Amador ledger., 1908-05-08

Scientific r-PIoduction. 80 AS
bestos tor Walls.
The spontaneous heating of hay bas
been pronounced by DE Boekhunt
and De Vries as purely chemical, but
new Investigation has convinced
Niche that it has a physiological
origin. With a special apparatus he
has proved that sterllized hay never
heats spontaneously, while such hay
that had been sprnkled with water
contaminated by ordinary hay soon
became heated Certain organisms
are concerned, Bacillus coli and
Oidium lactis being chiefly active up
to 20 degrees f., and Bacillus cal
factor being found at greater tenn
peratures. a curious tact is that the
interior of large heated stack be-
comes sterilized by it's own heat.
This is Of great practical Importance
as the sterile hay is much more
wholesome fodder, several common
species Of microbes causing intestinal
diseases, while the molds are dis
tinctly poisonous.
A new fire detector of unusual
kind is fine copper wire encused in
tusible metal, which in turn, is
covered with insulating material and
enclosed in a copper tube of one
tenth of an inch. The tube is strung
like belI-wire or mounted in short
sections on porcelain blocks. When
the temperature increases to the
sensitive temperature 100, 200 or 80
degrees f., - the fusible alloy is
softened and forced through the
porous insulation against the copper
tube, ringing the alarm continuously
until stopped.
An old idea was that red meat
might be injurious sometimes when
white meat would be harmless.
Analyzing raw meats in 1889, Otter
and Rosenquist concluded that there
analyses of both raw and cooked
meats justify Adler in making a dis
tinction. Losing less deleterIous eX-
tractives in cooking, the red meat
may be undesirable in certain mala-
dies, like gout and nephritis
A faint patch of light in the con
stellation AndIomeda, ically
known as 81 Messier is among the
most interesting of sky puzzles. 1t
is a ringed nebula with au apparent
diameter of 2 Is degrees, or four
times that of the full moon, and far
surpasses In immensely any other OBJ
ject in the northern heavens. Vari-
GUS observations have led DIR. j. II.
Gore to some speculations as to its
character. Sir VIM. HerscheI esti-
mated the great nebula's distance at
1000 times that of Sirius, or more
than 1000 light-years, but the lately
determined parallax of Prof. BohIin,
of Stockholm, indicates distance of
about ~ Iight-years. From the
attempts at measurement, DR.. Gore
calculates that the nebula's diameter
must be at least 80, ZOO times the dis
tance of the sun from the earth, re-
quiring more than nine months for
light to cross it, at 1875, 900 miles per
second. Assuming the thickness to
be only one-thousandth of the dia-
meter and the density only one
miIlionth of that of hydrogen, the
mass must be at least eight million
times that Of the sun, and this mini
mum estimate is thought to be fairly
probable 1t is concluded that this
vast body-greater than ali of the
stars combined-must be a part Of
our sidereal system. The idea has
been advanced, however, that j. IS a
separate universe, at least equal to
our own, and that would imply dis
tauco of at least 150. 600 Iight-years
and diameter of 5000 light-years.
Though no textile mill was driven
electrically five years ago, John
Shaw, OF the British thompson
Houston Company, finds that the
electric motors now aggregate 2G, 900
horse power in the mills Of Great
Britain and 10000 horsepower in
the United States. The greatest nd
vantage is the steadiness and uni
formity Of speed, but important also
are the reduction of power transmit
ing devices, less wear and tear, great
er fleXibility, ease of tracing power
costs to each department, and the
Capitalization of power-generating
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