Amador ledger., 1910-08-05

VI
the Aurora-Better Stage Lighting
Metals Powdered by Light Chem
ically Colored Flowers
The great success of the German
chemical industry has been brought
about and maintained by the employ
ment of large numbers of trained re-
search chemists, and the value of this
scientific service is indicated by the
figures consul-general Guenther has
drawn from the annual reports of the
employing factories. The works at
Biebrich, with So. 900, 900 capital stock,
earned 81, 100000 in 1909, paid 80 per
cent dividends, and gave 100000 as
gratuities to directors. A number of
other concerns paid IL to q per cent,
with gratuities to directors. The
Farbenfabriken- Bayer Comany. Elber-
field, whose capital is So, 500, 900, made
profit of over SIS, 600, 900, declared a
"a per cent dividend, and added an
extra dividend of 81 per cent from an
overgrown reserve that still Amounted
to 81, 355, 900 after the disbursement.
This establishment claims a perfected
artificial rubber. The Badisch Anilin
and Sodafabric works, which paid "a
per cent on a capital of So, SEQ, 900, has
erected works in England since the
new British patent law was enacted,
and has also built large works in Nor
way for extracting nitrogen from the
air.
The reported drying up of lakes in
Switzerland, Germany, Russia and
Tibet has led to the suggestion that
the earth is becoming dessicated, and
a novel German theory is that the
ultra violet rays of sunlight are con-
cerned in the process. These rays
slowly decompose water into hydrogen
dioxide and hydrogen. the latter but
no oxygen being evovled. The action
taking place in the air, hydrogen diox-
ide is found in rain, while the hydro
gen rises and at 62 miles constitutes
991a per cent of the atmosphere. This
lightest OF gases, moreover, is thought
to be escaping into space.
The luminous night-shell that the
British Admiralty has been testing
has screwed to its base a cylinder of
illuminant that bursts into flame as
the gun is fired. The missile is
brightly lighted through it's whole ira
jectory, greatly aiding the gunners in
estimating range, but presenting a
strange and weired appearance.
Prickly pears and other cacti are the
plants from which useful products
must be obtained if the arid regions of
the southwestern United States are to
be given agricultural value. The ex-
pertinent station at Las Cruces, New
Mexico, ,sbegan planting prickly pears
six or eight years ago, placing the
pieces in furrows ten feet apart, and
in four or five years the rows had
spread to width of six to eight feet,
leaving only narrow paths between
them. The plants received no cultiva-
ton, irrigation or other attention.
Much work has been expended in the
effort to obtain serviceable materials
from these desert plants, and the re-
suits seem to give good promise of
practical success. The dark red fruit
the size of small egg, yields an ex-
cellent fruit coloring for confectionery
and jellies. Half a dozen kinds of
sugar have been extracted, and these
have been fermented and transformed
into alcohol. Calculations show that
plants four years old should supply
$50 of denatured alchohol per acre.
The fruit is bonre yearly, no replant-
ing or other work of cultivation is
necessary and the cost of the products
is very little besides manufacture and
transportation to market
Photography of the aurora borealis
having been at also made practicable,
we may hope soon to know more of
this mysterious earth light For the
pictures recently obtained at Bosekop,
Norway, Carl Stormer used cinema
tographic lens of one inch diameter
and two inches focal length, and with
Lumiere plates succeeded in getting
800 photographs hs-about one-half of
them good with exposures ranging
from a fraction of a second to 20
seconds. The distance and position of
the aurora were very accurately de
termlned by comparing its place
among the stars on photographs taken
simultaneously at two telephone con-
nected stations about three miles
apart.
Diffused light for the stage, in place
of the usual gear of electric arcs, is
obtained by Spanish engineer by re-
| fecting the rays of an arc lamp from
silk bands unrolled in any desired posi-
ton by pulleys. A quarter sphere
lined with dead white is used as sky,
and. the illusion of unlimited space is
given by the diffused light thrown up
on this arch.
Colloidal solutions, in which sus-
pended PARTICLES give jelly,lik charac-
teristics are now produced in a very
curious way by Svedbreg, a Swedish
experimenter, who makes use of Len
ard and VOLTS discovery of a score of
years ago that ultra violet rays, may,
under certain conditions, strike off dust
by their impact on solid metals. After
thorough cleaning, Svedberg places the
metal in water or other solvent eX-
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