Amador ledger., 1906-05-04

"S 1"ohIAoS LUZ uedGlHS.- as
Food.-Refrigeration by Electricity. =
Hair Whitening. Sandstone Bricks =
A Novel Strike. Metallic Books.
Carbon and energy are the elements
to be figured in estimating the cost OF
alcohol as made by new process al
st. Alban, France. A metallic car
bide yields ethylene when acted upon
by water, the ethylene unites with
sulphuric acid to form ethyl hydrogen
sulphate, and this when acted upon
by water produces alcohol and sui
phuric acid. The alcohol is separat-
ed by dlstillation. The suIphuric
acid is concentrated for use again,
and the metallic oxide from the car
bide is used with more carbon for a
fresh supply of carbide. Thus far the
carbon used has been about four
times the amount theoretically necess-
airy.
The visible radiation of burning
substances has suggested to f.
Streintz. a German physicist, that
slow oxidation should give rise to
some kind of radiation. On investi-
cation, he has found that magnesium,
aluminium, zinc and cadmium emit
some form of radiation, possibly
ultraviolet light, when in gas con
q hot
gives electric charge to the gas; and
that it produces chemical effects, as
on Photographic plates. An exposure
of half minute gave an image of a
magnesium ring on potassium iodlde
paper. When one side of the ring
was raised fiftieth of an inch from
the paper, the image was blurred
toward that side, proving that the
rays do not penetrate more than a
few thousandths of an inch of air.
The snail, 1.-THE poor mans oyster, :"
of France and Spain, is pronounced
very pleasing food when selected
from clean feeding grounds and pro-
perly cooked. Its nutritive value is
100 per cen greater than that of the
oyster, analysis showing that the
solids embrace nearly 81 per cent of
tissue building proteid matter, be-
sides which are per cent of fat and
per cent of mineral substance, in
Guiding phosphates.
The Welsbach mantle transforms the
obscure heat of blue flame gas
burner into luminous radiations,
which are rich in yellow and green
rays, but contain little red. The
similar incandescent mantle of Del
age, French engineer, is composed
of mixture of rare eartbs of which
the highly radiant cerium is chief,
and instead Of the brilliant light it
emits heat, its spectrum being made
up of red and invisible rays. Its heat
Is estimated to be 100 per cent greater
than that of the Welsbach mantle and
40 per cent greater than that of any
other gas burning device. The burn
ers may be arranged on a movable
stand of five or more, or may be
placed in radio incandescent CRATE,
and when warming a room the mantles
are almost non-luminous, while
throwing out horizontally an intense
heat.
Earth eating is still practised in
parts of Africa and South America.
A French naturalist has lately found
that the Indians of the high table,
lands of Bolivia have great liking
for paste of clay, which is some
times mixed with coca leaves, but as
rule is taken by itself in little
dried pellets. Humboldt and other
explorers have claimed that the clay
eaten has certain nutritive value.
Two specimens recently analysed
contained 95 per cent or more of pure
silica, the remainder consisting of
iron oxide, alumina, magnesia and
water, and a specimen examined a
century ago was similar but with
much more iron oxide and two per
cent of copper. Such substances can
have no value as food, while the
copper may be injurious. 1t is point
ed out, however, that they may take
the place of woody fiber in such food
as fish, and Indirectly promote digest
ion by their grinding action.
The direct production of cold from
electricity is problem that cleo
trical engineers are considering
Something may be done by connect
ing motor to an air compressor and
expanding the compressed air into a
cold storage chamber, but this is
costly and cumbrous. We may expect
the electro-chem to refrigerate by
energy from the electric supply mains
through some such direct method as
reversed battery abstracting heat
from the air.
The whitening of human hair with
age has been proven to be due to the
action of phagocytes, the white
blood corpuscles, which devour the
pigment. DR.. E. Trouessalt, the
French naturalist, has found that the
fur of certain mammais-such as the
stoat-is similarly .bleached in winter,
and that these animals do not change
their coats, as has been believed. The
cold in some unknown way causes the
pigment tc shift to other layers of the
hair, where it is devouIed Under
intense cold a small mammal has