Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-02-23

is opened and the food, cooked by the
retained heat is ready to serve. The
new fireless stove not only stews and
boils but roasts. These are done by
the use of a heated stone. This stone
is thoroughly heated in an oven over
gas or any fire and placed in the cooker
with the steak or roast. The box is
sealed up and left for an hour OF so, as
required, then opened, and the food IS
fully prepared and hot. In the double
boxes all three processes may go on at
one time without care or difficulty.
s
The mysteries of the moth and the
flame are solved by Prof. jacques Loeb.
The moth, like many other insects, flies
to the flame for the same reason that
the sunfiower and other plants turn to
the light. Heliotropism is the awe
some name in which this tendency of
plants and animals rejoices. 1t explains
also the merry antics of a June bug, as
well as the apparently aimless squirm-
ing of new born vermln.
Insects move in the direction of the
light rays that fall upon them. Change
the position of the light and the insect
changes his position. Expose the insect
to diffused light and it will move to.
ward the brightness with measured
pace and slow, but expose him to a
brilliant glare and he hastens with
cheerful dldOi n.y. iielt 10 "AiS
insects futter gayly about in the direct
sunlight. Heliotropism actually aids
an insect in it's struggle for existence,
Certain caterpilars, just after they
are Matched and when they are raven
ously hungry, are compelled by the
mechanical effect of light to crawl to
the tips of the branches, where they
find their first nourishment in tender
buds. After their first meal the cater
pillars lose much of their sensitiveness
10 light. Their heliotropism explains
much that has beer attributed vaguely
to instinct Prof. Loeb ventures the
idea that the periodic migrations of
many animals, such as those or the
spring and summer flights of birds of
passage, may also be attributed in part
to heliotropic irritsbility
81
Radium's latest miracle is the dis
covery by Prof. Frederick Bordas of
the College of France of process by
which ordinary adamantine spar may
be converted into rubies, sapphires. to-
PAGES and other gems by exposure to
the action of radium. The discovery is
the scientific sensation of the moment
in Paris. 1t was suggested by the fact
that the minute glass tubes in which
radium is confined and kept for scien-
tific use take on gradually beautiful
azure color resembling the sapphire.
Prof. Bordas placed crystallized spar of
several tints in contact with minute
tubes of radium, laid them away in
dark place not subject to the changes
of temperature, and found after lapse
of several weeks that the white corun-
dunn had become yellow like the topaz,
the blue crystals had become green like
emeralds, and the violet had turned to
blue like the sapphire. Prof. Bordas
took his newly created gems to lead
ing lapidary jeweler, from whom he
had purchased the crystals. The jew
eler identified and tested them and
found that they had been converted
into a topaz, a ruby, and sapphire
which fulfilled all the tests ana require
ments of natural stones.
s.
The British Coast Erosion committee
reioices over the discovery that the sea
has added S0.752 acres TO the British
isles in tenty-five years and carried
away only 419 acres. The land cut on
has been valuable, however. while the
sandbanks added may remain useless
for many years