Amador ledger., 1907-05-10

MISCELLANY
Reported weekly for the Ledger.

Milk That Keeps It's Cream. -Wha
Runs an Ocean Liner. America Z
Vertical Limits. - Feeding Trees by
Their Trunks. - Tires with Soft
Filling.-A Train. Timing Clock. -
The Butter of Bogs. Casa
Novel Gas Mantle.
Milk on which cream failed to rise
in night has been condemned by a
careful housekeeper, but on analysis
proved to contain as much cream as
milk from another dealer OIL which a
thick layer formed. The former was
a specimen of "homogenized milk, "
now produced by forcing the liquid at
high pressure through fine jets, thus
breaking up the fat globules. Milk
is essentially an emulsion of 80 per
cent of tat in SS1a of water, with
casein and other substances that have
little to do with the separation of the
fat as cream. The fat globules vary
greatly in size-from 254O to 1855
being required to make a row an inch
long, and it has been shown that,
while the largest rise at a rate of
little more than half an inch an hour,
the smallest ascend fifty times more
slowly. In the 'homogenized milk"
the PARTICLES usually nut larger than
1-25, 900 of an inch in diameter, are
too fine to reach the surface at all
under usual conditions.
With steam consumption of fifteen
pounds per horsepower when the
turbines are developing 20, 900 horse
power. the boilers of the new Ounard
steamship Lusltania, it is calculated
will have to evaporate each hour 435
tons of water, which will require fifty
tons of coal--or 200 tons per day.
For an average trip of five DAYS the
consumption will be 5000 tons. In
this time the water evaporated will
be 81, 200 tons, and the weight of air
required for the furnaces will be 84,-
900 tons.
The geological surveys determina-
tion of the highest and lowest land
in the United States is a fresh re-
minder of the smallness uf the verti-
cal range of the habitable globe.
These points are both in Southern
California, only rs miles apart, Mt.
Whitney reaching a foot or two over
IA, 500 feet above sea level. while
Death Valley sinks ZIG feet below the
level.
In recent experiments the artificial
feeding of trees through incisions in
their trunks has given remarkable
results in restoring health and vigor,
and in saving valuable specimens
whose roots had been so weakened Dy
disease as to draw insufficient nour-
ishment from the soil. The death of
many apple trees on the estate of M.
Simon at Allaire, France, was traced
to an affection of the rootlets. 10
treat diseased trees tube was insert
ed through the bark of the stem to
the layers having the sap-vessels. and
liquid was supplied from a reservoir
placed from three to five feet higher
than the hole in the bark. An apple
tree in bad condition absorbed a pint
and half. of water ID twenty-f
hours, then two quarts of liquid
fertilizer containing fifty grams of
sulphate of potash in twelve days,
and afterward dilute fertilizer incIud-
ing nitrate of potash. The treatment,
begun early in March was, followed
by vigorous spring growth, and by
Septem ber new twigs were eight to
ten inches long. Other results show
ed that apparently dying trees might
be restored. An attempt to improv g
cabbages, caulifiowers and potatoes
by the same process, using a q per
cent solution of common salt, gave
products of exceptional size and
flavor.
Tests of the new English tires
known as "elastes,'' indicate that a
set will run at least 10000 miles on
"a horsepower automobile, and
that they will reduce the expense
for tires fully one-haIf. They are
made by filling the ordinary covers
of pneumatic tires with a heat-mlxed
composition of glue, glycerine and
chronic salts. The material solidi-
ties in few days into a soft rubber,
forming a cushion for all roads, and
having entire immunity from pune
ture.
In a novel electric clock of the
Piccadilly Tube, or subway, in Lon
don, the three-foot dial Is divided
into twelve sections of one minute
each, and the single hand tells the
motor-m how long the preceding
train has been gone from the station.
As train leaves the clock starts, and
continues to move forward until the
next train arrives. When this train
goes out, the hand returns to starting
point and begins anew.
Lumps of spermaceti like material
h,1kH