The Holbrook news., 1910-03-25

The difficulty of welding the new tool steels to cheaper grades has led to the invention of a new process, by which the welds are successfully ac- complished. It consists in placing a thin sheet of copper between the sur
 faces to be welded. which are coated with reducing substance. At a tenn perature of 1 200 centigrade the copper is rendered completely fluid by the gas or vapor given off by the reducing sub stance, and in this state it penetrates into the steel on both sides of the junction. producing a cohesion of the molecules so strong that if the welded piece is afterward broken, the fracture tends to pass through the steel on one side or the other, instead of following the weld.
 The recognition of the important part played by certain insects in the spread of disease has led to the organ ization of the African Chronological Research Committee. Two trained en- tomologists are to be dispatched to Africa, one on the east and the other on the west coast, to study the noxious insects, interest residents in the prob lens which they present. and promote scientific knowledge of the. best ways of exterminating them. The Natural History Department of the British Mu- scum, the London and Liverpool Schools of Tropical Medicine and the leading English universities have of fered to take part in the work. The committee will cooperate with work done by other organizations in Egypt, the Sudan and South Africa.
 Near Dax, in southwestern France, exists very remarkable oak. which is an object of veneration for the inhab- itants of the surrounding regions. Its short trunk Is encircled with gigantic raised roots. giving it. at the level of the ground, circumference of 82 feet. The massive branches spread over a circle so broad that 500 persons can find room beneath them. The age of the tree is estimated to be not less than 1000 years, yet 1t shows few signs of decrepitude, although the in terior of the trunk Is hollow. It Is the first tree in the neighborhood to cover itself with leaves, and the last to be deprived of them. At the june tion of the immense branches are two cavities. which are always full of water, and the peasants ascribe mir aculous properties to this water. Once every year there is a pilgrimage to the
 1R T night between June 23 and 24 the pill grims begin their devotions around the foot of the tree.
 Speculation as to the origin of the meteoric stones and irons that occa- sionaly fall from the sky has pecu- liar charm for the imagination. The. density of these bodies and the great size of some of them constitute argu- | ments in favor of the view that they must have been elected from some massive body in space, such as the sun or a star. In discussing the peculiar i mteorites which fell some years ago at Brenham, Kan, Dr. O. ". Huntington | suggests that we may infer. from their | composition, from what part of the heavenly body that elected them, ! they came. The heavy metallic | called siderites, may plausibly be supposed to have come from the deeper parts of a star; the light. stony ones. called aer- olites. from the superficial layers; and the rare '-pallasites." like the Bren- ham meteorites, which are interme- diate in composition, from the transi- tional zone between the outer crust and the dense interior nucleus.