Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1909-1911, 1910-02-11
Items of Interest

way terminals, where traffic is constant
where switch engines are shunted back
and forth and suburban trains are run
frequently, can be operated more econ
omically by electricity than by steam.
At % Aeschylus was the most famous
poet of Greece; Coleridge had finished
the marvellous metrical poem. THE
Ancient Mariner" Don Jon Of Austria
had won Lepanto and James Montgomery
had written his best compositions.
The first boats built especially for the
1000 ton New York barge canal arrived
in New York a short time ago. They
consist of a steam-power boat and five
barges. They brought down on their
first trip a cargo of $4,000 bushels Of
oats.
November was the cOldest as well as
the wettest month in the history Of the
lsthmns of Panama. The maximum
temperature in the sun at Culebra was
only 96 and the average temperature
was below that of any previous month
Oh record.
There are 1850 street and interurban
railway companies in America, with a
total of 900 miles of single track and
$4,000 passenger cars. The total number
of passengers carried annually is
l0,0O0,O00,0O1, and the gross annual in
come is $4400OOO00.
1t takes half again as long for freight
to go from our Atlantic seaboard to the
west coast of Africa, by way of the 18TH
mus of Panama-5O to 90 days-as for it
to go from Europe by way of the Straits
Of Magellan-30 to 40 days.
Logging by electricity, it is said, will
soon become the common practice in
British Columbia, where electricity can
be readily obtained from water power.
With the disappearance Of the steam
engines III the woods will go IS per cent
of the annual forest fires.
England, Scotland. Ireland and Wales
are all in the thrOes of an epidemic of
|
Bristol the ring, which was established
under American management in large
building erected for the purpose, paid for
itself in the first four months.
A steam dredge, made in Holland, for
use at Nantes digs and carries off five
hundred cubic meters an hour. A swivel
| knj fo Uni n hi nr tnnc and drivon "a, a onO
horsepower machine cuts out clay as
hard as iron, to be scoOped up by the
buckets, which held two tons each.
Brass" stair carpet rods are not brass,
but are rods If iron cased with very thin
tubes Of brass. Much copper" work is
not copper at all, but coated iron. The
part pure metals play in manufacture is
nothing by comparison with their alloys
in their many hundreds of combinations.
The French war office has recently ac-
quired an automobile which is capable
of being instantly changed from a land
to water machince. 1t has speed of
40 kilOmeters on land and II kilOmeters
while in the water. 1t can carry four
persons, and is actuated by 14-hOrse-
power motor.
The longest masonry span in the
world is said to be the Grafton bridge
now being completed by the city of
Auckland, New Zealand. 1t is 91O feet
long and 40 feet wide, and a roadway
elevation of 147 feet bOve the lowest
part of the valley which it crosses.
Pure iron is only laboratory prepar-
alton. Cast iron, the most generally
useful variety, contains about per cent
of Impurities, and the curious thing is
that it owes its special value to the
presence of these. Pure iron can be
shaved with pocket knife; impure lion
can be made almost as hard as steel.
Of DR.. Livingstone it was said by
Stanley that the missionary lived for
years among the most cruel and ignorant
sayages in the world, but he never fired
a shot In anger, never "ciubbed or clOut-
ed, or banned, or blasted" His manner
was that of ''cOol, wise old man, who
felt offended and looked grave.
"a vacuum is a large empty space
where the pope lives" writes schoolboy.
"GravitatiOn is that which if there were
none we should all fly away" writes an
other. This answer was somewhat like
that of the lad who defined salt as that
which makes potatoes taste nasty when
you don't eat it with them.'
Thirteen grains of radium chloride
have been produced at the imperial
Austrian radium factory, located at st.
Joachimsthal. 1t is estimated that this
mineral has value of $4,000 to $5O.0OO
a grain, or more than $4,000 for the
entire amount. Pure metallic radium
is never seen.
Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria
and his empress once attended the per-
formance of play which abounded in
political allusions. On leaving the
thea ire he remarked, g0od-naturediy;
I'VE may congratulate ourselves on hav-