Scientific.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2221, 2 October 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

Scientific.

Vr.iiTU'VL Wivi) Prk^itkk. — One of the strangest ot cyclone freaks is recorded by a correspondent of the Pittsburg Despatch. The scene of it is at Washington Court House, 0., and concerns an "apple tree with loner, spreading heavy branches, psrh.ips extending to a neight of twentyfive feet. It is a tree of perhaps twentyfive years' growth, and undoubtedly, has roots aa atout and almost as wide-spread-ing as its boughs. Its trunk is no less than fifteen inches in diameter ; it was a thrifty, vigorous tree without an unsound branch, and the family have for years driven their high top buggy bpneath its branches, for it shades the driveway into the yard. A short and stubby man cannot now walk under it without ducking his head. Does the reader imagine it was uprooted ? That might, indeed, seem possible., but it is not true. Without breaking so much as a twig of its foliage, the atmosphere drove that tree right down two and a half or three feet into the ground. The hole enlarged about the base of the tree as it now stands shows how much larger is the base that has been foiced beneath the surface." Grkvt Wastk of Oil.— According to Mr Kduard Atkiuson, nearly the whole wool clip now comes to market unwashed ; and out of the 3*20,000,000^3. of domestic wool now used there must be 25 per cent, at the least, or 80,000,0001b5. of a very valuable oil thrown into the rivers and wasted, while polluting both the water and the atmosphere. When the "suint'' is refined, a thick, viscous oil is obtained, which is absolutely free from oxidation, and which is, therefore, the most valuable oil for curriers' use which can ba found. The residuum of wool scourings is largely imported from Europe for curriers' use, under the name of de fjras, and the substance also forms one > the ingredients of a mixture which is used for oiling wool preliminary to carding. Be qras is recovered from wool scourings in Europe by a chemical process ; it is very inferior to the fine oil which can be recovered from the wool by the naphtha process, but it may be cheaper. Dry Distiltatiox of Wood. — It appears from the author's experiments that the yield of crude pyroligneous acid, tar. charcoal, and gas is almost the same with the most different woods. But the richness of the acid waters in acetic acid, and consequently the yields of dehydrated acid vary greatly. In this respect the wood of coniferous trees is the least valuable, j The wood of the trunk furnishes more acid than that of the branches. The wood yields more acid than the bark, and sound wood more thau dead wood. Rapid calcination yields more gas at the expense of the condensed products and of the charcoal ; it yields also the weakest acid waters, and the charcoal is more hygroscopic than that furnished by a gradual action. — M. Senff. Photographing a Shot — It is some time sin'-;<s we gave particulars as to the method adopted by Dr Mach, of Prague, for securing a photograph of a projectile in the course of its flight, and it seems that Salcher and Reigler have obtained similar photograph", many of which show, in a remarkable manner, the head of condensed air which precedes the shot. Ifc us this head of condansed air which makes it almost impossible, even for the most skillful rifleman, to hit an eggshell suspended by a longish thread ; and doubtless ifc is this ''head" of condensed air which first wounds when an animal is hit by a rifle 6hot t — Photographic News. Rubies. — Rubies are very fashionable at the present, says the Court Journal, a consequence, perhaps, of what may be considered a great defect to many, namely, their excesaive costliness. The other day we saw a ruby ring at a Westend huuse of which had been just sold for twelve hundred guineas The stone was the size of a green pea, of one that had kept itself well within the ordinary of its fellow pea* ; it was the color that settled the question of the great value, and what a color ! Tomeco.— An English medical journal dnes not ayioe with those who would do away altogether with tobac o instead of in. iking temporary u»e of it. The writer wiys: "We live in times in which it is the custom to denounce aa deleterious everything which happens to be pleasant. Mitv could probably live without tobacco, jis he formerly did without clothes ; but the fact that both of these luxuries are in the nature of comforts should not necessarily spur us into action against either of them."