Amador ledger., 1909-05-21

A fertilizing earth filled with
nitrifying bacteria has been oheaply
prepared by the director of the
Prague experiment station, Stoklasa,
and four tons of this novel fertilizer
applied to the acre have increased
crops one-third. This material was
suggested by the somewhat disap-
pointing results of sowing bacteria
cultures direct upon the land. Nitro
gen is asslmilated by plants only in
the form of nitrates, and recent in
vestIgators have shown that the nitI ic
acid is produced IN organic matter in
decay by the agency of certain
bacteria. Stoklasa concluded that
when laboratory cultures of the
bacteria are scattered direct upon
field they become less prolific, while
they are in too small mum ber to ac-
oomplish all that has been expected.
He therefore made a culture liquid
of parts of gluclose, part of car
Donate of lime and 1-20 part of
phosphate of potassium in 100 parts
of water, and added few drops of
pure cultures of Radiobacter and
Aztobacter, very active nitritying
bacteria. When the bacteria had fill
ed the liquid, the whule was sprInkl
ed over a heap of prepared earth,
consisting of $500 parts of ordinary
soil mixed with 30 of dephosphora-
tion Stag and moistened with 100
parts of molasses in 100 of water.
This earth fertilizer was used after
few days, and the results proved that
passing through the two media had
quite aoclimated the bacteria to the
soil of the field.
A decorative table lamp for public
advantages of candles and having no
troublesome wires, is simply an
electric lamp carrying a storage bat
terry. The whole can be set III vase
of cut flowers, and the light, gleam
ing through the flowers and water, is
very soft and pleasing In effect.
"A list of 244 church buildings in
England that have been damaged by
lightning in the last ten years has
been collected by Alfred Hands. He
estimates that 25 or 30 per cent of the
churches of the country have lightn-
ing conductors, and that of the "a
buildings damaged each year not
more than 3 have conductors that
fail to protect.
Monel metal, of which about 300,
600 square feet have been used on the
roof of the Pennsylvania Railway
station in New York, is attracting
much attention on account of its re-
mHrkabIe qualities, as 1t is practically
untarnIs BILE, has a strength COM
parable to that of some grades of
steel, and in rolled sheets is as MALE
able and flexible as copper. 1t is
silver white alloy, containing essen
TALLY about 10 per cent of nickel and
30 of copper, although small quanti-
ties OF iron, sulphur, carbon, silicon,
etc., are usually present. 1t can be
rolled hard or soft, has been made
into castings up to three tons, and at
present is cast in two grades, very
similar to hard and medium cast
steel, with tensile strengths of about
38 and 81 tons. and reductions of area
at fracture of 25 and 80 per cent. Its
specific gravity when cast is 1885, it's
melting point, 243O deg. f. Its re
sistance to corrosion is particularly
striking property, and it is little
affected even in the presence OF
strong sulphuric acid.
The electric ferrybo crossing the
Rhine between Godesberg and Nieder|
dollendorf, accommodates 645 passen-
gers, besides vehicles, and is propell-
ed by two screws, each coupled
directly with 30 horsepower series
wound motor, making 800 revolutions
per minute. The storage battery OF
100 cells has a voltage of about 3O0
and capacity OF 335 ampere hours.
The actual crossing time is about Az
minutes, and after eight trips in each
direction the battery IS recharged at
Godesberg. The same battery feeds
three auxiliary motors on the boat,
one used tor pumping and the two
others operating the landing bridges.
An occasional temporary red blind
ness is the singular defect in his own
color sense reported by q. X. Gibson
to the Royal Philosophical Society of
lA. 4 l. L. a.