Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-08-27
IN, Science
:: sss.lnvention|


Metals get tired as well as living
things, scientist declares. Telegraph
wires are better conductors on Monday
than Saturday, on account of their
Sunday rest, and rest of three weeks
adds 10 per cent TO the conductivity of
a wire.
Alien is the name given to a new
metal, which is composed of two parts
of aluminium and one part Of zinc. 1t
is said to equal cast iron in strength,
but Is much more elastic. Alien Is
superior because it does not rust and
takes high polish.
The singular phenomenon Of hard
steel being cut by a rapidly revolving
disk Of soft steel has been somewhat
puzzling. A microscopic examination
by an English engineer, F. W. Hartford,
has now shown that the metal acted
upon is heated nearly or quite to the
melting point Of steel. but only at the
point of contact with the disk
A section Of the Canadian Northern
Railway, running northwest from Sud
bury and crossing the Vermillion River,
Is unique In that 1t is ballasted with
gold. Every yard Of the gravel used
for ballast has been found to contain
from 80 cents worth to 81 worth of the
precious metal in the shape of fine dust,
and syndicate Is installing machinery
for its extraction.
There was recently brought to the
British museum about half a peck Of
stones asserted to have been taken from
the stomach Of an African elephant.
The stones are angular and unworu.
Other instances of the same nature are
known to hunters The man who gave
the curiosities to the museum has dem
onstrated the existence Of the stone
swallowing habit in crocodiles.
During the year 1907 the Nile reach
ed the lowest level know IN Egypt since
1877 and but for the existence of the
great dam at Assuan and the vast vol
ume of water impounded by 1t to sup
plement the low Nile during the season
Of drought the country would have been
plunged into the horror of a famine.
The year 1907 was the eighth successive
lean year, so far as the Nile flood was
concerned.
So great is the part played by birds
In disseminating seeds and In protect
ing plants by the destruction Of noxious
insects that II. w. Hanshaw reaches
the somewhat astonishing conclusion
that II all birds were exterminated, Lot
only would successful agriculture be-
come impossible, but the greater part
Of the vegetation of the earth would
eventually be destroyed. A permanent
reduction in the bird population, he
says, could not but have disastrous con-
sequences
One Of the most remarkable Of the
high flights achieved by the free bal
looms, now employed in many countries
for scientific exploration Of the upper
air, was made on July %, 1907, near
Brussels. The tandem balloons left the
village of Uccle at Z o'clock in the
anu ohC nun anu SlA
later they had attained an elevation.
as indicated by the self-recording
barometer, of almost exactly 161a miles.
At that point the upper balloon burst,
and the flight was ARRESTED. At the
height of about ~ miles, as usual, the
fall of the thermometer was arrested,
and sudden rise of u degrees oc-
Cured in the temperature. At a little
less than S1a miles an isothermal zone
was encountered, above which another
rise of temperature began, and contin-
ued until the balloon burst. The last
temperature recorded was about IA
degrees Fahrenheit.