Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1900-07-31
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& Ns1lventiOn :

Recent experiments by Monsieur
Janet show that the temperature of the
carbon filament in an electric lamp Is
between 1900 degrees and 5000 degrees
Fahrenheit.
For the extraction of rubber from the
rubber tree new process consists in
cutting up the bark and roots and soak
ing in dilute sulphuric acid. This de-
composes the woody portions without
affecting the India rubber. In this way
the rubber and bark and roots are sep
arated.
An extensive building has recently
been opened in Leeds (England) to be
devoted to the development Of cloth
workers research, dyeing, etc. 1t is
the intention of the Clothworkers' COM
pany of London that this college should
become the leading and most complete
example Of a textile and dyeing school
in the world.
In Strasburg an engineer has invent
ed substitute for gutta percha. In
ordinary temperatures the mass is hard
like pitch, and while not being brittle
Is firm against pressure. 1t does not
break when hammered, even at the
freezing point. Thin plates were sub
jected TO the action of sea water with
good results.
AS the result of twenty-nine years of
experiments at Rothamsted, England,
it is shown that in the winter months
more than half of the amount of rain
tina. falls penetrates into the soil, and
becomes available for the supply of
springs, while in the summer only one
quarter of the rainfall is absorbed by
the soil. The maximum quantity of
water in the soil is at a depth of about
forty inches.
At recent meeting of aSboricultur-
lists in France, the question was de-
bated whether spiders should be suf-
fered to spin their webs on fruit walls.
The general opinion seemed to be that
the webs were more useful than objec-
tionable. 1t was remarked that they
prevent the incursions of earwigs and
similar insects, and also interfere with
the operations of noxious flies whose
larvae ravage leaves and fruits.
A remarkable effect of the great hur-
ricane of 1898 in the West India ISL
ands was the complete disappearance
from the island of st. Vincent of a spe-
cies of humming bird, which, previous
to the storm, had been one of the COM
monest and tamest birds that inhabited
the island. Other species of humming
birds, of a larger size, survived the
tempest, and are yet to be seen in St
Vincent, but the little bronZe-green
birds with erected crests, which for
merly attracted much admiration, are
all gone.
L. NJ. Loomis, the Californian ornith-
ologist, who has been studying the
question of bird migration on the Pa
cific coast, concludes that those which
he has observed shape their course by
landmarks, and possess no mysterious
superhuman faculty for determining
direction. such as some persons have
imagined that birds are endowed with.
When a fog prevails the birds are be-
wildered and lose their way. In brief,
Mr.. Loomis thinks that bird migration
is habit evolved by education and in
heritance. and owing its origin to the
failure of food in winter.
No one knows just what happens
when one drops lump of salt or sugar
into a bowl of water. We may believe
with Prof. Ostwald and his followers,
that the molecules of sugar merely
glide everywhere between the mole
cules of water, without chemical ac-
ton; or, on the other hand, dismissing
this mechanical explanation, we may
say with Mendeleef that the process of
solution is the most active of chemical
phenomena, involving that incessant in
terplay of atoms known as dissertation.
But these two explanations are mutu-
ally exclusive, and no one can say posi-
lively which one, IL either one, Is right.