Abstract
The American Journal of Science and Arts, October.—Besides two valuable papers by Professors Mayer and Draper, reproduced. in our columns, we have here an account of the curious artificial mounds of North-Eastern Iowa, by Mr. McGee. They consist of tumuli, smaller conical mounds, embankments, and animal mounds, and from numerous measurements the builders seem to have used a unit which either was, or grew out of, the pace or yard. A slow southerly migration of the mound-builders is supposed to explain the evident increase in geometrical knowledge attested by various works found in passing across the United States from north to south.—Prof. Young furnishes details of observations of the Princeton Eclipse Expedition.—The flour-mill explosion at Minneapolis in May was probably due to the running dry of a set of stones which ground middlings, one of six sets discharging into a spout which communicated with a dust-house. Mr. Peckham studies the case, pointing out that there is greater danger with middlings, because it is dryer, and is ground at a higher temperature, and finer. The dry stones may heat the last part of the grist remaining, sufficiently to make it like tinder, so that it readily ignites on receiving a spark from the stones. The practical problem is how to prevent or detect dry stones, especially those for middlings.—Mr. Becker indicates the rationale of correction for vacuum in chemical analysis.—Prof. Smith writes on the composition of the new meteoric mineral, Daubreelite, and its frequent, if not universal, occurrence in meteoric irons.—Prof. Watson gives a more careful determination (than previously) of the intra-Mercurial planets.
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Scientific Serials . Nature 19, 66–67 (1878). https://doi.org/10.1038/019066b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/019066b0