Amador ledger., 1908-08-14

The gas turbine has made such re-
cent progress that it promises to take
its place as one of the successful
motors. Such an apparatus requires
com bustion chamber, IN which the
temperature rises above 300 degrees
f., and from this chamber the pro-
ducts of the combustion of liquid
hydrocarbon fuel are delivered at
constant pressure through carborun-
dun nozzles to the blades of the tur-
bine. Besides refractory lining of
carborundum, the chamber has a
water jacket coil to keep the gases
cool enough for safety to the turbine
blades. The problem of making the
machine itself supply the compressed
air needed to feed the combustion
chamber has been tentatively solved,
and large turbine that has been
built drives a rotary compressor with
an expenditure of about half of Its
power, yielding, besides about 800
horse e-power when running at 1000
revolutions per minute. Some tuI-
bines of 40 horse power have been
actually put to work. special applica-
tion having been found in operating
submarine torpedoes. The turbine
alone weighs about 2.s6 pounds per
horse power.
A poison having the popularity of
being fatal only to the rat tribe has
been discovered in the English sea-
onion or squill. Testing Its etfici-
ency, German Investigator ground
some sea onions with potatoes, and
fried the mixture with fat to Crisp
cakes. This food surprised him by
killing 43 rats in his stable the first
night. Remaining rodents we're shy
OH following nights, but after three
months a second trial destroyed 80,
and no signs OF survivors have since
been seen.
The most complicated watch ever
made, the work of Louis Leroy, gives
20 different indications. 1t has two
dials, and the mechanism, in four
layers, contains 975 different pieces.
While no reliable estimate can be
made of the worlds resources IN
water power, DIR. Rehbok, of the
Technical High School Fredericiana
in Karlsruhe, concludes that the
nfIx io hon Hioi oll
needs now evident. Theoretically,
the energy of the flowing water's on
the earth's surface aggregates 5000,
600, 900, 600 horse power, or 143 horse
power per square mile, and horse
power per inhabltant. Even taking
the utilizable quantity at one
sixteenth of the total. an estimate
regarded as much too low there will
be 500. 900, 600 horse power, or horse
power per square mile, which Is ten
times as much as the equivalent of
the 1000, 100, 600 tons of coal con-
sumed in 1907. Though the world IS
supply seems thus assured, some
countries have deficiency, and the
apparently available 100000 to q
800, 900 horse power in Germany can
not meet even the present demand.
Not even approximate dgures can be
given for the United States, though
the following data are supported by
| information from the best sources.
New England has developed 1,OOO,0UO
horse power, which may be ultimate
ly increased to ! 800, 900 horse power;
the Great Lakes region has ], ,250, 900
present horse power, with 4,0UO,O0O
pussibls; the Piedmont region on the
Atlantic aud South Atlantic slopes,
! $50, 900 present, 3,0o0,000 possible
the Central Northwest, 500, 600 pre-
sent, l,0O0,00 possible; the Rocky
Mountain and Pacific regions, l,5U0,
900 present, 8 600, 900 possible.
The forcing of wheat and other
crops by electricity has been carried
on at Bevington, Eng, for three
years, under the direction of h son of
Sir Oliver Lodge. A plot of 1919
acres is covered by network formed
of number OIL lines of stout tele-
graph wire with thin galvanized iron
cross wires, the whole supported on
% larch poles 10 feet high; and a
2 horse power oil engine drives
dynamo generating current that is
transformed to about 100, 600 volts,
aud is connected by the negative pole
to earth and by the positive to the
overhead wires. specimen crop is
35H bushels per acre of Canadian