Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1909-04-08
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Japan has thirtytwo time piece fac
tories, which turn out annually goods
valued at nearly SS00,0O0, the latest
figures being 200, 1872 standing clocks.
AL, 755 hanging clocks and 25,360
watches.
Prof. Louis AgassiZ, many years ago,
first announced that the ice sheet, or
glacial flow, at the northwest of Maine
could not have been less than a mile
deep; while later biologists have con-
firmed his statement, adding the more
recent conclusion that the ice was of
that thickness at least over the larger
part of New England.
From calculations made by Prof. II.
c. Wilson, which are quoted in Nature,
there seems reason to suppose that the
conditions under which Halley's comet
will return to US in 1910 will be much
the same as those under which it ap
peared in 1906. 1t was then one of
the grandest objects which ever ap-
peared in the heavens. and made a ire
mendous impression upon the medieval
world.
A great deal of attention has recent
ly been given to the cultivation of rub
Der, on account of the continually in
creasing demand for it. Prof. Francis
E. Lloyd points out that 1.-The ineivt-
able struggle of man with nature" has
already manifested itself in this new
field. Already a considerable number
Of parasitic enemies have been discoy-
cred whose energies appear to be
largely concentrated upon cultivated
rubber trees" 1t is another problem
for science to deal with
The growing industry of extracting
aluminium has stimulated the search
for water power In the British Isles
because the extraction of aluminium is
so expensive that only low cost power
can be economically employed. In this
| respect Scotland, with its mountains, Is
coming to the front. The water power
plant at the falls of Foyers In Scot
land, has hitherto been the largest In
Great Britain; but now a still larger
plant, at Kinlochleven, utilizing the
| rainfall over a tract of % square miles,
| is about TO be put into operation for
| the production OF aluminium. It's nine
| hydraulic turbines, each of $500 brake
horse power, are the largest water
| wheels in the British Isles.
| Prof. Edward L. Nichols. in his ad-
dress as retiring president Of the Amer
| lean Association for the Advancement
| Of Science, used these suggestive SEN
fences: with the development of the
| doctrine Of energy has come the con-
| ylction of an end OF the world. inevita-
| Bile, as the death of the individual Is
inevitable. In neither case, however,
Is longevity to be regarded as neces-
sarily beyond human control" Profess
sor Nichols then went on to say that
biologists are beginning to intimate the
| possibility. remote but thinkable, Of d
bodily life. and that it is equally con-
ceivabe that the human race may so
modify and control conditions as great
| " to prolong its career. The means 10
checking of wastefulness affecting ami
mails, the soil, the forests and the
| streams: the solution of the problem
| presented by the gradual exhaustion of
natures supplies of coal and petroleum
and the search for ways to utilize, in
| the form of mechanical energy, the
| radiation of the sun.