Science Notes.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1037, 15 January 1892, Page 6

Science Notes.

In a photograph of the heavens now 1 in course of preparation at the Paris Observatory it is calculated that 60,000,000 stars will be represented. In the Nebulae of the Lyre M. Bailland took a photograph 4 x s£, which reveals 4800 stars to the naked eye.

At Alleghany City, Penn., there was recently rolled a steel spring #ix inches wide, one quarter of an inch thick, and 310 feet long. It is the largest coiled spring ever rolled. The order was tendered to all the large European iron works, but none of them would undertake the task.

An enormous microscope has been constructed at Munich for the Chicago Exposition, which will, under normal conditions, show a magnifying power of 11,000 diameters, and which can be increased if necessary to 16,060. An electric light of the power of 11,000 candles will be used to throw the enlarged image on the screen.

The volume of (ho Ijpllows filled by the the ocean, says Professor Catley, is fourteen time 3 as great as the volume of the land projecting above the sea. If the land were levelled down and built up at sea level, it would cover only 65,000,000 square miles, leaving over 131,000,000 of water surface ; and if the whole lithosphere were smoothed down to mean sphere level, and the ridges laid to rest in the hollows, a vast ocean one and. three-fourth milts deep would roll around the shoreless world.

Reports from California state that tlie reesnt earthquake iu the central and northern parts of that state has been attended iu Sonoma country by phenomenal results. In one section the ground has been cracked and seamed with fissures, from which large quantities of water are now gushingfforth. In some places the water is icy cold, while in others it is warm, the temperature reaching lOOdeg. Fahrenheit.

The Indicator for the protection of sur-face-men, which Sir William Arrol has invented as a result of the Yorkhill accident, is a very simple but effective electrical apparatus which will only cost about 50s. Any train passing over a spring placed on the line at a safe distance from the workmen completes an electrical circuit, and rings a bell, which apprises the men of the approach of the train. Sir William Arrol does not intend to patent the appliance, but submits it to the railway companies, who can manufacture it if they like.

Some details of the discovery of diamonds in a fragment of meteoric iron from Arizona are given by Professor Foote. He sent a piece weighing 401 bto Professor G. A. Koering for examination. It was so hard that a day and a half were occupied in making a section, several chisels being spoilt in the operation, and in trying to polish the surface an emery wheel A closer inspejtion was then made of certain cavities, when small black diamonds were found that cut corundum easily. It is stated that the presence of the gem in meteoric matter was unknown till 1887, when two Russian mineralogists found traces of diamonds in a meteoric mixture of olivine and bronzite.

It was recently decided by the Committee on Grounds and Buildings that anthracite coal should be us“d in all the furnaces connected with the World’s Fair at Chicago. The monster power-house, which will generate steam in 20,000 horse power boilers, will, it is hoped, emit no smoke. For several months the Construction Department has had under consideration the adoption of some fuel which would mitigate the smoke nuisance. Fuel oil was at one time regarded as the solution and later a new process of creating gas from coal was taken up, but at last the committee had decided that the best means of averting smoke will be to use authracite coal.

Red would appear to be the colour the want of the sense of which may be Baid to be characteristic of colour-blindness j and as a person bliud to red is usually blind to its complementary colour, green, ordinary colour blindness may thus be defined as the inability to discriminate between red and green. The normal eye would appear capable of analysing white light into three coloured elements, one of which is red : the colour blind eye on the other hand, analyses white light into two elements, neither of which is red. Why this visual defect should manifest itself in inability to distinguish that part of the spectrum which is the result of the slowest of the series of ethereal undulations is by no means clear. Physiological knowledge as to the exact relationship between external colour factors and our mental idea of colour is yet in its infancy.

Electric motors have been so greatly improved of late that that they will now pull nearly 30,000 pounds.