Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1905-12-08
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An interesting hygrometer is made
by dipping a strip of calico in a solu-
ton of one part Of cobalt chloride,
seVenty-five of nickel oxide and twenty
OF gelatine in two hundred Of water.
Inc strip Is green in fine weather,
fading as moisture appears.
! An italian scientist has invented a
novel substitute for irrigation. He
uses the fruit of the Barbary nopal.
fig tree which bears figs that are
excellent reservoirs of moisture. In
the spring the scientist digs a ditch
about the foot of the tree he desires
to protect from the coming drought
and this ditch is filed with figs cut
into thick pieces. A dense layer is
made and beaten down. The mucilag-
inous pulp, covered with earth, stores
up much moisture, which it gives off
gradually, watering the tree sometimes
for as long period as four months.
The light of the FREELY is believed
to have an efficiency of virtually 100
per cent Of the energy expended,
whereas recent tests indicate that the
light efficiency of the ordinary incan-
descent lamp is only 2.6 per cent;
the rest of the energy Is expended in
producing heat which is not needed.
Inventors do not yet despair of sue
cess in initiating the firefy's economi-
cal method of producing an illumina-
ton. In recent paper f. G. Caldwell
says that it is well within the range
of possibility that we may see the
transmission of light-producing energy
entirely done away with, and a return
made to some form Of portable lamp,
consuming an exceedingly small
amount of material, and producing a
"cold," or firefy-like, light.
If the earth, says Prof. e. Ruther.
ford, were supposed to have been CON-
posed, initially, of pure radium, the
activity 10000 years later would not
be greater than the activity observed
in pitchblende to-day. But, since there
is no doubt that the earth's age vastly
exceeds 10000 years, it is necessary
in order to account for the existence of
radium at all in the earth, to suppose
that it is continuously produced from
some other substance. At the present
time 1t seems most probable that ura.
mum is this parent substance. The
observed activity in a good specimen
| Of mitch hlnnIn iS ohn,1t what oh hn,,1I
be expected if the uranium contained
in 1t spontaneously breaks up into
radium. Radium itself is continuously
transformed into an emanation which
in turn, is changed into other types
of matter, and there is no evidence
that the process is reversible.
A portable electric plant for fixing
rails and packing sleepers, the inven
p, ton of A. Collet, of Paris, Is in us,
, on several French railways. The ap
paratus runs on wheels adaptable TO
ordinary roads or railway tracks, an(
includes a twenty-five horse power ell
gine, which Is coupled by belt to tn,
dynamo that generates electric cur
rent. Steam is supplied by vertica
y tubular boiler Of a capacity of onl.
1914 gallons. The engine being II
e place, copper circuit is carried aloni
e the permanent way three-fifths of
I mile on folding ladders, and con
n tinuous current of 900 volts is led t
the track-laying machines. With tw
s wood screw machines on a small truck
U four men lay 1877 yards Of track il
e ten minutes, setting two hundre
y screws, this being seven times tn
: rate by hand. The sleeper-packin
II tool gives four hundred strokes pc
minute, and enables six men to pack
II sleeper in broken stone in one minut
n or in sand in thirty-five seconds.