The herald., 1897-11-28

storm French peasants often make up q
very smoky fire, in the belief. says In
dustries and Iron, that safety from
lightning is thus assured" Schuster
shows that inasmuch as smoke Is a good
conductor for carrying away the elec-
trical current slowly and safely, the
custom is based on reason. AS corrobo-
rative of this, he points out that in 1000
cases of damage by lightning 6.3 churches
and S.5 mills have been struck, whilst the
number of factory chimneys has only
| been 0.3.
1t has been something of a belief and
hope that the chain gearing in bicycle
construction would be superseded by
some other and better contrivance. But
Industries and Iron says number of
tests carried out under the supervision
of Professor Carpenter at Cornell uni
versity do not point to the probability
Of any general change in this direction
taking place.
In fact, the conclusion has been
reached that no form of gearing can
possibly equal the best chain for eff1-
cheney and durability. AS result Of
tests Of chains which had been in Sc
we're use, it was found that friction va
ried from 2 to 5 per cent. The friction Of
a complete wheel was tested under work.
ing conditions in several instances, and
was found to vary from to 40 per cent
of the power applied. For high-c class
wheels the value ranged from to per
cent Tests were also made of bevel and
other gears. but in every instance the
chain gearing was found more efficient
than any other FORM An important
feature in the chain-geared bicycle lies
in the fact that the friction is prac-
tically constant at all loads, while in
bevel gearing the friction increases with
the load. The rapid strides which the
bicycle industry has made in this coun-
try within the last five years is one Of
the marvels Of our live and energetic
age.
The little country of Belgium has
adopted the twenty-four hour time sys-
tenn for railway, telegraph and postal
work, following in this particular the ex-
ample set by Italy. The object is to sim
plify railway time tables and for general
convenience and avoiding mistakes In
a. m. and p. m. originating in our pres
ent time system of dividing the day into
two sections of twelve hours
Machinist regards this division of the
twenty-four hour day into two sections,
one a. m. and the other p. M, as absurd.
And there seems to be sound reason in
What it says: "If we had," says the Ma
chinist, "our two-foot rule divided into
two parts, had each part numbered from
one to twelve, or called the first part
a. x. and the last part p. x, we would
probably think no more Of it than we
now do the double numbering Of the
hours of the day. We would probably
call twenty-three-inc ring eleven D. X.
inches and imagine it the simplest thing
in the world, and call any one who pro-
posed numbering up to twenty-four and
dropping the a. x. and p. x. a first-class
crank. But after we had made a few
mistakes due to getting the a. x and D. X,
mixed, and the boss threatened to fire
us for spelling so much work, we might
feel more reconciled toward the crank
and want to try continuous numbering.
dropping the a. x. and p. x. by the way
side"
The tenacity with which men stick to
old customs, no matter how absurd, ID
apparent to every one. But, one by one.
these customs go at last. And the day of
two moons and Of twice twelve hours
will soon take it's place in the lumber
room of "innocuous desuetude," and the
common sense twenty-four day, reckon
ing straight on without any break from
one to twenty-four, will be marked on
the dial plate of our American time sys-
tenn in its place. ~~