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

A New Fog Sounder. Health His
tory in Hair -Odors. = A TroIley
Station Indicator Another ExpIod
ed Myth "A House That Crew. The
Lottiest Kite Flight. Failure of Gas
Mantles.-Electric Heat Economy.
Black Diamond Jewels.
Ihe teIemobiloscope, designed by a
dusseldorf inventor, for enabling a
pilot to detect ship near at hand in
fog, depends upon the fact that
electric waves are reflected when they
strike metallic object. The appar-
atus consists of long box or tube
piFoeed at one end and open at the
other, containing a spark generator
near the plvoted end and two lenses
for collecting the electric waves into
bundle. A suitable motor turns
the box horizontally on the vertical
pivot. AS the box, slightly inclined
toward the water, is swung around.
The electric waves are projected out
ward, and if they strike an object
containing metal they are reflected
back, acting upon receiver similar
to that used IN wireless teIegraphy.
This receiver is influenced only by
return waves. When a vessel is dis
covered, the apparatus is turned until
the reflection is strongest, when a
good estimate of the distance can he
made.
Ones hair, if never cut, would
tnrnish record of his health during
life. This is the interesting discovery
OF Matsura, a Japanese Psychologist.
who shows that the hair-Iike the
fnger-nails grows smaller in
disease, and that the duration of the
malady may be estimated from the
length of the thinner section of the
hairs. The variations are most strik
ing in the coarse haired races of
people.
If odors were solid PARTICLES they
would tend to form nuclei of cloudy
condensation in supersaturated air.
Dr.. John Aitken has tested musk
and twentythree other odorous sub
stances without finding such nuclei.
and he concludes that odors are CASE
Gus and that smell has gas as it's fun
damental ..basis.
A novel electric station indicator,
the invention of a Danish engineer
is IN use upon a Berlin tramway. The
apparatus is contained in a glass-faced
wooden case, and shows the name of
the next station in a conspicuous
place over the door of the car. The
names of the stations are on roll OF
paper which is moved over two drums
by a clockwork motor, ratchet
wheel stopping the roll at each name,
At proper places along the overhead
wire are annex wires or bars, and
when one of these comes in contact
with tongue or extra wire on the
trolly pole, a current impulse passes
to an electro magnet, which releases
the ratchet and allows the cylinders
to move forward to the next stop.
showing the station name next in
order.
A curious victim of hasty conclusion
seems to be the kea, whose extermin-
alton is likely to result from Its rep
utation throughout New Zealand as
a sheep-killer. 1t is generally be-
lieved that this parrot kills many
animals by cruel way of pecking
into their sides, but recent careful
investigation fails to give the slightest
evidence of this habit. The investi.
gators decide that the birds Ill
repute has arisen from It's inordinate
curiosity, somebody having jumped
at the Inference of slaughter when it
was simply inspecting a dead carcase.
A singular maple tree on the left
bank of the Oder, in Germany, is at
least century old, and has been
twisted and cut into a kind of CIR
cular house of two stories. A firm
Ieaty floor has been formed by causing
the branches to become gradually
woven together. Above this is a
smaller second floor, similarly form
ed, and the ends of the branches have
been woven into solid walls, in which
eight windows on each story have
been cut.
The highest kite ascent was lately
made at Lindenberg, Prussia, q, 100
feet being reached, with six attached
kites and $1,000 yards of wire. The
temperature fell from Al degrees at
the surface to Ii degrees below zero;
the wind-1S miles at surtace-was
56 miles an hour at highest point.
In using incandescent mantles for
gas lighting, the illumination is
found to increase tor a time, then
it steadily diminishes. The rise at
first is thought to be due to gradual
shaping to the flame, and the sub
sequent gradual failure is attributed
to two causes. Dust PARTICLES of
silica drawn against the mantle by
the air currents form infusible
silicates of small Illuminating power
The more important cause of degener-
alton, however, is the slow volatiliz-
alton of the cer1a, to which the in
candescence is due. The amount OF
moisture in the air has slight effect