SCIENCE NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2205, 4 June 1896, Page 48

SCIENCE NOTES.

* . * A large electric furnace, devised by Mr Urbanitzky for the reduction of iron ores, is described and illustrated in the Zeitschrift fur Electrochemie. The author points out that an eleotric furnace is particularly advantageous for the reduotion of very pare iron, . but that hitherto furnaoes large enough for the action to be continuous and on a large scale had not been built. In this instance, the large carbons enter the furnace from the top and are Bupporfced from a disc that can be revolved around a vertical axis. Five hundred horse power produces about 2201b of pure iron in 24 hours, requiring only one man. The cost is about 100 a pound of fine steel, the power being obtained from steam. This includes the necessary rolling machinery for working the steel as well as all other expanses. ■ . * Only one person in 15 has both eyes In good condition, and in seven cases out of ten one eye, generally the right, iv stronger than the other. It is found that just as people are right or left handed so are they right or left sighted, and while apparently looking with both eyes they often really use only one. Oat of 20 persons whose eyes were tested by a. German doctor, two only were found to be left Bigbted. The reason of the greater strength generally possessed by the right eye is not altogether understood, but probably the natural tendency to the greater use of the right side of the body has something to do with . it. In using weapons, for instance, mankind has been taught for ages to assume j attitudes in which tho right band and eide have most exercise, and this discipline has' undoubtedly had its effect on the eye. Old sea captains, after long use of the telescope, find their right eye much stronger than the j lef F— the direct effect of exercise. This law is confirmed by the experience of artists. If a person who has ears of equal hearing power has cause to use one ear more than the other for a long period, the ear brought into requisition is found to be strengthened, and the ear not in use loses its hearing in a corresponding degree. • . • Gelatine possesses the carious property of becoming insoluble in contact with formic aldehyde, and, at the samo time, of preserving perfect transparency. Gelatine rendered insoluble, or "petrified," to use a more appropriate term, resists water, acido, and alkalies. It resembles celluloid, but nas the great advantage over the latter of not being inflammable. We have here, then, a^ new produofc, very easy to obtain, possessing Interesting properties, and destined to play an important rSle in the industries. The gelatine used is- the ordinary article found in commerce. The formic aldehyde is what is commonly called "formol," "formaline," and.

" tannalino." The commercial product is a 40 per cent, solution of formic aldehyde in water. It i 3 a colourless, syrupy liquid of a' pungent odour. The vapour is not inflammable, and it is a powerful antiseptic. In order to obtain perfeot moulds of statuette*, &c, we lake, for example, 2!b of good white gelatine and steep it in a quart of water for a nJgbt. The next day the whole is melted over a water bath. For delicate moulding,!, the eolation is diluted with a little water.— Scientific American. • . • A singular fact is recorded by a continental paper— namely, that on the shores of Brittany, between St. Malo and St. Luuaire, at a place calied Port Blano, in the vicinity of the St. Enogat Station, the tide 3 have lately displaced a considerable amount of sand, say to a depth of some nine to thirteen feet. Accompanying this remarkable phenomenon is the fact that forests kndwn to have been buried for periods covering : some 20 centuries have now been brought to light, and a vast forest has, it appears, been discovered in process of transformation into coal. Ferns and the trunks and barks of trees are to be seen in an advanoed state of decomposition, being already beyond the peat formation, showing, in faot, the films and flakes which ' are found in coal ; and, while some of the trunks are 16ft in length, and still very diatinot, they are beooming rapidly transformed. •',; The intestine -of animal vegetable feeders is known to be of great length, but, so far, no detailed investigations have been made in this regard respecting those human races which mainly live on vegetable products. However, it is interesting to note that a professor of anatomy in the Academy of Medicine in Tokio has made some attempt I in this direction by inquiring into the length of the intestine in Japanese persons. The inquiries included the measurement of the body and of the intestine in 25 cadavers, the ages of which varied from 17 to 60. The result of the measurement went to show that the length of the intestine in the Japanese was half as long sgainas the average length in a European. Thus the suggestion has been made that the rice diet bo universally resorted to by the Japanese would have more chance of thorough digestion in them than in Europeans, whose intestine is shorter. We merely state these facts for what they are worth. Whether or not they are true is another matter.— Medical Press. • . • The modern idea of fireproof oonstruction is not all that is claimed x for it, according to the opinion of the ohief engineer of New York Oity'fl Fire department. The objections raised by him are shown in the following extract. He says : " Buildings of brick and yellow pine are more easily handled is case of fire, and their contents have more chance of being saved than those of the modern structural steel fire-proof blocks. When subjected to intense heat the steel warps, causing destruction as certainly as if the flames consumed the material. As even in the best-oonstructed buildings there is ordinarily a large amount of material that is combustible, and as the massing of buildings in the great cities is certain under present conditions to lead to the juxtaposition of buildings of dubious safety, it is almost inevitable that a great fire will destroy some superior edifices. A building may be ever so well constructed, but if it is subjected to the intense beat of half a dozen fiercely burning neighbours, it is almost as surely doomed as if it were made of shavings. In such a case the dteel beams and the ironwork might be positive instruments of danger, as their warping would bring destruction. I tin to be suspected that the science of safe building is not yet mastered ; certainly the praotice is not." • . • A discovery of much Interest has recently been made in Western Kansas of an extinct species of bison, the skull having an expanse of nearly 4ft. Embedded below the humerus of the skeleton was a smaE but perfectly formed arrow-head. The bison has not yet been identified with certainty, but seems closely allied to B. antiqutts, though evidently larger. The formation in apparently the same as that which yielded the skeletons of Platygonus, recently obtained by the University of Kansas. The bison skeleton, that of a ■ bull,- will shortly be mounted in the University Museum. — Science.