Amador ledger., 1908-10-09


about three -fourths of the space in
this is filled with water, the other
fourth with steam, the pressure being
that of the boiler at the power
station. The superheating of the
water keeps up the steam for a long
time. The Prussian State Railway
has been finding this locomotive use
ful IL covered stations for shunting,
as we'll as for other special purposes,
and in such intermittent work the
machine easily runs four or five
hours, operating we'll even when the
pressure falls to one or two atmos-
pheres, and propeling itself to the
filling tank on one-fourth to one half
of an atmosphere. The retillIpg takes
8 to 10 minutes. Ihe economy of the
locomotive recommends it for various
uses. as it saves the cost of fireman,
avoids loss in transporting fuel,
seldom needs repairs, and requires
no electrically equipped track.
Samples of pure air from height
of 815 miles have been collected by
Teissereuc de Bort, the Freuch in.
vestigator, in his observations on the
rare gases, especially argon, neon and
helinm. The collecting apparatus-a
vacuum tube drawn out to a fine
large sounding balloon. At the
desired height, an electromagnetic
device operated by barometer broke
off the point admitting the air, and
few minutes later second contact
sent a battery current through
platinum wire around the broken end
melting the glass and sealing the
tube. All samples thus obtained
show argon and neon, no helium be-
ing found in air from above six
miles.
In cellit, the perfected composition
of German chemist, Consul II. II.
Nurton of Chemnitz sees material
that must prove of great industrial
Importance. The cellulose acetate of
y
action of acetic acid on cotton or
other cellulose, was compact and
tough but of little use, but new
form OF cellulose acetate has the
valuable property of readily dissolv
ing in alcohol or acetIc ether, and
especially the power of combining
with camphor or other organic sub
stances to form plastic masses like
ordinary celluloid. hese products
ranging from hard and tough to soft,
leatberlike, even rubber-like COM
positions-are cellit. All varieties
are transparent, unaffected by water
tree from brittleness, and, above all,
not readily com bustible. For many
uses, ceIlit can replace glass, gelatin,
celluloid, leather and rubber, and it
offers new possibilities by supplying
a substance hitherto waiting that is
at once as transparent as glass and as
pliabe as a woven fabric. In view of
the reported fires at moving picture
exhibitions. its use for clpemato-
graph films seems to be the most
important application yet made.
The remarkable possibility Of using
leaves as camera lenses was demon-
strated by Prof. Wager at the late
meeting of the british Association.
In many leaves, the outer layer is so
constructed as to act like a convex
lens in bringing rays OF light to a
focus In the Interior OF the Leaf, aud
through such living lenses photo
graphs have been taken from ether
pictures as we'll as from a living sub
iect, aud from land, capes, houses,
trees, aud other objects The clear
dehnitiOn In every case justihes the
claim that tho iplant-cells act as
ethciont lenses.
Each 10 QUO square inches of belt
passing to machine per minute re-
presents one horse power in the rule
that Z. V. Vernon. an English
mechanic, finds to agree with his ex-
perience. This is based on the esti-
mate that the pull of working belt
on pulley is 1916 pounds per inch of
width. Twice this power may he
transmitted by tight double belt,
tut this is regarded as an unwise over
load, though motor aud machine may
have strength to stand the pull,
In favor of an exclusively milk diet
as means of reducing fat, DR.. IT,
Moritz, a German physician, urges
the efficiency and simplicity of this