl disease sease is usually serious when it attacks the arabs it to is thought that the comparative para tive exemption of the arab does not depend on a previous attack or on a slow acclimatization consequent on residence in towns but on a natural immunity comparable to the immunity of negroes against yellow fever or or of algerian sheep against anthrax A local magnetic pole a point where a dipping needle stands vertie vertical dl Is reported by prof leist to exist at in the russian province of bursk it is necessary to move 20 yards from this spot to change the direction of the needle I 1 deg at the point of this interesting anomaly the ordinary compass needle swings freely stopping indifferently in any direction the spring of carbonic acid in soh dra supposed to be a result of ancient voi volcanic caMic action in the region of the Thur inglan forest seems to be inex haus tible a pressure of 17 atmospheres J at the mouth having continued without diminution the yield is about 1000 cubic yards of gas per hour over ter ten i tons of liquefied carbonic acid per day dav is produced from this supply the gab gasa being kept confined as it issues from 3 the earth and used under pressure for power for the liquefying machinery andi for a lighting plant 1 |