Omaha daily bee., 1895-11-24
OMAHA DAILY BEE. SUNDAY, NOVEMBER sl 1895


been looked upon by poultry farmers as to,
theoretical TO be OF any real setvlce. Her
Otto Schulze. who has been steadily strivini
to perfect such a sys,em In Germany, has. {
Is said, at length succeeded In constructing
an apparatus operate1 electrically. whlcl
overoomes the ordinary difficulties OF the arti
fetal Matching Of chickens. The apparatus
is easily manipulated, and needs a small, bu
constant, supply Of current Automatic at
tachments regulate both temperature and
moisture, the adjustment working with sucl
delcacy that temperature within one-tentl
OF a degree OF the normal heat OF Incubation
From ninety to 100 eggs are hatched at one
time. Herr Schulze is said to have remelied
certain points in the electric mother which
were found to interfere with It's effectiveness
This contrivance which is box In which
freshly-hatched chicks can fud heat aad pro-
lection, while they are FREQ 20 run about or
the ground when they choose, has been de-
vised as an accompaniment to the incubator.
TADPoLES UNDER TREATMENT
Dr. A. d. Waller has thrown an interest
ing light on the effect Of the electric cur
rent on animal life by his series OF curious
experiments on tadpoles. cell, fitted with
suitable electrodes, and filled with water
In which one or more tadpoles are placed.
was traversed by an electric current When
the current passed from the tail TO the head
the tadpole made no sign, remaining per-
fectly quiet AS soon, however, as the cur
rent was turned in the opposite direction,
the tadpole would waggle his tail vigorously.
A large trough In which number OF tad
poles were swimming about in all directions
was also connected up to the battery. When
the switch was turned there was great ccnl-
motion among the occupants for few mo-
ments but finally the whole of them came
to rest with heads and tails lying In line
with the direction Of the current
WOOD AND IRON POLES.
The relative economy of iron and wooden
poles has been OF late years much dis
cussed question, the solution OF which is
often dependent upon location MOST men
would doubt the advisability of carrying
poles from Maine to Colorado, and yet such
a consignment has been shown to be most
wisely directed. In the recent western trip
of the Western Union Telegraph oiliciais,
Colonel Cowry, speaking in Denver OF MS
early experiences of the Denver racine 'ne,
said: II was noticing the old poles as we
came in this morning. They are the frst
ceday poles every used, and l was laughed at
when l brought them clear out from Name
But they have been there now twenty-three
years, and are as good as ever, while the
average life of pine pole is only iouE
years." .
NOVEL EXPERIMENTS.
A Michigan agricultural college Is about
to make an experiment which may have an
important bearing 1t has been proved that
when a sufficient current OF electricity is
communicated to grass and herbage 1t in
stanty withers and kills the plant Rail
road companies have already utilized the
idea by arranging a hanging device. which
projects from the car and destroys the grass
and weeds on the banks with which II
makes contact. Prof. Woodworth, VINO mas
brought this new labor saving method 10 the
notice of the Natural History society. says
T.. ,bx,t Ia ta ,nHn pf +
ing weeds cannot be used to advantage on
our country roads. He believes that electric
ity is quite as cheap as salt for killing weeds
In the long run, as 1t is much more ehective
and destroys the plant TO the root. He pro-
poses to experiment ON the most noxious
weeds by taking wheebarrow or wagon
supplied with a storage battery to the land
to be cleared, and let the hanging wires drag
along the ground. He insists on the prac-
ticaEilty of removing Canada and Russian
thistles from farms in this way.
ELECTRICITY AS A SENTRY.
The running of the field telegraph line in
the Chitral campaign was attended by many
trying difficulties. Rain and wind storms IN IN
the hill valleys would often NOV down the
line At first a good deal of trouble was eX-
perienced from camels and other transport
animals rubbing against the poles and break
ing them. Interruptions from this source
were soon diminished by the dealing out OF
a little summary justice among the owners
of the offending animals. Wire cutting is
always a favorite amusement with frontier
tribes. They find the wire very useful. Some
times they convert the hollow iron posts into
guns by tapping the wire around them. They
also cut up wire for bullets. The tribesmen
who are hired to work on the road have little
hesitation in giving proof of their hatred OF
the invader. AS soon as their shift is fin
ished they will hunt up their jezail or long
gun from some hiding place and fire into the
camp at night. Once in Afghanistan an engi-
neer officer, who employed several Of the
frontiersmen In road making, chaffed one OF
them on the bad shooting they made. The
man replied: what can you expect, sahib,
when we have only got old telegraph wire
for bullets" On the Chitral line of COM
munication an electric wire was run every
night so as to completely enclose the camp.
II any of the enemy crept up to steal rifles
or possibly to shoot or stab a sentry at his
post, as soon as he touched the wire an in
dicator in the quarter guard showed what
section had been interfered with, an alarm
bell ringing at the same time During the
day the protecting wire was taken up. This
precaution saved the lives Of many soldiers.
A perfectly white squirrel, with pink eyes,
was caught by an hunter near South Wind
ham Conn.,. a few days ago.