TABLE OR METHOD FOR ASCERTAINING ANY PERSON'S AGE OR NAME. 63 63 63 63 63 Zachary. Zachary. Zachary. Zachary. Zachary. Zachary. NOTE.-The key to this table, printed on a card, will be sent, post paid, for 10 cents. Address the Publishers. FACTS ABOUT THE PECULIARITIES OF THE EARTH, AIR, WATER, WIND, VOLCANOES, EARTHQUAKES; THE HUMAN SPECIES AND ANIMALS. The powers of nature may be concentrated into two primitive forces, namely: Attraction and Repulsion. Relate nature, and you include all the facts environing on, and enveloped in, the material. Newton watched the apple fall, and by that fact guaged his theory as applied to the gravitation of greater bodies. Then Repulsion was set down as the cause of elasticity, and declared as the opposing element of Attraction. Apply Attraction, wholly, leave out the grand figure of Repulsion, and as a result you would have the earth accompanied with its millions of neighbor planets and earths, one solid mass! LIGHT cannot be said to consist of the same matter as elementary heat. It may be reflected as well as projected, and the light from the moon is only as from a mirror, while the great sun projects its light from a distance of 95,000,000 miles from our earth in the space of only eight minutes. Evolution of Calorific bodies is probably a greater source of converging heat, than by the solar rays. Oxygen and Nitrogen composes the air we breathe, in the ratio of 21 to 79. One could not support combustion without the aid of the other. The flame is not the hottest part of the fire, but is a " burning smoke. Air is perceptable to the touch, and also has weight-to evacuate a bottle of its air, lightens the bottle. Air is capable of elasticity or expansion-a bladder when filled with air and indented or pressed together. recovers its former shape when the weight becomes removed. At the height of ten miles the atmosphere is only about one-eight of its density at the height of one mile. A light breeze traveling at the rate of three and a quarter miles per hour, exerts a pressure three-quarters of an ounce to the square foot A moderate breeze traveling 6 miles exerts 3 oz. pressure. A fresh breeze 1614 3234 1 lb. 46 5611/4 64 ... 15 46 79 Sound travels through the air about 1,100 feet per second, varying in speed with the condition and temperature of the air. The lowest audible tone is 32 vibrations per second. The highest audible tone is 16,384 vibrations per second, although 24,000 is said to be appreciable, but rather by feeling than hearing. Air increases in elasticity 1-480 of its volume for every degree of Fahrenheit scale increase of temperature. The elasticity of steam is doubled by every 30 degrees increase of temperature above 212 degrees. The highest mountains are not capped with snow. The extreme limit of snow is little over 16,000 feet above the sea level, and above that limit there is no moisture in the atmosphere. The speed of a steamboat through salt water is about three-sevenths of the speed of the circumference of its paddles. The initial velocity of a 24 pounder cannon ball is about 16,000 feet per second. Sound travels through air about 1,100 feet per second, through a denser medium, faster, and through one more attenuated, slower. Sound travels through water about 5,000 feet per second; through iron or steel, about 17,000 feet per second. Light travels through space about 200,000 miles per second. Roemer, in 1676, calculated the speed of light at 192,500 miles per second, but the best authorities now agree on 186,000 miles. The speed of electricity varies with the conductor and the conditions surrounding the conductor the lowest measurement making speed of 2,300 miles per second, and the highest 200,000 miles per second. A horse-power is calculated to be just sufficient to raise 33,000 pounds to the height of one foot in a minute. Water is formed of Oxygen and Hydrogen, as 89 is to 11. Ice, is the natural state of water. The force of vapor is, in many instances, thirty times greater than that of gunpowder. It constitutes a great portion of the food of vegetables. As Oxygen is a constituent of air, as well as water, water contains air. Between the freezing point (32 degrees Fahrenheit) and the boiling point (212 degrees Fahrenheit) of water, the water will expand as follows: At the level of the sea, water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit; alcohol boils at 173 degrees Fahrenheit; sulphuric ether boils at 97 degrees Fahrenheit; oil turpentine boils at 314 degrees Fahrenheit; chloroform boils at 142 degrees Fahrenheit. To reduce the scale of one thermometer to that of another, use the following rules: Mercury freezes at 39 degrees below zero, Fahrenheit. WINDS are regular and irregular; trade winds; monsoons; hurricanes; whirlwinds; and water-spouts. Regular winds belong to the class which blow constantly in one uniform direction. Irregular winds follow no uniform course, but are interrupted, as in this country, where, for instance, at two different points within ten miles apart, they flow from different directions at the same time. Trade winds belong to the coasts. The tropics sometimes have two opposite periodic winds alternating toward the north