July 20, 1888.] 



SCIENCE. 



33 



— An entirely new machine has been invented for printing 

 postal-cards from the roll, and to turn them out packed in bundles 

 of twenty-five. It prints the cards at the rate of three hundred a 

 minute in the usual way, by means of a rotary press. A set of 

 knives then cuts the cards off, and drops them four abreast into 

 little cells especially prepared for them. When twenty-five cards 

 have dropped out, a set of steel fingers turns the pack over, twines 

 a paper band about it, and pastes it together. The packages are 



•caught in an endless belt of buckets, which carry them into an ad- 

 joining room, where they are received by girls, who place them in 

 bo.xes ready for delivery. One man can look after two machines. 



— According to the Engineering Journal, the new Argentine- 

 Pacific Railroad from Buenos Ayres to the foot of the Andes has 



■on it what is probably the longest tangent in the world. This is 

 340 kilometres (211 miles) without a curve. It is also a remark- 

 able fact that in this distance there is not a single bridge, and no 



•opening larger than an ordinary culvert. The level nature of the 

 country will be appreciated from the statement of the further fact 

 that on the 340 kilometres there is no cut greater than one metre in 

 depth, and no fill of a height exceeding one metre. The country, 

 in fact, seems to be almost an ideal one for railroad-construction. 

 There are some drawbacks, however, one being that there is al- 

 most an entire absence of wood on the plain across which the 

 western end of the road is located. This has led to the extensive 

 use of metallic ties, which will be used on nearly the entire road. 

 Work has already been begun on the mountain section of the road, 

 which is to cross the Andes and unite with the Chilian line. 



— The Engitwering Journal comments on the contest between 

 armor-plates and projectiles, which has been renewed abroad. 

 Some recent experiments with steel and composite plates made in 

 England seem to indicate that for the present the projectiles have 

 the worst of it. On the other hand, it is announced that the Krupp 

 Company is now building at Essen the largest gun yet made : it is 

 for the Italian armor-clad ' Sardegna,' and will weigh 139 tons, 

 will be 52^ feet long, and have a bore of 15.7 inches. This gun 

 will, it is stated, fire a steel shell weighing 1,630 pounds, with an 

 initial velocity of 2,630 feet per second, or a heavier shell of 2,300 

 pounds, with an initial velocity of 2,100 feet. It is expected by the 

 makers that this projectile will be able to knock put of time any 

 armor-plate now afloat, and that there will then devolve upon the 

 other side the problem of building a vessel which can float armor- 

 plates heavy enough to resist these shells. 



— From statistics based on the census of 18S6, it appears, that, of 

 the 51,600 families applying to the authorities for aid in Paris, 2,739 

 were foreign, comprising more than 7,000 persons. Of 100 heads 



• of families of foreign origin, 27.31 were German ; the English only 

 figured in these statistics for 0.95; the Austrians, for 1.79; the 

 Spanish, for 1.06 ; the Dutch, for 6.97 ; the Italians, for 7.12 ; the 

 Russians, for 3.36 ; the Swiss, for 5.44 ; the Roumanians, Servians, 

 and Bulgarians, for 1.31. Of 1,000 foreigners living in Paris, 253 

 were Belgians; 168, Germans; 71, English; 29, Austrians; 21 

 Spanish ; 91, Dutch; 125, Italians ; 42, Russians; 132, Swiss. 



— On the 20th of June last, M. H. Lecoq, accompanied by an 

 aeronaut, ascended, at quarter-past seven in the morning, from 

 Paris, in a balloon of 700 cubic metres capacity. The balloon 

 quickly reached a height of 600 metres, and moved towards the 

 south-east. The sun appeared as a bright red disk, and it lighted 

 Paris with a yellowish light, producing a most singular effect. 

