Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1902-04-12

A Brooklyn genius has secured pat
ent for n curious device for creating
energy by feeding n tape of explosive
caps into n chamber where they are
successfully exploded by n mechanic
ally driven hammer. The resulting
gas from eaclS explosion passes into
Il pressure storage chamber, whence
it Is drawn into an engine in manner
similar to that In which steam Is taken
from a boiler into steam engine.
In the Western Electrician Is de-
scribed laundry machine which is
driven electrically, and has its ironing
rolls heated by resistance coils. The
machine has capacity Of 10000 col
lars and cuffs per day Of ten hours.
The heated rolls are twenty-four inches
in length, and five inches in diameter.
The heating coils, which are placed
inside the rolls take 220-volt current,
which Is also used for running the
motor.
Bryan Donkin recently read to the
British Institution Of Civil Engineers
n paper on the utilization OF the gases
from high furnaces to drive motors.
For years the gases went TO waste.
When we consider that more than 49,
100000 tons of metal are produced in
such furnaces, it is clear that the
waste was enormous. About fifty
years ago the subject began to be con-
sidercd, and the gases were utilized to
drive blowers or to heat the air blown
into the furnaces themselves. But it
was not until they were employed to
drive motors directly that the utilizai
ton approached completeness. Motors
of 1000 or even 1900 horse power,
driven in this way, are not uncommon
in Belgium and Germany. England
is behind in this regard.
The dog can emit four or five differ
ent tones, each indicative of special
mental condition, and each fully UNDER
stood by its companions. The barn
door fowl is credited with from nine
capable of a special Interpretation by
its fellows. The gestures Of the lower
animals are either facial, like the
grimaces of the monkey, or changes
of bodily attitude, like those of n dog.
After citing the above mentioned facts
the President Of the Anthropological
Section of the British Association, in a
recent address, went on to say that he
thought it might not be unreasonably
inferred that the remote progenitors
of man relied upon equally lowly
means of communication, and that
from such humble beginnings speech
has been slowly evolved. Even yet we
find gestures, facial expressions and
certain vocal sounds often more elO-
quent than words.
In the introduction to his fourth list
of new double stars discovered and
measured with the thirty siX-inch tel
cscope of the Lick Observatory Pro-
lessor Aitken gives the following sta
tistics of general interest. In his sys-
| SeiTCu lOr leW uOuDIe III
has pointed upon and examined 10000
stars. OF these $50 had already been
catalogued as double by earlier OBJ
servers, but only 30S of them were
as close as five seconds. In the stars
examined Professor Aitken found 301
other double stars all unrecorded and
all less than five seconds in distance.
1t thus appears that systematic eN-
animation of the whole heavens on this
plan would result in doubling the num-
Der of double stars now known. OF
Professor Aitken's discoveries about
ten per cent. have distances exceeding
four seconds; seventy per cent. have
distances not exceeding two seconds;
about fortythree per cent. have dis
tances not exceeding one second; about
twenty-one per cent have distances not
exceeding one-half second.