Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1902-08-19
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HI No. AN
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The new sewage disposal scheme Of
German chemist, Erich Springborn,
is the conversion of the solid matter
into blocks for fuel. This fuel is re-
ported to be -smokeless and to burn
without disagreeabIe odor, and the cost
of the process would be covered by the
sale of the blocks at moderate price
for burning under steam boilers. The
sewage is SO thoroughly sterilized that
the liquid portion can be safely dis
charged into any river,
Some interesting additions to our
knowledge, not only of geography but
of anthropology, may be expected from
the expedition of w. Fitzhugh White
house, an American, and Lord Hindlip,
an Englishman, into Abyssinia and the
regions of the Upper Nile. Among the
curious places to be explored is the dis
trict of Walamo, reputed to be infested
with devils. Mr.. Whitehouse intends
to spend a month in Walamo with the
intention of discovering the reason
why the natives of the country believe
that it is possessed by demons.
Father Schreiber, of the Haynald OBJ
servatory, at Kalocsa, Hungary has
invented an electric apparatus for re-
cording distant thunder storms. An
electric wave, set in motion by flash
of lightning, is registered by detector
resembling in its action that used in
the Marconi telegraph system. The
impulse is communicated to pen con-
nected with disk moved by clock
work, and when the pen makes its rec
ord a bell is rung whose vibration re-
sets the coheher. Storms raging invis-
IDLY twenty miles away are thus re-
corded, and on one occasion, on
bright day, the apparatus made known
the prevalence Of a violent storm In
Budapest, sixty eight miles distant.
An example of the dramatic effects
| in which nature seems sometimes to
indulge is furnished by Professor Hugo
| De Vries' description, in recent lee
ture on the mutation of species, of the
appearance sometimes presented by
the large-fowered evening primrose in
Holland. This plant was introduced
into Holland from America about
hundred years ago, and has now es-
capped from cultivation. The plant at
tains height of five feet or more, and
is thickly covered with flowers, whose
size and brilliant color attract imme-
diate attention, even from a distance.
The flowers open shortly before sun
set, land this so suddenly" says Pro-
fessor De Vries, that it seems as if a
magic wand had touched the land and
covered it with golden sheet!'
The biological stations of the New
England coast has solved the problem
of lobster culture. Several thousand
of the young fry are put into a cylin-
drical scrim bag about three feet in
diameter and four feet deep, and the
water in the submerged bag is con
stantly agitated by a dasher driven by
a gasoline engine. This prevents the
| fry from smothering or devouring one
another at the same time keeping their
food of soft clam fragments within
reach. In nine to sixteen days from
the eggs the creatures are able to take
care of themselves, this stage being
reached by sixteen to more than forty
per cent of the fry, although no pre-
vious experiment had one per cent of
survivors. The fish hatcheries can
now save the lobster industry.