SCIENTIFIC NOTES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3372, 11 November 1911, Page 10

SCIENTIFIC NOTES.

' PECULIAR WEALTH.

A peculiar form of mineral wealth is ioun<l on Plum Island and Goose Island, two of a row ot islands lying between the'northern point of jLong Island arid) Watch Hill. It consists of heaps of richly-colored quartz pebbles, showing red, yellow, nurpie, and other hues, which are locally called agates. They are used in making; stained-glass windows, and there is a sufficient demand for them in New York to keep the owners of one or two sloops employed in gathering them from the beaches, where the waves continually roll and polish them, bringing out tho beauty of their colors. NEW ARTIFICIAL SPONGE. ’ An artificial sponge, the outcome of Gennan ingenuity, is now to be had. The process of making it consists principally in the action of zino chloride on pure cellulose. This results in a pasty, viscous mass, which is mixed with coarsely-grained rock salt. Placed in a press-mould armed with pins, the mass is pierced through and through till it appears traversed by a multitude of tiny canals, like the pores of a natural sponge. The excess of salts is subsequently removed by prolonged washing ia a weak solution of alcoholic solution. The artificial sponge swells up with water, but hardens on drying, inst like its prototype. It is said to bo eminently adapted for filtering water for sanitary or industrial purposes that are usually assigned to the genuine article. ARTIFICIAL REASONING. Tli© practice of artificial seasoning of timber has grown greatly within recent years. Seasoning that would occupy the or four years by natural processes can be accomplished in proper kilns in from three or four days to as many weeks. The work is done in closed-in buildings capable of holding from 20,000 to 50,000 cubic feet of timber. The floor is gently sloping, and the timber is gradually passed down it. A fan draws air over the surfaces of a steamheater, and this air passes through the piles of boards or jdanks, which are separated about an inch. . The air enters at the lower end in order to carry the moisture. derived from the timber tliat has been longest in the kiln to that which has just been introduced at the upper hand. The reason for this is that in. seasoning the air must be charged with moisture at the beginning, and only dry at the later stages. Without this precaution the timber would be “case-dried,” the interior remaining damp, and afterwards it would warp and crack. THE ODOR OF RAINBOWS. Everybody has heard of the pot of gold buried at the end of the rainbow, but there is another old belief connected with the rainbow that is not so familiar nowadays. The attention of meteorologists was called to it a few years ago by Mr. Richard Bentley, of the Royal Meteorological Society. It appears that over half a ago a controversy took place in the Englisn newspapers as to whether the rainbow emitted an odor. A belief in such an emanation existed in antiquity, and has been echoed by several modern poets. Thus it is mentioned in Pliny, Aristotle, and a Greek writer referred to by Coleridge in bis ‘'Table Talk”; in the “Peripetetic Philosophy” of Georgius do Rhodes; in Bacon’s “Sylva” ; in Browne’s “Britannia’s Pastorals,” and more lately in. a poem by Robert Snow. The original of this curious belief is explained by Mr. Bentley as follows: Everyone is familiar -with the increase of scent given off by plants and shrubs on a warm evening after the air has been .newly washed by rain. This would naturally often coincide with the appearance of a rainbow. BIG HATS AND CHURCHGOING. A curious reason was recently given at Bath for the reluctance of men to go to church. Speaking at tho conference of the Church of England Men’s Society, the Rev. Hylton Stewart, rector of Bathwick, declared that if they were to attract men to church they must in the first .instance get the women to reduce the size of their hats. The statement was received with laughter, and Mr Hylton Stewart added that “a friend had' declared that he would not go to church again until this was done, for he declared he could neither see nor hear anything. Very often, he said, the women were more particular about the arrangements of their hats and. their, hair, than they were about tlieir prayers/: CROCKERY FROM NATURE. In Nigeria, Nature comes to. tuc help of' the natives in a very practical manner. One tree grows gourds with neck and all complete, which need but to bo plucked, emptied and died to make first-rate water bottles. A vigorous ground-creeper yields enormous pump-ldn-shaped fruits whose contents afford a succulent potage, while the thick the 11 scraped and dried furnishes plates, bowls, pots and dishes of every size and put to a hundred uses—-ornaments too, when man Iras grafted his art upon its surface with dyes and carved patterns. A bush yields a substantial pod which, when ready to burst and scatter its seed, is found to contain a fibrous substance which resembles the loofah of commerce, and is put to the same uses. STRANGE GRAVESIDE SCENE. An extraordinary incident is reported as having occurred in the cemetery of Pausa, a. village in Soxany. The clergyman o.f the parish was preaching a funeral sermon at the grave of a seven-year-old girl when he astonished the mourners by asserting that he had dreamt that the girl was not dead. Tho clergyman called upon the pall-bearers to open the coffin, and although they at first declined finally yielded. The clergyman approached the corpse, but after waiting in vain for the body to show signs of life, allowed the coffin id bo lowered into the grave.. The community has lodged a complaint with the Synod believing that tho clergyman’s mind is unbalanced, and pending the inquiry he has been suspended.