Amador ledger. (Jackson, Amador County, Calif.) 1875-19??, 1906-11-23

slllclon, and the output is between
1000 and 5000 ton year. The Giraud
works, soon to be enlarged, now have
an output of about 81, 700, 600 per year
from furnaces of $1,000 horsepower.
The product is 5000 tons of ferro-
silicon of 50 per cent and 1000 tons OF
80 per cent, 1000 tons of ferro-
chromium, 800 tons OF ferro-tungsten,
5O tons OF ferro- olybdenum, and 10
tons of ferro- vanadium.
A new optical illusion, reported by
Douglas CARNEGIE of Newcastle on
Tyne, is. produced by thaumatrope
card, with cage pictured on one
side and bird on the other This
is viewed from a distance of five feet
or more while it is rotating on a
vertical median axis about two reyoIu-
lions second, and when the observer
closes one eye the card appears in
stantly to change its direction of
rotation, becoming also tilted.
The opaque center of a cake of
artificial ice. which a French physi-
clan has pointed out, is due to freez-
ing from the outside, the impurities
including understanding crowded
into the, last portion to soIidify.
An important increase in the per-
formance of orchestras was shown
in the late tests. in London concerts,
of the Auxetophone, which was
brought out a considerable time ago
by the Hon. e. A. Parsons of steam
turbine fame. The apparatus, design
ed to add to the effects of stringed
instruments, includes blower, which
supplies air from the basement of the
building, and a comb. like valve of
aluminium, which is connected with
the wood of the instrument near the
bridge and vibrates with the tones
produced by the players bow. The
valve controls the exit of air from
small box fed from the blower into
large spiral shaped trumpet. The
sound waves emitted from the trum-
pet are Identical in quality and
intonation, but richer in tone and
larger in volume than those of the un-
aided instrument; and the device be-
ing adapted not only to the double
bass but to every instrument in the
string band, seems to make possible
a great economy in the number of in
struments needed for orchestral pur-
poses, quartet doing the work of the
sixteen first violins, twelve seconds
and so on.
The lions of East Africa are becom-
ing greatly Interested in railway oper-
atious. The Uganda railroad has 80
small stations in the 5s4 miles be-
tween the Indian ocean and Victoria
Nyanza, and in the last year the ami
mails have Frequently visited these
lonely places, especially Sim ba, which
has only station building with a
water tank and turn-ou The Curl
osity of the creatures is decidedly en-
Hvening to the East Indian station
agents. One lion passed several sue
cessive nights at the Simba station.
walking about, scratching at the office
door, and sleeping on the platform.
The so-caIled Oxford shorthand is
claimed to be more rapid than the
older stenography. To improve its
speed the inventor has devised little
machine which pays out graduated
tape at the rate of a yard a second,
and, each yard having sixty divisions,
this measures the time of the writing
to the sixtIeth of a second, giving the
duration of every detail.
1t is the wireless telephone instead
of the wireless telegraph, that is to
prove of future Importance, if we
may accept the view of Prof. Maichie,
"a prominent Paris electrician. Be
ginning his experiments five years
ago, he used the earth as conductor,
sending telephone messages two
miles; and year later, using the sea
as conductor, he was able to com
municate from TouIon over. the sea to
Ajaccio in Corsica. distance of 1870
miles. In his later efforts the sounds
have been transmitted through the air
without grounding. For this teIe-
phone instrument, connected up with
three-cell battery and a special in
duction coil, was mounted on table
in his garden, and similar apparatus
was placed 100 feet away in his study,
with several walls intervening. Speech
was heard very distinctly. Increase
of power Is expected to extend the
range indefinitely, and greater
deIicacy of apparatus should be
evolved with experience.
The worlds platinum is mostly
supplied ny Russia, but the pro-
ductlon has not been keeping pace
with the rapidly increasing demand.