Amador ledger., 1906-03-09

Radium Emanation.- Frig
ate Birds. s.-Automatic Photograph
Printing New Germ. Light fron
Furnace Waste.
That the earth is growing temper
arlly warmer is shown by the m oun
tain glaciers. These are made b,
varying temperature and moisture t,
in 3rease aud diminish in size durin,
periods of years that may be found t,
be more or less regular cycles, and
period of quite general decrease began
about forty five years ago. Thil
has continued, with many local inter
ruptions, as in the case of Glacier
Blanc, which advanced from 1889 tt
1896. The latest report includes
ninety glaciers in the Swiss Alps
and many others in the French ano
Italian Alps, in Norway, Greenland,
the Caucasus, the Pamir, the north
western United States, western
Canada and Africa and practically
all are growing smaller. In the Savoy
Alps and the Pyrenees small glaciers
have quite disappeared.
Medical thermometer are expected
to be accurate, as much depends upon
them. Since the beginning of veriti-
cation recently at French labora-
tory, 440 of these instruments have
been tested, and SO per cent have
failed to satisfy the required condi-
tions of accuracy, their errors exceed
ing the admissible OILS degrees.
French patients, therefore, appear to
have been mostly watched with faulty
thermometers
A new product of the German
chemists is "banana essence, syrup
whose taste is at first caustic and
then bitter and then sweet. DR.. T..
Gigli has found by analysis that it
contains 54 per cent of saccharine
in base like pyridine, but a solution
of saccharine in pyridine did not
yield the substance.
Much of our textile materials now
comes from the mines. Silk rustles
with Sc per cent of salts of tin flannel
is weighted with epson salts, and
linen table-c cloths are made from
cotton filled with china clay and
starch.
The largest flower in the world has
been supposed to be that of Rafflesia
Arnold, which forms the entire
plant, and grows to a diameter of
three feet as fiat, circular parasite
on trees in Java and Sumatra; but a
still larger, single specimens weigh
ing as much as % pounds, has been
reported to exist in Mindanao, one
of the Philippines. A German author
ity now declares that the largest
flower yet discovered is produced
upon one OF the Aroideae of Sumatra.
The plant has leaf that may attain
a circumference of so feet, and the
leaf stem is a column12 feet high and
3 feet in circumference. The fully
expanded flower takes the shape of
mammoth funnel feet in diameter.
1t is light green or white outside,
and the interior Is wlne-red and vel
vety. The pistil, creamy yellow and
. feet high, has penetrating odor.
The explosion of a radium tube
reported by German Investigator
gives an idea of the force the emitted
gas may store up when confined. A
small tube of glass a fiftieth of an
inch thick contained half grain of
the purest radium bromide, and after
having been sealed up eleven months
it had been placed in a bath of liquid
air. The glass and the radium were
scattered about, the PARTICLES of the
latter shining in the dark like a
starry sky, and it is estimated that a
pressure of 20 atmospheres was ex-
erted.
Homing pigeons are not the only
bird letter carriers. Attention has
just been called to the frigate- birds,
which missionaries in the Sonth Sea
Islands forward to islands from which
they wish to get communications,
and which on being released fly
straight to their accustomed perches
in their old homes.
Numerous experiments have seemed
to show loss of weight when eItain
substances react upon each other,
and Prof. Landolt, of Berlin, is
seeking to discover the cause of this
mystifylng anomaly.
An electric apparatus for automati
cally producing bromide prints is 6
Belgian Photographic novelty. The
sensitized paper is by the apparatus
applied from a roll against the negat
i've, an incandescent lamp is ther
turned on for predetermined time,
and after this exposure the paper i:
removed from the negative and il
goes to dark box. The process is
repeated until the number which the
apparatus has been set to print i.
finished. A Iheostat is arranged tt
adjust the exposure from l to 20(
seconds, and at the end of the print
ing a ratchet device causes an electric
bell to ring. The whole apparatus i:
operated by battery of four accumu
lators.
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