The Parma herald. (Parma, Idaho) 1903-1917, 1905-02-11
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SoupS,one Is now fused by the oxv.
hydrogen fame into a clear olass Th,.
ean De drawn into very fine abers
winch have all the advantages Of tho
quartz nbers used for delicate susnen-
SONS and is likely to prove Otherwise
serviceable. Aei WISE
Nearly 100000 tons of coal nor
year are now saved, according to the
esumates Of A. A. Campbell SwInton
Dy the use Of water power for the nro'
auctlon or electricity. Statistics col.
lected by him show that I'M IN Iast A.
gust about 100000 horse power for
electrical work was being generated
from water power, and of this total
nearly one-third belonged to the United
states. In England only 1900 horse
power Is thus developed.
Ihat some Of the lower vertebrates
possess a sense unknown to us has
oeen made evident by the prolonged oh.
servations Of VI. Werner, a naturalist
OF vienna. Not less than 1856 individ.
uals' one-third Of them at liberty. have
been studied, and it has been made GER
tain that reptiles and amphibians are
50 strongly attracted by water that
they go straight toward 1t, even though
De so far away that no sense known
10 man can detect 1t. The new sense
Is supposed to depend upon some kind
OF chemical attraction, though how it
acts and on what part of the body are
mysteries.
students OF the science of the wealth
er are giving greater attention than
formerly to the phenomena of the at
mosphere high above the earth's sur
race. Explorations Of the upper air
with kites and balloons have had re-
suits which have made evident once
more the great value of mountain OBJ
servatories. The Weather Bureau is
now planning a great center of meteor
illogical research to be placed on Mount
Weather, in the Blue Ridge mountains,
six miles from Bluemont, Va. A new
theory Of the nature of cyclones and
anti-cyclones is expected to result from
the investigations now going on.
The increasing demand for platinum,
particularly for use in the manufac-
ture of gas nantes, has led to the in
vention of a process of saving the fine
powdery grains of this metal found
in the gold placer deposits Of southern
Oregon and elsewhere. The platinum,
being In state of very fine division,
almost in the form of dust, will not set
tie in a placer sluice so long as the
water is briskly stirred. After the
metal-bearing water has passed over
a rifle table, on which nearly all the
!: gold settles, 1t is drawn more slowly
} over a coco-mat rifle, on which the
platinum settles, and is then collected
by rinsing the coco-mats over tanks
Formerly the platinum was all wasted
at first because its identity was moi
recognized, and afterward because nc
process was then known for saving it
In order to counteract the opinion
that the Amazon Valley offers favora
BILE opportunities for investment anC
ISellltLltulr NOnouA at L a. a. A@ctAs
H. Ayme, sends to the Department o.
Commerce a discouraging picture o.
the conditions that new colonists il
that part of the world would have t.
face. The banks of the vast river anC
its tributaries are fat and swampy
and the tangled forest invades thu
edges of the streams. Expenses tina
look like fertile meadows are composed
of green ooze, in which the capybara
or tapir, wade more than knee deep
The extraordinary forests do contain
many kinds of precious woods, tn
most valuable in the world, but thes
trees are scattered and hard to get al
There are almost no markets. and n
ways to reach markets. The food sur
nlv is neither varied nor abundant.