Science and Invention.

Lake County Press, Issue 2184, 29 August 1907, Page 7

Science and Invention.

ACETYLENE is being used as an oxplosive in Germany, where it has proved disappointing as an illuminant. Each cartridge contains an ounce and threeI'ourths of calcium carbide, yielding about 1(5 quarts of acetylene, and after wetting the carbide the confined mixture of generated gas and air is exploded by an electric spark. In blasting, the rock is not thrown out, but is broken up into pieces small enough to be readily removed. A testing apparatus for varnish, supplying a needed standard, has been brought out in Scotland by Professor Daily and Dr. Luarie. It ic eludes a blunt steel point pressed down by a spiral spring, and this point is drawn over a dry coat of the varnish on glass, the pressure being increased until the varnish is scratched. The pressure being known, a definite measure of the toughness and hardness of the varnish is made available. MYSTERY OF EARTH’S HEAT. While the transmutation of elements at will is still a dream, the alkali metals have given Professor J. J. Thompson a suggestion of control of the change. Emissions from these metals in light has been long known, and ho has now proved that they give off slow electrons, or Peta rays, even in darkness, and that tnc process is greatly influenced by light, heat and chemical forces, These act as dctouatoi's, splitting up atoms which have become unstable. This atomic breaking up is thought to be going on in all matter, with the setting free of enormous energy, and it is calculated that if the action extends throughout the earth, the emission by every atom of an electron once in a thousand million years would account for the earth’s internal heat.' The atomic modification may explain the ‘ fatigue ’ of platinum and other substances after long incandescence. A LIGHTRING SPEED LETTER ASBORTER. Another wonder machine—a post office letter distribute;—has been invented. It has been satisfactorily tested by a foreign government, The c evice consists of a case of post-office boxes about the size of a chiffonier, with a bank of typewriting kevs at one end, connected by levers and pulleys with the letter boxes in the case. dust above the typewriting keys is a little shelf, on which the letters to bo mailed are placed in rows, faces and addresses out. As they are

fed into the machine the operator touches the key, which causes some steel lingers covering the top of each box to open, the prongs passing between the narrow little belts carrying the letters and dropping them at the point where the lingers or ‘ gates ’ open, each letter going into the right box. These narrow belts running at high speed seize the letters as they are fed through a slot, distributing them with lightning swiftness at the rate of from one to two hundred a minute. The inventor writes ‘My machine from one point of view resembles the distributing ease used in the post oillces of the country. A rectangular frame supports the letter boxes, or pigeon-holes, and somewhat complicated machinery assorts, postmarks, and distributes the letters as they are received at the post office, separated them according to the counties and towns, ready to go to the turns for delivery in different parts of the country.

ME UfIkXPhORED bPACE ABOYi us. Above us, states Professor Trowbridge, there extends a vast unexplored space far more interesting, from a scientific point ol view, than the icy regi ms around the North Pole. No one can reach the limit of the upper regions of the air and live, mile s he carries with him air to breathe and fuel to warm him, for at the paltry distance of ten miles above the earth the air is too thin to support respiration, and the thermometer would register far below zero. A herson in a balloon could not hear a friend in a iiei“hbouring balloon, even if they were near enough to shake hands. There would he no medium for the propagation of sound waves. There would, however, still lie a medium for the conduction of electricity—a medium, in fact, of great conductibility—almost as good as metal ; and it is this medium, at even a less height, that Tesla proposes to use in his methods of transmitting power hundreds of miles through air without wires. Wc live, in fact, under a blanket of air, which protects us from the extreme cold of outer space. This low temperature becomes evident fourteen or fifteen thousand feet above the surface of the earth, and would reach a point far below zero at a height of ten miles. At this height we should no longer observe the twinkling of the stars, for the scintillation is due to the movements of our atmosphere, which, at this height would be extremely rarefied. If one could .photograph the sun’s spectrum at tnis altitude wc could greatly c,xtend our knowledge or the shortest wave lengths in light, for the atmosnhere completely absorbs such wave lengths as are concerned in the X-ray phenomena. That this absorption really takes place can be proved in a labora tory. The heat and light which we receive from the sun are thus greatly modified by this ‘ blanketing ’ layer of air. The long waves of energy from the sun are called heat waves, The intermediate waves are termed light waves, and we receive these in full measure.