SCIENTIFIC.

Otago Witness, Issue 1880, 2 December 1887, Page 36

SCIENTIFIC.

— A new telephone is alluded to by a Cincinnati writer as follows : — "At Fernbank, 10 miles from this city, are the workshop and laboratory of Harvey U. Cox, a young electrician, who, though knownbutto a few here, is attracting the attention of scientists and electricians in this country and Europe by his inventions, in which he is as prolific and ingenious as Edison. His latest device in a trumpet to b© used for telephoning at sea or elsewhere, on which he has been working for some months. The invention is the outgrowth of his discovery of the great distance an echoed or reverberated sound will carry, and the discovery that speaking trumpets, if made to give the same fundamental note, would vibrate and produce the phenomenon known in acoustics as "sympathy." With this trumpet, conversation in an ordinary tone of voice was carried on between persons fcur and a-quarter miles apart. People sitting at their windows or on their porches a mile away conversing in an ordinary tone could be distinctly heard, and in a couple of instances they were told the nature of their conversation and admitted that such had takon place. Bt listening to the whistle of a train, and tracing ie to and beyond Fembank to Lawrenceburg, Ind., it was found that the instrument had a well-defined range of 26 miles ; that is, a loud sound like a locomotive whistle or the rumbling of a train can be distinctly heard at a distance of 13 miles in every direction. Conversation was readily carried on between two gentlemen on high hills on opposite sides of the Ohio river, about four and a-half miles apart. Tests made on the water showed that the trumpet was even more available than on land. The instrument will bo patented as soon as perfected. A name has not yet been chosen for it. Mr Cox has a great many other curious and valuable devices, both electrical and mechanical, but none ns curious as his sea telephone."

—Although the scientific results of the observation of the solarVeclipse in the neighbourhood of Berlin are insignificant, some interesting reports are given of the effects upon the lower animals of the untimely obscuration of the sun. Foresters state that the birds, which had already begun to sing before the eclipse took place, became of a sudden quite silent, and showed signs of dis-

quiet when darkness set in. Herds of deer ran about in alarm, as did the small fourfooted game. In Berlin a scientific man arranged for observations to be made by bird dealers of the conduct of their feathered stock, and the results are found to deviate considerably. In some cases the birds showed sudden sleepiness, even though they had sung before the eclipse took place. In other case 3 great uneasiness and fright were observed. It is noticeable that parrots showed far more susceptibility than canaries, becoming totally silent during the eclipse, and only returning very slowly to their usual state. — Mr A. E. Outerbridge has introduced a method of casting iron and other molten metals on lace or other textile fabrics, leaves, grasses, and so on. The lace is carbonised, then spread smoothly on a mould of green sand, and the moulten metal poured on. The lace forms its pattern on the under surface of the metal. In this way dies can be formed like those of electrotypes. The fabric of vegetable tissue to be carbonised is placed in

a cast-iron box, the bottom of which is

covered with a layer of powdered charcoal or other form of carbon, then another layer of carbon dust is sprinkled over them, and the box is coverod with a close-fitting lid. The box is next heated gradually in an oven to drive off moisture, and the temperature slowly raised until the escape of blue smoke from under the lid ceases. The heat is then

increased until the box becomes white hot ; it is kept in this glowing condition for at last two hours, then removed from the fire, allowed to cool, and the contents tested in a gas flame. If they have been thoroughly carbonised they will not glow when removed

from the flame, and the fibres may even be heated white-hot before consuming. Of course the method employed to carbonise the materials is susceptible of variation.

— Monsieur W. de Fonvielle, an experienced French aeronaut, claims that balloons can be made very serviceable to

astronomical science, and indeed he was the first to advocate their use for observations. He believes that, under skilful management, observers can be safely carried above an obscuring veil of clouds; but sufficient time must be given to the necessary preparations, and the balloon must be capable of carrying a large amount of ballast. It seems to be certain that photographs taken so far above the

lower strata of the atmosphere would have a mush better chance of success than those taken on the surface of the earth. The total eclipse of the moon which will take place in January next will afford an opportunity, of which many will doubtless take advantage, of testing the value of balloon observation.

c ones."