and south, and are called MONSOONS. A current of air, like a current of water, increases its velocity when its passage is straightened or narrowed. These gusts are called HURRICANES, and their direction is either to the north or south, northeast or southwest Their origin is generally in a small, black cloud, when the rest of the sky is serene, or on the sea, when its surroundings are calm. Other hurricanes, much more violent than these, seem to proceed from the coast, having a swift, whirling motion which no human power can resist. A sudden rarefaction, or any other contrary meeting of air currents, in the same spot, and at the same time, are called WHIRLWINDS. The WATER-SPOUT means a whirlwind at sea, where the vacum produced by two or more meeting currents, causes the water to rise up in cylindric form, or in the shape of a cone. The trite theory that the earth is a shell, carrying within its great centre the ready lighted fires and stores of fuel for its final destruction, as well as its present warmth, is illustrated, and perhaps in a measure substantiated, by the fact that within the bowels of the mountain is harbored the smouldering sulphur and bitumen, the elements which, if ignited by subterraneous fires, causes volcanic eruptions. The volcanoes' mouth, often more than half a league in circumference, vomits forth torrents of smoke and flame, streams of lava, and showers of stones and cinders, which sometimes bury beneath its awful depths, entire cities, with their teeming numbers of human souls. Where great ships, freighted with a nations commerce, now plough the bosom of our oceans; where toilers and terrors of the sea now make their homes; and where the mighty cables of ingenuity link together sister continents, and with their transportation of fresh intelligence wake the caverns of the deep, this basin, so deep as to prevent this mighty water from running over, once was the site of volcanoes. Islands, now fairly groaning beneath the weight of humanity, animals and commerce, doubtless sometime ranked as low as other ocean bottoms, where sea-kings and monarchs made their beds Valleys were once sea bottoms, mountains, sea valleys, where the screeching engine now carries with it an air of progress and civilization, once rocked and lashed a mighty sea, which only volcanic forces could have heaved back, raising the earth to its present level. EARTHQUAKES are of two kinds; one caused by subterraneous fires, and the explosion of volcances. The other kind of earthquake is produced by the explosion of inflammable matters; sulphurous materials; fermentation produced by filteration of water; these matters follow the (always) perpendicular strata, as though searching for a place of escape, and, ineeting in these caverns, subterraneous air or vapor, produces in its passage a noise an i motion, proportioned in its force to the resistance it is compelled to meet. THE HUMAN SPECIES means man in all the sublimity of the term, and created in the image of his Maker! It combines that grand combination of soul and body, which, divided again, results in two separate natures,-the God-like and the mort l man. The basis of divine man is the soul; the beginning of mortal, the infant, or the spring of life. Youth-bood is life's beautiful summer. Middle-age is the Indian summer of life-the sublimest period of man's existence, while the crowing sheaf is the pure white winter or old age. The human species is the perfection of the Master's handiwork! Man is a cosmopolite; that is to say, his organization is fitted for all climates. He lives under the equator, and in the temperate zones, as well as in the vigorous climes of the north and the south. He does not appear, however, to dwell beyond the 55th degree of southern latitude, and the 65th of northern. In the human species we may establish three principal races, each of which contains varieties more or less strongly marked. These are the white or Caucasian; the yellow or Mongolian; and the black or Melanian: ANIMALS. Without the animal, God's creation would be incomplete, and for our several uses, and in some cases seemingly to supply us with the curious, He has created the following species of quadrupeds; The Elephant, Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, Camel, Dromedary, Cameleopard, Lion, Tiger, Panther. Leopard, Ounce, Zebra, Horse, Ass, Ox, Buffalo, Sheep, Goat, Hog, Guinea Hog, Dog, Hyena. Jackal, Porcupine, Genet, Civets, Cat. Antelope, Guinea Stag, Chamois. Ibex. Musk, Rabbit, Ferret. Rat. Mouse, Fat Squirrel, Garden Squirrel, Ichneumon, Badger, Sable, Ermin Jerboa, Maki, Monkey. Pangolin and Phatagin, Rein-deer, Stinkards, Sloth, Kangaroo, Stag. Bear, Roe uck, Hone. Hedghog, Otter, Marmot, Mexican Shrew, Mole, Bison, Tapir, Alco, Gaschis, Conanda, Racoon, Cabiai, Tajacon, Conandon, Agonti, Coati, Opossum, Pacos, Indian Hog, Cavy. Armadillo, Beaver, Wolf, Fox, Weasel, Polecat, Lynx, Seal, Walrus, Elk, Glutton, Dormouse, Pouch and Desman. Of the two hundred species of quadrupeds which Buffon supposes to exist, he calculates, that about ninety are original inhabitants of the old continent, and about seventy of the new, and that forty are common to both. |