 After having crossed the Seine above the Isle of St. Louis, about 

 half-past eight M. Lecoq saw that the thunder-cloud which had 

 •commenced to form when they started was approaching rapidly, 



• and it was not long before they heard the thunder. Immediately 

 the balloon, influenced by the electric attraction, rose towards the 

 cloud, accompanied, or rather preceded, by the pieces of paper 

 which the balloonists had thrown from their basket. At twenty 

 minutes of eight, and at a height of 1,100 metres, the balloon en- 

 tered a cloud-mass of a greenish-gray color, which immediately 

 shut out from them all sight of the earth. Even the guide-rope 



■could not be seen for more than a few metres. The cloud was 

 illuminated by intermittent flashes, immediately followed by short 

 peals of thunder. The balloon constantly rotated, and ascended 



and descended, without the interference of the balloonists ; and, 

 what is a rare thing in a balloon, they felt almost constantly a very 

 considerable wind, which shook the balloon, and gave to the basket 

 a swinging motion of considerable amplitude. Soon the storm 

 broke with its full force, and the lightning was followed immediately 

 by the thunder. M. Lecoq states that neither he nor his com- 

 panion felt any ill effects further than the oppression which is 

 always experienced in an atmosphere highly charged with elec- 

 tricity. On the ropes of the balloon he observed some manifesta- 

 tions of St. Elmo's fire. At certain times a sensation as of a cur- 

 rent of cold air was very perceptible. This was followed immedi- 

 ately by a rapid ascension, and the expelled gas descended even 

 to the basket. During one of these ascents the balloon reached a 

 height of 1,600 metres, which was the maximum. At this height 

 the storm was at its greatest force. The discharges of light- 

 ning took place between a cumulus-cloud, in which floated the 

 balloon, and the cirrus-cloud above. The ascension was espe- 

 cially interesting on account of the long time during which the bal- 

 loon staid in the thunder-cloud. — a circumstance which rarely oc- 

 curs. M. Lecoq was specially impressed by the violent movements 

 of the air, and by the rapid ascents and descents which took place 

 in the middle of the electrified cumulus, as if due to a powerful at- 

 traction which affected the balloon and light bodies floating in the 

 air. 



— The total number of European troops in English India in 

 1886 was 61,015, and the average death-rate per thousand was 

 15.18; in the province of Bengal there were 39,000 men, and the 

 death-rate was 15.5; in the province of Madras, 11,000. and the 

 death-rate 16.2 ; province of Bombay, 11.000, death-rate 12.7. The 

 number of native troops was 106,010, and the death-rate was 19.46 

 per thousand. 



— Some eighteen months ago the French Senate passed a law 

 providing for civil or religious funerals, and for burial or cremation, 

 according to the desires of the parties interested; but as yet the 

 administrative authorities have not determined on the conditions to 

 be observed in the different modes of disposing of a body, and as 

 yet Paris is without a proper crematory. Early in the year a com- 

 mission was sent to Milan and Zurich to investigate the crematories 

 in use in those cities. This commission reports that the Italians 

 are not better off in Milan than the French in Pcre Lachaise. Cre- 

 mation at Milan lasts two hours ; at Paris it lasts an hour and a 

 half, with an expense of from fifteen to twenty francs. The com- 

 mission estimates that the time is too long, but that the expense 

 cannot be reduced. They hope to be able in a few months to effect 

 a cremation in from one-half to three-quarters of an hour at the 

 outside. In this connection, it may be mentioned that there exists 

 in Paris a society for the advancement of cremation, numbering at 

 present six hundred members. It seeks by all legal means to assure 

 every person who desires it that his body shall be cremated after 

 death. Membership does not imply any engagement to accept this 

 method, but leaves complete liberty of choice. 



— Late research in this country and in Europe implies that some 

 plants have the power of getting nitrogen from the air. How they 

 obtain it, how much is gathered by the foliage, and how much 

 comes through the soil and the roots of the plants, are things to be 

 found out. If there are plants that can draw this scarcest and 

 costliest of all the elements of plant-food from the air, it is impor- 

 tant to know what plants they are. and the circumstances under 

 which they get it. If the nitrogen must first be introduced into the 

 soil by natural processes or by manuring, we need to know how 

 this can be done most economically. How much nitrogen plants 

 can obtain from the atmosphere, is a problem best studied by ex- 

 periments on a small scale in the greenhouse and laboratory'. For 

 the investigation of this latter question, which has a high scientific 

 as well as practical importance. Storrs School Agricultural E.x- 

 periment Station at Mansfield. Conn., has begun a series of experi- 

 ments in pots by the method of sand-and-water culture. Late re- 

 search implies that the minute organisms called microbes or bac- 

 teria may have something to do with the acquisition of atmospheric 

 nitrogen. This especial problem is being studied in connection 

 with the experiments on nitrogen-supply under the immediate su- 

 penision of the director. Prof. W. O. Atwater. 



