On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
Some interesting photos and particulars of huge gorillas hitherto unknown have been obtained by M. Eugene Brusseaux, a French official and explorer from Northern Africa. One of these huge monsters was shot by one of the official's sharpshooters. The animal measured 7 feet 6 inches in height, was 4 feet in width across the shoulders, and weighed 720 pounds. One of the hands when dismembered weighed 6 pounds. It required the united efforts of eight native soldiers to drag the corpse of the beast from the point where it was killed to the French residency at Quessou, the administrative center of Central Sangha. The animal was here skinned and buried. Reports have been re ceived at this station frequently during the past few months of the presence of these huge monsters in the upper valleys of Lonani and Sangereh, but hitherto it had been impossible to come to close quarters with them. According to native reports, however, the ani mals are unusually ferocious, not hesitating to attacl caravans during their passage through the country. The beasts differ essentially from the gorillas familiar ly known. The ears are small, the shoulders and thighs are covered with dense and long black hair, while the chest and stomach are almost bare. It is believed that they belong to a species that has not heretofore been known. The action of ultra-violet rays upon glass has been observed by Franz Fischer, a German scientist. In order to make the researches, he uses a mercury arc contained in a quartz tube as a source of the rays. Samples of different kinds of glass are placed quite near the tube, separated from it by a very thin layer of air, or the air can be replaced by hydrogen. By using a water-cooling device the apparatus is not al lowed to become unduly heated. This precaution is not always needed, however. He uses a low tension of 18 volts on the arc. Under these conditions he ex poses eight samples of glass to the light of the arc. Four of them are not acted upon, and remain colorless. The other four take a strong violet color at the end of 12 hours. The color can be seen at the end of 15 min utes exposure. Upon analyzing the samples of glass it is found that the ones which are colored all contain manganese, while in the other specimens it is absent, or nearly so. These results seem to explain the phe nomenon which was observed by Crookes, who ob served that pieces of glass exposed to the sun at an altitude of 12,000 feet at Myni, Bolivia, took a violet color by degrees. At this altitude the sun's light con tains a large proportion of ultra-violet rays which act upon the manganese salts of the glass and cause the violet coloration. It is found that the color quickly disappears when the glass is heated to the softening point. Then when it .is cooled and. again exposed to the mercury arc, it takes the violet color, as before. That it is only the rays of short wave-lengths which produce the color is proved by placing a sheet of mica over the glass, and in this case no color is formed. The mica itself is not colored in this case. Researches on Radium and Radio-activity.--In a paper read before the Societe des Ingenieurs Civils M. Besson explains the method by which. M. and Mme. Curie were led to discover new radio-active bodies in the ores of uranium, and reviews the preparation of radium, the composition of the Becquerel rays emitted by radium, and the demonstration of MM. Curie and Dewar that radium is converted into helium; and finds in this decomposition the source of the energy of radium. He holds that the decomposition for bodies of light atomic weight would be general; uranium would be converted into radium, then into helium; thorium would be converted into argon. He states that the ores recently discovered in the Department of Saone-et-Loire are pyromorphites, probably render ed radio-active by emanations proceeding from dissolu tion in water of the phosphites of uranium found in the same lands. The simplest process for search is that of photographic plates. It is sufficient to pulver ize the ore believed to be radio-active, to put it in a cup and leave it for twenty-four hours, well surround ed with black paper. By comparing the marks pro duced by a small parcel of the uranium metal with those produced by the ore supposed to be radio-active, it is easy to ascertain whether this contains radium or not.
