Columbia courier. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1902-1905, 1904-01-08
EkzDssSCience
y selnvenftion
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The using of electric light in bath
rooms, either public or private, so it
Is asserted by an English engineer, is
dangerous in many cases. Writing to
the Government Gazette, he says that
1.-THE electric light switches most usu-
ally employed have brass covers and
brass knobs, and it is quite possible
that this metal work may be in I'M
suspected contact with the electric
supply wires. In such a case person
standing on dry wooden floor, and
using the switch, would not notice
any defect, but anyone in the act of
taking bath, or standing with bare
feet on wet or metallic floor, and at
tempting to turn on the light, would
receive very severe shock which
would probably prove fatal even at
the comparatively low pressure of go
volts"
Some twenty-five years ago mon
gooses We're imported into Barbados to
drive away the rats which ate the
sugar canes. Now the sugar planters
have petitioned the governor to au-
| thorize the destruction Of the mon
gooses because the latter, instead of
combining their attention to the rats,
have driven out many useful animals,
including lizards, which were the en-
emies of the moth-borer caterpillars.
The caterpilars are now left free to
penetrate the sugar canes, thereby af-
| ho1n ho InJf ne a
structive funguses. Thus In the con-
| tinual struggle for existence nature
herself is often found to have estib-
lished the best system Of equilibrium,
interference with which always brings
more ills than it drives away.
Has radium any practical uses apart
from its value to pure science? 1t has
been reported that cancer has been
cured, or at least that the patient was
benefited, and that partial sight has
been restored to the blind through the
agency of radium. But these alleged
uses for the wonderful substance have
not yet been finally demonstrated.
There is another direction, however, in
which 1t is regarded as possible that
radium may prove useful, and that is
in the production of light. Prof. Oliver
Lodge has pithily said that a knowl-
edge of the firef1y's secret would en-
able us to produce light without heat.
The source Of the energy which the
FREELY uses, like the source of the en-.
ergy of radium, is unknown. Through
the study Of radium, it has been sug-
gested, we may discover cheaper
and better method Of illumination than
any we now possess.
Last summer DIR. Horace G. Hovey
conceived and tested new method of
measuring the height of some of the
great dome-shaped chambers In the
Mammoth Gave. He called to his as
sistance the toy balloon, and after
some preliminary experiments had his
balloons made Of special pattern,
with thinner and more elastic rubber
than that usually employed. Then,
with five balloons tied in cluster and
each inflated with hydrogen to a di-
ameter of ten inches, he began his at
tempts at measurement in the cave.
An acetylene light furnished illumina-
ton in the great chambers sufficient
to reveal the balloons when they
touched the ceiling. The measuring
tape was light silk thread. The
Rotunda was found to be just 40 feet
high, and the Mammoth Dome 119 feet
6 inches. But in the vast temple called
Gorin's Dome wandering air currents
rendered the balloons manageable
when about two-thirds Of the way to