The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1896-02-07

Domain-The. Electric Blowpipe
Boundary Lines From the &C.
ographer's Standpoint.
written for the CITIzEN.)
The whaling and sealing industries
of Alaska are practically exhausted,
reports Mr.. w. H. Dali in Science,
the fur trade is in its decadence, the
salmon canning in the full tide of pros
perity, but conducted in wasteful
manner, which cannot be continued
with impunity. The cod and herring
fisheries are imperfectly developed,
but have substantial future with
proper treatment. Mineral and timber
resources have hardly been touched.
No business-iike experiment with
sheep or cattle on the islands has been
tried by competent hands, while the
introduction of reindeer, though prom
Using well, is still in the experimental
stage. Socially the Territory is in
transition state. The magnificent seem
cry. glaciers aud volcanoes make it GER
tain that Alaska will in future be to
the rest of the United States what
Norway is to Western Europe-the
goal of tourists, hunters and fisher
men.
A disadvantage of the Metric Sys-
tenn is found in the use of the cent?
grade scale on the thermometer. Prof.
III. A. Hazen points out that the de-
grees in this are twice too large, while
weather records are complicated and
filled with errors in having half the
temperatures with minus signs before
them. Prof. Hazen suggests that both
the centigrade and Fahrenheit scales
have their zero point dropped to 40 de-
grees below zero of the present scales.
This would obviate the difficulty of
the minus sign in meteorology, but the
Fahrenheit degree would remain the
better.
A singular phenomenon appeared
last winter on the frozen surface of
Dutour, of Morges, describes this as
Consisting in the formation OF cones of
ice more than six feet high, each with
a crater large enough to hold man.
No explanation is offered.
The use of aTgOn for high tempera-
ture thermometers has been proposed.
as the new gas appears To offer advan-
tages over the hydrogen aud nitrogen
generally employed.
While conjectures are rife as 10 what
electricity ia high explosives could do
la modern warfare, il is interesting %
glance at one marvel in the war record
of photography. A quarter of cen
tury ago. on the 2lst of September,
Paris was completely shut off from the
rest OF the world, bat two days later "a
balloon aud pigeon post was establish
ed, aud regular balloons thereafter left
the city at intervals Of three to seven
days with letters for the provinces, and
carrier pigeons for bringing back re-
plies. The return messages were writ
ten on thin paper aud enclosed in "a
quill tied 10 the pigeons tail, but the
carrying capacity of the birds for such
messages was very limited. Some
tomicOgTaphic work, carried out the
idea of printing great many mes
sages upon "A large sheet of paper. and
then photographing the whole in
greatly reduced form upon "A thin film
of cOllodion four inches square. Each
pigeon carried Is of these cOllodiOn pei
licles, " it'll a-tOtal of more than $4,000
messages, the whole weighing less
than a gramme On arrival in Paris,
the messages were enlarged on a screen,
when they could be read and were
published in the newspapers. During
the siege GA balloons left the city, of
which seven were lost or captured by
the Germans, while the others carried
100000 letters and the pigeon post
returned about 100000 messages.
Even money orders and drafts were
transmitted 10y the interchangeable
pigeon post, and were paid in Paris.
The highest temperature recorded in
the British Empire in 1894-fOr which
year a summary has just been publish
ed-was 1919 at Adelaide, on NovenI-
Der 26th; and the lowest was 1919 be-
low zero, at Winnipeg, on January
oath. Adelaide was also the driest sta
ton. The dampest station was Esqui-
malt, where the mean humidity was
88 per cent; the next being London,
with 81 per cent. These places were
the most cloudy, Bombay and Gren-
ada being the sunnest The greatest
annual rainfall was 77.5 inches at Col
ombo; the least, 1871 inches, at Winni
peg.
In what is known as the Zerener
system of electric welding, the electric
arc is DETECTED in any desired direc-
ton by means of an adjustable horse
shoe electromagnetic. The arc is drawn
out like blowpipe flame of extraordi-
nary intensity, and is made to do weld
ing aud brazing in positions ordinarily
quite out of reach.
Volcanic action, Prof. N. S. Shaler
contends. has played a more important
part in tne sc dimentatiOn of the globe
than has been supposed. A study of
Java district makes it probable that the
the rock material thrown out as pum-
ice and dust may exceed that which is
carried to the sea by rivers, and pos
sibly equals that conveyed to the ocean
by all other actions. The volcanoes of
Java and the immediate vicinity have
contributed $50 cubic miles to the ma