Amador ledger., 1908-12-11

The ingenious plan by which De-
brix, French inventor, measures
the distance of an invisible vessel de-
Ponds upon the difference IN the
veloclty of sound waves, which travel
about 100 feet per second, and of
is practically instantaneous. The re-
ceiving station-whioh may be a
lighthouse on shure-has train of
clockwork that moves a pointer over
dial one division per second.
sound wave from gun or whistle and
Hert2ian wave are started stimuli
taneously from the ship, and the
Hertzian wave sets the clockwork in
motion, while the receiving observer
notes the position of the pointer
when the sound arrives. The mum Der
Of divisions passed over multiplied
by the sound velocity per second give
the vessels distance. suggestion
is that lighthouses send out uertzian
and sound signals at regular inter
walls, with Distinguishing peculiarities
to indicate the stations, and then
any vessel having the simple re-
ceiver necessary could determine its
position at any time.
a simple method OF obtaining argon
III considerable quantity has been
worked out by Fischer aud RInge,
German chemists A powdered mix
ture of 80 per cent uf calcium car bide
and 10 per cent of calcium chloride
was heated TO 800 degrees g., and
after sufficient circulation over this
pletely absor bed from the air. The
so-called crude argon remaining
.0093I by volume of the air used-was
mixture containing SO 70 per cent
of argon and OBS per cent of helium,
neon, krypton and xenon. In two
days about three gallons of crude
argon was obtained.
Whether warts spread by contact
has been much discussed. A Glasgow
physician mentions that maid with
many warts on hands and arms was
employed in a certain family, and
warts soon appeared on the hands of
the three children. The youngest,
boy of 8, with a habit of biting the
fingers, developed two warts on the
lip and one in the month.
In Germany, where the retail meat
dealer is usually his own butcher,
efforts are being made-as elsewhere
to substitute humane Strengthening for
the old-tine practices that have
caused much suffering. Saxony sis
taking the lead, and now has strict
law forbiddIng bleeding until the
animals have been made unconscious.
Cattle and other animals are stunned
by blow in the center Of the fore
head, usually with something more
certain than the hammer or axe of
few year ago. Many butchers apply
the slaughterlng mask. which covers
the eyes and has a sharp bolt that IS
driven into the brain by a single
blow from a wooden hammer; but
less strength and skill are required
in apparatus using power-on of
these being in the form of tube like
telephone receiver that projects a
bolt when the cartridge is exploded
by gentle tapping, while another fires
a sharp pointed bullet instead of the
bolt. An improved instrument just
introduced into England is the poleax
gun, which has steel barrel in place
of the striking end of the ordinary
poleaX, with a wire through the
wooden handle for pulling the trIg-
ger. In German, Italian and other
cities, abattoirs are public iustitu-
tious, where butchers go to slaughter
their animals under municipal super
vision.
Home made gas from cork refuse is
used by Spanish peasants in the cork
oak region. AS described by L..
Lodian, the process consists in filling
several large tea-kettles with the
waste bark, and placing each in turn
over the fire during the evening,
burning the volatile gas as it escapes
from the spouts. The carbcnzedsre-
sidue forms the fine black brown pig
ment known to commerce as "Span-
ish brown
The punkah, or large fan. so neces-
sary for securing a comfortable nap
in tropical India, is operated by
native servant. Attempts to drive it
mechanically have faited, but sue