Amador ledger., 1906-02-09
SCIENTIFIC
MISCELLANY
Reported weekly for the Legder.

a Little Planet That Struck the
Earth.-Stone Gongs. Future Fuel
Materials Not Easily Melted. The
Coming Fad. = A Planet Beyond
Neptune.-Food for Our DESCENDANTS
= Blue Light Anaesthesia. = Sym
pathetic Pendulums.
For quarter of a century museums
and collectors throughout the world
haveseagerly sought specimens of the
meteorlc iron from Canon D1abIo, in
northern Arizona. This iron has be-
come famous from the number and
size of the fragments, from the minute
| diamonds found in some pieces, and
from peculiarities of the locality. II
now appears, from the recent work of
Messrs. ID. M. Barringer and B. G.
Tilghman, that the crater of Coon
mountain, OF Coon Butte, must have
been produced by collision with the
earth of the very large meteorite, or
possibly small asteroid, which these
fragments represent. The inves-
LEGATIONS have shown that the form
alton of the crater and the deposition
of the meteoritic material were sim
ultaneous, that meteoIitic material
has been found 500 feet below the sur
face of the crater's center, and that
sandstone supposed to be in place
exists at a depth of less than 1000
feet. The crater had been previously
attributed to volcanic steam ex-
| plosion.
Some fine specimens of Chinese
sounding stones have been described
by late visitor at Ch'ufu, the birth
place and buriaI-place of ,Confucius
An incense dish of stone rang with
the bell-like tone of bronze on being
struck with stick, two pillars gave
out musical note on being struck at
any point, and large tablet three by
five feet in area and six inches thick
emitted note varying with the
point struck. These 'stone gongs, ~
are found throughout the country,
having been known for centuries.
The material is a greyish oolitic
limestone, and it is said to come only
from occasional veins at quarry a
few miles from Ch'ufu.
Peat covers one-seventh of ireland,
sometimes reaching depth of 80 feet;
the United Kingdom has $4,000, 600
acres, of an average depth of II feet;
Germany's peat covers 11,000 square
miles; and Scandlnavia's supply is
thought to equal 5000 million tons
of coal.
The extreme temperatures necessary
in modern industries have developed
new kind of engineering work in
the selection of materials that are
adapted for containing vessels and
utensils by their resistance to both
heat and chemical action. Reviewing
the refractory substances available,
Marie Augute Moral, a French engl-
neer, finds carbon in the form of
graphite to be especially valuable, as
it resists almost all temperatures,
but it unites chemically with iron
and cannot be used IN work with that
metal. Pure silica is very useful,
though it softens in the oxyhydrogen
flame and unites with alkalies.
More resistant still Is alumina, which
fails only in the electric furnace, and
resists all such corrosive actions as
oxide of iron, to which silica yields.
Chalk, though very subject to chem
ical action, withstands heat wonder
fully. Magnesia, titanic acid and
iron oxide are other simple natural
componds; but the electric furnace
is producing many complex manu-
- that are taking their place tor
practical purposes. In working with
great heat the electric furnace offers
an enormous advantage, as the inten
sity heating is internal, and sub
stances can be acted upon by temper
atures that would destroy the crucible
walls if applied from the outside.
Electric light baths will soon dis
place Turkish baths, IN the opinion
of II. j. Dowsing, the English electri
clan. They have none of the disad-
vantages of the latter, but act as a
tonic, and lack most of the harmful
rays of sunlight. They may be used
at pleasure. The combined electric
heat and light treatment, applied
under medical supervision, is proving
of great value in certain diseased
conditions, and also promises to be-
come popular.
The probable existence of large
planet beyond Neptune was pointed
out by Prof. Geo. Forbes quarter
of century ago. His theory was
based on the orbits of comets, but he
has since noted perturbations OF
Neptune that seem likely in few
years to give good idea of the
position of this unknown body.
Even if the world should not be
fed on chemical products. there is
every reason to believe that the food
of few generations hence will differ
greatly from that of today. As popu-
lation grows we shall doubtless tend