The National tribune., 1905-11-30

, James "A. Martindill, Eureka. ..
| Robert McKinstry. Detroit. Mich.
| Busy man is summoning everything
from the earth. the heaven above the
earth and the water under the earth
! to help him do his work. n. p. Mich
kline, a Russian inventor, thinks that
| he has devised way to utilize as pow
err the immense energy of thunder
storms. He finds from experiment and
calculation that an ordinary thunder
cloud has energy enough to run an
eight-anda -haf horsepower motor
! for one hour This is not so very
great. as the destructiveness of the
| thunder cloud comes from it's high
| tension, somewhat as the energy of a
rife bullet is due to it's high velocity.
| His apparatus Is very simple. Collec-
tors composed of thin circular plates
with numerous steel points are sent up
on kites or balloons and held by in
| sulated copper wires. So far he has
only sent up to a distance of 120 met
ers, or 394 feet, but he believes that
| If he were to reach higher attitudes his
work would be more effective. 1t
| makes a nervous time at the end of the
insulated wires. for the collected cleo
| tricity sends out sheaves of flame 10
feet long and an inch thick with a
noise like a pistol shot. At one time
in less than one hour there were 80
| such sheaves of electric light. These
currents are delivered into a motor Of
very simple construction.
In the early numbering operations in
California the enormously thick bark
| of the redwood often became a great
embarrassment. 1t frequently had to
be burned to get it out of the way,
which was a dangerous and protracted
operation. At last a shrewd Yankee
| named Atkinson began to devise ways
of getting some profit out of it. He
was a wood turner by trade, and pres
emily developed a large business in
what he called Atkinsos or vegetable
asbestos from which he made pin cush-
| ions, pen wipers, mats for hot plates
and for flatirons, mats for bathrooms,
| fishing floats. corks, filling for life
buOys and life preservers, insuIators for
Gle handles, hat brushes, etc. The bark
is entirely odorless, of rich brown
color and singularly mona absorbent. 1t
makes fairly good cOrks, though 1t
lacks the elasticity of the true cork.
Now a greater part of the bark is
worked up into various profitable ways.
Mr.. Dugald Clerk, the new President
of the Junior Institution of Engineers
devoted large part of his inaugural
address to a review of the 20 years of
effort to secure a gas-explosion tur-
bine. In the ordinary turbine the
blades are moved by continual sue
| cession of jets of vapor or water. In a
gas turbine these must be replaced by
a series OF explosions. The first thing
| to be done Is to make these uniform
| in pressure. and that has been fairly
we'll secured, but SO far all the de-
vices have been very wasteful of power
the best of them losing at least 40 per
cent, which has SO far been fatal to
the economy Of the gas turbine. Pro-
hably the gas turbine will never do all
that its sanguine advocates imagine.
but it is not improbable that some de-
velopment will make 1T do better work
at less cost than the present piston
| and-cylinder form Of the gas engine.
| NJ. Jules Rudolph, French scientist
Is strongly of the opinion that tea
drinking is an acquired habit which it
would be easy to change from the Chi
/ RI Of
nestle leaves and flowers. He thinks
that camomile, veronica, sage, ambro-
STA, horsemint and wintergreen would
make equally agreeable drinks, just as
mate Is the universal drink in Para
quay and other parts of South America
For himself he inclines most strongly
toward Roman camomiIe He also
thinks very we'll of tarragon, a plant of
the NORWOOD family, which is much
used for fiavoring vinegar.
The Germans are much disturbed
over the superabundance Of physicians,
the number of whom has doubled in
the last quarter of a century, until now
there is one doctor for every LOO in
habitants, and in Berlin as per cent Of
the physicians do not have an income
amounting TO 500 a year. 1t is esti-
mated that physicians education costs
him $4,000. that he gets very poor
return upon his outlay.
| Bacterial Paints.
! The bacterial effect of wall-paints has
been studied lately by Dr. Beaufils ac-
cording to the following method: A lay
er of paint having been spread out on
wooden boards or glass plates, q Gull
tGre of microbes was placed on this
layer after being dried, and the plate
thus prepared was kept in the labora-
tory protected against dust. At regu-
lar intervals some microbe colonies were
removed and spread out on an appro-
i nriifa naliIirl Or. lIsa.l in, LIZ.