Amador ledger., 1905-12-29
SCIENTIFIC
MISCELLANY
Reported weekly for the Legder.

Diamond Carving. "A Swiss Mine
OF Wealth. Moving Pictures in Medi-
cal Study. Automatic Welding.
Electric Insulation by Odor. New
Paper Observation-Disclosures as Food
Cloud Bombardment. An Efficient
Blowpipe. -SIag Paving.
Engraving on diamonds has Eeen
greatly developed within recent years.
Using tools of his own invention.
Bordlnet, the Paris jeweIer, has pro-
duced some very artistic work, and
has succeeded in polishing concave
parts as veil as plane surfaces, and
in modelling freely. One specimen of
his art is yataghan having a thin
dlamon1-oI a blade and a ruby for
the handle. 3z He has also cut pansy
with leaves on large diamond, made
a knife out of two diamonds, made a
beautiful bicycle with two diamonds
for wheels, cut one diamond in the
shape of fish, produced an exquisite
brooch consisting of a beetle sur
rounded by sapphires aud briIIiants,
made other brooches in the form of
flies with thin enrgaved diamonds for
wings, and cut armoriaI bearings up
on some gems. Most remarkable of
all is ring of diamonds with polish
ed inner surface and outside finely
engraved
The Rhone near BelIegarde dis
appears for a considerable distance in
subterranean gulf. The engineers
propose to change this interesting
geological feature by damming the
river and turning the water into
parallel tunnels, which will lead the
stream two miles1 and half to two
power generating stations. Here a
fall of nearly 200 feet will yield l55, >
QUO horse power for 300 days in the
year. The cost Is placed at IS, OOO,-
600, and this use of the power is esti-
mated to be equivalent to working an
inexhaustlble coal bed supplying
1,6O0, 600 tons year at 50 or 60 cents
per ton.
Biograph records are proving useful
in showing the variations in disease
as we'll as for medical teaching. DIR.
W. &. Chase reports having biograph-
ed Il separate epileptic seizures and
one rare case of eye disease. Thrown
upon screen, the enlarged pictures
reproduce the action of the muscles
very clearly. The automatic pro-
duction of wire fencing in continuous
rolls is late development in elect1 ic
Welding. Galvanized wires are fed
from reels arranged vertically and
parallel to each other, and from
another reel placed transversely to
these are cut off lengths of wire,
which are fed horizontally across the
vertical wires. At the points of in
tersection of the horizontal and verti-
cal wires, Yields are made by means
of small transformers. The welded
section is then moved forward a re-
gulated distance and the operation
is repeated.
Modern theories deal with various
kinds of corpuscles, but none seem
to be more unfamiliar than those of
odors, with which we have been
always surrounded So little matter
is given off, in odors that the bal
ance cannot detect it, iodofo1m, for
example, losing not more than a
thousandth part in a century. A
French physicist, A. Baldit, has
found that the odor corpuscles affect
the leakage of electricity from cleo
trified bodies, and he proposes to use
this discovery for studying the char
acter OF odors and the part they play
In plants. In his experiments, peg
formed in unfavorable weather, a rod
of resin and an electroscope we're
enclosed in glass jar, when the ad-
mission of vanilla ordor sensibly
lessened the loss of electricity from
the charged rod.
The use of fuIze in paper making
suggests new class of materials to
take the place OF the rapidly disap-
pearing timber supply. On boiling
under pressure with caustic soda I've.
treating with sulphuric acid, bleach
ing with chloride of lime, and finally
washing, the green plant is converted
into very white and solid pulp,
which has proven very suitable for
paper making purposes.
In the mountains of Panay and
other islands of the southern Philip
pines moths can be scraped up by the
quart. The natives have learned to
prize them as an article of food, and
they now collect and eat them in
large quantities.
The efficacy of bomb firing in
breaking up hail-storms has been
questioned. M. Vidal, the originator
of the plan, claims new evidence of
its value from a recent severe storm
that rapidly swept down from the
Bernese Alps through the Rhone
valley and over the north end of Lake
Leman as far as Lake of Neuchatel.
The entire district was badly damaged
by the hail except two small villages
from which bombs we're thrown. 1t is
pointed out that places above 22OO feet
in altitude escape damage, and the
low elevation of the storm-cIouds