The Idaho scimitar. [volume] (Boise, Idaho) 1907-1908, 1908-01-18


is now in Paris. 1t started mandatory of quill
pens, but when these went out of style it changed
to its present business.
1t would seem that mountain Sickness" supposed
to be due to rarefaction of the atmosphere affects
automobiles as we'll as human beings According to
E. Girardanet, writing in La Locomotion Automobile
motor loses amounts of power at different alti-
tudes, varying from ten per cent at $500 up to as
much as fifty per cent at $4,000 feet
Kear, widely known as a practical magician"
announces that he will quit the platform and
join serious science in its efforts to further exact
knowledge in the realm of spritism Mr. Kear does
not say that he is spirualist, or that he is pos
sessed of supernatural powers, but he does contend
that his long experience in the real of mystifying
trckery will lend to him and his associates pow
erful aid in separating the spurious from the real
Secretary Metcaf is in favor of the of petro-
1eum in the navy where it can be done benehca1ly
Therefore, plans for the new torpedo boat destroy
about to be prepared, will probably include
requirement that they be designed for burning oil.
The fact that the newest British boats of this class
which have attained the extraordinary speed of
forty miles an hour are oil burners, has influenced
Navy Department in favor of the adoption of
liquid fuel.
Today coal is our chief fuel. We are consuming
between 4OOOOOOOO and 5OOOOO0OO tons each year.
1t has been estimated by authorities that at the pres
ent rate of consumption which has been greater in
the last ten years than in the entire seventy-ve years
preceding the anthracite coal will last but trife
over fifty years, while the bituminous coal will all
be gone in between two and three hundred years
In other words, deposits that it has taken nature
thousands millions of years to form are being
destroyed in few generations.
Writing from The Hague correspondent tells
of mantle with history that displayed in the
window of silk and lace shop there few weeks
ago. Of finest lace, all in piece, it was made
for the coronation of the Empress Eugene and
need1ewomen worked several years upon it. An
eminent French artist made the design for the lace
and the sketch was destroyed the pattern
was worked 1t cost something like $45,OOO But
the event for which it was made never took place,
and the Empress wore it only once-at the opening
of the Suez Canal, in 1862 For twentyeight years
it reposed in pawn shop in Athens.
Experiments are being made at the Charlestown
Navy Yard with view to ascertaining the best
means of employing compressed air to operate
new system of ammunition hoists which it is pro-
posed to install upon warships in order to guard
them more carefully against the danger of explo-
sionS from falling sparks. 1t is understood the
armored cruiser New York, formerly flagship of
Rear Admiral William T. Sampson at the battle
of Santiago will be fitted with the pneumatic hosts
and naval men will watch with interest the work
ings of the mechanisms on that ship. If tubes can
be successfully used to bring the powder bags from
the ammunition rooms to the guns, a long step
will be taken to protect the and the ships.