Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1902 — Scientific Notes. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Scientific Notes.

In Southern California an ingenious inventor has constructed a huge combination of lenses and reflectors whereby the heat of the sun is made tb run machinery, pump water and do other hard labor. In various parts of the world inventors have built machines to utilize the wave motions of the ocean. The next thing, you will be saying, someone will have harnessed cyclones and made them do man’s work. That very thing has already been done. At least, so an inventor claims. According to this man. Prof. B. B. Britts, his machine Is far superior to any other means of using natural forces. The secret of the construction of his contrivance is carefully guarded, but, as soon as the patents are thoroughly established, he promises to give a public exhibition with the first stiff breeze that comes along. One of the most remarkable claims of the Inventor is that his apparatus is applicable to locomotives, and that it will displace eletricity and compressed air In propelling street cars. All sorts of locomotion or navigation are possible, says Prof. Britts, and he promises to make steam power a thing of the past.

Intelligence of Ants. The conclusion of a series of papers on the American ants printed in the American Naturalist by Prof. W. M. Wheeler Is as follows: It Is quite unnecessary to assume the existence of anything beyond Instinct and simple intelligence in the ants which form compound and mixed nests; there are no evidences of ratiocination in ants. This conclusion, however, even if It be extended so as to exclude all animals except man from a participation In this faculty, does not imply the admission of a qualitative difference between the human and the animal psyche. Milk in Powder Form. Dr. M. Ekenberg of Gothenberg has made a discovery which will be of importance in dairy farming. He claims to have invented an apparatus by which milk can be brought into the form of a powder, like flour in appearance, but possessing all the qualities of milk in concentrated form, moisture excepted. It is said that this milk flour Is completely soluble In water and can be used for all purposes for which common milk is employed.

Boot and Shoe Drier. When the farmer or laboring man comes in from a day’s work in the wet he wants a safe and convenient place to dry out the boots which he must put on again in the morning. Sometimes he uses the stove shelf or the oven, but the housewife is apt to complain or the boots may accidentally

scorch. In the picture is to be seen an apparatus designed especially for this work which may be put up in any convenient place and can be left in operation all night, if desired, thus providing warm boots to put on in the morning. The drier consists of an inverted pan, with two tubes projecting vertically from the upper side, and provided with projecting fingers to hold the boot high enough to prevent shutting oft the current of air circulated from the flame below. It will be noticed that arrangement is made for adjusting the drier at different heights from the lamp and with the aid of this and the variation of the flame the apparatus can be fixed to maintain a small amount of heat throughout the night. The inventor is Henry C. Mansfield of Chico, Cal. Luminous Mushrooms. Mr. Mac Alpine has printed a research on luminous mushrooms,, of which he enumerates twenty-one different species. Eleven of these belong to the genus Pleurotus and five of them are found only in Australia. The luminosity is not due to the presence of phosphorescent bacteria, but is due to a process of combustion, which depends on the presence of oxygen and on high temperature. It is not affected by humidity. It is probably useful in attracting insects that disseminate the spores. A Thousand Millian San*. At the Glasgow meeting of the British Association Lord Kelvin interested a large audience with his calculations of the piohable total amount of gravitational matter in the visible universe. He showed that if, 25,000,000 years ago, 1,000,000,000 masses, each equal to our sun, had been distributed through a sphere about 18,000,000,000,-* 000,000 miles in radius, they would now have acquired velocities about equal to those known to be possessed by the stars visible to us. Therefore it is probable that the total amount of gravitational matter in the visible uni-

verse does not differ much from that of 1,000,000,000 suns.—Youth’s Companion. "• Rapid Envelope Opener. The ordinary envelope opener must be inserted under the edge of the flap with great care, lest the contents of the envelope be damaged in ripping the flap, and If a man Is in a hurry he generally tears the letter open with his hand instead of bothering with the cutter. Perhaps the ingenious device here pictured will recommend Itself to the busy man as a handy complement to his desk outfit. The inventor is Harry H. Bowerman of Loreley, Md., and he claims that his arrangement will dip the end of an envelope instantly without danger to the contents. As will be seen by a glance at the cut, a rotary cutting blade, is pivoted under-

neath the V-shaped trough which carries the envelope. All that is necessary to put the cutter in operation is to strike the envelope a smart blow to slide the contents to one side, insert the oppposite end in the trough and press the wire bale attached to the two gear wheels. As these wheels ar® geared to the small wheels at either end of the revolving cutter the latter is rotated by the depression of the bale, causing the spiral blade to clip the edge from the envelope projecting through the slot in the trough. A spring raises the bale as soon as the finger Is lifted, and the cutter is then ready for the next envelope.

Cheap Reproductions of Maps. The Surveyor-General of India in a late report gives an account of a new process for the reproduction of field maps, etc., by obtaining an image in transfer Ink upon a zinc plate directly from a black and white original drawing. The process is cheaper than pho-to-zincography or lithography and occupies less time. Thin zinc plates are coated with a sensitizing solution made up of fish glue (1 oz.) gelatine (60 grains) bichromate of ammonium (45 grains) water (12 oz.). The subject for reproduction is placed face. upward with the zinc plate above in close contact, and the subsequent operations comprise exposure to sunlight for a minute or so, the development of a negative image, inking of the plate and development Of a positive image.

Do Planets Influence Sun Spots? Mr. Birkeland has continued his calculations to determine whether the periodic changes in the area of the spotted regions of the sun’s surface are in any degree due to gravitational disturbances produced by either of the planets Mercury, Venus or Jupiter. His latest calculations cover the period 1892-96, and bis conclusions is that we must seek for other causes than planetary influence to explain the sun spot period and that in future it is idle to look for the cause of this period outside of the solar sphere itself. A Handy Plow-Scraper. A combination snow plow and road scraper may be largely constructed from material to be found on nearly every farm, the services of the blacksmith; being needed only to place the strips of sheet iron over the points of the runners. Fig. 1 in the cut shows the skeleton of the combination tool; Fig. 2, how the point is ironed after the two pieces are joined; Fig. 3, the for-’ mation of the cross: braces, and Fig. 4, the tool complete. Little explanation is needed of the illustration, but care should be used that the material selected- is tough, yet light, that the tool will not be cumbersome to. handle. If desired, the runnels or shoes may be

Explorers In Good Health. the British Antarctic exploration ship. Discovery, arrived at Littleton, New Zealand, November 29. All on board were well and in good spirits. The pack ice was encountered in latitude G 3.5 and longitude 14.1 east, but pressure of time prevented a thorough investigation of the ice. Interesting collections had been made, however during the voyage. Senator Frye has a love for novels His camp on the Rangeley Lakes, in Maine, is stocked with all kinds’ oi Action, from the thrilling tale of “Mysterious Miek, the Irish Detective,’’ to the world-famous works of Balzac.

ironed to add to the durability of the tool.