SCIENCE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5441, 4 September 1878, Page 3

SCIENCE.

A new and extremely inexpensive form of tho electric light, adapted for use in dwell-ing-houses, has been invented by M. Reynier. It consists of a needle of carbon, which is pressed against the edge of a slowlyrevolving disc of the same material, through which an electric current of a four-cell Bunsen battery passes. The light is brilliant and continuous, and can be turned high or low, or extinguished at will, like gas. The consumption of material is about a penny per hour. Edison, the inventor of the phonograph, has since invented, an instrument of a similar nature, that measures with extraordinary exactitude the 1 most minute variations of temperature and atmospheric moisture. We stand aghast at tho statement of results achieved by this instrument. On the one hand, it can measure the relation and actual heat of fixed stars that are invisible to tho naked eye, while in its other form it is so sensitive to moisture that spitting on the floor of a room will be recorded on its index. This instrument may thus be adopted by astronomers in the most far-reaching efforts of human observation, and at the same time he of service to the Americans by its gentle though obvious hint that a favorite national habit has a positive damping influence on their social surroundings.