The Nezperce herald. (Nezperce, Idaho) 1900-1957, 1908-10-08
- SCienCe
! AsMaiveHtion|

The Importance Of the charcoal In
dustry In the United States is described
in Popular Mechanics. Originally val
ued only as a heat producer. charcoal
is now used as an ingredient In the
manufacture OF gunpowder. a decolor-
lzer OF solutions, a medicine for dyspep-
tics and q purifier Of water As an
sntiseptic and cleanser It's power Is
universally recognized In hospital
piece OF charcoal will soon absorb and
decompose obnoxious gases and sweeten
the atmosphere. All these are cut
part Of tn uses
what man has learned by dinf OF
thought and experiment some OF the
lower animals appear 20 know through
Instinct An instance Is furnished oy
the spiral swimming 81 certain or
rxnisms. such as the spherical-shaped
rolvox and several elongated infusor-
lana As they revolve about the axis
Of progression, as does a projectile
ired from a rised gun. the consequence
is that they are able to travel In a
straight line, as they could not DO 9TH
erwise. the revolution compensatins
with absolute precision for any fenden-
~ 70 deviats from a straight course
without such q device many OF these
minute creatures would simply describe
circles. making no forward progress
The Size OF the sea--This refers not
TO thu area Of the oceans only, but 10
their total cubic content. which Is reck-
oned By Edward A. Martin of the Geo
LOGICAL Society at thirty times the cubic
content Of all the land lying above sea
level. In other words. II all the land OF
the globe were scraped on down to the
level OF the sea and thrown into the
ocean. Il would al only onethirueth
part Of the enormous abyss which is oc-
cupied by the waters. According 10
Lyell. the mean height OF the land
above ses-level Is 1000 feet. whereas
the mean depth Of the ocean is 1900
feet There are mountain peaks which
r,ss as high above sea-level as the de
prcssions OF. the ocean sink below Il but
the average height OF the land Is slight
compared with the average depth OF the
sea
Many projects arc now under way. or
under consideration. for the utilization
OF the numerous sources Of electric
power that are furnished by the
streams descending from the Andes In
Chile. Everywhere In that country
thers Is an abundance OF water. sufi-
GENTLY constant in volume, and pre-
senring almost any desired amount OF
fall. The city OF Santiago Is develop
ing scheme for supplying 10000 horse
power from a plant located between six
teen and seventeen miles from the
town. Engineers have recently report
al In favor OF the electrlfcation OF the
new railroad which the Chilean and
Rol,visn governments have undertaken
10 construct between africa and La Paz.
and which passes through the Andes
There Is something stimulating TO the
Imagination In the thought OF those
mighty mountains lending hand 70
help man surmeunt their slopes.
1t was the invention OF the seismo-
graph for the study Of earthquakes that
led to the discovery OF the surprising
sensitiveness OF the crust Of the globe
to forces that might have been thought
too insignificant to cause distortion
Anonx these forces Is the alteration In
the pressure Of the atmosphere during
the passage OF storms, causing percep-
tibls tiltins Of large areas OF ground
A curious case Of such fitting In an I'M
expected direction has recently been re
corded by Prof. omori In Japan. A
storm passing over the sea east Of To
kio caused the bordering land to tilt
downward, Notwithstanding the fact
that the atmospheric pressure Is les
ssned within storm area. This IL ex-
plalnsd By the fact that the - rises