Scientific Notes.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 4, Issue 1256, 16 December 1882, Page 1 (Supplement)

Scientific Notes.

' ♦ —~™. The longest span of wire in the world is used for a telegraph i« India, over the river Kistnah, botwoon BezorahaudScctanagrum. It is more than 6,000 feot long, and is atretohed between two hills, each of which is 1,2110 foet high. Wo must not be surprised to hear of a paper furniture factory storting into existence before long, Paper can be made of strong fibres and compressed into a substance so hard that only a diamond can scratch it. A foreign journal says that wood will ht supnraeded by papor. Professor Henry Draper, the astronomer, considers the late aurora borealis the finest Binoo the aurora of August, 1880. The science of aurora, in the opinion of, the Pro. fessor, is not yet entirely clear, The manifestations occurred at from 100 to 150 miles above the earth, where the air was very rare. A French statistician has calculated that if all the telegraph wires at present laid . were tacked on end to end tbey would reach forty-six times round the world Belgium has a greater telegraph mileage in proportion to its superficial area than any other country in Europe, Switzerland comes second and Qreat Britain third. Russia has the least, Upon the supposition that the upper air currents are such that a balloon starting from the United States, &%d. kept at an altitude oi about 2,000 feet, would eventually roach Europe, JJfo King, the aeronaut, purposes td construct a balloon with a capacity eJ $0,00,0 cubic feet of gas, and attest to it a rone of 5,000 feet long. He argues that this balloon could not ascend flinch higher thaa 2,000 feet, on the weight of the ' rope, nor fall much, below that altitude, rope being bflijyed up by the ocean. Wjjm 1 '- ■ this aimpfr contrivance lie supposes that aT Uniform elevation could be maintained, and that the eastward air current would waft bis air ship to Europe, Some additional experiments have been ■, made in to test the value of the new method oi preserving carcasses by the injection, of boracio acid. At a dinner where mutton had been preserved in this way for forty days, boiled and roast joints were served. The meitf retained its natural juici- ' ness an,d J\»W,. and was free from any tain QIC fotfe oi the antbptio chemical which | tyd been used. Five or six ounces of the ( I boracic acid feema sufficient to preserve the. carcass of. a sheep eighty ominety pound*. The antiseptic is »Bed by injecting it fotoai | vein while the animal, though starred by a blow on the head, is still alive,, and th* aetion of the heart is relied urcwfcto pump itthrough every part of the % into *lueh the arterial system rami^