The mirror., 1916-08-24
SCIE N TIFIC NOTES
Gathered From Many Sources

Fifty-nine years ago Saturday, august 81
the first Atlantic Cable message received. 1t
was believed impossible by many, but the men
who we're undertaking this great mission perse-
vered and finally achieved success.
A submarine CABLE usually manufactured
at the present time, consists of core in the center
of which is strand of copper wires varying in
weight for different cables between 70 and 400
pounds. The central conductor is covered with
several continuous coatings of gutta percha, the
total weight of which varies between 70 and 400
pounds to the mile With light core the weight
of the gutta percha exceeds that of the copper
while in some heavy cores the copper is heavier
The core Is served with a thick coating of wet
jute, yarn or hemp, forming soft bed for the
sheath, which consists of soft iron or of homo
geneous iron, wires of the best quality. The
sheathing wires are usually covered with one or
two servings of tarred canvas tape, or of tarred
hemp, laid on alternately with coatings of mix
ture of asphatum and tar. The weight of the
iron sheath varies greatly according to the depth
of the water, the nature of the sea bottom, the
prevalence of currents, and so on. 1t has been
suggested to abandon the iron sheath and substi-
tute strong double serving of hemp, laid on in
such way as to prevent twisting when the cable
is under tension. This suggestion, however, is
still in the experimental stage
Today, there are 81 individual companies
controlling 4l8 cables, the length of which covers
1885, 900 nautical miles, There are alse 2, 1866 cables
owned by 32 different nations which operate over
55,2O7 miles.
Thus it will be seen how this great invention
has progressed in later years.-The Castle.
Recent Investigations conducted by the United
States Department of Agriculture have led to the
conclusion that the mstletoe is especially injurious
to certain caniferous trees. In the northwestern
states the growth of the various frs is often ser-
ously interfered with by infection from the plant
it was found. and few instances have been OBJ
served where tree life has been entirely destroyed
by it-Exchange
One of the large ocean going steamers has re-
Gently installed lfleveling berths in it's state
rooms, which are said to greatly lessen seasickness
among the passengers. The berths are provided
with short swing, allowing them to keep level
position even when the ship is punging through
rough seas.-Exchange.
For number of years bricks have been made
from lava rocks deposited by ancient flows in GER
tain parts of the Hawaiian islands. Now it is be-
eved that station erected near one of the active
VOLCANOES could by of endless chain of buck
cts transport the molten lava directly from the pit
to the station where it could be poured into mouds
By multiplying together the length of time that
it takes for shell to travel from the powder cham
ber of one of the modern highexplosive guns to its
muzze and the number of rounds of shot that can be
fired before the gun is that ii is useless an
English maker of projectles figures that the average
life of 12-nch gun costing between $4,000 and
$6O,00O is about three seconds
That bullets travelling at the rate of $500 feet
a second easily DETECTED is proven by the inden-
tatons that found on the helmets worn by SOL
diers fighting in Europe By striking it directly
bullet travelling at this rate would penetrate half
inch of boiler plate.
In order to prevent hailstorms from running the
grape crops in France many vineyard owners there
using contriyance consisting of breech-load-
ing gun with large funnel-shaped barrel mounted
tripod When particularly threatening cloud
appears the gun is fired at it with the result that in
many cases the cloud is efectuay shattered