Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1901-09-09
THAT NEW BATTERY
MUCH is EXPECTED OF EDIsoN's
STORAGE SCHEME.
NEW USE FOR AcETYLENE
Automatic System of Signals Invented
for Warning Vessels of the Prox-
unity of Danger-Scientic Notes
of Very General Popular Inter
est.

Mr.. Edison's invention of an iron
nickel storage battery is important if
practical use demonstrates it's SER
viceableness. The lead storage bat
terry is too heavy for convenient use in
automobiles, and the Edison battery,
if successful, will fill a much-felt want.
Finely divided iron mixed with graph
tie and compacted into small cakes
forms the positive element, and a
similar preparation of finely divided
nickel is the negative element. A So
luton of caustic potash is the exacting
fluid. It is claimed for the battery that
it weighs but 1913 pounds per horse
power, whereas the lead battery weighs
from 1875 to 1877 pounds for the same
power. This difference would be
valuable The Edison battery is said
to be indestructible, though critics ex-
press doubts. It is not claimed that
it is cheaper per horsepower. A run
of seventy-five miles has been made
with battery of240 pounds on asingle
charge. The inventor claims these adj
vantages: Light weight, indestructi-
bility, rapid charging, the ability to
climb the heaviest hill with little or
no difficulty and Indifference to cold.
Value of Sugar.
The new English tax on sugar has led
to inquiries as to the food value of
sugar, with the result of showing that
it is indispensable. con the whole"
says the London Chronicle, sugar is a
safe and excellent food. 1t is one Of
our-energy producing nutrients, and re-
sembles fat, to which, however, it is
inferior in respect of it's force-evOlv-
ing powers. There is no doubt that
sugar varies today in diet lists of
various kinds to an extent unrepre-
scented in past years. Athletes train
on it, or include it among the things
they may consume. Horses, abroad,
especially, have sugar included in their
dietary The German soldier is being
treated to a larger sugar ration than he
formerly enjoyed, because scientific
experts have declared it's muscletoning
powers. With this boom in sugar
from the scientific standpoint, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer did a wise
thing in placing an impost on saccha-
rine. Substitutes for sugar are not
sugars. They only possess sweetening
properties-saxin and saccharin are
many times sweeter than any sugar
and they are not foods in any sense
of the term. But for rheumatic peo-
pie, or equity persons, or diabetic pa
tients, to whom sugar is forbidden,
these sweet products of the coal tar
vat are probably excellent things"
Metal as Fuel.
The process of producing enormous
by firing a mixture of
powdered aluminium and oxide of iron,
or other oxides, gives science and in
dustry a new resource. Other metals
besides aluminium may be used thus as
fuel In a lecture on metals as fuel at
the royal institution, London, Sir w.
observed that metals
might be burned for the sake of the
light and heat they produced. The
use of magnesium for light is familiar
and may greatly extend. A shell of
might be fired, and the
light from the burning metal be util-
lied in illumination for war purposes,
for the placing of guns, etc. The use
of metals as fuel assumed magnificent
~ of ~ To-,
Bessemer. The Bessemer process of
making steel was alone rendered posi-
BILE by the burning of metals as fuel.
In the case of aluminium burning in
oxygen combustion could be
started by minute fragment of
BY experiments he demon
strated how beautifully the welding of
metals could be effected by the oxida-
ton of aluminium, remarking that it
was impossible to foretell what in
future might be accomplished by this
process in the way of industrial art.
The welding of rails for tramways Lad
been successfully done by this process.
Crows Useful Birds.
A German scientist, having examined
the contents of the stomachs of over
5000 crows, has determined the char
acter of the crow diet and found how
largely this is made up of farm and
garden products. Wheat, rye, oats and
barley were present in per cents. rang
ing from 5 to 8, together with varying
quantities of fruit and garden vegeta-
bles Crows fed on exclusive vegeta-
BILE diet died within short time, show
ing that they absolutely require animal
food, which normally constitutes about
80 per cent. of their food. The animals
eaten included mice, insects, rabbits,
pheasants, small bird, frogs, snails and
earth worms. The insects and other
animals destroyed were for the most