Amador ledger., 1908-10-02

Typewriting by Air Power. -Simpli-
fed Metal Plating. "A Problem of
Photography. Wheat as Per.
ennial. "A New Piano. Risk OF
Being Buried Alive Musical
Sounds on a Screen. - How the
North Pole Vibrates.
A novelty recently shown at the
Berlin Exhibition of Inventions was
the compressed air typewriter, which
is without springs and levers to wear
out and break, and has 81 per cent
less parts than the ordinary lever
machine. The horizontal type-wheel,
with letters sliding radially outward,
rotates constantly around vertical
shaft. Below the type-wheel, and
rotating with it, is vane, which has
a channel taking air from the source
of supply and branching to the dia-
phragm chamber inside the type
wheel. In It's rotation the vane passes
around the inner periphery of a fixed
ring which has openings connected by
tubes to the keys. Ihe air from the
rotating vane normally passes through
these openings and escapes from the
keys, but when the finger covers the
aperture in the key, the air is forced
back into the tube, and the pressure
produced as the vane passes the closed
tube pushes out the diaphragm, press
ing the letter opposite against the
paper on the platen. Only touch of
the finger is necessary, the air doing
the work, printing the character in
the 1-l20 of a. second. While the
type wheel is operating as usual, an
automatic duplicating attachment
can be made to perforate paper
pattern, and as this is passed over
the keyboard the perforations cause
the machine to reproduce the writing,
any number of successive copies be-
ing possible. Au electric or water
motor gives composed air for a few
cents day.
The new method by which Berlin
company plates iron and other metals
with lead. zinc, tin and their alloys
seems to be remarkably simple and
effective. After the object to be
coated is thoroughly cleaned, the
finely pulverized plating metal, mixed
with suitable liquid. is applied as
paint, which is dried and then fused
by gas-hame or in a furnace. A
pound of the metal paint gives an
even, rust roof coating for nearly
100 feet of old or new surface.
Photography in the dark offers an
interesting field for the inquisitive
amateur. In the experiments Of Dr.
Russell, sensitive plates have been
strongly impressed in total darkness
when placed near or in contact with
leaves, flowers, seeds, stems and
tubers Uf many plants, the exposure
than IL hours, and action being
quickened by heat up to 130 degrees
II. Even leaves that had been dried
between blottlng paper for three years
gave faint impression. Sap is very
active in affecting the plates, as is
also the oil of nuts, especially on
oxidation. Castor oil, however, is
inactive even after months of eX-
posuIe to air. and no effect is pro-
duced by some plant parts-such as
the cotyIedons of beans and the outer
envelopes of some truits-nor by such
su distances as starch cellulose, gum,
sugar, pith aud pollen. That the
phenomena are not due to radio
activity has been proven by the fact
that interposing a sheet of glass or
mica prevents all action. The effects
are ascribed by DR.. Russell to
hydrogen peroxide or dioxide,- -
which many Investigators have found
to be one of the first products of
plant growth. and generated by tur-
pentine and other resins, and is so
active that one part in million
parts of water affects Photographic
plate in ~ hours in the dark.
By ills new method OF wheat
farming, Gen. Levitsky, of the
Russian army, claims to produce an
enormous yield of grain and un-
usually stout straw, and believes
that he has converted the plant into
a perennial, He simply sows single
grains at the bottom of conloal pits
10 tn 13 inches dean The saed ia