The Kendrick gazette. [volume] (Kendrick, Idaho) 1892-1968, 1908-05-01
IN Science
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The Importance of the charcoal in
dustry in the United States Is described
In Popular Mechanics. Originally val
ued only as Il heat producer, charcoal
Is now used as an ingredient in the
manufacture Of gunpowder, a decolor-
izer OF solutions, medicine for dyspep-
tics and a purifier of water. AS an
antiseptic and cleanser it's power Is
universally recognized. In hospital II
piece Of charcoal will soon absorb and
decompose obnoxious gases and sweeten
the atmosphere. All these are but
part Of its uses.
What man has learned by dint of
thought and experiment some Of the
lower animals appear to know through
Instinct. An instance Is furnished by
the spiral swimming" Of certain or
ganisms, such as the spherical-shaped
volvox and several elongated infusor-
ians. AS they revolve about the axis
Of progression, as does projectile
fired from rlfled gun, the consequence
is that they are able to travel in a
straight line, as they could not do 9th
erwise, the revolution compensating
with absolute precision for any tenden-
cy to deviate from a straight course.
Without such device many Of these
minute creatures would simply describe
circles. making no forward progress.
The Size Of the Sea.-This refers not
to the area of the oceans only, but to
their total cubic content. which Is reck-
oned by Edward A. Martin Of the Geo
logical Society at thirty times the cubic
content of all the land lying above sea-
level. In other words. If all the land Of
the globe were scraped off down to the
level Of the sea and thrown into the
ocean, 1t would fill only one-thirtieth
part Of the enormous abyss which is oc-
cupied by the waters. According TO
Lyell. the mean height of the land
above sea-level is 1000 feet, whereas
the mean depth Of the ocean Is 1900
feet. There are mountain peaks which
rise as high above sea-level as the de-
pressions Of the ocean sink below 1t, but
the average height of the land is slight
compared with the average depth Of the
sea.
Many projects arc now under way, or
under consideration, for the utilization
Of the numerous sources Of electric
power that are furnished by the
streams descending from the Andes In
Chile. Everywhere in that country
there Is an abundance of water, suffi-
GENTLY constant in volume, and pre-
senting almost any desired amount Of
fall. The city Of Santiago is develop
ing scheme for supplying 10000 horse
power from plant located between six
teen and seventeen miles from the
town. Engineers have recently report
ed in favor Of the Identification Of the
new railroad which the Chilean and
Bolivian governments have undertaken
to construct between africa and La Paz,
and which passes through the Andes.
There Is something stimulating to the
imagination in the thought Of those
mighty mountains lending a hand to
help man surmount their slopes.
It was the invention Of the seismo-
graph for the study Of earthquakes that
led to the discovery of the surprising
sensihveness Of the crust Of the globe
to forces that might have been thought
too Insignificant to cause distortion.
Among these forces is the alteration in
the pressure Of the atmosphere during
the passage Of storms, causing a percep-
tible fitting Of large areas of ground.
A c,rious case Of such fitting in an un-
expected direction has recently been re-
corded by Prof. Omori in Japan. A
storm passing over the sea east of To
kio caused the bordering land to tilt
downward, Notwithstanding the fact
that the atmospheric pressure is les
sened within storm area. This is ex-
planned by the fact that the sea rises