Amador ledger., 1909-12-24

The novel hydraulic microphone of
Signor Maiorana, Italian physicist, EN-
braces a small glass tube through which
flows stream of slightly calculated
water Near the top of the tube is
side aperture closed by a sensitive
diaphragm, which is Joined by short
rod to the diaphragm of a telephone
mouthpiece. AS the water energies
from the bottom of the tube it passes
between two platinum electrodes, COM
pleting the circuit between them
Speaking into the mouthpiece sets the
flowing water into vibration, thus vary
ing the resistance between the elect
rodes, and transmitting the sound vib-
rations through the electric circuit
This microphone has been used in wire
less telephony over a distance of ESQ
miles or more. For this purpose. it is
placed in the circuit.of Poulsen gen.
orator consisting essentially of an
electric arc in an atmosphere of hydro
gen, and the electric waves from this
pass from the transmitting antenna to
the air, are caught by the receiving an
tenna, and then passed through a pyrte-
platinum thermopile, setting up a cur
rent that reproduces in a telephone the
sounds or twords transmitted. When
this microphone was tried on the tele-
phone line between London and Rome,
about 1900 miles, conversation was
plainly heard. although the ordinary
microphone does not work at that dis
lance.
The remarkable effects of deep breath
ing, which seem to have been generally
overlooked although we'll known to
divers and others, are found by DR.. D.
F. Comstock, of Boston, to be: Marked
increase in the time the system can do
without respiration; mental stimulation;
a short increase in physical endurance;
and rise in the pulse. In his own ex-
perience, four minutes of enforced
breathing made it possible to hold the
breath 31a minutes, the limit without
the preparation being 56 seconds. An
other person succeeded in holding his
breath five minutes after the preliminary
breathing.
The new German storage battery loco
motive is rs feet long. has two 35-horse-
power motors geared to the axles, and
weighs e tons, including an Edison
battery of SO tons. With a 33-ton car,
it ran 100 miles on single charge.
The Burmese, still without matches
in damp remote parts of the country,
have made the important practical dis
covery that heat is generated by the
sudden compression of air or other gas
An instrument described by Prof o. P
Monckton, of Calcutta, consists es-
sentially of buffalo's horn, with al
quarterinch hole bored nearly to the
bottom and fitted with tight piston. In
a recess in the lower end of the piston
is placed a piece of dry pitch or other
inflammable material. The piston is
then inserted in the horn cylinder
driven down by a smart blow, and
quickly withdrawn, when blowing on
the pitch causes it to burst in to flame,
giving fire to the ingenious Burman.
1t is calculated that if the cylinder is two
inches long and the piston is driven to
within quarter-inch of the bottom,
the temperature should be raised from
80 deg. F., to 100 deg. +. Heat is
given out during compression, however,
and the piston is never perfectly air
tight so that in practice there is loss
estimated at about Is per cent.
The exhaustion of the worlds fuel |
will undoubtedly be deferred by the use |
OF peat to supplement the product of the
coal mines, and this reserve is known !
to be enormous, while an optimistic |
theory suggests that it may be made UNI
limited Ireland alone has $500, 600
acres of unused peat, with depth of l6
to 80 feet II is estimated that the peat
averages 1921 tons to the acre, and
on the assumption that the caloriRc
value is one-tenth of that of coal, this
would equal 1923 tons of coal, or a
total of 5, lO4, 600, 900 tons of coal for
Ireland. At least half of this would be
economically available for steam-rais-
ing 1t is not conclusively proven that
the peat boys can be reproduced, but the
claim is made that in some cases they
increase or 6 inches a year, the
growth depending on the character of
the plants. This suggest that our fuel
supply, after ALL may be made perma- |