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Show SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY. Surveying In Mines Fields of Tin . In Colorado. In a series of lectures on "mine surveying" sur-veying" at the London society of arts, Mr. B. II. Brough stated that Herodotns ascribed the invention of surveying to the Egyptians, but the Babylonians preceeded them. The oldest known mine plan dates from 1400 B. C, and shows a gold mine In upper Egypt. The earliest plan in England was given in a charter signed by Edward IV in 1180. In former times the surveyor cultivated mystery, an important instrument instru-ment being the divining rod, which even now through trickery sometimes appears ap-pears to give remarkable results. More important and legitimate is the use of the magnetic needle in exploring for iron ore, the needle's dip giving valuable valu-able indications. For measurement, the chain of 06 feet, divided into 100 from yellow to red. In addition to a coloring substance, this pepper is found to contain an irritating principle and an oily matter, and the extraction of the two latter principles removes the effect npon the plumage of birds, and the subsequent addition of olive oil restores it, the oily part of the pepper is supposed to be the necessary vehicle of the color. Wholly white hens were colored by the pepper food. These hens lay eggs with a very bright red yolk, and themselves possess the remarkable property of foreshadowing a change in the temperature by a decided change of tint, ft hen fed with alkauet root the-birds the-birds became violet red in color. It is believed that only two albino lobsters, both from Nsw Brunswick have ever been captured. The second, lately obtained is twelve inches lontr, of a bluish white color, and was ap ireut-ly ireut-ly healthy when taken. links, is mostly nsed in collieries, this length having been chosen in 1020 because 10 square chains made an acre, and in metalliferous mines a chain of 10 fathoms, divided into 6-inch links, is employed. In Amarica the standard is the foot and decimal subdivisions, and the chain is longer. The magnetic needle has long been use In plotting, and the first known work on mining published in Germany in 1505, describes the compass. For great accuracy the theodolite has been used since 1832. Oxygen-making is becoming an important im-portant industry. The total prediction of compressed oxygen in the Brith it-les in 1887 was" 24,664 cubic feet, and in 1891 it reached 1,758,187 cubic feet. The Bolarometer, devised by Lieutenant Lieu-tenant y. H. Beehler, of the United States man-of-war Pensacola, is a new scientific instrument for the use of navigators. It consists of a stellar globe three feet in diameter, giving tbe fixed stars and constellations, and having hav-ing the meridian lines, the equator, the ecliptic for the year, and a horizon ring carrying simple appurtenances, the apparatus being so mounted as to be kept constantly level. The claim is made that, with the aid of a chronometer, chronome-ter, a book of azimuth tables, and the nantical almanac, a ship's position may be quickly and accurately determiued by tbe solarometer at any hour of the night or day when any celestial body can be seen. Elaborate calculations are obviated, and the visibility of the horizon line plays no part in the obesrv-.atiou., obesrv-.atiou., win tiitwe with a sextant. - ' Sir W illiam Ihomson has measured angles of roll in Atlantic steamspips of 40 degrees on each side of the vertical, giving a total angular. motioji in one roll of 80 degrees. The use of steam is depriving vessels of the steadiness that sails imparted. Ia an investigation into the subject of giving stability by other means than sails, Mr. J. I. Tljorny-craft Tljorny-craft has lilted np a yatch with ballast free to revolve about a shaft, the movement move-ment being controlled by a water cylinder cylin-der with valves operated by a combination combina-tion of two pendlums of different period, and with such steadying gear the craft inclined only two degrees, although without it the roll was about 22 degrees. The weight of the moving ballast was about eight tons, the yatch's displacement being 230 tons. A pingular custom, mentioned by Dr. A. II. Post as having oi iginated in India, is a symbolical marriage with plants, trees, animals or inanimate objects. It is believed to avert, the evil consequences consequen-ces liable to follow a violation of traditional tradi-tional ideas. In some regions, for instance, in-stance, a girl must not marry before her elder sisters, but in southern India the difficulty is ovecome by having the elder sister marry the branch of a tree. A temperature so constant as to vary less than 1-100 of a degree in forty min-ntes min-ntes has been obtained in a glass vessel by surrounding it with a coil of fine wire and heating tbe wire by a current from the necessary number of stonge cells. For unknown centuries the greatest source of the world's tin supply have been the mines of Cornwall, which has been worked on a considerable scale from extremely ancient times. In a review by Mr. J. H. Collins, It is stated that the annual production of these mines reached 486 tons in the thirteenth century of Qur era, 828 tons in the fourteenth four-teenth century, 732 tons in the nfteenth century, 802 tons in the sixteenth cen tury, 1300 tons in the seventeenth century, cen-tury, 3938 tons in the eighteenth century, cen-tury, and 8795 tons in tho uinetheenth cantuty. The total quantity of tin taken out has been not less than 1,938,800 tons. The mean average for the fifty years ending in 1849 was 6008 tons per year, and for the fifty years ending in 1889 it was 12, 278 tons per year, altogether alto-gether In the latter period new sources of supply in the strait of Malacca and in Australia were greatly developed. Three periods of remarkable and sudden sud-den increase in production may be noted. not-ed. The first, of the latter part of the fourteenth centnry, was probably caused by the great demand for bell metal; the second, near the close of the eighteenth century, by the use of bronze lor can non; and the third, in the recent years' by the general use of tinned metal. An eminent Prussian ornithologist, who has been making a series of curious curi-ous experiments, states that cayenne pepper In the food of canary birds is know to change their color slowly |
