SCIENTIFIC BREVITIES: by the Busy Bee
EGYPTIAN mummies have been put to a use for which they were probably never intended—the manufacture of a particular fine brown pigment. The body, being preserved in the finest bitumen, has assumed an appearance like leather; and it has been found that this mixture of bitumen and leather, when ground down, makes a brown pigment prized by portrait painters for the representation of brown hair.
* * * * *
The Scientific American is responsible for the statement that the power which drives the mechanism of a watch is equivalent to only four times that used in a flea's jump; or, in mathematical language, a watch is a four-flea-power motor. One horse-power would suffice to drive 270,000,000 watches, whence we infer that one horse is equivalent to more than a billion fleas! We suggest the dividing of the horse-power unit into convenient sub-multiples, such as the dog-power or the mouse-power, instead of using the names of people, like Watt and Joule.
* * * * *
Medieval churches took whole reigns to build, and some of the monuments left to us from antiquity may have taken centuries. Structures designed for more immediate and less enduring purposes can be rushed up in a very business-like way. In fact the stately pile can be reared by gasoline jacks. Reference is had to the description and pictures of a church which was built in this way. It is of concrete; the molds are laid horizontally upon the jacks, and the walls cast each in one solid piece. Then the motors are started and the structure rears itself into place.
* * * * *
Evidence as to the persistency of life is afforded by some experiments in which fish were frozen up in their water, and the block of ice then cooled down to 20° C. below the freezing point; after thawing, the fish came to life and swam about as usual. Yet, if the frozen block were broken, the fish would break up into little pieces along with the ice. Frogs can be frozen down to 28° C. below the freezing point and still revive; while snails will resist 120° C. From this it may be inferred that life can be preserved throughout long periods of glaciation.