Feb. 17, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



151 



©General 0ott0. 



The Recent Eclipse of the Moon. — On this occa- 

 sion the Observatory of the Trocadero, at Paris, was 

 thrown open to the public. At 8 p.m. M. Leon Jaubert 

 delivered a preliminary lecture on the various phases of 

 the approaching eclipse. 



Large Gas-Engine. — At Deutz, near Cologne, an Otto 

 gas-engine is being made of 100 horse-power effective. 

 It has four cylinders, and will be driven by Dowson gas. 

 It will be interesting to learn whether a gas-engine of 

 such a size can successfully compete with modern steam- 

 engines. 



King's College Extension Lectures. — Professor H. G. 

 Seeley began last Thursday, at the Shoreditch Town 

 Hall, a course of three lectures on " The Earth's Surface," 

 similar to the People's Lectures carried on in the autumn 

 by the London Society for the Extension of University 

 Teaching. 



Fraudulent Colouring of Coffee. — According to K. 

 Sykora {Listy Chem), inferior and damaged coffee beans 

 are coloured with mixtures of indigo, bone-black, 

 chromate of lead, and China clay. Gamboge and ultra- 

 marine have also been detected. Of these ingredients 

 chromate of lead (chrome-yellow), and gamboge, are 

 decidedly poisonous. 



Preservation of Eye-sight. — -From a medical con- 

 temporary we learn that the Austrian Minister of Educa- 

 tion has forbidden the use in school of all books, German 

 or foreign, published in certain collections on account 

 of their small and trying print. Short-sightedness in 

 Germany and Austria has been found to be connected 

 with the use of the crabbed German type. 



New Minor Planet. — A new minor planet (No. 272) 

 was discovered by M. Charlois, of the observatory at 

 Nice, at oh. 2m. a.m. on the 5th inst. The position at 

 thetime of discovery was: — Right ascension, loh. im. lis. ; 

 north polar distance, 70'^ 39' 38" ; the daily movement 

 in right ascension is minus 52s., in north polar distance 

 minus 5'. The planet is of the 13th magnitude. 



Landslip at Neuchatel. — Swiss and South German 

 papers report a serious landslip, which has done great 

 mischief to the railway from Yverdun to Fribourg, which 

 passes over the shore of the lake of Neuchatel. Over 

 100 metres of the line were covered with huge blocks of 

 rock and thousands of tons of rubbish. The landslip 

 has been attributed to a sudden thaw and to the sinking 

 of the lake, the level of which is much lower than usual 

 at this time of year. 



Queen's College Literary and Scientific Society, 

 Belfast. — At a meeting of this Society the question of 

 " An Ulster University " was discussed. The dominant 

 idea, both of the friends and the opponents of the new 

 scheme, was that it would destroy the Royal University. 

 No novel light was thrown upon higher education, and 

 the speeches towards the last seemed to trench upon 

 party politics. It was finally decided, by a m.ajority 

 of 125 votes to 26, that an Ulster University was not to 

 be desired. 



Electric Lighting in the City. — At a meeting of the 

 City Commissioners of Sewers, the Streets Committee 

 submitted for adoption a proposed arrangement with the 

 Anglo-American Brush Electric Light Corporation for 

 lighting a portion of the City by electricity. It was pro- 

 posed to light the district commencing from the front of 

 the Royal Exchange, and lying between the Poultry, 

 Cheapside, St. Paul's-churchyard, Ludgate-hill, and Fleet- 

 street on the north, and Queen Victoria-street and the 

 Embankment on the south. 



Properties of Fluorine. — Drs. Wallach and Hensler 

 have been experimenting on aromatic substitution of 

 fluorine, and have drawn conclusions on the nature of 

 fluorine which they pubhsh in Liebig's Annalen. The 

 specific gravity of a compound is decidedly raised by the 

 substitution of fluorine for hydrogen, though the boiling 

 point was scarcely affected. The interval between the 

 boiling points of corresponding iodine and bromine 

 products and that between those of bromine and chlorine 

 is smaller than that between the chlorine and fluorine 

 derivatives. Hence the boiling point of free fluorine is 

 probably much lower than that of free chlorine. 



Telephonic Communication for 500 Miles. — The tele- 

 phone is expected to work between Paris and Marseilles 

 on the ist of July. The wire will be of bronze, and will 

 be underground as far as Nogent-sur-Marne, where it 

 will join the railway telegraph line. The distance is 

 500 miles, rather more than double that from Paris to 

 Brussels, but the experiment of connecting the two 

 wires between these places — the voice thus going from 

 Paris to Brussels, back to Paris, and then again to 

 Brussels — is considered a proof that communication will 

 be easy. 



Possible Water Famine. — Sir J. B. Lawes writes to 

 the Times to point out the possibility of a serious water 

 scarcity in the approaching summer and autumn. He 

 states that, as a general rule, not much of the rain which 

 falls between March and September passes through the 

 soil to feed the springs and the rivers. He admits that 

 we have, indeed, February before us, but he reminds us 

 that, contrary to the old saying, February is generally 

 the least rainy month save one in the twelve. So that, 

 unless the summer proves exceptionally rainy, like that 

 of 1879, a scarcity of water will probably be experienced, 

 and every possible economy ought to be adopted in water 

 consumption. 



Steam and the Steam Engine. — A lecture on this sub- 

 ject was given on Tuesday evening by Professor Stuart, 

 M.P., in the lecture hall of the Shoreditch Young Men's 

 Christian Association. The lecturer, who illustrated his 

 remarks by means of sketches on a blackboard, ex- 

 plained the scientific theory of the steam engine, with 

 the great discovery that heat can be turned into work, and 

 vice versa. Referring to various forms of the engine, he 

 said that the most modern only utilised a thirteenth part 

 of the heat given by the coal. The lost heat was some- 

 times used for other purposes than that of working the 

 engine, but not always ; and he had often thought that 

 in towns it might be applied to some general purpose, 

 such as warming dwellings or supplying baths. 



Newly-built Houses. — According to the Medical Press 

 and Circular, at the town of Bahe, in Switzerland, a 



