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SCIENTIFIC NEVV^S. 



[Feb. 17, 18 



decree has been put in force prohibiting the occupa- 

 tion of houses within four months of their comple- 

 tion. As recently as the earlier part of the present 

 century, in the North of England, custom though not law, 

 required the lapse of twelve months after completion before 

 a house could be tenanted. It has been estimated that 

 a modern brick-dwelling of medium size requires about 

 10,000 gallons of water in its construction, much of 

 which is still present when the workmen withdraw. 

 Heat is of less use in getting rid of this moisture than 

 free ventilation. We must not fail to add that to light 

 gas in rooms with a view of drying them is a capital 

 mistake, since all the hydrogen in the gas is converted 

 into its equivalent of water, every part of hydrogen thus 

 consumed yielding eight parts of water in the state of 

 vapour. 



A Monster Magnet. — One of our leading army 

 engineers has brought before the engineers' class of 

 late an experiment of startling nature. Wonderful 

 results are promised. It is a monster magnet made of 

 two Rodman guns, which are connected at the breech. 

 Around them is wound about twenty miles of submarine 

 cable. The cable is some that has been used in the torpedo 

 service. It is wound and fastened in a substantial 

 manner, making a powerful electro-magnet when 

 electricity is applied, and shows strange results. For 

 instance, a bar of railroad iron 30 feet long, if placed in the 

 open cannon's mouth, cannot be drawn out by all the many 

 men that can grasp it. Another instance of the strength 

 of this big magnet was illustrated with a 350-pound can- 

 non ball. The shot was placed in the mouth of one of 

 the cannons, the negative side of the magnet. On 

 reversing the electric current it fell from its position, but 

 was attracted to the opposite cannon and clung to its side. 

 The positive current was then reversed alternately with 

 the negative, and the heavy cannon ball played between 

 the two cannons like a tack between the poles of a toy 

 magnet. — Boston Herald. 



The New Observatory on the Santis. — A new 

 meteorological station and observatory has been opened 

 on the Santis, the highest mountain in the canton of 

 Appenzell. The observatory has been placed about 

 2,500 metres (8,200 ft.) above sea-level, and is conse- 

 quently the third highest observatory in Europe, the 

 most elevated being that on the Sonnblick (3,090 metres, 

 or 10,135 ft-) in the Salzburg Alps, and the next highest 

 that of the Pic du Midi (2,859 rnetres, or 9,378 ft.) in 

 the Pyrenees. The building, which is 26 ft. long, 20 ft. 

 deep, and 30J ft. high, is constructed of hmestone blasted 

 in situ. It contains, on the ground floor, the telegraph- 

 office and the work-room of the resident observer, kitchen, 

 and pantry ; in the first story, living and bed-rooms for 

 the observer and his assistant ; in the second story, work 

 and bed-rooms for savants staying for a time in the 

 observatory for special investigations, and a store-room. 

 In the second story, the barometer and barograph have 

 been mounted. The flat roof of the building (of wood- 

 cement), which rises but a few feet above the upper 

 plateau of the summit, is stated to be well suited for 

 observations in the open air. On the whole the building, 

 which has been erected at an expense of about 60,000 fr., 

 including the furniture, is said to answer its purpose 

 admirably, and offers a better guarantee of correctness of 

 the observations and registers kept than the former 

 station in the chalet, about five miles below the peak. 



Earthquake in the West Indies. — The Grenada 

 papers report the occurrence in that island on the 

 morning of the loth of January of an earthquake, which,, 

 for violence and length of duration, was pronounced to 

 be unprecedented by any similar phenomenon in the 

 neighbourhood. The sound which usually accompanies, 

 an earthquake was immediately followed by a slight 

 shock and gentle lateral oscillation ; then came a very 

 violent shock and vertical undulating oscillations that 

 made the roof of every house creak and groan, and the 

 walls threaten to crumble to the ground ; these were 

 succeeded by other gentle oscillations, which continued 

 until the phenomenon ceased. The duration was com- 

 puted to have been 20 or 30 seconds, and considerable 

 damage was done, several houses in the town of St. 

 George's being condemned as dangerous to reside in. 

 The walls of the St. David's Roman Catholic Church 

 were so seriously injured that they would have to be 

 taken down in some places and rebuilt, and the sacristy 

 was all but demolished. The basement wall of the 

 Presbytery was thrown down, and the building itself 

 had to be propped up with posts. The Court-house in 

 the same parish sustained considerable injury. The 

 tower of the Anglican Church in Grenville was cracked. 

 During the succeeding week several mild shocks of 

 earthquake were experienced in the island, the strongest 

 of which occurred between seven and eight o'clock on 

 the night of Sunday, the 15th. 



Earthquake in Scotland. — An earthquake shock 

 was experienced on the 2nd inst., over a considerable- 

 portion of the Scottish Highlands. The shock occurred 

 about five o'clock in the morning, and the wave seems 

 to have passed from the west to the east coast, beginning 

 south of Fort-William, and terminating at the Inverness 

 and Dornoch Firths, and affecting Inverness, Nairn,, 

 Beauly, Tobermory, Crieff, Dingwall, and other districts. 

 Two distinct shocks are reported as having occurred at 

 Crieff — one at half-past three o'clock and the other about 

 five. In Strathglass, houses were terribly shaken and 

 great terror caused among the people. In the upper 

 end of the glen articles of furniture were displaced in 

 several houses, which were hurriedly vacated by the in- 

 habitants. The driver of the Strathglass mail coach 

 states that when at breakfast about four a.m., dishes 

 were displaced and furniture visibly shaken in his pre- 

 sence. In many of the houses at Fort William articles 

 of earthenware and ornaments fell from their places to 

 the floor and were broken. In one of the hotels a stag's 

 head hanging in the hall vibrated, and when the shock 

 passed remained in an oblique position. At Avenue 

 Terrace several dishes fell out of a cupboard to the 

 floor and were smashed. At Inverness hundreds of 

 people felt the earthquake, and the steeple clock of the 

 High Church was stopped at 5.5. This time exactly 

 agrees with that stated by all who were aroused and 

 looked at their timepieces. No damage is reported in town, 

 with the exception of the falling of crockery ware. 

 As the tremor seems to have followed the line of the 

 Caledonian Canal, culminating in the valley of the Ness, 

 it is interesting to remember the tradition of how in the 

 year 1756, at the very time when the city of Lisbon was 

 destroyed by an earthquake, the waters of Loch Ness 

 were violently agitated, apparently moved by the same 

 cause. Yet there is no record of this movement having 

 been accompanied by any such motion of the land as 

 that of last Thursday. 



