Amador ledger., 1909-11-26

ClOck. k.-EleCtriClty IN Steel making. -
Our Two-Sided Bodies. Using the
Lanterns of Fishes. Surface Wood. -
Weighing the Motormen. - Novel
& Zinc Planting. A Bi, of German
Science. -Coppered Steel.
Calcium cyanamide, or nitrolime,
contains 20 per cent Of fixed nitrogen,
and is prepared by the action OF nitrogen
on a mixture of lime and carbon. Ex-
periments have shown its fertilizing
value to be about four-ffths of that of
Chile saltpeter. Among the newer
nitrous products is nitrde of aluminium,
which M. Serpek, of Mulhausen,
Alsace, makes by first converting
alumina and carbon into carbide of al
uminum in the electric furnace, then
adding fresh quantity of alumina, and
treating the mixture with nitrogen gas.
The resulting mass, with 20 to "a per
cent of nitrogen, can be used at once as
fertilizer, while crystallized nitride of
aluminium has sbeen obtained, with as
much as 81 per cent of nitrogen. This
material has certain advantages, but the
claim is made that calcium nitrate, or
air-saltpeter, ;is in some respects the
most promising of the now numerous
substances fixing the airs nitrogen in
fertilizer. The nitrogen is oXidized in
the electric arc, and it has been found
to be possible to effect the direct alb
sorption by milk of lime of the resulting
gases, thus obtaining calcium nitrate or
calcium nitrate, equal to Chile saltpeter
without further treatment This pro-
cess uses no coal, being dependent on
water-power, and the nitrogen is taken
direct faom the air.
The new universal clock of an English
maker is designed to show the time in
any part of the world. In an aperture in
the fixed dial is revolving disc, turn
ing once each day, and having the "a
hours marked on the outer edge, with
subdivisions into intervals OF five
minutes. Greenwich is painted at the
top of the dial, with the names of other
places so spaced that the correct
differences in time will be shown.
On turning the disk, one can read the
time at any place at a given time in
London, New York, or elsewhere.
OF the 78 electric furnaces now en-
ployed in the world in making steel, 35
are on the induction and 43 on the arc
principle. The size of such furnaces is
increasing, and some recent ones have
capacity of 8 or 10 tons.
1t is sometimes noticed with surprise
that the two hands or the two feet are
unequal, one being larger than the other
or differently developed, and this asym-
metry in the right and left halves of the
body has been the curious subject of
research of Prof E. Gaupp, of Fried
burg. From extensive inquiry, he con-
cludes that the inequality is normal and
a sign of progress-not defect as
Bichat regarded it century ago. The
asymmetry of the head, spine, chest and
limbs is not present at birth but appears,
with adaptation to surroundings, and
each Individual seems to have born ten
dencies to right-handed and left-handed
effort The asymmeIry develops with
the varying use and disuse of the sides.
A marked degree was recorded in the
face by ancient sculptors, but the greatest
inequality represents the greatest ad
vance in evolution, and the brain of
Europeans shows more variation in the
two sides than that of negroes, still
more than that of the anthropoids.
Luminous organs have been supposed
to belong to fishes of the deep sea only,
not to those of shallow waters. In the
Malay Archipelago, however, the
shallow waters of coral reef have been
found to contain two fshes-Anomalop
katoptron and photoblepheron palpeb-
ratus-with a light-giving organ as a
large oval body beneath the eye, and the
light seems to serve in Turing crustacea
and other animals on which the fishes
prey The native Malays actually cut
out the luminous organs to attach to
baited hooks for catching other fish. the
emission of light under such conditions
continuing several hours. DR.. Otto
Steche, the German naturalist who has
just described these fishes, has been
able to keep specimens in captivity, and
has made an interesting study of the
luminous organ.
The wood treating process known as
NSidarizi inniliS claimed 10 have the ad