Amador ledger., 1909-07-16

Whether railways shall use steam or
electricity is problem that Prot. W.
r.. Daily, British engineering
authority, believes must be deter
mined by the speed desired. For or
binary service, with trains not ex-
ceeding so or 55 miles an hour, there
is no more economical apparatus than
the steam locomotive, but in gaining
the great additional power necessary
for higher speeds, the electric motors
have the advantage of being free
from the dead weight of the steam
locomotives. The largest steam
locomotive now used yields little
more than 1000 horse power. An
electric motor of Is horsepower can
be attached to every axle, and an or
binary train can easily utilize 12,000
horse power. With this electrical
equipment, the train can travel 100
miles an hour, with weight of 1,2U0
tons. The enormous power must be
supplied by the generating station,
however. and between station and
motors is a large investment IN
copper, while roads must eliminate
present curves before cities 100 miles
apart can be connected by trains
running in au hour. The high speed
electric trains are practicable il pas
sengers will pay two or three times
the present fares.
The new ships rudder that has
given remarkable results on motor
boats is in two hinged halves opening
like book. When closed, it Is an
ordinary rudder; but when the wings
are open, the water from the cork
screw action of the propeller strikes
the fat surface, which acts so power
fully as brake that the boat can be
stopped with the engines still racing
full speed ahead. With the rudder
halves opened little more. so rs to
ipclin forward, the vessel actually
begins moving astern with Ethe pro-
peller still running ahead.
A remarkable popularity of man.
ganese steel is its almost complete
lack of magnetic properties A bar
was not drawn out of balance by a
powerful electromagnetic, bat when
hammered into very thin toll the
steel was lifted by the magnet.
The coruse of an aIrship results from
both the forward motion due to the
propellers and the drifting motion
that may be set up from any cause.
and to determine the true direction
at any time the Siemens Brothers of
Berlin have devised novel and I'M
portant special instrument. 1t is a
com bination of horizontal aud verti-
cal telescopes mounted to rotate
around a vertical axis. "A prism re-
fleets the images formed by the vertl
cal telescope into one-halt of the field
of the horizontal telescope, the i'm
ages of the latter filling the sother
half OF the field of view, and lines on
the prism run ia vertical planes
parallel to the axis of the horizontal
telescope. AS the balloon moves
along, object on the earth's surface
cross the field of view. The appara-
tus is turned on It's vertical axis I'M
til these objects seem to be travel
ing in the direction of the lines in
no npiG
cope Will then point forward or
hack ward as required -aIong the
horizontal direction in which the
balloon is moving. The point on the
horizon corresponding to this
direction can be viewed through the
eyepiece of the telescope.
One of the late substitutes for
India Iubber-patentend ia Great
Britain and Germany by A. G. In
rig-is produced by MIXING certain
chem icals with animal refuse CON
aiming gelatin. Good results are
obtaiaed from 100 parts of animal
refuse. 80 OF water, and 20 to 90 of
oil, which are stirred together for an
hour, when potassium hichromate
and sodium stannate are added in
the proportion of per cent OF each.
The liquid is then heated to 2l2 deg.
T.. for five minutes, or until sut-
ilciently pasty, when 1t is poured i'm
to molds. For greater toughness
and hardness, 20 per cent of oil, /
per cent each OF sodium stannate and
potassium biehromate and to 10 per
cent of sulphur are added, and the
mass is heated to 257 deg. f..