Amador ledger., 1909-12-03


have been achieved at Buckenhill, Eng. |
A wind turbine "a feet in diameter is |
mounted on a steel tower IS feet high, |
about ABS yards from the house and 80 |
specially designed generator, with arma-
ture running in vertical position, ad-
apted to a speed variation of 400 to 1900
revolutions per minute. The current
is conducted by overhead copper wires
from The generator at the foot of the |
tower to storage battery of % cells in
an outbuilding of the house. The |
battery is divided into two equal groups |
OF cells, and is designed to feed about
100 Osram metallic filament lamps in
the lighting circuit, besides driving a
50-volt motor for working a chaff cutter,
circular saw, and root-pulping machine. |
The motor is in a shed 80 yards from
the house, connected to the battery by
an underground cable The plant is
entirely automatic and a special tail
gear changes the position of the wheel
when its stopping is desired, and also
when the wind reaches certain prede-
termined velocity. With ball bearings
and gears incosed in an oil bath, the
plant could be neglected for year with
out damage from lack of fabrication.
The apparatus has been in successful
operation few weeks. and has done
wood saving and other work in addition
to lighting the house.
When the making of electrolytic iron
is fully developed, it is expected that
iron objects can be made direct from
the ore in its bed without any necessity
of mining. Iron tubes or plates can be
made by placing iron ore or cast iron in
an acid bath, and connecting it with the
positive pole of dynamo, the negative
electro being lead-covered wooden
core for tube or similar flat surface
for a plate. When the iron deposit is
thick enough, it is taken out, the tube
being heated to remove the core. The
electrolytic iron is very pure and can be
made from poor or iron waste.
The monoplane, it is pointed out, is
better adapted than the biplane for max
ing in small sections to pack in the
aviator's trunk when he goes to his
summer home.
The instructive model of the solar sys
TEN designed by Agnes Ray, British
&c oR mil
miles TO the foot, and she suggests that
the upper classes in any school may take
it to advantage. While she used hol-
low wooden ball for the sun, calico
ball stuffed with hay would serve as
we'll. On this scale, the sun, 800, 900
miles in diameter, is reduced to 10 2-5
inches Mercury, 5000 miles Venus and
the earth each $4,000 miles, to two pin
heads of Ito inch; Mars, 5000 miles,
to 12O inch; Jupiter, 5000 miles,
l-25 inches Saturn, 74,000 miles,
$40 inch; Uranus, $4,000 miles, Is
inch Neptune, 37000 miles, 2-5 inch
The planets are mounted on pins at the
top of of four foot posts, Mercury being
36 feet from the sun, Venus 81, the
earth %, Mars l42, Jupiter 484, Saturn
8S7, while Uranus is 1888 feet away,
and Neptune 2800 The moon, 1000
miles in diameter, is sphere of lao
inch mounted on the post with the
earth at distance of three inches, and
the two satellites of Mars, 8 of Jupiter,
of Saturn, 4 of Uranus, and of
Neptune, are mostly mere specks quite
hear their respective planets, Jupiter
having its eighth moon at the extreme
distance of Is feet On this scale, a
light year is 100 miles. Alpha Cen
tauri would be as far away from London
as New York; and 81 Cygni, the nearest
star visible in the northern hemisphere
as far away as Pekin via New Yor;.
The Milky Way, if correctly assumed
to be 1000 light years from us, would
be- on the scale of the model-about
20 times as distant as the real moon
from the real earth. Giving motions on
this scale, the earth would reVolVe
around the sun l67 times each second
Neptune would make its 3 mile circuit
in one second; and the procession of
the equinoXes would be completed in 2l
minutes.
Fire fighting apparatus on shipboard
is very INADEQUATE, and about 40 vessels
yearly are burned at sea. The use of
incombustible gases from the smoke
stack for smotherng flames is the novel
idea of George Harker, an Australian.
L..