Amador ledger. (Jackson, Amador County, Calif.) 1875-19??, 1910-12-23
SCIENTIFIC,
MISCELLANY
Reported weekly 70. the Ledger


Colors Other Creatures See-Electric
Spark Disinfection-Shi p-Steadying
Tanks-Another Guess at Mars-An
Irrigating Tree-Star Measurement
Building Stone Disease-Improving
Our Lighting-S Solar Heat Utilized.
1t has been slowly brought to our
understanding that the world is not
the same to all creatures. and prob
ably no experiments have tended more
to make this clear tran the recent
ones bv Prof. Karl Hesz, of Wueryz
burg, on the color-sense OF chickens,
pigeons, owls and kestrels. Men with
hungry chickens and pigeons were fisrt
kept an hour in bright room to be-
come accustomed to the light. The
floor was then spread with smooth
black cloth evenly covered with grains
of wheat, strong spectrum was
thrown on it from the ceiling, and
the hungry animals were turned
loose. They picked the wheat first
from the bright red, the the ultra red
next the yellow, and finally the green.
They touched nothing in the blue and
violet because they saw nothing, but
on the other hand, they saw the grains
in the ultra-red that were invisible to
the men. This proved that for chickens
and pigeons the spectrum is shortened
at the violet end of the short wave
length and extended at the red end of
long wave length. This is the effect
one might expect from wearing orange
colored glasses, and Hesz demonstrated
that fowls see through such spectacles
in the form of yellow and orange oil
globules imbedded in the light-sensitive
iris. To kestrels and buzzards the
brightest zone was the green instead of
red, the blue being visible. To fowls
the colors were as men see them.
The telephone disinfector of B. F.
Gardner of Chicago is an arrangement
for producing electric sparks in the
mouthpiece. Wires projecting through
the walls of the mouthpiece are con-
nected with a secondary coil wound on
the ringer frame, and this causes sparks
when the alternate ringing current is
sent out on the line to ring the bell.
The trolling tanks" of Frahm. the
Hamburg engineer, have reduced the
roll of vessels from IL degrees on each
beam to two degrees. Ushaped tanks
extend from port to starboard through
the hold, and the rise and fall of the
water in them neutrallzes rhythmical
movement as the ship rolls.
In a novel theory of Mars, Prof.
Svante Arrhenlus rejects Prof.
Lowell's view that the changing dark
spots and bands are due to vegetation,
and accepts the old suggestion that
the so-called canals are long, deep
assures. Similar formations exist on
the earth, one extending distance of
2, 200 miles along the coasts of Peru
and Chile. Water is supposed to col
lect in the assures or canals, and to
accumulate especially at the points
where several meet, these lakes of
Sciaparelli or "oases'' of Lowell be-
ing explained as places where the
planets crust has sunk though very
salt. The water is frozen bv the IN
tense cold The Ice evaporates in the
dry air, the vapor collects as snow at
the winter pole. and the canals become
beds of dry salts, until, with the melt
ing of the snow in spring and summer.
the air ceases to be dry, and the salts
again attract moisture, turning to a
darker hue. Among objections offered
to the new theory is that it does not
satisfactorily account for the complete
winter disappearance of the canals,
which, if really assures, should re-
main visible throughout the year.
Plantations of the rain tree of Peru.
the tamaicapsi, are claimed to offer
great possibilities as irrigation works.
The tree grows readily in any soil,
reaching large size, and has luxuriant
foliage, with remarkable power of
collecting and condensing atmospheric
moisture. Its capacity, moreover, is
increased by the unusual heat of
drouht. The water falls from the
leaves and oozes from the trunk, and
forms vegetable rivers, which can be
led as irrigating canals to any point
desired. A single tree is estimated to
average gallons of rain a day. Max
ing liberal allowance for eYaporation