Amador ledger., 1907-05-24

The manufacture of the "xyloIin'
or paper yarn of EmiI CIaviez. the
Saxon inventor and manufacturer,
seems to have developed already into
an important industry. The new
thread from wood fiber is not brittle,
can be woven in ordinary looms, does
not shrink or stretch appreciabIy, Is
practically unaffected by moisture.
and is fair substitute for cotton,
jute, linen and even silk. 1t takes
dyes better than most fabrics. Among
its products so far are carpets, rugs,
bagging, outing hats, shoes and
slippers. "linen" towles, certain
wearing apparel, and underclothing.
For garments the woven fabric has
the advantages, in addition to extreme
cheapness of being warm and very
light in weight.
A improved tyre for heavy motor
vehicles, a Scottish invention, has
met with expert approval on trial
runs. 1t has two or more layers of
solid rubber, protected at regular and
close intervals by metal plates, with
slotted lugs working on bolts OF
curved metal plates projecting on
each side of the felloe of the wheel.
Metal pads or treads are inserted in
rectangular openings in the protect
ing plates. The pads, fitting into the
top layer of rubber, are free to move
inward, and have resilient action
impaired to them by the rubber.
There is practically no wear on the
soft parts of the tyre.
No one of the sixty hardening
methods known is adapted to steel of
all kinds or shapes. A new electric
process of hardening consists in con-
Meeting the steel tool to the positive
pole of an electric circuit and an iron
tank to the negative and plungipg
the too in the cal Donate of potash
solution in the tank. When the pro-
per temperature is reached the current
is switched OF, the tool cooling in
the bath. Local heating by electric
arc may serve to temper in spots; and
the electric current may draw the
temper of hollow objects.
That the influence of the mind up
on the body is great and little under
stood, we have had abundant evidence
in the temporary successes and
alleged wonderful cures Of faith
healers and charlatans under many
names. A new work describes some
of the psychological experiments of
Prof. Elmer Gates, showing how
potent Is the effect upon the chem
istry and tissue changes of the human
system. Accurate observations upon
the arm when the thought of the
owner was concentrated upon 1t, re-
veaIed an increase in size and in the
blood circulation, and regular
course of directed thinking for a
certain time daily gave permanent
of the limb. When a
calm man breathed five. minutes into
a cold tube, the volatile constituents
of the breath condensed into color
less liquid. When the man was made
angry a brownish sediment appeared
as result of the changed mental
condition, and in like manner the
perspiration from the skin or exhala-
tion from the lungs gave gray scdi-
meut with sorrow, pink with remorse,
and so on. Injections of the brown
sediment of anger produced nervous
irritability in men and animals.
Hate proved to be accompanied with
a greater expenditure of energy than
any other passion, and 1t preoipItated
several chemical products, of which
a small portion was fatal to guinea
pig. while it was estimated that
enough would be eliminated in an
hour to kill scores of people. The
hate ptomaines, it was concluded, re
present the deadIlest poison known to
science.
The elastic macadam that seems to
be proving so satisfactory as tried ON
Swiss roads is made of tar and gravel,
the latter having a coarseness of one
to two inches. The liquid is applied
to the heated stones in a rotating
drum until a considerable coating is
formed. 1he material is then piled
under cover, and left for eight OF ten
weeks to undergo fern entation, the
process filling the pores of the gravel
and lessening the dust from it. A
Gu bic yard of gravel requires only
about fifty pounds of tar.
Berlin's motor street-sprlnkler
throws spray over a width of 654
feet, moving faster than the horse
watering cart, whose variable pressure
waters only u to 20 feet at most.
Blue light has been used since 1901
by Renard, of the University of
Geneva, and other dentists, but its
action in producing anaesthesia is not
yet understood. An electric lamp of