Amador ledger., 1910-04-01

has LED TO the FORMATION OF meS WClu-
ing companies in different parts OF
Sweden, and one at Gothenburg has
placed its plant on an old barge that can
be towed alongside any steamer needing
repairs The outfit, as described by A.
Scott Younger, includes small marine
boiler, with De Laval turbine, work
ing two direct current dynamos Dupli
cate cables can reach on board the
steamer and to the inside of the boilers
if necessary, and make il practicable to
do repairs in two places at once. One
end Of the barge has workshop with
anvil and benches and full
equipment for mall repairs. The anvil
block is steel slab l0la inches wide
by 21a deep supported on two WOODEN
trestles, and the negative from the dy-
namo is clamped to it, the positive be-
ing the holder-with insulated handle
held in the operators left hand. The
current passes through the jaws holding
the specially prepared rod-.5-l6 inch in
diameter--used for Welding. The piece
to he welded, with chamfered edges, are
secured in position on the anvil block,
the rod is touched to the point to be
welded and slightly withdrawn, and the
electric arc thus formed quickly melts
the end of the rod, causing drop from
it to adhere to the work. This is ham
mered and the process repeated. A
great variety of work can be done, and
in butt welding practical rate for 3a-
inch plates is about 10 feet an hour.
A curious German use CT mercury
vapor lamps is TO supply ultraviolet
rays for making sulphuric acid Sill
phrrous acid gas mixed with air is in
troduced into lead lined tower sprayed
with fine Jets Of water, and tile ultra
violet radiation in the tower entirely
converts the sulphurous into sulphuric
acid. The acid solution is made
stronger by using it instead of water 10
spray successive towers.
Shooting stars have been estimated by
w. H. Pickering to vary, if of the
third magnitude, from 6 or inches in
diameter to a mere grain. From stellar
measurements, c. Fabr has calculated
that such a meteor 100 miles away
would be an inch in diameter and weigh
about 5 grains.
The ancient aIchemist sought to trans
mute inferior metals into valuable ones,
but Sir William Ramsay's transmutation
theory supposes that heavy elements
are degraded into lighter ones by a
breaking up of their atoms. In his
early experiments the exposure of
chemically pure supbate of copper to
radium enlanation yielded product that
showed the spectrum of lithium. His
conclusion that the heavy copper was
degraded into lighter lithium has been
questioned by several chemists who
have repeated the experiments including
Madame Curie, the discoverer of ra-
dium The idea of atomic degrada-
tion seems to have taken strong hold of
Sir William, however, and his latest
work has led both himself and his as
sistant to believe that the elements
silicon, titaniunl, chromium, lead and
thorium have been degraded by exposure
to the radium enanation, into carbon, a
lighter element of the same group.
Whether this vindicates the degradation
theory as fully as is supposed remains
to be seen.
In the general microbe scare of recent
years, danger has been seen in green
vegetables but this fear-like others
has been lately shown to have no real
foundation, The supposed discovery of
soil microbes in the interior of vege-
table stalks led 10 the conclusion that
there is great risk in the use of sewage
and even of ordinary manure in market
gardening. Investigation further, REM
lnger and Nouri nave been trying in all
possible ways to infect plants with
microbes, and have uniformly failed
to get colonies of microbes from the
inner parts of the infected plants. They
regard their evidence as conclusive that
germs remain on the surface only of
plants, never penetrating into the in
terror,
The so-called dry battery is an electric
cell really containing liquid or paste
whose driving out-as on standing OH a !
shelf-destroys the usefulness of the
battery; but a unique new battery cell,
called the Anhydrous, is dry until put to
use, so that it may be kept in store in.
definitely without depreciation. II sim
ply contains the necessary chennicnIe In