SCIENCE SIFTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 137, 10 June 1911, Page 16

SCIENCE SIFTINGS.

THE SMALLEST GLASS BOTTLE.

What is regarded by skilled artisans as the smallest perfect glass bottle ever blown has just been turned out by one of the blowers of the great WhitallTatem glass works in Millville, New Jersey. The tiny bit of glass is not much larger than a kernel of corn, but is in every way perfect, including a ground ! stopper, Gillespie was at infinite pains to produce the curiosity, which, compared with a 100-giiUon carboy, such as lit turned out at the same works, would lie about like a fly against an elephant, indeed, a common house-fly could barely ; crowd into the Gillespie bottle. MARINE MICROBI-: LAMPS. In France, by the cultivation of luminous marine microbes in a liquid medium contained in little glass vessels, there have been produced some of the most curious lamps imaginable. If a few of these living lamps arc arranged about | a bust, in a dark room the bust is made plainly visible and photographs may be taken of it. The actinic power of the light, is. however, ever so feeble that several hours' exposure is needed. With another form of lamp, filled with phosphorescent bacteria, enough light is obtained to render a. printed page easily legible. A COLLKCTION OF RRAIXS. The world's largest Single collection of anthropological specimens, aKsimulated during more than half a century, is iv Washington. It included between 4.000 and ."..HOD identilied skulls and skeletons of human beings, sixty mounted skeletons, and nearly 200 brains. The lastnamed are arranged in special jars, placed upon tier shelves, and include l some specimens of rare value. Among ; them are the only two American Indian i brains anywhere in preservation; also j those of five wild gibbons, and a perfect brain of a full-grown American bison. THE ACE OF FISH. Until within recent- years there had been ascertained no trustworthy way of finding out the age of lish. It has been shown that mere size does not indicate the age. Reibish. Ileincke, and others have discovered that many of the hones. scales, and otoliths of tisl.es have annual age-rings, resembling those in tr trunks, and by means of these Wallace and others have determined the rate of growth of plaice, showing that some specimens attain 'the ape of 25, or even as much as 2!t years. Age (says the '-Scientific American") can now be ■ correlated will. size and weight, al-i though it appears that the sexes have a! different rate of growth. I WHAT IS ELECTRICITY? Many persons, young and old. often wonder how the modern electric ears, trains, and locomotives are operated, what electricity is. We know of some of the things that it will do; we have, to a certain extent, learned how lv control it. and for want of a better name we call it a fluid. We have discovered,! too, that it is one of the most import- I ami forces, if not tho most important; force, of which we have any knowledge. We are almost as ignorant of many other great forces of nature, as, for example, the attraction of gravitation. For the present we must be content to observe such forces in action, and to devise the best methods to control them. pressed wonderfully within a few years. In this knowledge mankind lias pro—From "Nature and Science."' NO SECRET TELEGRAPHY. Many persons are of the impression that wireless telgrapby is particularly subject to "tapping," but, a.s has been pointed out by Marconi and others, no telegraph system is absolutely secret. Anyone, familiar with the Morse code can read ordinary messages entering any telegraph office. At Poldhi, on a telephone connected lo a long horizontal wire, the messages passing on a Government telegraph line a quarter of n mile away can be distinctly read. It has been shown that it is possible to pick up at a distance, on another circuit, conversation which may be passing through a telephone or telegraph wire. On one occasion an investigator was able to interfere, from a distance, with the working of the ordinary telephones in Liverpool. FREAK INVENTIONS. A patent was issued years ago for a fire escape, invludijig a parachute attached to the head of the wearer and thickly padded slides applied to his feet. This might be found useful by aviators. Another patent of interest in aerial navigation was granted to a resident of Paris, who E-cpla.-ed mechanical motors and propelling and guiding arrangements for balloons by living motors in the form of birds, such as eagles, vultures, condors, etc., which he proposed lo harness to a balloon "in such a manner as to leave their wings in perfect liberty," means provided so that tbe operator can direct the flight of the birds to propel and steer the balloon. Another inventor, fearful of lire, incorporated cords or strings with a pair of suspendors in such a manner that' in case of fire the v.ord might bo detached and lowered to the ground to receive a rope, which might be raised to the window and afford a means of escape from the burning building. A TYTIION STORY. A curious incident, which entirely upset the generally held notion that pythons are slow swatlowers, is reported in a recent issue of the "iluiawayo Chronicle.'' It appears that while Air Willing and a number of friends were travelling through the bush near the KJiami River, a bird about the size of a pheasant was flushed. Mr Willing immediately drew a bead on the bird, which '"planed" gradually to the earth and struck the ground about twenty yards away, jumped Up and then disappeared. Mr Willing then ran forward, aud. to llis amazement, the bird was not to be seen, but where it fell he was startled to see a python about ten feet long just closing his jaws, while a big lump in the neck .suggested that it had secured the wounded bird. Mr Willings companions ran up and saw the lump gradually moving down the interior of the snake until it was three feet from the mouth. They ridiculed 'the suggestion that the python had so rapidly swallowed the bird, and argued that such a thing was impossible, a python's swallowing capacity being generally understood to he a| very slow process. However, to settle j the point the python was killed and ! opened. The bird was found inside the j reptile. This quick swallowing feat.j which is 'thoroughly authenticated, sub- I verts the preconceived notion that pythons are slow swallowers. as from the time the python seized the bird 'to the time when it was three feet down its interior not more than ten to fifteen seconds had elapsed,