Amador ledger., 1909-08-20

cutiou. The Smallest Visible
Motion. - Hunger aud Character. -
Strong Glass. - Making Fishing
Nets Invisible. A Peat Power
Plant. -Malingering Exposed by
Electricity. -- Cutting Out Old Age.
The temperature of the fire of a
moving locomotive has been at last
determined 10 be 13, 800 deg +. at a
speed of 81 miles an hour, and l2,S00
deg T.. at - miles. The draft and
the temperature are greater than
when the engine is at rest, but it was
found that the measurements which
we're made in Germany be
effected while running by using a LIE
Chatelier pyrometer, with a special
galvanometer, having compensation
and made to retain seusitiveness and
accuracy in severe jolting. The chief
difficulty was to expose the pyro-
meter to the greater heat and yet
shield it from the direct flame.
There was risk of fu5ing the plati
num-Iridium wires, and this was only
avoided by placing the pyrometer
high in the fire box, inclosed in a
tube of chrome steel encased in a
protective coating of fire clay.
The electric rat-trap at the muni-
cipal station of Charlotten burg,
Germany, is the invention of Herr
Won Biederheim. and consists of set
of wires so placed in the three phase
12U-volt circuit that the rats must
come in contact with them. Death
results instantly with practically sno
com bustion of the bodies. Any de-
sired number of these destroyers can
be mounted together In large box,
and il is recommended that an
electric bell or lamp be arranged to
signal an electrocution, so that the
trap may be promptly reset. A direct
current of 200 volts can be used.
The curious instrument of DR.. A.
Basler consists OF a lever with bit
of paper at the short arm andS fine
measuring scale at the end of the long
arm. Looked at from a distance of
foot, persons with normal vision
detect movement of the paper as
small as l-lS00 of an inch, and some
could see dis placement of1200 of an
inch. Objects of these dimensions
are much too small for the naked eye.
An Illuminated slit was shown in the
dark, and the smallest movement
perceptibIe was four times as great as
that of the paper.
Only the well-fed man Is normal,
and a new French work by M. Lassig-
Dardie shows the extraordinary In
| f1uence of deficient nonrishment upon
the mind, character and general he
havior. Starvation may result in
various ways. 1t may be voluntary as
in the prolonged endurance fasts of
Succi and others, in attempts to com
mt suicide, and III religious fasts;
or Involuntary, as in tevers and other
d iseases. as a result of poverty, or as
consequence of shipwreck or i'm
prisonment by accident in mines or
wrecked buildings. Voluntary and
habitual fasting for moderate
period has an extraordinary effect in
stimulating mental activity, especial
Iy arousing the Imagination. Fro
longed deprivation. brings remark
able change in the character of the
individual, as shown by peculiar
eXcltability, great selhshness and
even cruelty, together with signs OF
mental arrangement, such as the
partial loss of memory and seIfcon-
troll, and an INCLINATION to irresistible
impulses. Extreme cases develop
acute mental arrangement, with
sleeplessness, nightmare and mania
cal visions at night, and halluci'
nations and dangerous impulses by
day. Similar effects are seen in
drunkenness and certain diseases, and
seem to be associated with similar
imperfect uourshment.
Drawn glass an inch and third in
thickness has been found to support
30, 900 pounds per square inch when
in sheets measuring 9 by 10 inches,
aud $4,000 pounds in sheets
of l3 by IA inches Its great
strength, with its resistance to tenn
perature changes, has been bringing
it into favor in the construction of
machinery. In official tests 5at
Breslau the glass is heated 81