Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1904-01-23
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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 a person
standing on a dry wooden floor, and
using the switch, would not notice
any defect, but anyone in the act of
taking q bath, or standing with bare
feet on a wet or metallic floor, and at
tempting to turn on the light, would
receive q very severe shock which
would probably prove fatal even at
the comparatively low pressure of 220
volts"
Some twenty-five years ago mon
gooses were 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 caterpillars are now left free tc
penetrate the sugar canes, thereby af
fording holes for the Judgment of de
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 apar
from its value to pure science? 1t ha
zee reported that cancer has beef
cured, or at least that the patient wa
benefited, and that partial sight ha
been restored to the blind through tn
agency of radium. But these allege,
] uses for h wonderful substance hav
not yet been finally demonstrated
There is another direction, however, i
which it is regarded as possible tina
: radium may prove useful, and that i
: in the production of light. Prof. Olive
Lodge has pithily said that a know
= edge of the frefy's secret would Ell
: able us to produce light without hea.
l The source of the energy which tn
: FREELY uSes, like the source of the ell
ergy of radium, is unknown. Throug
the study of radium, it has been su.
geSted, we may discover a cheapt
= and better method of illumination tina
any we now possess.
Last summer DR.. Horace c.. Hove
conceived and tested q new method
measuring the height of some of IL
great dome-shaped chambers in tt
Mammoth Cave. He called to his a
sistance the toy balloon, and aft
some preliminary experiments had h
balloons made of a special patter
with n and more elastic rubb
than hat usually employed. The
with five balloons tied in a cluster, al
each inflated with hydrogen to a {
ameter of ten inches, he began his q
tempts at measurement in the cav
An acetylene light furnished illumin
ton in the great chambers sufficie-
lie to reveal b balloons when tn,
k. touched the ceiling. The measuri1
lie tape was a light silk thread. II
e, Rotunda was found to be just 40 fe
lg high, and the Mammoth Dome 119 fe
er 6 inches. But in the vast temple call
Id Gorin's Dome wandering air curren
lie rendered the balloons u-nmanageat
Is when about two-thirds of the way
the ceiling.