222 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. V., No. 110. 



— The Annates industrielles gives an account of 

 the making of cork bricks, now being employed for 

 coating steam-boilers, ice-cellars, etc. The cork is 

 winnowed from impurities, ground in a mill, kneaded 

 up with a suitable cement, and pressed into bricks; 

 then dried, first in the air, and afterwards by artificial 

 heat. They are not hard, and not liable to decom- 

 position: they keep out moisture, heat, cold, and 

 sound. 



— The Eussian government is preparing an ex- 

 / pedition to western Siberia for the purpose of ex- 

 amining some sulphur deposits recently discovered 

 there. The natives have for many years had knowl- 

 edge of these deposits, but the government has 

 only recently been made cognizant thereof, through 

 a report by Lieut. Kalityn. The deposits are said to 

 rival those of Sicily. In Russia, sulphur has hitherto 

 been found only at Ichirkota, not far from Petroffsk 

 in Daghestan, which has chiefly been delivered to the 

 powder-mills. 



— The Journal of the Iron and steel institute states, 

 that with a view to lessen the noise caused by the 

 trains crossing the railway-bridges in Hannover, Ger- 

 many, due to the violent vibrations of the rail-joints, 

 the original rails have been taken up, and steel ones, 

 eighty-eight feet six inches long, laid down in their 

 place. The new rails were manufactured at the Os- 

 nabruck steel-works, and the result of the innovation 

 is in every way satisfactory. 



— In the Medical chronicle, Dr. D. J. Leech dis- 

 cusses the properties of paraldehyde, a new stimulat- 

 ing sedative drug which is likely to take a prominent 

 place in the pharmacy of the future. It is intermedi- 

 ate, apparently, between opium and chloral. It is 

 well known that chloral has been freely used as an 

 intoxicant, mainly because it leaves no after-odor, 

 and may be taken without detection. Paraldehyde 

 has the advantage, from one point of view, of present- 

 ing a distinct and easily identified smell. Dr. Leech 

 speaks of having emjjloyed paraldehyde as an aid in 

 breaking off the habit of opium-taking, and in help- 

 ing a patient to pass through the miseries which fol- 

 lowed the abrupt discontinuance of long-continued 

 and large doses of morphia. 



— The exhibition of metal work, to be held at the 

 quaint old town of Nuremberg, is in a sufficiently 

 forward state of preparation to show what it will be 

 like. Berlin exhibits principally vessels, lamps, and 

 bronze figures. England is badly represented, leaving 

 the more space for Austria and France. On the other 

 hand, Spain and Portugal show no modern work at 

 all, but Italy is represented by several towns. Ameri- 

 ca shows only work in aluminium. Japan has sent so 

 much that a special commissioner has come with the 

 goods. The Chinese war has prevented many exhibits 

 from there. Turkey and Persia send a great deal, 

 Greece nothing. Other countries have sent national 

 ornaments. 



— Every one has noticed that the sun and moon, in 

 rising or setting, appear unusually large. Paul Stroo- 

 bant points out (Bull. acad. roy. belg.) the absurdity 

 of the vulgar explanation that intervening objects 



enable us better to estimate the real size of the heaven- 

 ly bodies, in that the same effect is visible at sea, 

 and indicates the fallacy of several other theories. 

 He believes that there are two real causes of the 

 phenomenon in question, both purely physiological, — 

 one, the greater sensitiveness of the eye to angular 

 magnitudes near the horizon; the other, a direct 

 effect of the feebler light in the enlargement of the 

 pupil, which, it would appear, tends to magnify ob- 

 jects, even when artificially produced. His theories 

 are supported with numerous illustrations and ex- 

 periments, the most interesting of which are to show 

 that the distance between two luminous points within 

 a room suffers the same apparent change as in the 

 constellations, when, without altering the distance 

 from the eye, the altitude is gradually increased; and 

 the maximum augmentation is estimated in either 

 case as about one part in four. 



— It is stated in the Journal of the Iron and steel 

 institute that an accident at a foundry in Melbourne, 

 by which a red-hot iron casting was dropped into 

 water, and was afterwards found to have become 

 remarkably soft, originated a process for annealing 

 chilled and other iron castings, which has just been 

 patented in the United Kingdom. It consists in 

 plunging the metal when it is reduced to a very dull- 

 red heat, and just as the redness is about to disappear, 

 into a mixture of treacle and water having a specific 

 gravity of 1.005. The inventors do not confine them- 

 selves to this solution only; but it is found to give 

 better results than any other that they have tried. 

 The process is said to soften castings in such a degree 

 that they can be punched, bored, and tapped as rea- 

 dily as wrought metal. 



— W. T. Chamberlain of Norwich, Conn., has 

 invented a cartridge in which the metal shell is filled 

 with compressed air, and attached to the base of the 

 projectile. A valve in the base of the shell permits 

 the air to escape at will into the chamber of the gun, 

 and the bullet is thus projected. He states, that, 

 notwithstanding the imperfection of his apparatus, 

 he has secured a range of half a mile with two hun- 

 dred pounds' pressure. 



— The Academy announces that the syndics of the 

 University press (Cambridge, Eng.) have undertaken 

 the publication of a ' History of the mathematical 

 theories of elasticity,' left in manuscript by the late 

 Dr. Todhunter. The work of editing and completing 

 has been intrusted to Mr. Karl Pearson. The history 

 will contain a complete bibliographic account, so far 

 as possible, of all the writings on the subject of elas- 

 ticity since the time of Galilei, including an analysis 

 of the more important memoirs. The first portion 

 is already passing through the press. 



— By reference to the table given below, it will be 

 seen that one of the most noticeable features of the 

 observations made at the Russian polar station at 

 Sagastyr, during the two seasons 1882-83 and 1883- 

 84, was the relative steadiness of the temperature 

 in comparison with other stations in high latitudes. 

 Only in November, February, and March did the 

 means for the two years differ by more than 2° C. 



