Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/268

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

[Vol. v., No. lit

��— tn Reeue de botinttue for October, ISSl, Foni- Hugrlvei writei Chat triiiu, even afier being delached from llie Iree, glire off boih poisonom gaiei >iiil car- bonic-aciil gas, thereby vlUiiUiig Ibe air of a mom so as to proiluee dealli by poisoning. Such bculdents bare been cniised by ripe apricots, oranifes, and quinces, which guve off tlic fcas in Uie iilglit. Had the air of Uie room bean eiamliieil, tltere islltlledoubt thftt a siiffideiiC r|imnclLy ot oiygen to support life would have bepn (ouiid. Sweet-amelUng flower*, siicb as jasmine, tuberose, and mngnolia, and also oitor- iferous leavt>s, give off a similar deadljr gas; and it seems that tbts gat must be in some way connected with the oUor.

— La Nature publishes an account of a new loud- speaking leleplione system recently presented by lir. J. OcUorowici to Ibe Interiiailo[ial society of electricians and to the French society ot physics. Bis transmitter is as yet a secret. The receiver, which is figured in the ac- company ing cut, is the same In principle with thatof BhII. The magnet is formed of a hollow »teel cylinder, with a slot on one side from Bve to six millimetres wide. To the centre of this cylinder are attached two little cores of soft iron, on which are roiled the bobbins. These bobbins are enclosed be- tween two dislis of Uiin sheet-iron. The lower plate, which is fined firm- ly to the magnet, has two boles which freely allow the passage of the iron cores. The magnellsra keeps the has in a state

ot tension. This receiver, ocnonowici's loui>-b;

with the peculiar transmit- ter of Mr. OchorowicK, allowed siwaiflng, singing, and music to be heard throughout the hall of the Paris geographical society, — a hall accommodaling live hundred persons. In the micropiione transmitter used by Mr. Ochorowicz, bent seems to play an im- portant pai't, If one may judge from the tact that all the experiments made l>etore the society of electri- cians on the 4th of February were successful except the last. Mr. Ochorowlcz attrlbuteil this to the fact that the microphone needed to be hot: wheu it ceases to be so, the adjustment Is destroyed, and can be re- established only by relieaiing. Leclancbj ceils were used, wiiich became polarized, and allowed the trans- mitter to become cold.

— A. patent has been taken out In France byM. Tlcbenorforaprocessot butter-making by electricity. It is staled, that, the milk being placed in a vessel of

��special form, a pair of electrodes is introduced, aod connected to a dynamo capable of yielding a current of fony Tolta, when In from thr'.'e to Ave minutn tha butter accumuUtes at one end of the poles in the form of little balls. The ciaimi include the reraoTs) of ranctility from butter, and the manufacture of cheese, by the help of the currenL

— We tnke the following account of the Frilts selenium cells from an aiivance copy of bis paper, to appear in the Proceedingi of the American asMcia- lion. " In the first place, I fonn the selenium In very thin plates, and polarize them, so that the oppotlts faces have different electrical states or properties. This I do by melting it upon a plate of metal iritb which It will form a chemical combination, sufficient, at least, to cause the selenium to adhere and make ■ good electrical conneclloo with it. Theothersurticc of the selenium is not so united or combined, but it left in a free state; and a conductor Is subsequently applied over it by simple contact or pressure. Dur- 11 g the process ot melting ai 1 c ystalllzing, llie le- lei lum is compressed be- tween the metal plate upon which itl4 melted, and an- other plate of steel orotber substance with which it will not combine. . . . The non-adherent plate being removed after the cell has become cool, I ttien cover that surface with a iranapareal con- ductor o/electrietlj/, which may be a thin film ot gold- le.^f. Platinum, silver, or ottier suitable material may also be employed. The whole surface of the siKiNu TiLEPHnHB, selenlum is therefore cov-

ered with a good electrical conductor, yet is practically bare to the light, which passes through the conductor to the selenium iiader- nealh. My standard size of cell has about two by two and a half inches of surface, with athicknessof from jJoe to Tih.n of an Inch of selenium; but the cells cau, of course, be made of any size orform. A great advan- tage of this arrant!;ement consists in the tact that it enables me to apply the current and the light to the selenium in the same plane or general direction, instead

���each other, as heretofore done. miUheilungea has published

��of transversely — Petermaaa' detailed linguistic map of Hungary, with

��very

��artiol* Dr. T. v. Jekelfalussy of the statistical bureau, from which it appears, that, among every thousand inhabitants of the kiuRdom, there are 412 Magyai^ 12-1 Germans, 1 54 Roumanians, l-iO Croats »nd Serti and 110 Slovaks,

��� �