Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-01-18

though five of them subsequently proved
to be members of the asteroid family.
Nineteen of these bodies We're discovered
at Heidelberg.
The international committee sitting in
London has recommended that ifeboats
be provided for all on board ships.
An institute for photographic research
is soon to be established in Chicago, the
first of its kind in America.
The largest electric hoist in this country
is to be installed in the Granite mountain
shaft of the North Butte Mining Com
pany. The hosting motor will have
maximum intermittent rating of $500
horsepower.
Three large and well organized parties
Will sail for Antarctic this year. Three
thousand men have applied fo- places on
one of these expeditions, ready to face
the perils and privations in the frozen
wastes, thus illustrating that the love of
adventure, the handspring OF all such
undertakings, is not decadent among men.
The new Cunard liner Aquitania, which
is due in New York early this year, viii
have the largest turbine engines ever
built. They will weigh 1,41o tons, and
will contain over l.Uo,O0D blades vary
ing from Y to 20 inches in length.
The Royal Observatory, near Brussels.
has been divided into two distinct estab-
lishments. one devoted to astronomy, to-
gether with astrophysics. geodesy and
seismology; the other to meteoroiogy,
along with climatology, magnetism and
atmospheric electricity. The effect of this
change is to give the national meteoro-
logical service of Belgium an independent
status whereas it was formerly merely
an appendage of an astronomical obser-
vatory.
Samuel W. Long says that the whole
United States may become a desert with
in fifty years owing to the lowering of
ground water" The source of danger,
he says, is a lack or underground water
in the circular system caused In the
tivation of the land as a contributing
factor. Mr.. Long is soon to issue sci
entitic paper on the subject.
DR.. Emil Kraepein, professor of men
tai diseases in the University of Munich,
says alcohol is not stimulant: that 1t
is a narcotic first, last and always; that
the stimulation is merely imaginary and
that one does less and poorer work under
its influence, though person may think
that he Is turning out more and better
work.
Thomas A. Edison thinks that the in
vention of the future will be on the line
of devising some scheme for the reuse
Of papers for newspaper purposes by re-
moving the printers ink so that paper
can be used a second time.
A radio manual is soon to be issued by
the United States Signal Corps dealing
with the installation and operation of
interchangeable apparatus, especially
field stations, and intended primarily for
the guidance of the regular and military
forces.
The International Institute of Agricul-
ture now numbers fifty-thfee countries
and colonies among its adherents The
United States has representation of five
delegates. To meet the growing expenses
of the institute. it has been decided to
increase the subscription of the various
countries. That of the United States will
hereafter be 5000 per annum.
An institute of oceanography is to be
established at Ste. Adresser, suburb Of
Havre, in a large park overlooking the
bay of the Seine. 1t is thought the in
stitute can be opened in time for the sci
entific congress to be held at Havre in
the autumn of the present year The
principal work will be the practical in
struction to fishermen.
]. Bosler, astronomer at the Observa-
tory of Meudon, finds that the sun loses
annually by radiation a mass such that
in thirty million yeas it would equal
the mass of the earth-that is the mass of
the sun Is diminishing, and its attractive
force Is becoming coIrespondngly weaker.
Were the radiation from the sun to be
intercepted all life on this earth would
cease. An immovable atmosphere would
brood over an ocean. which, If not actually
frozen, could be distur bed only by the sui
len fluctuations of the tides, and the
silence of death over the surface Of the
earth would be broken only by the occa-
sional groans of volcano. However.
this dissipation of the solar mass is
too slow to be shown by any actual OBJ
servation, astronomers now prove.