Amador ledger., 1907-07-12

n X
Some Temperatures.
Chromium in a remarkable new
spongy form has been produced by
Blnet de Jassoneix by heating cast
chromium containing fifteen per cent
OF boron IN an electric furnace with
a large mass of copper. The ingot
shows the white spongy metal in the
midst of the copper. When the latter
is dissolved out, the dried residue is
a..brilliant spongy mass of nearly pure
chr omium in the form of inter laced
tilaments or crystallites grouped like
flakes or moss leaves. The
small amount of boron present may
he driven off by heating. The spongy
chromium is attacked more easily
than the ordinary metal, does not
oxidize in air but in flame burns like
finder, glows very brightly in oxygen,
and is attacked by hydrochlorlc and
sulphuric acid but not by nitric
acid.
Among the curious experiments
that may be performed with the flame
tube of UIrich Behn, which was ex-
hibited at the last soiree of the Lon
don Royal Society is that of obtaining
level by means of two gas jets. The
tube, which is of tin about two inches
in diameter and a yard long, has its
ends corked, and a large hole is cut
in the side near each end. Gas is
led through one cork and ignited at
the holes. With the flames SO ad-
justed that luminous tip appears on
each with the tube horizontal,
variation from level of an eighth of an
inch-corresponding to a difference
in pressure of two ten-millionths of
an atmospheric shown.
A novel method of iron-making is
suggested by A. Hiorth as a promis-
ing industry for Norway. The Nor
wegian iron ore is now exported, but
experiment proves that even the IN
saleable low grade ore can be reduced
by the impure graphite of the country
in electric furnaces operated by
water-power, the product being fine
pig iron at low cost.
TO speak of warm bIooded and cold
bIooded animals is now known to be
both unscientifio and lnexact, and
Prof. K. l.. Trouessart, the French
naturalist, points out that the classes
recognized by modern psychologists
are ''homeotherms" and 'pneci-
lotherms," or animals of constant and
those of variable temperature. No
animals are without heat, all being
appreciably warmer than the usual
temper AZURE of the medium in which
they live. In flying insects the
excess of heat may reach I degrees to
II degrees f., while marine inverte-
brates ale not more than few tenths
of degree warmer than the surround
ing sea, but IN all poecilotherms the
body temperature rises or falls with
that of the air or water. Among
mammals the body temperature varies
with species from SO deg. to 102 deg.
F., while in birds it is from 104 deg.
to Ill deg. These temperatures re-
main constant, no matter how great
are the changes IN the surrounding
medium, and an important difference
between the creatures once called
warm FLOODED and cold blooded is
that the homeotherms have an auto
matte heat regulating mechanism.
This acts through the vasomotor
nerves, which control the circulation.
Shlvering is convulsive movement
of the muscles that warns the body,
and cooling off is effected by lncreas-
ed evaporation through the sweat
glands, as in man, or through accele-
rated respiration, as in dogs and
birds.
An apparently moonless Jupiter is
the curious astronomical event that,
according to French astronomer,
may be seen from favorable points on
the evening of October Sd. In ordin-
airy telescopes four satellites are
usually visible, but for ten minutes
on the evening named all will vanish,
three being behind the planet and one
in front. Only Eastern observers
like those IN ASIA and Australia can
witness this rare phenomenon.
The new bullet of Signor Gel
Reigotti has screw-shaped point,
which increases rotation. German
tests have shown that this increases
the range and gives a tiatter traiect-
DRY than that of the ordinary rifle
ball.
Investigating leakage of current
from the negative cable of an electric
tramway in Liverpool, DR.. Bassett
has found that the top of the wooden
trough carrying the cable had been
burned through and material had
leaked in that had formed a hard
alkaline crust on the wire. Hydrogen
was given off on contact with water