SCIENCE AND ART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6936, 9 February 1884, Page 4 (Supplement)

SCIENCE AND ART.

A trsEprrii adaptation of electricity has been made at Colchester. A huge water tower iae been erected to supply that ancient town, as a storage tank, to which the water la raised, and whence it descends to supply by. gravity. This tank has been fitted with jan electric level indicator, which denotes in fee engine-house every rise or fall of three inches. . In hardening small steel tools or any article of steel that is thin or light and heats quickly, it is advisable to remove on a grindstone or emery wheel the scale formed in forging before heating. The scale being of unequal density, if it is not removed it is generally impossible, to heat evenly, besides the degree of heat can be better observed if it is removed. ; - : ■ An interesting series of experiments, with the.object of utilizing the electric light for war purposes on land, has just been concluded at Shoebnryness, England, and is understood to have given much satisfaction. One pojrtion of the experiments was devoted 'to the iesta of heavy and small arm fire to extinguish the light. The gunners were unsuccessful in their efforts to destroy it, and though r. picked body of riflemen succeeded in getting numerous bullets on the reflector and bent the wire, their attempts were equally .. unsuccessful. Experiments have also at flight been carried out with the war parachate,, *. . ; A French. geologist, M. Zeiller, has just presented to the Geological Society of France the results of his examination of the fossil TTOgetatiion .found in the coal beds of Tong, Sing, in, China. Whilst these fossils differ somewhat, from those met with in similar beds im BuropJ, Asia, and North America, they. o?e. singularly intermediate between those found in the latter countries and in the coal'strata of Australia. The fossil flora of oC the lower marine carboniferous beds of Australia ia similar to that of Europe,. Asia, ' and North America, and the coal beds of New, South Wales must, therefore, be of carJbaniferous age, to which also those of 'Jong King belong. : ' : . ' ISO thing escapes the attention of naturalists now-a-days. A , German scientist, Herr Elmer, has been for a long time studying the meanings of the markings on reptiles, birds, Mid mammals;: These he reduces to .three fundamental forms' — longitudinal . stripes, Cvas ivene stripes, and spots. He holds that the.arst-mentioned of these is the primitive forci, from which the others have ,been derive I. Animals which have become uniformly coloured, like the lion,.are generally striped or spotted when young.- He thinks this is confirmatory of the biogenetic, law that the history of an individual is an epitome of the •sareer of its ancestry. He shows that everywhere the female sex retains a more juvenile colouring than the male, thus remaining on a lower stage of development. In birds, 'especially, the biogenetic law of colouring, and that of male preponderance, are strikingly manifest. Young birds of allied genera or species have the same general designs and the same colours, although they are distinot at maturity; and the males always differ most widely at the latter stage. Herr " Eimor's paper will have much weight among naturalists. : A very remarkable process is announced, the practical application of which may not be far off. The inventor is M. Rubennick, and he claims to have discovered a method for metallising wood. This haa« long been effected by nature, as geologists are well aware, for there are few kinds of mineralisation more common than pyritised wood. The details of 11. Rubennick's process have been published, and arc as follows : —The wood is nrat immersed in a caustic alkaline lye, at a '•tamperature of from 75 to 90 degrees, for three or four days. Prom thence it passes immediately into a bath of hydrosulphite of calcium, to which is added, after 24 to 36 hours, a concentrated solution of sulphur in caustic potash. The duration of this bath is about 48 hours and its temperature from 35 to 50 degrees. Finally, the wood is immersed from 30 to '50 hours in a hot J solution of acetate of lead. The process ie somewhat long, but the reresults .are, said to be very surprising. The ,wbod, after.having undergone a thorough drying at. a moderate temperature, acquires, nhder a. bnrnieher of hard wood, a polished surface and assumes a brilliant lustre, which latter is further increased if the surface of the -woodiafirst rubbed witha piece of lead, tin, or zinc, and afterwards polished with a glass burnisher. ? The .wood so treated assumes the appearance of a metallic mirror, and is very solid and resistant.