The new age. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1896-1905, 1905-12-30
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Recording bird migrations. Otto
herman, Hungarian ornithologist.
10 surprised to find that swallows take
1Oo Gays to complete their passing
from Gibraltar to Lulea, in Sweden.
That electricity is soon to replace
the manual labor Of the housemaid is
the prediction of Col. R. E. Crompton,
the English electrician. 1t is capable
of washing dishes, kneading dough.
chopping meat and even doing the
ramliy washing, as well as many other
things The use of the motor to COM
press air may give cold storage
room for every mans house Domes-
tic motors have been greatly cheap
ened and electric lighting companies
are profting by selling current for day
use at reduced price.
At recent meeting of the Torrey
Botanical Club in New York, DR.. G. s.
eager reported the results of expert
ments with the action Of radium on
growing seeds. 1t was found that the
rays act as a stimulus, varying in in
tenslty with their strength as well as
with the thickness of the seed coats
ana the amount of intervening moist
soil. If the stimulus is not pushed
beyond a certain limit, termination
and subsequent growth are accelerat-
ed Above that limit the results are
unfavorable. The growth of plants is
retarded, and may be stopped, by plac-
ing them in an atmosphere containing
the emanation Of radium, such as may
be drawn from a cylinder lined with
Meber's coating.
Ingenuity was manifested to a nota-
BILE degree in Spain and France at the
time Of the solar eclipse of Aug 30.
The shop windows in Madrid, Paris
and other towns were filed with a
great variety Of devices for viewing
the passage Of the moon across the
suns disk without danger to the OBJ
servers eyes. There were black glass
spectacles, black glass monocles, black
glasses set in pasteboard handles Of
70 different forms, and also devices
for viewing the phenomenon by re-
Election. But the people made many
contrivances of their own, such as pin
holes through paper, or through the
tops of Derby hats. Some viewed the
eclipse in the streets or on the roofs
by reflection from pals or pans of
water to reduce the glare, and some
saw 1t through cambria handkerchiefs
or thin umbrella tops. The book shops
abounded with paper-bound treatises
on eclipses.
Airship travel seems to be already
popular W. de Fonvielle estimates
that seven or eight hundred balloon
voyages are now made annually, and
states that the members of the French
Aero Club alone made more than two
hundred last year. The forms and
colors Of the clouds, the brightness and
the new views of the earth give won
derful charm to sky automObiling,
This is increased at night and Camille
Flammarion, whose wedding trip was
made in a balloon, has expressed his
surprise at the splendor Of the lights
of great city-in this case Paris-as
well as at the brilliancy of the con-
stellations. The number of the stars
Is unbelievable, the dog star becomes
as bright as Venus, while some of
the nebulae appear like gas jets. The
shooting stars are terrifying. Their
explosions seem to be heard, and this
may be really true, as the balloon acts
like gigantic ear trumpetS and
catches such earthly sounds as the
whistling of locomotives and barking
Of dogs. Hygienically the complete re-
newal Of the air in the lungs Is de-
lightful sensation.