Alaska sentinel., 1906-11-08
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ed with awe the turning red at long intervals of Lake Moret in Switzer land. Botanists have now shown that the phenomenon is due to a plant which propagates every tenth year and which, though very minute, grows so rapidly that the whole lake is soon turned crimson.
 While George W. Stevens, many years ago, was repairing the road in front of his house in Bolton, Vt, he hung hoe in tree and forgot 1t. 4 few days ago the tree was cut down and, when sawed up, the blade of the hoe, with the exception of a part of the crook and the handle, was found embedded In the body of the tree, hay. Ing been covered by the wood and bark by natural growth.
 The motor cultiyator of Prof. T Hudson Beare, Scottish mechanician Is designed to do all the work of pre-. pairing the ground for seed at one operation. It can be driven at three times the speed of the ordinary blow and each trip covers three times the breadth of the usual furrow. and well pulyerzes the ground. By a simple attachment the sowing also can be done at the same time.
 Of thirty accidents from electric shock In Switzerland last year, twenty. one were fatal, while Austria had but six fatalities in fifty-six cases. A fifth of the accidents were from currents of 250 volts or less, and a mason was killed by a 120-yolt three-wire supply, while In another case shock from twenty-six thousand volts did not kill Of fifteen attempts at resuscitation, only one was successful.
 A remarkable hair ball from the stomach of a young girl has been brought to notice by Prof. von Bra mann of Halle. She had a habit of swallowing ends bitten from her long hair, forming In time bulky accumu. lation, though felt only as slight pressure, and when the mass was re- moved by an operation 1t was found to have shaped Itself to the cavity, like a cast in mold. Iron tonics had changed the light color to black.
 Prof. Elihu Thomson says that ex' pertinent has proved that alcohol, pro- vided 1t can be made cheap enough, is entirely suitable as a fuel for internal combustion engines. Although the heat Ing value of alcohol is much less than that of gasoline, yet gallon of alco- hol will develop substantially the same power as a gallon of gasoline. because of the greater efficiency of operation Less heat Is thrown off in waste gases | from the alcohol, and mixture of al l cohol vapor with air stands a much | higher compression without premature explosion than does a mixture of gas oline and air. In fact, Professor Thom son says, the efficiency, or the ratio of the conversion of heat units into power, Is probably higher ln the alec hol engine than In engines operated with any other combustible.
 The principle of the rihed gun has recently been applied to pipes foi pumping oil. The crude oil of Califor nla is mostly thick, viscous, and diff cult to pump through long lines. Heat ing cannot be successfully applied tc long pipe, and mixing with watel results In an emulsion from which the oil cannot be readily separated. The latest scheme for dealing with these viscous oils comprises a pipe rlfed or the inside, so that the oil, mixed witt about 10 per cent of water, is caused to whirl rapidly. The water, being heavier than the oil, seeks the outside and forms a thin film. which lubricates the pipe for the passage of the oil The friction Is thus so far reduced that the oil has been easily pumped through a line thirty-one miles long The water and the oil come out entire ly separate at the end of the line.