3^4 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



At the trial of the 81-ton gun, at Wool- 

 wich Arsenal, a 1,250-pound ball was fired 

 with a charge of 170 pounds of powder. 

 This shot penetrated 45 feet of sand, and 

 the recoil of the gun was 23^ feet. A sec- 

 ond shot was fired with a charge of 190 

 pounds. The penetration-distance was now 

 over 50 feet, and the recoil 32 feet. It is 

 intended gradually to increase the charge to 

 300 pounds. 



A State Archaeological Association has 

 been formed in Ohio to promote investiga- 

 tion of the mounds and earthworks of the 

 State, to collect facts, descriptions, relics, 

 and other evidences of the prehistoric races, 

 and to awaken an interest in the general 

 subject of archeology. The library and 

 cabinet of the Association will be established 

 in the State-House, at Columbus, provided 

 the State furnish suitable accommodations 

 free of cost. The meetings will be held an- 

 nually in the various cities of Ohio, and a 

 yearly bulletin will be published. The first 

 annual meeting will be held at Newark, 

 Licking County, on Tuesday, September 5, 

 1876. 



A QUARTER of a million of young salmon, 

 according to a writer in Forest and Stream, 

 have been placed in the Truckee River, 

 which flows into Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and 

 they are doing well. 



A VEIN of nickel has been discovered in 

 New Caledonia, extending across the entire 

 island, from east to west. There are also 

 in New Caledonia copper-mines of great 

 richness. The gold-mines, of which much 

 was expected a few years ago, have so far 

 yielded insignificant results. 



The death-rate of some English towns 

 is very high. Thus, while the death-rate 

 for England and Wales generally is 22.2 per 

 1,000, in Bristol it is 26.9, in Leeds, 28.7, 

 in Manchester, 32.1, and in Liverpool, 35.9. 

 Of children under five years of age, 39 

 per 1,000 die annually in country districts, 

 while in towns the ratio is 103 per 1,000. 



A COMMISSION has been appointed by the 

 British Government, to investigate the sub- 

 ject of the spontaneous combustion of coal 

 on shipboafd. Persons having any facts on 

 the subject of the spontaneous combustion 

 of coal, under any circumstances, are re- 

 quested to communicate the same to H. S. 

 Poole, Charlottetown, Nova Scotia, Inspec- 

 tor of Mines. 



Microscopic examination of the muscu- 

 lar tissue of a wild-boar lately shot in the 

 forests of Saxony showed it to be full of 

 trichinae. This is the first case in which 

 this parasite has been found in the wild- 

 boar, it having been the general belief that 

 only domesticated swine were affected. 



By substituting atomized water or spray 

 for steam in sulphuric-acid manufacture, 

 Sprengel not only effects a saving of fuel, 

 but also saves 6^ per cent, of pyrites and 

 15 per cent, of nitre. 



An adequate punishment for those hu- 

 man brutes who vent their despicable pas- 

 sions in murderous assaults on women and 

 children is suggested by the authors of 

 " The Unseen Universe." " It is probable," 

 they write, " that, before many years have 

 passed, electricity will be called upon by 

 an enlightened legislature to produce abso- 

 lutely indescribable torture, thrilling through 

 every fibre of such miscreants." 



A PROCESS for brightening iron is de- 

 scribed as follows in a German periodical : 

 The articles to be brightened are, when 

 taken from the forge, placed in dilute sul- 

 phuric acid (1 to 20), and then washed with 

 water and dried with sawdust. They are 

 then dipped for a second or so in nitrous 

 acid, washed carefully, and rubbed clean. 

 Iron thus treated acquires a bright surface, 

 having a white glance. 



They are trying to introduce humble- 

 bees into New Zealand, for the purpose of 

 aiding in the fertilization of the common 

 clover. This ofiice the common bee is un- 

 able to discharge, its pioboscis being too 

 short to reach down to the pollen of the 

 flower. 



A UNIVERSITY, to be founded at Tomsk, 

 Siberia, by the Russian Government, will at 

 first consist of only two Faculties, law and 

 medicine. Siberia at present is very ill 

 supplied with doctors, there being only 55 

 for a population of 6,000,000, inhabiting a 

 territory as large as all Europe. 



Hofmann's process for preparing vanilla 

 from the wood of the pine has been pat- 

 ented, and will be generally applied in pa- 

 per-mills which use wood-pulp for the pur- 

 poses of their manufacture. 



It is stated in the Lancet that female 

 medical missionaries are now laboring very 

 successfully in various parts of India. The 

 Maharajah of Vezianagram has engaged an 

 American lady to open a dispensary for 

 women at Benares, and Sir Salar Jung has 

 done the same thing in Hyderabad. 



Bath bricks are made from the deposits 

 of the river Barrett, at Bridgewater, Som- 

 ersetshire. Nowhere else is a similar de- 

 posit found, so that Bridgewater supplies 

 the world. The annual import into the 

 United States is about 240,000 bricks. 



The State of Minnesota produced last 

 year 28,000,000 bushels of wheat, 15,000,- 

 boo of oats, and 12,000,000 of Indian-corn. 



