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SCIENCE NOTES.-1

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SCIENCE NOTES. -1 A FUlfCB inventor, we are told by Engineering, lias made i.se of a rubber tube as a core on which to mould pipes of cement and sand. To make a con- tinuous conduit in the ground a trench is dug, and at the bottom of this a layer of cement mortar is placed. On this rests the rubber tube, which is surrounded by canvas and inflated. The remainder of the trench is then filled with cement mortarL and as soon as this is get the rubber core can he deflated and removed for use elsewhere. It is stated that 6in. pipes have been made on this plan out of hydraulic lime and sand, at a cost of about 22 cents per yard." EXPLOSIVES are generally said to be useful for drawing down rain. It seems that Nature is reversed in Austria, however, where a vine-owner is recently said to have successfully applied them to ward off approaching storms from his vines. The district in question is Windisch-Freistritz, in the JBacher Mountains, where very distinctive hail-storms pre- Tail, and the enterprising grower planted a battery of mortars on each of six projecting peaks covering his land. When a black cloud came up all the batteries were fired simultaneously by signal, where- upon the cloud opened like a funnel and expanded until it disappeared. A VBRY curious theory lately revived is that the sap of a living tree ebbs and flows in some way in sym- pathy with thetides of the ocean. This idea comes irom Italy, where a grower of vines and other fruit trees, who is also a chemist, has been experimenting in this direction. He says that no tree should be lopped or pruned except during the hours of ebb tide. He has taken 14 years to come to this conclusion, and now always acts upon it. The result is his trees and Tines have developed beautiful foliage, bear splendid crops, and are quite free from the attacks of the in- sects which devastate surrounding properties. < IT is an ill wind that blows nobody good." The loss of the Gangoot has been the cause of the making of an important and interesting test. With a view to disproving certain statements that had been made to the effect that the transverse partitions in ships were of little use when they had never been tested under water pressure, the constructor of the General Admiral Apraxine, a Russian coast-defence ship of 4126 metric tons displacement, obtained permission to put 500 tons of water into the vessel. The level of the water was 20ft. above the upper keel, but the bulging of the partitions was very slight, and the leakage of no importance. This is, it is stated, the first experiment of the kind performed in any country. IT will doubtless sut prise many to learn that the dealers in human hair do not depend on chance clippings here and there, but there is a regular hair harvest that can always be relied upon. It is esti- mated that over 12,0001b. of human hair is used annually in the civilised world for adorning the heads of men and women, but principally the fair leX. The largest supply of hair comes from Switzer- land, Germany, and the French provinces. There is a human hair market in the department of the Lower Pyrenees, held every Friday. Hundreds of hair traders walk up and down the one street of the Tillage, their shears dangling from their belts, and inspect the braids which the peasant girls, standing on the steps of the houses, let down for inspection. If a bargain is struck the hair is cut, and the money paid on the spot. ONB of the most interesting of submarine craft now being equipped is that of Simon Lake, of Baltimore, designed to creep along ti e bottom of the ocean and And old wrecks, &c., says Fairplay. At a recent test she remained two hours beneath the surface, and guests enjoyed themselves on board, smoking cigars, sc. The plan of communication with wrecks is in having the bow compartment so filled with air tho.t the air pressure will equal the pressure of water from the exterior and prevent its admission. Of course, only drivers in their armour are to be in this air chamber. Some of them tested it the other day, and say that they kept the door open for half an hour from the vessel, but no water entered, and thus access Bud; egress to the hull of the craft is easy. The vessel is named the Argonaut. A MACHINE has been invented which is composed of exquisitely graduated wheels rubbing a tiny diamond point at the end of an almost equally tiny arm, whereby one is able to write upon glass the whole of the Lord's Prayer within a space which measures the two hundred and ninety-fourth part of an inch in length by the four hundred and fortieth part of an inch in breadth, or about the measurement of the dot over the letter i in common print. With this machine anyone who understood operating it could write the whole 3,567,480 letters of the Bible eight times over in the space of an inch-a square inch. A specimen of this marvellous microscopic writing was enlarged by photography, and every letter and point was prefect and could be read with ease. SOME experimenters have lately brought out interest- ing facts about the circulation of air in the soil. It appears that considerable oxygen is absorbed by the roots of plants, and the supply of this oxygen is maintained by air penetrating through the minute interstices of the soil. When the ground is covered with water, or when the molecules, or grains, of soil are dissolved in water and packed into an immense mass, then air cannot circulate below the surface, and vegetation suffers. The experiments referred to show that lime or salt in the soil solidifies the earthy mole- cules and prevent them being dissolved and packed by the action of water; hence the importance of lime in keeping the ground open and permeable for the circulation of both air and rain water. A STRONG combination of steel tubing manufac- turers has been perfected at Toledo, Ohio, and tho new corporation will absolutely represent 90 per cent, of the tubing output of the United States. The consolidation is called the Sheltiy Tube Company,, and is capitalised at 5,000,000dol. under the pro- vision for iron and steel plants in the Pennsylvania statutes. The combination, it is stated, is in a position to make a big bid for foreign trade, as the St efel patents are a part of the assets. The minimum,out- put of the combined mills is 50,000,000ft. An arrangement is to be in force, however, by which tubing for different purposes will be made at. different mills, one taking the bicycle tubing, one ti e Government work, one the flue work, &c. It is ex- pected that the amalgamation will also undertake to produce steel billets by the open-hearth process. A DISCOVERY is reported from abroad which, if it prove genuine, should afford a solution of a difficult problem. While making experiments with the Rontgen rays, a learned prefessor discovered certain black rays that issue from the vacuum tube and pass through the human body. The photographs produced by means of these rays, which have been sty led "critical rays," are not the same when taken of a living body as when taken of a dead one. Photo- graphs of living hands show the skeleton, as in the Bontgen photographs. A dead hand, however, ap- pera in fun, showing all the fleshy integument, whilst the bones remain invisible. It is thought that i by means of these rays it can be ascertained whether a person is really dead or not. THE American Weather Bureau have flown a new cellular kite, present,pg■ a 8Hrface of 7Q e fwj{. to the Wind, to a height of lj The frame- work is of spruce fir, 3oin«d by wires, not nails, and covered with white muslin as durable as bluck Bilk. The kite is rectangular, like that of Har- grave, the Australian, but the construction is diffe- rent and superior to his. The kite carries an ane- mometer and a meteorograph weighing 2!lb. in all. Very fine steel wire, weighing 51b to the mile, is used for the string. For a height of one mile, three miles of wire are required, and the toUlweI(?ht of the wire and instruments for ° f 7000fr is about 251b. The wire is cut inlengthsof /000ft and after each thousand is reeled out. the fl.gh is arrested, until the inclination of the kite isi deter mined by looking through a telescope at a scale on p inner surface of the lite. When a kite has risen above the under currents of air, it is out or danger till it descends into theoMigain..The wire is paid out by a small engine.

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GREATER BRITAIN.

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! WILLS AND BEQUESTS. ^

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:CRACKERS FOR CHRISTMAS.

,AMERICAN HUMOUR. -_.

HOME HINTS.

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