The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1899-12-14


Hawaii Is said to have more tele-
phones in use in proportion to the popu.
lation than any other locality In the
world.
A newspaper printed OH the excur.
sion steamer Ophir published one num-
Der In so degrees minutes north lat.-
tude. 1t claims to be the paper puo-
lished farthest north of any on record.
A series of experiments made by
Benno Erdmann and Raymond Dodge
show that In normal reading the letters
are not spelled out separately, and one
after the other, but that a short word
of not more than four letters can be
read Off in less time than a single let
ter.
The Pixies Peak Power Company pro
poses to develop 3,200-horse-power for
distribution for mines in the neighbor-
hood of Cripple Creek. Colo. The source
of the water supply is Beaver canyon,
and steel and rock dam will be built
having a storage capacity of 150O01,000
cubic feet.
On the principle of the sounding
board, which repeats a sound at so
short an interval that the original and
the repeated waves impress the ear in
unison, device called the polyphone
has recently been applied to the phono-
graph for the purpose of doubling the
volume of sound issuing from that in
strument. a photograph with the
polyphone attachment has two horns.
each provided with a diaphragm and
stylus. Not only is the sound made
louder, but its quality is improved
Lake Superior appears to exercise
greater effect upon the annual amount
of precipitation of rain and snow near
its shores than any other of the Great
Lakes. The average precipitation In
year Is about eight inches greater on
the southern than on the northern side
of Lake Superior Lakes Erie and On
tario also show more precipitation on
their southern than on their northern
shores. but the difference is only three
inches annually. In the case of Lakes
Huron and Michigan. it is the eastern
shores as compared with the western
which get the largest precipitation, but
the difference is not great.
The distances over which birds mi
crate vary between wide limits, and
are often surprisingly great. The boz
bolinks, which rear their young on the
shores Of Lake Winnipeg, Canada. and
60 to Cuba and Porto Rico to spend the
Nrfnfnr fu-ian fro IiStnnna
ceeding $500 miles, or more than a
fifth of the circumference of our earth,
e"c IN year. The kingbird lays its eggs
as far north as the tifty-seventh degree
of latitude. and is found in the winter
In South America. The biennial pill
grimages of the little redstart exceed
three thousand miles and the tiny hum
ming bird two thousand.
Madame Ceraski, of Moscow, has dis
covered in the constellation Cygnus a
star of between the eighth and ninth
magnitude which undergoes wonderful
variations in its light 1t belongs to
the same type of variable stars as the
celebrated Algol, but its variation is
larger Its period is four days thir-
teen hours and fOrty-five minutes.
When at a minimum 1t is three magni-
tudes fainter than when at a maxi
mum; In other words. it periodically
loses and then regains so much light
that at one time 1t is sixteen times
brighter than at another. In stars of
this type the changes of light are sup
posed to be caused by dark body re-
volving around the star, and produc-
of sight