Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 December 1892 — POPULAR SCIENCE NOTES. [ARTICLE]

POPULAR SCIENCE NOTES.

Magnetized Watches. —“There is of late years more or less talk about the effect of electricity upon watches,” saida well-known jeweller, “and it is quite true that occasionally a watch will be thrown out of its regulnr time by becoming magnetized. It is tho simplest matter in the world, however, to ascertain whether a watch is thus affected. Watchmakes nud electricians ull know that, if a common pocket compuss is placed above a live electric wire the noodle will deflect in one direction; if plaood beneath the wire it will deflect in the opposite direction, while if placed under crossed wire the needle will vibrate. The spring of a watch is made of the finest steel, aud ij, therefore, sensitive to an extreme degree. If you want to ascertain whether your watch has become affected by electricity, take a little toy compass and place itubovo the spring. If the needle moves tho watch is affected and should have expert attention; if it does not move there is no magnetism in it,”—[Bt. Louis Republic. Longest and Shortest Day.— Tho days in Now York ure rapidly shortening, and ore long we will have what wo call the shortest duys in tho year. When speaking of the shortest or longest days in tho year, however, it is quite important to mention what part of the world we speak of. Forinstunce, in New York City the longest day is fifteen hours. Were it not for the Jorsey hills, which hide the sun from Gotham us it recedes in tho Western horizon, our days would be at least twenty minutes longer. Tho shortest day in any purt of the world is ut Tarneu, Finland, when Christmas Day is less than three hours in length, while on tho other hand June 31 is nearly twenty-two hours long. But this is nothing, in point of length of days when compared to Spitzbergcn, Norway, where the longest day is three and a half months in length! That is, for three and a half months there is no night. At Wardbury, Norway, the longest day lasts from May 21 to July 22—one day over two mouths—without interruption. St. Petersburg, Ruwin, and Tobolsk, Siberia, iiave both very long and very short days. Tho longest day is nineteen hours and the shortest live hours. The longest day in Stockholm, Sweden, is eighteen and a half hours in length. Hamburg, Germany, and Dantzic, Prussia. both have seventeen hours of daylight in midsummer. The longest dav in London is sixteen hours; but the fogs rob the English metropolis of much of its daylight and often make day appear like night, so that few Londoners really know how long their days are. Tho longest day in Hamburg is also sixteen hours. Even Montreal, Canada, has one hour more duylight than Neiy York—sixteen hours. This is due to tho fact not only that it is further uorth, but that ns Sol recedes in the west its light is unobscured by Palisudcs or Jersey mosquitoes. A Writing Telegba'ph.— One of the principal objections to the printing telegraphs in the past has been the “form of delivery.” They have all printed their messages on a narrow band of paper or “tape” and a press dispatch of a few hundred words would be many feet in length and liable to kinks, breaks and entanglement. Users of the telegraph have never been content to receive their dispatches on a ribbon, and have always protested against that form of record, asserting that to file it was impossible, and oven to preserve it intact in any way was a constant source of harassment. A compromise has been effected in European practice by tearing off all dispatches received by printing telegraph into short ienghts and pasting them on ordinary delivery blanks. This is a clumsy makeshift, and the annoyance of making a backward search for a particular item of news in the tangle of an ordinary “ticker” basket is familiar to all. With a- view to overcoming these and other objections to the printing telegraphs hitherto known, an American type telegraph machine has been designed by means of which the delivery is in the form of a printed paper, eight inches wide. AH the letters, numerals, fractions and other signs used on the ordinary typewriter are provided. The receiving instrument is entirely automatic in its action, requiring no skilled operator to watch or adjust it. The transmitter is similar in form, as far as the arrangement of the keys is concerned. to the typewriter, and can be worked by any person familiar with that instrument. The transmitting operator, by means of his keyboard, has full control of the machine at the distant end of the line, and can vary the length of a printed line or space between two items of news or two telegrams at will. Typewriting by wire and by ordinary typewriting methods have been the objects sought to be obtained in the American type telegraph. The width of the paper, the form and action of the keyboard, as well as the manipulation of the machine generally, are made to conform, as nearly as possible, to the practice with which a typewriting operator is familiar.