Amador ledger. (Jackson, Amador County, Calif.) 1875-19??, 1907-12-20

Picture Ielegrapny.- A Sensitive
Photometer-The Modern Alchemy.
Wire Gauze for Stopping vapor.
Just as the conversion of peat into
coke and valuable y-products seems
to have become practical success in
ireland, the use of peat for producer
gas gives promise of Transforming the
moors of Germany iuto centers of in.
dustry. Peat taken out il excavating
the Macard canal is to be used first in
DR.. N. Carols plant for Classifying peat
and waste coal in a mixture of air and
superheated steam, and it is calcu-
lated that one ton of crude wet peat
will yield &c pounds of ammonium
sulphate, worth 81. 70, and ss, 25O cubic
feet of gas, suitable for driving gas
engines and capable of producing 6UO
horse power of energy. Drying and
pressing the peat will be avoided,
while the production of ammonium
will ensure alone fair return on the
outlay Removing the peat will not
convert fertile region into wilder
ness, as coal mining often does, but
stripping the barren moors will
change them into fine farming land.
While ancient coins and medals are
numerous, the only genuine antique
die known seems to be that found at
Tel FL Athrib, Egypt, in 1905. Prof.
Z. Zenghelis reports that this is of
bronze, 2 inches high and six ounces
in weight, dates from 43 to 322 BIC,
and the base is engraved with the owl
OF the AChenian tetradIachma pieces.
The alloy seems to have consisted of
about 70 per cent of copper and % of
tin. The die is evidence of great
metallurgical skill-the unusual pro-
portion of tin being necessary for
hardness, while the extreme purity of
the two metals gave the necessary
malleability.
Another old belief has been dis
proven-great pythons and other SER
pents in the London Geological Gar
den being no longer given live food,
but eating with avidity dead rabbits,
pigeons, fowls and goats.
The underground electric furnace
promises to work quite revolution
in mining. AS made for the gold
mines of the Rand, in South Africa.
the furnace consists of tank lined
with heat-preof material, with an in
terror iron crucible similarly lined.
and the crucible contains neutral
salts that are instantly fused by the
current and form a bath in which
metal can be heated to high degree.
Two electrodes on each side, con-
veying monophase current, are con-
nected with special transformer that
gives precise regulation of tempera-
ture to any point between $50 degrees
and 1400 degrees c. The furnace is
designed for drill sharpening, and it
offers important advantages, not least
OF which, 1t is believed, it that of
permitting the best grades of steel.
which ordinary sharpening affects
inJuriously although not acting upon
cheaper steels. There is little loss of
heat from radiation and great gain in
rapidity of working, and the appar-
atus is useful for annealing az we'll
as hardening. The fused salt not
only does not attack the metal but it
forms coating that resists oxidation.
In transmitting pictures by wire.
Prof. Korn, of Munich, seems to have
been the first to achieve practical
success, but other inventors are aid.
ing in bringing the art to a high
stage of development Already Prof.
E. Belin, French engineer, claims
better definition, sending the image
OF carbon print in relief. The
photograph is mounted on a rotating
cylinder. and a finger following its
contour introduces resistance into
the line circuit and thus shifts an
oscillating mirror at the receiving
end. The mirror focuses light on
hole l-l50 of an inch in diameter in
contact with sensitive film on a
second cylinder rotating synchron-
ously with the first. The light is
varied in intensity by the shifting of
the mirror. and, aided by screen of
graduated tone, gives variations on
the film corresponding to the varia-
tions in relief of the carbon print.