SCIENCE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3167, 23 August 1881, Page 4

SCIENCE.

The principal questions disciused at the reoent London meeting of the iron and Steel Institute of Great Britain related to the comparative value of iron and steel in uhip-building and for the manufacture of steam boilers. The weight of opinion appeared to be that steel would soon supplant iron for both purposes, one speaker predicting that persons now living would Bee iron abandoned for ship-building as completely as wood is now. At present, iron plates can be produced more cheaply than Bteel plates of equal etrength, but the steel manufacturers expect shortly to be able to produce the latter as economically. Careful experiments to test the comparative effects of corrosion on iron and steel were described to the Institute, and the results show no praotieal difference in this respect, though an impression previously prevailed that iron offered superior resistance to corrosive action. A new demand for oteel, to be used for eleepers on railways, was mentioned at this meeting ; and it was stated that eteel sleepers had already been put down for short distances on some lines in England, with results bo satisfactory that they would probably be eventually employed on all railways. A notable advance in tho science of ■weather prediction is indicated as possible if not probable by an announcement from Professor Balfour Stewart, the well-known phyiicist, His observations lead him to bo«

lievo that there is a certain well defined re'ution between the weather and tho magnetical changes which precede it; that in he British islands tl«j difference of time is is much as Cv» or six days ; and that, 'hereforej it ...ay become practicable by observing what he calls the magnetical reather of to-day to tell what tho weather fin the ordinary sense of the word) will be 'ive or six days hence. Wo shall look with ; nt,erest for further utterances from him on r.bis important 3iilijec,t. Mons. Janssen, the French astronomer, in discussing the value of photographs of nebula; at a meeting of the Paris Academy >f Sciences, said that to render snch pictures ■iseful for purposes of comparison it was nrlispensablo that the conditions under vhich they wore taken should be carefully observed and accurately recorded. The i'lie of exposure is rT H ' "nportance. The >hoto?miphs of tho solar corona, taken in 'S7sby the cell r , "xpe.V.tion in Siam, 'iffered according to the length of time 'nring which the pVttes wore exposed, and 'X is not probable tho"- v—? r>.vy such 'iffe.rences as they show in the actual ap•earance of the corona itself. Some remarkable changes in tho level of ■ lfps near the Paeifio coast nre mentioned i a Intte" to the editor of the American r .nrn-il of soienes. from Vlr "B. F. Powell. ■' T-ifknnvMle, Oregon. In 1853 find 1.854, !■."-.«« T,nl*e, winch is thirty miles long , . •'l2 partly in Oregon and partly in Csvli•rv'm, wn.l nlrnnst dry ; in 1870 it was ten ' • -t- rlp»n : and it hns been gradually in- ■ ':i 3 infr in d°nth ever since. Clear Lake. v;i miles south, has become fen feet, deeper ''tun it was in 1853-4 ; and Tnlie Lake. '■■King the lava be Is of thp Modoos, has uvlergonp asimilfii* increase of ilepHi. In the TJ.om.an villa rwenrly nnr>nrtlwl n' 'he village of Brad ing on the Tsle of Wight, the bones of man, dogs, oxen and hui-aH", have been discovered. The do?s appear to have been only half grown and the oxen young, The remains were exhibited at a ffioenfc meeting of the Anthropological Institute, presided over by Professor William fT. Flower, F.H.8., and we hope that so distinguished an anatomist will make an effort to ascertain from the canine bones what variety of dogs was k p pt by the ancient Romans during their sojourn in i Britain. A French technical journal announces that the Chinese government has determined ito establish a system of telephone comI -nunication throughout North China. The neenliarities of the Chinese language interfere with its satisfactory transmission by the electric telegraph, but no such difficulties will bo experienced with the telephone. The work of constructing tho lines is to be entrusted to Mr J. A. Betts, an American telegrnph engineer. \ scientific exploration of the Mediterranean Sen, by dredging for animals and plants, is to be made this summer by an ■=v-pK]ition «ent out for the purpose by the Ttaliiin government. It seems that comparatively littie is yet known concerning the marine life r>f this region. The announcement that the printing of the international weather bulletin of the United States Signal Service will hereafter be twelve months instead of six months after date, is characterized by Nature (London) as a step from the energetic and liberal policy of the late General Myer. A product of the distillation of resinous I substances called s oleine has been brought I to the attention of several scientific societies in France as a new illuminating agent. Tt is said to afford a brilliant light at small cost, and is readily procurable in countries well wooded with pine. Neuralgia and other painful affections of a like character are now treated by some French physicians by tho transmission of sound-waves from a vibrating tuning fork to the seat of pain. An electro magnet is the source of motion, and a rod conveys the vibrations from the tuning fork to the patient. A meteorological observatory has been erected on the summit of the Pic dv Midi in the Pyrenees 9,734 feet above the sea level, by a local French scientific society, of -which G(-en. cle Naneout-y is president. It will be opened for work in August, and is likely to be transferred to the government of HVanue. An insectorium, containing numerous specimens of living insects, has lately been established and opened by the Zoological Society of London, at their gardens in Regent's Park, which now contain nearly twenty-four hundred mammals, birds and reptiles. From the history of the birds of Ceylon, just completed by Captain Vincent Legge, it appears that the number of species certainly known to frequent tho island comprises three hundred and fifty. Forty-seven of these are found only in Ceylon. Recent experiments by Kraut in Germany show that, contrary to the prevalent opinion, ordinary combustibles, such as sawdust, straw, hay and shavings are readily ignited by the action of nitric acid.