Evening star., 1909-06-04


States mints, the showing is probably
even better than these figures would in
dicate. The showing Of the silver in
dustry was not SO good.
The Guayaquil and Quito railroad. in
Ecuador, extending 300 miles inland from
the coast to the capital of the country,
has recently been opened for traffic. This
ago. but it has only been during the last
ten years that it's construction has been
carried on broadly. Part of this line is
over low, fiat country, but the western
slope of the Andes mountains rises
abruptly for fifty miles from the edge of
this tropical strip to a plateau 11.OOO
feet above the sea, and from the top of
this slope to the city OF Quito the coun-
try is not SO rough. The tropical sec
tions of the line were constructed by
Jamaican labor, but the mountainous sec
tion offered such engineering obstacles
that it was necessary to have this work
done by more experienced Workmen, so
that the contract was let to a builder of
the United States. All the supplies. in
cluding cement for the masonry. had to
be transported for the heavy mountain
work by pack trains. The first step in
the construction of this section was neces-
sarily the building of a trail, which in
volved large amount of difficult work
AS it was almost impossible to use any
grading machinery on the mountain sec
ton, most of this work was done by
mana. 1n6 COUlpletlOU u Tic ItIudiIlucT
Of the line provides direct communica-
tion by rail with the sea for Quito and
the surrounding region.
The oil from the fields of California is
thick, heavy. viscous fluid, with an
asphalt base, the output from the Kern
river fields being particularly heavy. 1ne
oil from these fields is so dense. in fact,
that until recently. 1T has been trans
ported almost entirely in tank cars. Vari-
attempts to handle 1t in Ion pipe
lines Of the ordinary type have ben
made, however. but these lines have not
been practically successful for various
reasons. A suggestion to make use OF a
ritied pipe, like that of a gun barrel. was
made, and a thirty-one-mile section built
experimentally. The success attending
this test resulted in an extension of the
rif1ed line. The method Of pumping in
the rifed pipe line is. briefly. to inject
about 10 per cent of water with the Oil
and to give the oil and water centrlf-
ugal motion, by means of the rif1ed pipe.
sufficient to throw the water to the out
side, where 1t forms a thin film OF lubr-
cation between the oil and the sides OF
the pipe that greatly reduces the fric
ton. In fact, the rif1ed pipe operated in
this manner delivers at Ordinary tempera-
lures eight to ten times as much oil, net. |
through long line as does a line Of or
binary pipe under similar conditions. The |
rified pipe line is also operated entirely |
without heating the oil.
London has 54s public schools.
The British Post once Savings Bank
has over ten million depositors.
Frances birth rate has fallen from |
80 to 1914 per cent in 100 years.
England has 100000 acres of land |
available for forestation.
The cost of England's old-age PEN
sions will be about S35 ,0OO, 900.
Fifty years records of criminal sta |
tistics show that thievery has decreased |
40 per cent.
The gross imports of this country for
1908 were $1.116.44O.OS1: the gross ex-
ports were S1.752.S33 PAT. but both are
far below those of 1907. The decline is
but symptomatic of the worldwide
dullness and depression.
During the past year the export OF
electrical instruments and heavy ma