Amador ledger. (Jackson, Amador County, Calif.) 1875-19??, 1909-03-19

Magnesia proves to have a hitherto
unrealized Importance as a fertilizer,
NJ. Rigaux, experimenting in Bel
GUM, found that surface soil CON
tains less magnesia than is usually
supposed, and as considerable
quantity occus in plants-as much
as IL per cent in the ash of wheat and
8 per cent III the ash Of oats-he con
cIuded that this material should be
supplied in fertilizers for cereals,
potatoes, beets and leguminous crops.
\ or trial he selected kainit, or Stass-
fuIt potash salt, containing Ia per
cent of magnesium sulphate. The
result confirmed the theory, and the
yield of sugar beets was increased
$500 pounds per acre, that of grains
from one seventh to one-tifth of the
total crop, that of potatoes was raised
from q. 900 to $1,000 FER acre, and
that Of hay from natural meadow land
was increased from 1900 to A, $50
pounds per acre. The potatoes we're
rendered immune to the attacks of
the mildew fungus, which infested
the part of the field receiving, no
kainit.
The efficiency of furnaces of vari-
GUS kinds has been Investigated by j.
W. Hall, British metaIurgist. The
greatest efficiency in ordinary work
was found in the use of an English
blast-furnace making pig iron. not
less than 81.7 per cent of the heat
given by the fuel being utilized. but
65. 3 per cent escaped from the fur
mace aud was recovered outside. A
pudding furnace not fitted to a
boiler wasted 81 per cent of the heat.
The most wasteful furnace of all,
however, was proven to be the COM
mon coke crucible furnace employed
in making steel, as this uses only l. AZ
per cent of the heat, 1887 per cent
being lost.
Tests of Manila ropes supplied the
United States by the American M anu
featuring Co. have shown a strength
of l. $40 pounds for the a inch; Also
pounds-fcr the p inch 6,750 for the
q inch; aud 10, 400 for the l inch.
The specifications had called for
strengths of 1,2OO, $500. 5000 and
1900 pounds respectively.
The movable canal lock OF Giuseppe
Bartolomei, an Italian engineer, solves
| hn Of nj doc
by boat in a novel and apparently
improved way. 1t is adapted for in
clined canals having ample water
supply, and consists essentially of a
paddle wheel placed across and filling
tue section Of the canal, with its
axis resting Oh rails extending along
the canal walls. The wheel is raised
! SO that a slightly less quantity of
water escapes under it than enters
the canal. This causes a backing up
and raising of the water, and as a
suitable head is reached the wheel is
: unlocked. and is turned by the water
behind it, thus travelling up stream
along the rails and holding back
water enough to float the boats being
pushed through the canal. For max
ing the descent separate canal is
desirable. A truck is SO arranged
that the axle of the water wheel may
be slightly raised and rested on two
of the four wheels of the truck, thus
, reversing the direction of travel. al
though the paddles revolve in the
same way as in making the ascent.
On an experimental canal 80 feet long
and II inches wide this form of lock
worked satisfactorily on lnclines OF
3, and per cent.
The "radio.automatic torpedo" OF
Gustave CADET, lately tried at Chalcn-
sur .Saone, weighs not less than four
tons, with motor and full charge, and
can be kept moving for hours, by
wireless control over wide range.
The steering gear can be set tor any
, direction by the electric waves sent
over long distance from the station.
In the trials made, the torpedo was
sent forward, backward, aud in a cir
Gle, and even the.diiiiculty of seeing
, precisely where it is going is said to
have been overcome.
Probably the oldest steam engine III
service has been lately examined by
q. Rennie Il Co., of Greenwich, Eng
land. This firm built the engine IN
1903, and after working more than a
j, century it failed through the break