64 



I SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVI. No. 391 



SCIENCE: 



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Vol. XVI. 



NEW YORK, August 1, 1890. 



No. 391. 



CONTENTS: 



A Slow-Speed Electric Motor.. 571 Heredity of Tuberculosis in Com- 



The Looisville Tornado I parison with its Propagation. . . 65 



H A Hazen 58 1 '^^^ Transmission of Typhoid- 



-, xT^^.. Ro : Fever by the Air 65 



Notes and News ba *' 



„ .„. -, 'letters to the Editor. 



The Site op Karakorum 64 



Temperature in Storms, and 

 A Drill to crT Square Holes. . . 64 



High Areas. H. A. Hazen 65 



Health Matters. ' 



A Scintillating Meteor 



Microbes in Hail-Stones 64, t,»tjj oo 



J. A. XJaden 66 



Mechanism of Respiration in the Book-Reviews 



New-Bom 65 j Elementary Physics 66 



The Art of Medicine vs. the Heat as a Form of Energy 66 



Science 65 ' Among the Publishers , 67 



THE SITE OF KARAKORUM. 



At the meeting of the Geographical Society of Paris held on 

 the 23d of May last, M. N. Yadrintzef, the well-known Siberian 

 traveller, read a paper upon the archaeological mission in North 

 Mongolia, with which he was intrusted by the Irlfutsk section of 

 the Imperial Geographical Society of Russia. The special object 

 of the expedition, as we learn from the "Proceedings of the Royal 

 Geographical Society," was to determine the exact site of the city 

 of Karakorum, the ancient capital of the Khans of Mongolia, — 

 a question which has long been in dispute ever since the visit of 

 Marco Polo. M. Yadrintzef started from Kiakhta on the 10th of 

 June, 1889, and followed the course of the Selenga to the point 

 where it debouches into the Orkhon. The first ruins were met 

 with on the river Tula; viz., those of the ancient abode of Irkhe- 

 Merghao, son of Altai Khan, which dates back from the thirteenth 

 century. Several parts of the ruins were in a very fair state of 

 preservation. On June 23 the expedition visited the remains of 

 an ancient Buddhist tem'ple on the river Kharukha, the walls of 

 which are still from twenty to forty feet high, and nine days later 

 arrived at the celebrated ruins of Kara-Balgassun, situated on the 

 left bank of the Orkhon, about thirty miles south of its confluence 

 with the Urtu-Tamir. A close examination of these ruins con- 

 vinced the traveller that they formed the remains of an ancient 

 city, which must have covered an area six miles in circumference, 

 and the centre of which, the Kara-Balgassun of to-day, was occu- 

 pied by the principal palace of the Khan. Canals connected this 



city with the river Djirmanta. In the vicinity of the hot springs , 

 near the latter river, the remains of baths were found. The posi- 

 tion of the ancient capital of the Mongolian Empire can thus be 

 accurately inxed, thanks to the recent astronomical determination 

 of the situation of Lake Ughei-Nor, made by Col. Pievtzof. The 

 lake lies in latitude 47° 47' 33" north, and longitude 103° 45' 35" 

 east of Greenwich; and the position of Karakorum is, according to 

 M. Yadrintzef, thirty miles to the south-east, or in latitude 47° 15' 

 north, and longitude 103° 20' 15" east of Greenwich. Another 

 result of this expedition is the discovery of remains of the ancient 

 habitations of the Mongols along the wliole valley of the Orkhon. 

 Several burial-grounds visited by the expedition were full of 

 st9nes covered with inscriptions, has reliefs, and obelisks. Most 

 of the latter have Runic inscriptions and Chinese hieroglyphics. 

 The tombs bear evidence of great antiquity, and apparently be- 

 longed to the ancient nobles of the country. A visit was also paid 

 to the Buddhist convent of Erdenitzan, where an important re- 

 ligious festival was witnessed, in which more than two thousand 

 lamas took part. 



A DRILL TO CUT SQUARE HOLES. 

 There have been attempts at various times to devise a drill 

 which would produce square holes as economically as round 

 holes are drilled. The idea has been afavorite one with inventors, 

 but hitherto no great amount of success has attended their efforts. 

 Recently, however, machines for the purpose have been devised 

 that work with some degree of success. Two of them are now 

 on exhibition in London. As described in Engineering, they bear 

 a general resemblance to drilling-machines; but the spindle, in- 

 stead of revolving in close-fitting bearings, has a peculiar motion 

 which causes it to cut out a square hole. In the earlier type of 

 machine the spindle is fed down through a long rotating sleeve. 

 This sleeve is made to follow a path of peculiar form by means of 

 a cam at each end running in a square hole. The method of set- 

 ting out the cams is thus explained : " A square hole is described 

 equal to the hole to be drilled. From any point in one side of the 

 square an arc of a circle is described with a radius equal to the 

 side of the square. From the points where this arc intersects the 

 sides of the square, other equal arcs are described, completing the 

 curve triangle. The square in which the cam is to revolve is now 

 drawn, and from each of the vertices of the curve triangle two 

 arcs are described, which complete the tigure shown. The point 

 of the tool, which cuts with one edge only, must be situated be- 

 neath one of the angles of the triangle." There are a separate 

 pair of cams and a separate tool for each size of hole to be drilled. 

 Five sets of cams are fixed on the spindle, and any set of them 

 can be placed opposite the bearing-plates. The later form of 

 machine is simpler in its construction, and will drill any sized 

 hole within the range which it covers. In the upper bearing 

 there is a short hollow spindle which is driven by gearing. 

 Through this spindle there passes a long hollow spindle, carried 

 near its lower end in a ball-bearing which allows considerable 

 freedom. At the upper end of the spindle there is a roller which 

 runs in a fixed cam path, and is held up to it by springs, which 

 connect the spindle with the hollow driving-spindle. The effect 

 of this arrangement is, that while the spindle rotates, it also rolls 

 round in the ball-bearing, and its lower end describes a geometrical 

 figure. The drill-spindle proper is within the second spindle, and 

 carries a cutter, the cutting edge of which terminates on the 

 centre line of the spindle. As the central spindle is raised or low- 

 ered, it decreases or enlarges the size of the hole drilled, while the 

 whole drill-head is lowered to give the feed. 



HEALTH MATTERS. 

 Microbes in Hail-Stones. 



Bacteria of various kinds have been found in ice and snow; and 

 Dr. Fontin, a Russian observer, has now proved that haU-stones 

 are not free from them. He has found, says the British Medical 

 Journal, that the water produced by the melting of hail-stones 

 contains, on an average, 729 bacteria per cubic centimetre. Neither 

 yeast fungus nor mould was present, but nine different kinds of 



