Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1901-04-11
NOTES OF SCIENCE
PROGRESS IN MODERN THOUGHT
AND INVENTION.
SOME RECENT DISCOVERIES
The Telephone Used in War Sur
gery-Rivers Under the Ocean
What We Smoke Commercial
Men Fonud to be Safest from
lnssnity-Ms ~ Hard Facts.

The war in south Africa has led to
a novel and singular use of the te,e-
phone in surgery. The telephone
makes possible the certain location
of projectiles within the human body,
and, furthermore, enables their re-
novel with the least possible danger
to the patient. A Mauser bullet had
entered soldiers back, pierced the
stomach and lodged right in front of
the latter. When breathing deeply
the patient suffered great pain, and it
was found that the removal of the pro-
jectile offered great difficulty. AS in
the operation pincers had to be en-
ployed, the telephone probe was Sc
lected for that purpose, the special
utility of that instrument being based
on the fact that when the pincer-like
ends of the probe close over a metal
body noise is heard in the telephone.
The surgeon soon got hold of what ne
thought was the bullet, but it resisted
his attempts to draw it out. His as.
sistant, who held the telephone, could
hear no noise in it, and it was there
fore clear that the bullet had not yet
been reached. Then the probe was
pushed in farther, the telephone gave
its note of warning and the removal
of the projectile was 4<sily effected
If this new apparatus had not been
employed the patient would probably
no ix,tn a1 ins,
before the surgeons discovery of his
mistake Manchester Guardian.
Rivers Under The Sea.
A few months ago Mr.. H. Benest, an
English geographer, published an in
teresting study of streams of fresh
water flowing beneath the surface of
the sea-
Disasters to ocean telegraph cables
first called attention to this subject
On several occasions, about 1895, a
new and well-made cable between
Cape Verde and Brazil broke. Sound
ings were made to discover whether
these breakings were due to the state
of the sea bottom, and it was found
the submarine mouth of a subterran-
can river; the alluvial material trans
ported by this fresh-water stream en-
countered the cable and finally sue
ceeded in breaking it. The fact is
that river that flows into the la
goons of Yof, on the soast of Senegal,
is finally lost in the sand. 1t undoubt
eddy has taken its invisible course to
the sea, and it is this river that has
been discovered in the deep hollow OF
more than 1900 meters (4,270 feet
that is traversed by the Brazilian
cable. Also while the cable was being
repaired at point "a kilometers us
miles, from the shore the repair ship
was surrounded one day by orange
skins, calabashes and bits of cloth
which could not have come from the
mouth of the Senegal river, 14O kilo.
meters go miles distant-La Nature.
Uses OF Platinum.
The uses to which platinum is put
are very multifarious. 1t is employed
today in the electric incandescent
lamp as a fine wire for conveying the
electric current through the glass
walls of the bulb to the light giving
carbon filament within; in telegraph,
telephone and other electric appara-
tus for non-corroding contact points;
In warfare in the form of fine wires
for exploding torpedoes and submar-
inc mines; in promoters for the
measurement of the temperature of
blast furnaces and for determining
the the fusing point of other metals:
In the X-ray tube as leading-in wires
and as a source of excitations of the
X-rays, and in photography in the pro.
duction of platinotypes, noted for the
artistic effects produced and the per.
manency of prints attained. These
are but few of the many applications
OF this metal and its salts, says Engi-
neering, but enough are enumerated
to illustrate it's wide and varied appli-
cations. 1t is of some significance that
the world depends for about 95 per
cent. of its annual supply upon Russia
alone, and were that country to fail us
the position would be serious. Hap
PLY Russia's output has increased
steadily and has just about kept pace
with the enhanced demand. For the
last year the total was 1922 pounds,
a growth of more than 100 per cent
since 1890. Nearly the whole of the
annual production comes to the
United Kingdom, the German takings,
which were in excess of our own in
1884, having gradually fallen since
then TO only about 900 pounds a year.
Electric Devices.
A paper read before the American
acknowledgements association dis
cusses from the scientific point OF
view the so-called electric BELTS" so
widely advertised for all sorts of
bodily ailments. The conclusion an
was that tests of a number of
the best appliances of the kind sold
showed that they could not develop an
force of one volt, and
that. taking the electrical resistance
any current from such a belt would
meet in the human body 20 40O. 900 !
ohms. there would pass a current If