256 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Mr. William Yates hag made the fol- 

 lowing important modifications in the Davy 

 lamp : He dispenses with wire gauze im- 

 mediately around the flame, replacing it in 

 front with a strong lens, and behind with a 

 silver reflector. The miner cannot raise the 

 flame so high as to heat the gauze, and, if 

 he would open the lamp, to light his pipe, 

 he is foiled, for that cannot be done, with- 

 out extinguishing the flame. 



A correspondent of the Lancet tells of a 

 hen laying a pair of eggs of good average 

 size within the space of ten minutes. The 

 same writer found in his poultry-yard a 

 double egg, or two eggs combined. This is 

 not a case of merely double yelk within 

 one shell, which is common enough, but of 

 two complete eggs, with separate shells en- 

 tire, except at the points of contact. 



In Russia the sunflower is cultivated 

 for the oil which it yields. This oil is used 

 in cooking as well as for lamps, for soap- 

 making, and for making paints. Fifty bushels 

 of seed may easily be grown on an acre of 

 land. 



At a recent meeting of the French Acad- 

 emy a magnet was exhibited by M. Jamin 

 which carries more than thirty-two times 

 its own weight, whereas the greatest carry- 

 ing power hitherto obtainable in artificial 

 magnets has been not above four or five 

 times their weight. Instead of the thick 

 plates usually employed, M. Jamin's mag- 

 net is made up of a number of very thin 

 plates superposed on each other, and all 

 thoroughly magnetized. By this contrivance 

 the volume and weight of magneto-electric 

 machines can be very considerably reduced. 



It has been shown by M. Berard that, 

 when fruits are set in the open air or in 

 oxygen gas, a certain volume of oxygen dis- 

 appears, and at the same time a nearly equal 

 volume of carbonic-acid gas appears in its 

 place. If, however, the fruits are placed in 

 carbonic acid or any other inert gas, there 

 is still produced a notable quantity of car- 

 bonic acid, as though by a kind of fermen- 

 tation ; and, since, under these conditions, 

 the oxygen necessary to the change is not 

 furnished by the surrounding medium, it 

 must be supplied by the saccharine matter 

 of the fruits themselves, a considerable part 

 of which is thus transformed into alcohol. 



A French horticulturist has perceived 

 that, wherever a fruit a pear, for instance 

 rested upon some branch or other sup- 

 port beneath it, that fruit always grew to 

 a large size. The support given to the fruit 

 permits the sap-vessels of the stem to re- 

 main open, and the fruit can receive abun- 

 dant nourishment. Mr. Thomas Meehan 

 made substantially the same observation 

 some years ago. 



Eighteen men and 03 women died during 

 the past year in England at the age of 100 

 years or over. There were still living, when 

 the census was taken, 6 men and 22 women, 

 100 years old ; 1 man and 14 women, 101 

 years ; 3 men and 11 women, 102 years ; 2 

 men and 6 women, 103 years ; 5 men and 

 1 women, 104 years ; 2 women, 105 years. 

 A woman died in Huddersfield at the age 

 of 107, and a man in Staffordshire was 108 

 years old when he died. 



On the American Continent, the Sequoia, 

 or Big Tree of California, can find a con- 

 genial home only in a very few localities. In 

 England, however, it appears to thrive ad- 

 mirably, and various " improved " varieties 

 have already made their appearance there. 

 The Weeping Sequoia is the latest novelty. 



The ancient Egyptians possessed the 

 art of so tempering bronze that it would 

 take and keep a sharp edge. Sir Gardiner 

 Wilkison found in tombs bronze daggers 

 which were almost as elastic as steel, after 

 having been buried 3,000 years. 



Nickel ore has been found cropping out 

 in the counties of Madison, Iron, and Wayne, 

 Missouri; and at Sand Prairie, in the same 

 State, a new lead-mine has been discovered. 

 The prospectors, says the Iron Age, took 

 out 4,000 pounds of the mineral three hours 

 after the lead was struck. 



One of the chief potato-growing prov- 

 inces of Holland, Groningen, has thirteen 

 mills devoted to the conversion of potatoes 

 into flour. Nearly the whole crop of the 

 province is thus disposed of, the daily yield 

 of the mills being some 246 tons of potato- 

 flour. A large part of this, according to 

 the Glasgow Weekly Herald, is consumed in 

 the adulteration of wheat-flour in England. 



According to the French chemist Du- 

 mas, the newly-discovered art of decorating 

 walls with tin-foil, bearing designs in oil- 

 colors, has in a somewhat modified form been 

 successfully practised by the Chinese for 

 a long time. 



A vein of plumbago, eight feet thick, 

 has been discovered in Missouri. This is 

 the first deposit of this useful mineral found 

 in the West. The vein at Sturbridge, Mass., 

 varies in thickness from one inch to two 

 feet. There are also plumbago-mines at 

 Brandon, Vt., Fishkill, N. Y., Wake, N. C, 

 and St. John's, N. B. 



Found post mortem in a lunatic's stomach : 

 44 pieces of shirt, 41 do. pocket-handker- 

 chief, 10 do. caps, 8 do. braces, 7 do. cham- 

 ber-pot handle, 6 do. stick, 5 do. leather, 4 

 do. coal, 3 do. stocking, 2 do. rag, 1 do. 

 tobacco-pipe, 1 do. iron, 4 pebbles, 1 

 knitted cuff, 1 acorn. Total weight, over 

 8 lbs. 



