SCIENCE AND ART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6362, 8 April 1882, Page 3

SCIENCE AND ART.

A mixtcilk of muriatic acid ami alum, dissolved in water, imparts a golden colour to brass articles that are steeped in it for a few M. PAbbe Labordc is said to have devised an arrangement by which eight, ten, and perhaps twelve dispatches may be forwarded aonce over a single win:. The Cornier of the Rhine reports the at .Steeten, on the Laiui, of a hithertu hidden eave, in which seven huiiiaii skeletons have been found. At the opening to tile eave a huge heap of bones i>l animals and other remain's of primitive existence have been laid bare. Darwin's new book on Kirthworms has passed into a fifth edition, and thu.--, for once, a scientific treatise has bealvii the nicst widely read of new novels. It is about .-is; months since this work was first announced, ami its success is not only wonderful in itself, but ;i sine indication of the wile-spread imerest which is being taken in natural To Professor Craham l.ell, thu inventor of the. telephonic, tile world is indebted lor a most ingenious application of Musics''induction balance which ha- tor its object the determination of the po.-ition of a projectile of lead or other inetai in the hinnan body without pain t\> the pUient. It was used first in the ease of the late I'resident Carlield. Mr. J. U. A. Maclonald, form.-rly Soheitor-fJeneral for Scotland, has iuventc.l a " liolophote course; indicator," an electri'apparatus intended to diminish the risk of collision at sea. The indicator cou,i»U ..f an electric light with relleetor, which is carried on a movable arm. This arm is caused to swill;,' round with the motion of t'm rudder, so that the light indicates by the direction of its beam the 'course steered by the vessel. The fact that no fewer thai. !ive times did lire break out during the electrical exhibition in Paris has rather been kept in the background, and the people have been encouraged to believe that safety from fire is one of \he recommendations of the electric system of lighting. In each of these cases of fire the cause was the defective insulation of the conducting wire. There was another fire, however, in which the cause was dilVerent. In the British Museum reading-room a fire ensued upon the falling of some fragments of red-hot carbon from the Siemens lamps. These facts are merely reasons why care mu>t be taken in the management of the electric as well as every other'kind of lamp. This is an age of "tunnelling," as well as of many other great enterprises. It is hardlv a generation since Brunei's "Thames Tunnel" was one of the sights of the world, and now the entire metropolis of England is undermined like a mole-hill, and as many passengers go to and fro as along the over-crowded streets above-ground. The Alps have been bored right through in two ditferent places (for the St. Oothard route is now open). We are actually engaged in boring a tunnel undermeath the Straits of Dover, as well as beneath the River .Mersey at Liverpool. And now a practical scheme is on foot on the other side the Atlantic for the purpose of tumiolling beneath Niagara, and thus connecting the New York Central and Canada Southern railways. A company has been incorporated for the purpose, with a capital of a million and u half, and in 10 years it is expected the undertaking will be complete. An American lecturer says the use of beer, generally recognised as a wholesome drink, has become much less general because of the suspected use of harmful bitters and grape sugar, taken from the hands of a youth who said his father manufactured it, proved upon analysis to contain a quantity of sulphuric acid, enough to destroy some half dozen sets of good teeth. As this sugar is largely used in adulterating cane sugar, candies and numerous other articles of luxury and necessity further comment is unnecessary. Yeast powders are made and sold which contain soluble salts of aluminium. The use of tin in sugar, of barita in numerous articles of food to increase their weight, are barely concealed. The agreeable odour of caramel in the neighbourhood of the coffee mills tells its own tale, and to explain the wonderful cheapness of the beautiful jellies now in such common use we should have to go further than our matutinal friend "RagsBones," and pursue through the wonderful transformations worked by modern chemistry the bones from our garbage box. flavoured and coloured by the waste products from the ga3 works, back again to our tables as currant jelly for our famous canvas backs and red heads, and perhaps meet in our sugar bowls our old shirts transformed into very palatable sugar.