Amador ledger. (Jackson, Amador County, Calif.) 1875-19??, 1909-07-02

Heat Engines worked by huDDer--
Country Air for Cities. Nitrogen
Collecting Hairs. 49, The Earth's
Dancing Pole. - Maisine - Search
light Study of CIouds-H Hard Saws.
The simple burglar alarm that has
been under test by the police author
tiles in Dresden and Berlin seems to
have resisted all attempts to pass
without giving warning. 1t consists
of curtain or portiere, wired with
fine conductors connected at certain
places across the door or window, or
around the safe, the slightest distur-
bance throws the knobs out Of con-
tract and breaks the electric circuit.
The alarm may be signalled by a
series of bells, lights or other cleo
tricsl appliances, either on the
premises or a the police station.
Cutting the material or interfering
with 1t in the slightest degree has
instant effect, and the widest burglar
| is unable to enter the premises hav-
ing this apparently trifling protection
without giving notice.
That the snake has a sixth sense,
by which it finds its mate in the
woods and unerringiy trails It's prey,
is the belief of q. X. O'Eeilly, for
33 years a special student of snakes.
The seat of this sense of direction is
supposed to be the curious forked
| tongue, which can have none OF the
uses to which the tongue Is usually
and is necessarily darting about as
| the snake travels. A lizard was seen
| to como from beneath a house in the
woods, take a zIggag course, and dis
appear under box ten feet away.
Two minutes later a black snake ap-
peared, passed over the lizards exact
course, keeping the tongue constantly
seeking the trail. and, darting under
the box, quickly emerged with the
lizard in its jaws. Many other obser-
vations seem to prove that the tip of
the tongue is the guide.
Rubber is lstrongiy contracted by
heating, aud Prof. S. z. Thompson
suggests that it would be possible to
construct a heat engine to be driven
by the contraction of rubber instead
of the expansion of water or air.
In the development of cities, lines
of pipes have been extended to long
distances to bring in sufficient water,
and now it seems probable that cities
may find it necessary to pump 10 air
or otherwise provide artiticialiy for
an adequate supply of oxygen. DR..
Ii. Henrict of Paris concludes that
| it is the difference in the atm osphere
that gives the country dweller
physical superiority over the resi-
dent in the city. His experiments
have shown chat the carbon dioxlde
is constantly greater in the city air
than IN the air of the country Or the
sea. and that in large city. especial
ly if in a valley, the air is stirred by
the winds, but is not renewed as
fast as it is polluted. The air of the
country and the sea always possesses
strongly oxidizing properties. The
air of the city, on the other hand,
exerts deoxidizing action, and the
effect of the polluted vapor is felt in
many ways-in stunted growth. ner-
vous disorders, and even IN defective
vision.
An expected revolution in agri-
culture has been based on the dis
coveIy, long ago made by Hellriegel,
that the root nodules of leguminous
and some other plauts absorb
nitrogen directly from the air. An
other natural method of fixing atmos-
pheric nitrogen has now been pointed
out by Jameson, a British expert
menter, who has found that the hairs
covering many plants absorb nitro
gen. convert it into albumen. and
then wither and become absorbed in
10 the plant. On series of sections,
treated with stains acting on albu-
men, the. microscope traced very
clearly the migration of the nitrogen
taken up. Experiments on various
trees in Hungary confirm the dis
covery and indicate that this way of
plant feeding is very general.
The South Magnetic Pole is descri
bed by Prot. David of Sydney Uni
versity, a member of the Shackleton
expedition, as a point that travels
around with a kind of waltzlng move