Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-11-28

miss the true
Federal Scale weight by as much
| O. as 1000 and even
otandardlzlng. 1000 pounds, and
| which are in daily use measuring"
commodities on which shipping charges
are paid by weight-are being discover
ed with surprising frequency by the
United States bureau of standards.
These discoveries are being made by
means of test weight cars sent to vari-
Gus states in the campaign for accuracy
! of the great weighing devices which
register the weight of the millions of
carloads of products that annually en-
| ter into the commerce of the country.
The pioneer federal work of testing
and standardizing the scales of many
tons capacity was begun by the bu-
reau in the fall of 1913 with a specially
| constructed car. differing radically in
| the accuracy attainable by its use from
the test cars employed before that time
| by railroads. The need for the stand
| ardization work became SO apparent
when it was discovered that most of
| the scales of large capacity were mac
curate that Congress last year appro-
priated 100000 to carry on the work.
With a part of this fund the bureau
| has just had a second car constructed
and has started it to work in New
England, a portion of the country into
| which the governments emissaries of
| accuracy had not yet entered.
The work SO far has been mostly in
the middle west, along the central At
| lantic seaboard and in the south. The
one car hitherto available has been
| kept constantly on the move during the
| two years of it's service, and the time
| of both cars is now well booked for the
| future Since the great commercial,
manufacturing and mining states of the
| east, where bulky and heavy commodf-
ties are handled in great volume. have
! not yet been covered even once and the
| entire country west of the ninety-fifth
meridian, including the great ports of
| the Pacific coast, has not yet been
| touched. it is not improbable that Con-
| gress may soon appropriate for still
| other of the wheeled detectives of in
| accuracy.
| Much of the work so far done with
! the test cars has been at the request
| of state weights and measures officials,
| railroads. owners of grain elevators,
mining and steel compa MES and other
| industrial concerns. The governments
| own scales have been proved up, too,
| for some of the largest weighing de-
| vices in the country are those used at
| the navy yards and ordnance factories.
| The accuracy of the great government
| scales at customs houses. by which the
| volume of the greater portion of Uncle
Sans spending money is determined,
| through the weighing of dutiable i'm
| ports. has also been assured.
Before the first test car was con-
| structed on the specifications of the
| bureau of standards cars which were
| hauled thousands of miles directly on
| the rails made up part of the test
| weights. Every wearing part of the
roughly used car contributed its share
| to the test and was of course constant
| ~ changing in weight. Dust and mud
| added other elements of error. The
| bureaus car, on the other hand. carries
! a simple, we'll made truck inside, where
I It is protected and its weight kept
| constant. trolley crane in the roof
| of the car lowers the truck carefully
| TO the track scale to be tested and then
| lowers on to 1t the great weights that
| have been standa rdiZed with painstak
| ing care. So well is the accuracy of
| the weights preserved that when those
! of car No. l We're callibrated at the
| bureau of standards in Washington
| Gently. after two years of constant
| service, it was found that the great
metal blocks, weighing in the aggre
| gate, 10000 pounds, had lost only
| fraction over one pound.
|
Uncle Sam is not infallible and makes
no pretense of being so. When any of
| his experiments fail
A Failure in to bring the desired
Afforestation. ad,nits tho fact
charges the expense off to information
.gained, makes what use he can of the
materials of his experiment and cheer
fully takes up the solution of other
problems on which his failures. it often
| happens, throw valuable light.
One such experiment that it has been
INN nyciI tn
fully is the attempt that has been made
during the past ten years to transform
the barren sand hills ofswestern Kan
sas into a forest area. Nearly 263, 900
acres of the sandhll country was set
aside in 1905 and called the Kansas
national forest. Since that time some
of the most proficient of the govern
ment's forest planting experts have
painstakingly attempted to cover the
area with young trees. While it was
found possible to coax jack pines to
grow on the reservation, the usual
methods had to be so modified, because
of peculiar soil and climatic conditions,
that the cost of afforestation was seen
to be prohibitive. On recommen da ton,
| therefore, of the Secretary of Agricul
1ture and the Secretary of the Interior,
the President has just signed a procla-
nation abolishing the Kansas national
forest, to take effect next Wednesday,
f. December /.
/ MuCn OIL the ldHt III the reservation
| has been filed on, since the proclama
| ton was issued, under the 320-acre
1 homestead act and will be put to use
| for dry farming. over 5000 acres are
being reserved for use as a proposed
game reserve for the almost extinct an
Itelope, and some of the area will I'M
| dou btedly be Of little or no value for
any purpose.
| That aIorestation in barren sand hill
| country can be carried on successfully
and profitably is proved by the results
achieved in western Nebraska only a
few hundred miles north of the abolish
ed Kansas forest There jack pines
have been established at reasonable
cost and are growing Justify. The fail
ure In Kansas was practically a volun-
tary failure for economic reasons. If
the time should come when il is worth
a great deal more than it is now to
have forests covering the Kansas sand
hills Uncle Sam has the satisfaction of
knowing that he can turn the trick.
human psychology that it is the dra-
matte and the pic
Child-Welfale torial that is most
Develonment effective in reaching
oeFeiopAiohI' people: that the en-
acted or illustrated fact viii sink deep
and bring results when the printed
word describing the same thing will be
passed by, the chlldren's bureau of the