H2 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



investigation which are of general interest 

 outside of the bounds of their several spe- 

 cialties, and summaries ; comprehensive re- 

 views of the more important events in the 

 progress of investigation, weeding out what 

 is temporary or subsidiary, and presenting 

 only that which is of lasting value and a 

 literary record. 



Consul Merritt, of Barmen, is autboiity 

 for the following statements regarding min- 

 eral wool, or silicate cotton, as it is some- 

 times called. The wool appears on the mar- 

 ket in a variety of colors, and is coming to 

 be used very extensively as a non-conductor 

 of heat and also as a protection against fire. 

 It is made by blowing molten rock into a 

 fibrous woolly state by means of a jet of 

 steam. The furnace slag or the rock, as the 

 case may be, is melted in a large cupola, 

 and as it trickles out at the taphole in a 

 somewhat sluggish stream it meets a high- 

 pressure steam jet which blows it into a 

 woolly, fibrous condition, in which state it 

 settles in fleecy clouds on the floor, the 

 heavier wool coming do\vn first, while the 

 lighter portions are blown farther along by 

 the force of the steam. The material thus 

 naturally grades itself. 



For an inquiry whether fishes have a 

 eense of hearing, Herr A. Kreidt experi- 

 mented upon goldfish normal, fish poisoned 

 with strychnine, and fish deprived of their 

 labyrinths. Sounds were made by eonoi-oua 

 rods plunged in the aquarium, to which tun- 

 ing forks or bows wore applied out of the 

 water. Whistling and the ringing of bells 

 outside of the water produced no impression 

 on either of the three classes experimented 

 upon. But all responded whenever the ap- 

 paratus within the aquarium was struck with 

 the production of an audible sound. The 

 conclusion was drawn that fish do not hear 

 as in ordinary hearing with the ears, but that 

 they are sensitive to sonorous waves which 

 they can perceive through some skin-sense. 



A Mr. Chaplin, in introducing a bill in 

 the English House of Commons, which was 

 intended to ameliorate the widespread agii- 

 cultural depression, gave some striking facts 

 regarding the present unjust methods of tax- 

 ing land. One instance, of two men living 

 side by side, each of whom started in life 

 with $100,000. A invested his money in 



various securities, and now has an income of 

 $2,800 a year. He lives in a house rated at 

 $'200 a year, and his rates come to about 

 ,$2*2. B invested his capital in a farm, for 

 which be paid $'75,000, and afterward put 

 $25,000 in as tenants' capital. His farm is 

 rated at about $2,585, and his rates amount 

 to about $335. Another striking case was 

 that of a factory employing 2,000 hands, 

 rated for local purposes at $2,000. A farm 

 of 200 acres in the same parish is assessed 

 at $2,300, and pays more to the local rates 

 than the factory. Another case cited was 

 that of a farm of 265 acres in Essex, where 

 the rent was only about $76 and the rates 



An International Atlas of Clouds has 

 been published under the direction of a 

 committee consisting of M. Hildebransson, 

 of Upsala ; Riggenbach, of Basle ; and Tesse- 

 renc de Bort, of Paris. It contains fourteen 

 plates, each including two or three figures, 

 the several classes of clouds in the classi- 

 fication adopted being represented by from 

 one figure for the " fracto-nimbus " to ten 

 for the cumulus, while some transitional 

 forms are also delineated. The figures have 

 been selected from more than three hundred 

 representations of clouds from all quarters of 

 the earth. The plates have been approved 

 by eminent meteorologists, and their accu- 

 racy is guaranteed. In the text are given the 

 definitions and ofiicial instructions adopted 

 by the International Meteorological Commit- 

 tee at its meeting in Upsala in 1894. 



It is proposed to explore the island or 

 rock of Rockall, which is situated in the 

 open Atlantic, in 5*7 36' north latitude, 

 about two hundred miles west of the Heb- 

 rides, with no other land nearer. It is 

 about two hundred and thirty feet in cir- 

 cumference at the base and sixty feet at 

 the top, and looks at a distance like a ship 

 under sail, being whitened by the guano that 

 has been deposited upon it. It appears to 

 be the emerged point of an extensive moun- 

 tainous submarine table land, stretching from 

 the southwest to the northeast, and giving 

 rise to a number of dangerous rocks and 

 reefs in the neighborhood. It offers advan- 

 tages of great promise as a meteorological 

 station, situated as it is in the zone of the 

 most extensive area of cyclones in the north- 



