Amador ledger. (Jackson, Amador County, Calif.) 1875-19??, 1909-12-10

form of sport that seems to have scien-
tfic promise, and mountain explorers are
not likely to neglect much longer the
aid offered by balloons in making obser
vatons on difficult peaks In the Alps
balloon journeys are already common.
A French aeronaut was blown across the
Maritime Alps in storm 60 or 70 years
ago, but the first planned mountain voy-
age was made in October 1893, by
Spelterini, who crossed the Diablerets,
10. $50 feet high, in the Bernes Alps.
Since then many of the Alps have been
crossed. most of the successful ascents
having been made, however, from
points within the mountains. 1t was
not until November, 1906, that Usuelli
and Crespi, ascending from Milan,
passed over Mont Blanc (l6, 900 feet) at
an altitude of %, 300 feet, and landed
near AiX-les Bains, thus winning the
prize offered by the Queen Dowager
Margherita of Italy for complete bal
DON crossing of the high Alps. In .the
last two years several notable trips have
been made. On June 20, 1908, Victor
de Beauclair and two companions as
cended from the Eigergletscher station
of the Jungfrau railway, and 20 hours
later landed at Stressa on Lake Maggi
ore, after passage over the most
picturesque part of the Alps, including
seven or eight peaks more than $4,000
feet high. A later mountain flight
covered more than $40 miles.
The uniform mapping of the world by
the leading countries was proposed by
Prof. Albrecht Penck at the Fifth Inter-
national Geographical Congress, held
at Bern in 1891 The plum has been
much discussed, and Germany, France,
England and the United States have
made experiments toward carrying it
out 1t was suggested that The scale
should be to 1000. 900 or about is
miles to the inch, the separate sheets
to be bounded by meridians and parallels.
The newsbarograph of 7. Shida re-
cords the minute and rapid oscillations
of atmospheric pressure by photography.
Records for sTokio show the varying
oscillations in detail, and it is believed
that such observations will in time eX
plain the continual pulsation of the
ground.
The ultramicrosCope, with which
many experiments have been made in
the last few years, shows the presence
of minute objects by converting them
into luminous points against a dark
background, Just as the dancing or float
ing articles of dust in the air of a
darkened room are made visible when
we look across a ray of light entering
the room. The new instrument is
simply an ordinary microscope looking
through an oblique beam of bright light
that strikes only the tiny speckS that
are to be observed The objects thus
Illuminated stand out in the general
obscurity about them and are distin
guishable when less than one two
millionth of an inch in diameter, or SO
times smaller than can be studied by or
binary microscopy The registering of
the life history of microbes among the
red and white corpuscles of the BLOOD
was accomplished by DR.. Comandon by
the ultramicroscope with the
moving picture machine. The pictures
were taken at the rate of 81 a second, |
and when the bacteria and blood-cells in
motion and action were shown to the |
Paris Academy Of Sciences, the views |
were moved along at the rate of 900 |
minute. the objects being magnified |
from 10, 600 to 10000 diameters. This
scene of "microbes at war; is the first |
of many which may be expected to give
us better idea of the invisible living
world around us.
A new Danish material for bricks is
what is known in Jutland as "moler y
a folia.ed diatomaceous earth existing
in large deposits, hut hitherto of no
use. II was tried at first as an ingredient
Of sand-lime bricks, but proved unified
for purpose, and was then used with
mari and red clay by the Danish States
Testing Laboratory, Experiments were
made al last with moler alone. The
material burned to an Unexpectedly fine
red brick, which is very light, with
about the specific gravity of water, and
50 tough that nail can be driven
through without cracking Too porous
or work exposed to water or the
weather., these bricks promise admirable
service inside, as in floors and part-