Amador ledger. (Jackson, Amador County, Calif.) 1875-19??, 1908-06-26

One of the serious dangers of min
ing is the failure of the detonator to
explode the blasting charge. The un-
fired charge is then left in the rock,
and at some later tipe, on being
str uck by a miners tool, it eXplodes,
killing or injuring the minor and any
other persons near A new safety
cartridge is designed to prevent such
accidents. A needle is fitted to
tn he in one end, and after the hole
is rammed this needle IS withdraw
and the detonator is Inserted in its
place, the charge being then fired
electrically in the usual way. When
cartridge fails to explode. it is not
left in the rock. The imperfect
detonator is withdrawn, a new one is
inserted in its place, and the charge
is then fired. Though specially
adapted for coal mining, this inven'
ton is expected to be valuable
safeguard in general blasting opera
tions.
Industrial power from dormant vol
canoes is believed by an Italian
engineer to be simple and practical
matter, which he expects to under
take on large scale. lie has made
prolonged and careful observations
of solfataras, and has found that the
steam, has varied but very slightly in
quantity during period of ten years
or more, and has scarcely changed in
temperature. The steam rises to
heights of 80 to 80 feet, the tempera-
ture ranging from $50 degrees to $50
degrees f..
The rainfall of the continents, after
long collecting of records, has been
estimated to average 30 inches a year.
Ocean measurements are difficult,
but after considering all known facts,
t'ritsche has now concluded that the
entire earth g surface has mean
annual rainfall; of 81 inches. This
means a total fall of 1888 million
metric tons of water every minute.
Modern industry depends upon
science to a degree that is not easy to
estimate, but suggestive hint was
given in recent address by G. b.
Skinner, of the research department
of the Westinghouse Electric and
Manufacturing Company. The in
vestigation of the properties of
materials is probably the most i'm
| Dnrfopt oomparoioI rocoornb
large factory uses a great variety of
materials, the classes employed by
the Westinghouse Company exceeding
500, and the entire resources of
physics aud chemistry are drawn
upon to show what they will do.
New tests are often devised to deter
mine special properties, as in the
cases of metallic tilament lamps and
alloy steels. Other scientific research
of importance is that applied to de-
velOping processes of manufacture
and new compositions for special
work, studying the physical laws
aside from the properties of materials
connected with designs, the testing
of machines, and the examination of
reputed inventions.
For five years tabulated record of
the colors of lightning has been kept
at Epson, Eng, by Spencer G
Russell, and he has made 81 obser-
vations of forked lightning in
thunderstorms and IS observations of
sheet lightning. Great diversity in
color has been shown. Red has been
commonest In forked lightning, with
blue closely following, aud orange
and green least frequent, and white
is seen oftenest Insheet Lighting, red
and yellow coming next. Hail
usually comes in a thunderstorm
with blue lightning
The color of the hair, eyes and skin
is measured by new instrumental
simpIilied Lovibond tintometer-de
vised by j. Gray. The observer looks
at the object under test through
tube, and interposes LoVibond's
standard color glasses in front of a
white surface at one side of the aper-
ture until the glasses transmit a
color exactly corresponding to that of
the hair, eyes or skin. The exact
composition of the color is then OBJ
tanned from the readings on the
standard glasses.
The war against rats is being waged
vigorously in Great Britain, where
the annual damage they cause is vari-
ously estimated aC amounts ranging
from ten to fifteen million pounds
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