144 West American Sciejitsit. 



ladies started with affright and the next instant they stood with 

 only the sky above them; the roof had fallen in and lay all about, 

 leaving them miraculously unharmed. The ants had made their 

 way up through the beams, hollowing them out until a great part 

 of the frame-work of the house was ready to fall at the slightest 

 shock. — St. Nicholas for Jmie. 



ELECTRICAL NOTES. 



An electric light dynamo in London is driven by a steam engine 

 which is said to make i2,ooo revolutions per minute, . nd is 

 claimed to be the first motor ever made to work at the actual 

 velocity ^of the steam as it escapes Irom the boiler. 



Penkert has determined that in the Swan electric lamp the 

 proportion of energy converted solely into light is 28.1 per cent.; 

 in the Siemens, 27.9; in the Edison, 26.5: and in the arc lamp, 

 38.3. 



In a cannon foundry at Bourges, F^rance, electricity has been 

 successfully applied to mechan cal purposes for more than five 

 years, two large movable cranes, each weighing over twenty tons, 

 having been worked by electric motors without difficulty. 



Of the common notion that electricity plays an important part 

 in the production of earthquakes, Prof Joseph Le Conte well 

 says: 'I never heard or read the slightest scientific proof of this 

 theory. Electricity has taken hold of the popular imagination, 

 so that any inexplicable thing is explained by ' electricity.' Eor 

 example, vital force, nerve force, etc., are inexplicable; so many 

 lay it to electrical force. So, also, with earthquakes — electricity 

 is made the scapegoat.' 



The British and Colonial Driii^gist says that the latest appli- 

 cation of electricity appears to be in veterinary practice. Profes- 

 sor Place, of the Saumur Cavalry School, has devised an electric 

 bridle, by which such a series of shocks can be administered to 

 any vicious horse that the animal is speedily rendered tractable 

 either for shoeing or for other purposes. A small battery and 

 induction-coil are employed to supply the current, and thus the 

 uses of electricity increase. 



ABOUT METALS AND MINERALS. 



Zinc seems, by the four actual weighings that were of any 

 value, to be not acted on by mineral lubricating oil, least by lard 

 oil and most by sperm oil when used as lubricants. 



Pure gold is worth about $602,793 per ton and pure silver about 

 fe7>705 per ton. 



