SCIENTIFIC AND USEFUL.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume X, Issue 11, 18 March 1893, Page 248

SCIENTIFIC AND USEFUL.

ARTESIAN WELL. An artesian bored tube well, 144 ft. in depth, has recently been drilled at Leighton Buzzard, tapping powerful springs, yielding a minimum supply of 290,000 gallons per day for the supply of the town, without materially affecting the head of water. THE PLANETOIDS. The limes says :— * The employment of photography has greatly simplified the difficulties of search for new asteroids, and we may fairly assume that none above the 14th magnitude will remain much longer unknown. Longer exposure to the photographs will then be required to pick up those of fainter magnitude, and the question will arise as to how far it will be desirable to carry on this process of extension.’ M. Charloisof Nice, has just made up the number to 347. ELECTRIC PROGRESS. The electrically lighted trains on the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway are giving such satisfaction that the directors of the company have ordered seven additional trains to be equipped, making thirty trains in all. It is found in practice that the electrical I y-lighted trains meet the requirements of railway working better than gas trains, inasmuch as they are always-ready to go anywhere at any time, whilst the others must frequently, at inconvenience and delay to the traffic, be sent periodically to the charging stations for the purpose of having their gas-cylinders replenished, thereby entailing additional expenditure for haulage and loss of time. DO MUMMY SEEDS GERMINATE? As to the fertility of seeds taken from Egyptian coffins, a great many fables have obtained currency. The closest investigation has determined that the seeds were all kilndried and partially roasted before being applied to their destined purposes. All attempts to germinate grain taken from Egyptian tombs have been attended with negative results, and, if occasionally some of the grain procured with a mummy find has been found fertile, it should be remembered that the Arabs, who do a large trade in mummies, are in the habit of mixing a little new wheat with the old on purely business principles.—PAUL Pasig. MIGRATORY CRABS. In the West Indies there exist crabs that are both marine and terrestrial. These crustaceans, according to the Revue des Sciences Naturelles Appliquies, alvretys reproduce their species in the sea, but in the adult state frequent the shore, and, like the fish of the deluge of Deucalion, spoken of by Horace, make their way to the summit of high mountains. Once a year a curious instinct leads them to emigrate by thousands toward the sea, whither they go to deposit their eggs. They travel as far as to the roadstead of Port-Royal (Jamaica). Advantage is taken of this passage of the crabs to capture them. Many of them contain magnificent corals. Their flesh, besides, is highly esteemed in the Antilles. Their young pass their larval state in the sea, wherein they swim about freely, and afterward pass through a fresh water and terrestrial stage. ELECTRICITY AND VEGETATION. The Botanical Gazette states that, in a report to the Cornell University, Professor L. H. Bailey firmly establishes the commercial value of the electric light for certain winter crops, especially for lettuce. Certain kinds of plants, which are injured by the direct rays of the light, are not injured, but may even be benefited, when the light passes through a clear glass globe or through a glass roof. Auxanemetric records appear to show that the light accelerates growth, but does not change its normal periodicity. This is in harmony with the observations of Professor G. Bonnier, recorded in the Comptes rendus, who finds that the electric light promotes the formation of chlorophyll in all kinds of plants, both woody and herbaceous. A MIGHTY SERPENT. The largest serpent of which accurate measurements have been taken and noted was an anaconda which Dr. Gardner found dead and suspended to the fork of a tree during his travels in Mexico. It was dragged out into the open by two horses and was found to measure thirty-seven feet in length. Inside of it were discovered the bones and flesh of a horse in a half-digested state, and there was no doubt that it had swallowed the animal whole. Dr. Gardner and other travellers say that anacondas, pythons, and boas attain a length of over forty feet, but theie is no recorded instance of one having been encountered longer than that which has been mentioned, though many persons have seen serpents alive which they estimate to be of considerably greater size. RAILWAY TRANSPORT TARIFFS. From the beginning of 1893 new rates will be applied to consignments of timber for building purposes conveyed on the Southern, South-Western, and certain of the Western railways of Russia. It is estimated that about 60,000,000 poods of this material, or 40 per cent, of the total amount conveyed on Russian lines, will be affected by the new rates, which for long distances are considerably less than those hitherto applied. New rates for the conveyance of certain manufactures of iron, steel, and tin have also been fixed, and will come into operation at the same time. The chief articles of manufacture to benefit by these rules will be nails, which in 1890 constituted 11 per cent, of the total weight of manufactures of the above metals conveyed by rail. The State railways of Finland only show about an increase of half a mile in their total length in 1891, when the figures were 1,165 i miles. The work performed by the passenger and goods trains respectively is represented by 85,040,000 passenger miles and 74,037.000 ton-miles. The net receipts in 1891 amounted to £181,103, or 3 12 per cent, on the capital invested, as compared with 3 31 per cent in 1890..