Amador ledger., 1906-01-26


a Paradox of Our Senses. National
Longevity.
Red noses are due to enlarged blood
vessels, which result from various
causes, such as very slight freezing,
and are much less often produced by
drinking than is generally supposed.
In the improved process of Prof
Lassar, of Berlin, the blood vessels
are reduced by p1ickings with little
hammer of about forty platinum
needless. The instrument is driven
by an electro motor, and causes free
bleeding in few minutes, six or
eight sittings, at the rate of one OF
two per week, bleaching the brightest
nose to its normal color. The prick
Ing-which may be combined with the
use OF gaIvano, causticaL or elec-
trolytical needless-may serve also
for removing birth marks and other
blemishes of the skin.
Gold has been easily distilled by
Henri Mossan in the electric furnace,
its boiling point being higher than
that of copper but lower than that of
lime. In cold tube, the vapor con-
densed partly in the form of moss
gold, partly as microscopic crystals,
the general properties being those of
finely divided gold. In alloys with
copper and tin, the gold distiIls over
last. On distilling an alloy OF tin
and gold, purple of Cassius is
obtained in the dry way.
A remarkable effect of pile-driving
was lately observed at Rotterdam.
On withdrawing some piles that had
been rammed through quicksand by
$50 to 200 strokes per minute, the
points we're found to be charred by
friction and they ignited. spontane-
ously on contact with the air.
A family luminous mist in the bulb
and on the fingers has been noted by
Prof. Sommers on rubbing electric
light bulbs that have been not long
in use. No satisfactory explanation
has been given.
A novel flame arc, accidentally dis
covered by Prof. Birkeland of Christ
iania University, has led to the con-
struction of a special electric furnace,
and this gives promise of making
Norway the center of an important
new industry. In the new furnace,
the electrodes are arranged equator
tally between the poles of a powerful
electro magnet, when disc-shaped
arc of remarkable stability is produc-
ed. This flame arc has powerful
effect in various reactions, but is
particularly efficient in causing the
chemical combination of the nitrogen
and oxygen of the atmosphere. EX-
periments with this method of fixing
nitrogen have now been in progress
for two or three years. A commercial
stage was reached a few months ago
with the opening at Notodden of a
factory having three furnaces of $50
horse power each, and since then the
air has been drawn upon for pToduc
ing a supply of nitric acid, calcium
nitrate and calcium nitrite. The
calcium nitrate has proven equal to
natural saltpeter as manure, while
the nitrlte is valuable for making
dyes. The process has proven so
successful that a factory using 30, 900
horsepower is already projected, and
Norway's waterfalls may be expected
to furnish our plant food as Chile's
store of natural fertilizer disappears.
1t is now possible to hear and see
plants grow. In the apparatus of two
Germans, the growing plant is con-
nected with disc having in its center
an indicator which moves visibIy and
regularly, and this movement, magni
fed fifty times over a scale, shows
the progress in. growth. When the
disc and indicator-which are of
metai-are brought into circuit with
an electric hammer, the current
being interrupted at divisions of the
disc, the growth of the plant is per-
ceptIble to the ear as we'll as to the
eye.
The layer of the sea taken up by the
clouds each year is now estimated at
fourteen feet in thickness. The
winds carry the clouds to land,
where the water falls as rain, to find
its way in due time back to the ocean.
A chain cable just completed at
Pontypiidd, South Wales, for Gun
ard steamship is the largest ever
made. The iron is 334 inches in
diameter at the smallest part of the
link, and each link is about 2214
inches in length, weighing, with the
steel stud, about 160 pounds. In
test of three links, a strain of 1888
tons elongated each link about d
inch. The full power of the testing
machine, believed to have given a
tension of $40 tons, was applied with
out breaking the sample, which thus
endured a test about 80 per cent higher
than the usual requirement. The
same makers furnished the cables OF
the Great Eastern, which had the
unprecedented diameter of "a inches
The physiological zero, or the
temperature that seems to the human