St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1893-07-22
POPULAE SCIENCE NOTES.

BED OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN.-Scien-
lists say that if the bed of the Pacific
Ocean could be aeen it would disclose to
view several mountains. with truncated
tops scattered Overt it. These mountains
would be perfectly bare at their bases,
and all around their tops they would be
covered with beautiful vegetation of
coral polypi
ALL HAPPENS IN A SECoND.-A sco-
ond is the smallest division of time ii.
general use, and when we consider that
IN one year there are about 81 ,53S, 900 OF
these periods it would certainly seem as
if it was small enough for all practical
purposes. But, after ALL good deal
can happen even in the fraction of
second. A light wave, for instance, passes
through distance of about 1Sj, OO)
miles in this length of time. A current
of electricity has probably an even greater
speed. The earth in itself moves in its
orbit at a rate of about 20 miles second,
thus far exceeding the fastest railroad
trains on its surface. A tuning fork Of
the French standard vibrates $40 times
per second to produce the note A on the
treble staff, -LPopular Science News.
STORAGE OF HEAT-We commented
some time ago on the use of water for
storing the heat of exhaust steam from
On-condcnsing engines where the steam
is used for dyc-tubs which are operated
Internationally The use of water for a
similar purpose has recently been sug-
gcsted by Dr. Druit IIalpin and referred
to in lecture by Prof. Unwin, Of Lon
don, for electric-powcr stations and
other plants where the work is of an ex-
trcmcly varying character, and the pro-
posed system possesses novel features.
In most electric stations the boiler ca
pacity must be such as to supply the de-
mand for steam when the maximum
amount of current is being generated and
the time which this lasts bears but
small proportion to the total time in
which the plant is in operation. The av-
erage work for the whole time is far be-
low the maximum noted. A single boiler
might possibly be sufficient to supply the
steam for a large portion of the time,
while for the short period referred to it
might require three and four boilers to
do the work. During much of the
time the boilers are either worked
at an extremely low rate of capacity
Or the fires i'll portion of the boilers
are banked, and under these circum-
stances the steam is generated with loss
of fuel, which the proposed system seeks
to overcome. The suggestion is made
to employ only q sufficient number of
boilers representing the average work
OF the day, and i'll connection Herewith
IA large storage tank containing water I'M
der pressure considerably higher than
that of the steam supplied to the en-
gines. The boilers would be used for
heating the water contained in the stor-
age tank, and the steam generated from
this water would be the steam employed
in the work. When more steam was re-
qred at the engines than the equivalent
Of the heat supplied by the boilers, the
pressure in the storage tank would fall,
the heat stored in the large body of
water would be called upon, and sutfi-
cient amount would be re-evaporated to
supply the demand. When the engines
required less supply than the boilers
furnished, the heat would accumulate in
the storage tank and the pressure would
gradually rise. The large body of water
would by this means alternately store
and restore the heat required to drive
the engines, and the boilers would thus
be enabled to work at uniform and
economical rate. We do not understand
that this system has been subjected to a
practical test. 1t possesses interesting
features, and it is hoped that it may be
nut to trial. Il Engineering Record.