Scientific.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2245, 27 November 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

Scientific.

The Solar Eclipse. — A Renter's telegram, dated Greuada,, August 29, states that during the Solar eclipse of that morning good photometric observations were made by Professor Thorpe. The light dm ing the middle of totality was less than from the full moon. We learn, from later telegrams dated Greuada, August 31, that the eclipse of the sun has been well observed by the British Astronomical Expedition, and that in the observations taken it was noticed that the corona extended nearly two diameters from the sun, and exhibited a feathery structure at the poles. Good photographs have been obtained of the coronal spectrum in the blue end. The spectrum was similar to that of the eclipse of 188.3, observed on the Caroline Islands.— Public Opinion. A Disooverv. — Two Lio^e savants, M M. Marcel de Puydt aud Maximilian Lohest, have announced a recent discovery which may be of scientific importance. In a cave at Spy, a few miles from Namur, known as the Biehe aux Roclus, thej ftmnd in the sind-stone two h-uman skulls of extiuoivlina-'y thickness, r^seml - lin? the celebrated skull found in the Neanderthal, near Elberfeld. They have the same veiy projecting eyebtous, miA the* same low sloping forehead of a decidedly similar character. Tiio fiu'loia suggest that these are types of the skulls of the primitive race who dwelt on the Sambre. Tu!s Eirof YVcwEtfAND Max. —It has been found by Dr. Tuit that the ear in women can perceive higher notes — that is, sounds with a greater number of vibrations per second — than the ear of men. The highest limit of human hearing is somewhere between forty-one and forty- two thousand vibrations per second. Few persons have equal sensibility to , acuce sounds in both ears, the right ear j usually hearing a higher note than the loft. The lowest continuous sounds have about sixteen vibrations per second. Growing Force. — Tue great force exerted by growing plants may be demonstrated by direct measurement. By an i arrangement of harness and levers, Presi- | dent Clark, of Amherst Agricultural ! College, made a growing squash register | a pressure equal to thousands of pounds, [ whan finally the harness broke. A tree j in the graveyard at Hanover, Germany \ has lifted m^ro than five inches a block ! of «tone containing twenty cnbic feet. | A Military Auxiliary.— The Russian | army has introduced a portable tower ! into their field equipment requisites. The tiling collapses and expands ; at its full height it is nearly eighty or ninety feet high. It is very usefnl for a general in command to run up to the top of to see how he is getting on. His tower also presents very good target practice for the enemy.

A irtiOEN lady says that if single life ii bad, it stands to reason thai, double life is twice as bad ; but ladiea rarely understand mathematics.