Amador ledger., 1909-04-30

The World TO Insect Senses. Non
Ductile Metal Drawn Into Wire --
Progress In Mapping ALASKA Quick
Dryings OF plastering. Pigeons in
Regular Mail Service--Life's Poten.
TALLY -Ferro -Titanlum Rails With.
out TitanIum. Comets in Moving
Pictures.
The mental processes of the horse
and the dog are those of man in much
lower degrees, in the view of Prof.
N. A. Harvey of Michigan, but the
intelligence of insects must be OF
very different kind The double
nerve cord and ganglia differ both in
structure and position from the brain
and spinal cord OF man. insect eyes
are immovaEIe and compound, aud
perceive motion and color, but not
form. Ants, bees, wasps and 'other
insects have no hearing Taste and
smell cannot be identical with those
senses in man, and feeling is a pre-
ception through touch-hairs instead
of the skin. But insects have very
acute senses that we do not POSSESS.
A cecropia moth can perceive a fe-
male mile or more away, although
man coald not detect it under the
same conditions at a distance of more
than six inches, and ants, bees and
wasps seem to have other senses
located, like this, in the antennae.
Differing from man in general struct-
ure, with shorter lives and different
living, the insects have intelligence
that, though of a high order, is not
easy for us to understand.
A difficulty in making filaments of
non-ductile metals, like tungsten,
has been Ingeniously overcome in a
new patented process OF the Siemens-
Halske firm of Germany. The
tungsten or other filameut metal is
enclosed in thin coating of duotile
metal, and the whole IS drawn
through a die plate until the required
tlneness is reached. The coated
filament, attached to a conducting
support, is then mounted In the lamp
bulb. The air is exhausted from the
bulb, and an electric current is turu-
ed on, when the heat quickly drives
off the ductile metal, leaving the re-
fractory filament.
Since 1898 the U. S. Geological
Survey has made Topographic maps
in Alaska of 12I ,252 square miles on a
scale OF four miles to an inch and g.
1872 square miles on a SCALE of one
mile to an inch; and has made
geologic reconnaissance maps of 99,-
$50 square miles, with detailed geo
logic maps of 1904 Total area, $50,
400 square miles.
The plastering in new houses is be-
ing dried by new apparatus So effect
nally in three days that exception in
favor OF the method is being made by
the authorities in places having Ill
force the German law oTbidding the
use for residence of any house until
it has Eeen built six months. The
employed is coke stove,
with a number of small tubes sur
rounding the tire-b box, and with sup
ply pipes leading dry air from out
side to these tubes. AS The fresh air
rapidly passing through the tubes. |
becomes heated, it rises and passes
along the ceiling ana walls. 1t ab
sorbs and becomes saturated with |
moisture from the pIastering, then |
sinks, enters the fire box of the stove,
and escapes with the coke gases into
the chimney. The current of heated |
day air not only carries OF the damp
DesJ very rapidly, but furnishes an
abundance of carbonic acid to harden
The mortar. The effect is exactly the
same as that OF slow natural drying,
and the rooms are made speedily
labitabIe instead of being, unsafe to
I've in for many weeks.
The pigeonp post is proving a valu-
'ble adjunct of civilization, even in
hese days of fast trains aud steam
ships and wireless telegraphy. Ihe
ISOLATED lighthouse of Maatsuyker
Island is 70 miles southwest from
lobart, Tasmania, in a direct line
md 90 miles by steamer, and since
Ian. u, 1908, twelve homiug pigeons
laVe kept up communication with the
mainland, three being regularly
liberated every three weeks. The
lnnt Lunccnnn LOFT tLn ILnhth n1cn OF 1NI