SCIENTIFIC CLIPPINGS.

Inangahua Times, Volume IV, Issue 81, 15 October 1877, Page 2

SCIENTIFIC CLIPPINGS.

Mr J. H. Parker, in his book on the " Aqueducts of Rotue," gives us some facts wlucU may well pot modern municipalities, not to speak of governments, to the blush. The exact quantity of water daily poured into Some in Trajan's time rs known 1 from careful estimates of Frotttrntrs, the head Go< vernment surrey or and engineer; It amounted' to 2-i',Boo quitraries, a- section of which amount would be just upon 120 square feet ; ie\, in Mr Parker's- words. "we can form some notion 1 of tfie vast ,' quantity,, if we- pidure to 1 ourselves a stream twenty feet wide by six deep onsl'an'f I'y runainn ire at a falf six tim«s as rapid 1 as that of tfie Thames.** It is< calcwfated 4 tlia-t-, when Traf-m's and the Aurelian aqueducts were finished",, thedaily supply was quite 332$ millions of gallons r i.e., at l'ea<!t 332 gallons per head', for ttie- population- of ofiJ Rome probaMy never e^epiFcd 1 a nullinn. Nowaday forty gallons p«r' head 1 per d'ay are- thought ample,, and by miny excessive ;• theoe-forfcy including, .of course, all thnt bused j"n manufactures, iiv street cleansing, sewer flashing, &<\ The site 'of old' Rome wa*. notably unhealthy, ami tliere was B much over-crowdtirg ; yet; after the- oliief aqueducts were mndi>, nooity of antiquity was so free from epidemics. Another point to wliibh MY Parker cal's attention k the- care with which fire best water (krofons- tlse XPnrchns now lately brought into use again) wns kept wholly for drmkf.ig- purposes, while the muddier tm\ less- pore («uclra? the-n-Aio Tetus and NovusV was used for street and sewer flushing, for the- baths-; and forseenurrenresentations. Tlic " Svientifio American" gives the following- particulars^ of tlie new Polar expedition :■ " The schooner Florence, Captain« George E. Tyson,, com-nander, will 1 sooni sail' from' New London, Conn., for a* voya«e to* Cumberland Island or some place near Cumberland Inland, when- tile ship's company will form what is known to the scientific world as the Howgate Polar Company. At the lust session* of the forty -fourth Congress an effort was mnde- to procure an appropriation at 50,000 dols-. for purposes of IFolar explorations ; and though' the ' FPo««e C'ommittpe upon Naval Affiirs reported favorably upon the bill., it was impossible to secure- favourable action, and the bill 1 was not pnsscd. C6ntribn« Irons liu^e been obtmne<l fro-n- privat« s^urresv- an<T the i>»ped'rtion i* b^ing fiirwardfed as rapidly n* po<!«iblp; Captain Tysowt it will be remcn^TPd, was . assisttint nnvigat'ir of 'th** til .fated Puhris,. «nd escaped n-»i Hie rre f?»e. He i^ particulnrly H'tel fur thw res, i tn^tbilitv confined ovpr bren^Ti waiw, Hiid;r large portion of hi* li'e-R'i* Iven pnsse-P'in tlu 1 " Arctic region*. Mo is known no n •skilful navigntctr; i.'Of>d csccutiv.' o{Ri-er, firm in purpose; co >1 in Hm.-^m»p. and ha* a well balynced' tnind. Tin* ol<j -et <if the evpedition is to rollt-rt dat.r in refereocp I to meteorology, geolouv, nifural bi.story; »nd' cogn -te sciences oF the Polar n-gionj<i by a syslenv of'nK«ervatiins which wil j be/ farored by a pernvuvnfr loon Mom pi'oridiijg witii neo('<wai'v ffii'ilitie-s. M;ig-n-ptvsm. astronomy. atmo.sp'ierieeVctricity. mineralogy, th« question* of onean streams ami currents, the phenomenn a-ttendinig tjlie- diurnal rise- and fall of titles-, vi-I'ocity and character of the winds,, observations upon the vibrations of the* pendulum. &c, will engage the attention 1 of the- colony when fully established. Cat) (am tfowga4e, the projector of the expedition, is an officer of the regular army, and is connected with the Signal Bureau* He was- selected as one of tlie committee of investigation on the loss of the Polaris-, and during this- mresti£ntion> the prasent scheme of a Pfilar colony impressed itself on his- mind." M!r W. H l . Lewi* write* from- the Salisbury Hotel .:*—"• The satf account of llio death of Felix Minister at the Southern Hotel, St. Louis, nnd j theterrible tale of his being- driven b;»ck, with his wife to-Hto room by the blinding, stiffing smoke,, reminds me- that I omitted in my former letter to you' on this subject, lo give any suggestions for the preventionof suffocation' by smoke. A piHow-case : well saturated with water, and having ! a small hoFe- torn in> it to look through* , placed' loosely over the head, will be found i an admirable impromptu respirifor in the - 1 densest smoke. I am- indebted for the j idea to Vice-Admiral Jerningham, who j hns told me how,, when he commanded' t the Cambridge gimnery training ship at Plymou*^v he made his first experiment v witb this- pillow-case respirator. He had r twelVe- pounds of loose powder exploded in» a conSiied part of the sliip r whiclt, nffehough' screened off wiih fearnought, emitted so dense a smoke felint those outside had to lie d'own<on the -deck. A £ common pillow-case, with a- small eye- p hole, wa» placed over tlie head' of a man, ti who, witb tlie hose in- his hand, went ol inside and 1 remained ten minute*, when> 0 { to assure liia friends outside of bis safety, tli he sang a comic son#. Bkrton's present la respirators- should always- be ready for Si tlie use of the hotel firemeny but, in' the ar absence of these, it is as well to remember | ac that there is always within reach in an pi hotel a simple and effective smoke- ra respirator, a wet pillowcase." I w j