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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (July 17, 1904)
Wireless Cmmw of Rata. I ETEOROLOG Y has more to an M swer for In the way of fanciful theorlea than all the other sci ences put together. The latckt whim Is that wireless telegraphy produces rain. Recently a wireless station has been completed at Fraserburg, In Scot land, and a local report declares that "since the erection of the shaft hardly a day has passed without a heavy rainfall, particu larly during the hours of experimenting, and the Inhabitants of the district have come to regard the presence of the elation with some suspicion." Nor are they alone, for residents of Poldhu, In Cornwall, have complained of excessive rain since the ereo tlon of the Marconi telegraphic mast there, and representations are to be made to have the shaft removed. But for an etherio wave to produce any effect an extremely delicate piece of ap paratus known as the coherer must be present, and It Is highly doubtful whether the minute vesicles of vapor In the clouds re Just so syntonised as to resemble the coherer and be thrown into vibrations and made to coalesce into rain by the wireless waves, Mr. Marconi laughs at the Idea. "It," he says, "anyone can prove that I am spoiling the English weather I shall have groat pleasure in dropping my work In this coun try and sending my Instruments to Aus tralia or Egypt, where rain is very much wanted." This reply rather begs the ques tion, for an etherio wave might affect the suspended vapor In the moist atmosphere of Cornwall or Scotland and yet have no Influence on the dry air of Australia and north Africa. It is open to any experi menter to try in the laboratory whether Hert ilana waves will affect vapors of any density. , A Ratio Vibrator. Warren F. Bleeker, formerly Instructor Of chemistry In the University of Colorado, has invented what he calls the radio vi brator. The Instrument Is based on the theory that the elements of the human body, when the body is In perfect health, vibrates In perfect harmony. When the body Is in a diseased condition this normal tone Is destroyed. By the therapeutical ap plication of the radio vibrator, it is de clared, the deranged tone of the body may be restored to a normal condition. The In ventor does not claim for his Instrument all curative power, but by actual trials re- markable results are said to have been ac complished in curing nervous diseases. The rad'o vibrator is a small, nickel-plated metal box about four Inches long, three Inches wide and one inch in thickness. From one end two wires about four feet long extend. These wires terminate In mall circular disks, which are applied to the affected parts of the body. As soon as applied the action of the chemicals within the box la calculated to cause sympathetic normal vibrations in the diseased body, thus restoring the patient to health. Eleetrle Xinetln California. Scarcely a week passes in which an Bounccments are not made of some now lectrio plant or railway being projected In California. During the last week the preliminaries were reported for- the 'erec tion of two power plants on th.s North Tuba river to operate the electro railroad Which is to be constructed from Marysvllle to Busanville, and the favorable prospects of an early construction of another electric railroad from Henldsburg to Cloverdale, along the rich bottom land of Russian river valley, was also announced. There Is every promise that In a few years all parts of California will be grld ironod with electric railways drawing their power from the mountain water course and the cheap fuel which tho various oil fields are yleldiag. It to a noteworthy fact that with all of the remarkable develop ments which are being made In the pro duction of electrical energy from water power, the consumption of coal In all parts of the world, save In California and (Switz erland, continues to Increase steadily. It is tho history of all industrial developments repeating Itself. No useful mechanical de vice was ever Invented which did not give birth to Home nil led industry, and the em ployment of electrical machinery is making new demands on coal consumption for somo subsidiary purjose. California and Switzer land are both employing their watersheds for the production of electrical eucrgy to supply their respective Industries, and both are becoming Independent of coal for home consumption. This state has, however, an additional source of cheap power In Its productive oil fields, which constitute an Important auxiliary to the mountain water courses employed for the generation of electricity. The day seems to be rapidly approaching In California when every wheel, whether stationary or moveable, will be turned by electric power produced either from the fall of mountain streams or from the combustion of fuel oil. Ban Francisco Chronicle. A Noiseless Co art. J. T. Hutchinson, an electrical engineer of New York City, has Invented a "noise less court." The details have not been published, but the device is such that when you are inside that court you hear nothing until a telephone receiver is put at your ear. Very long-distance conversations will be audible within the charmed precincts of that palace of silence. A great Ides should beget a greater. Telephone bells themselves are disturbers of the peace. Those of us who are unlucky enough to exist in cities are racked with many in tolerable sounds. Chicago and New York each noisier than the other, and both receiving moat of the hubbub of the world yearn for these mute habitations. Build oundless baths where one may plunge In silence! Build apartment houses that aro really noiseless courts, and, compared with you. Rockefeller will be a pauper. Improvement lArc Ump Light lag;. The Klectrlcal Review gives three pages In a recent Issue to a description of the new type of flaming arc devised by Andre Blondel, a distinguished French engineer. This, the Review says, "promises to b one of the most Important Improvements In electric lamps made during recent years." The Blondel lamp Is of the open aro type, Is very brilliant, gives an excellent distribution and a high efficiency. The quality of the light can be varied consid erably and made much whiter than the ordinary carbon arc. The peculiarities of this lamp are three: First, one of the car bons is a composite carbon that is, con tains a proportion of certain salts which have the property of increasing the luminosity of the arc; second, In the direct current Blondel lamps, the positive carbon is placed at the bottom; third, around the upper carbon and Just above the arc, is placed a reflector. Such of there feature! has a distinctive value, and adds to the effectiveness of the lamp. Investigation by the German patent showed that, with the same current intensity, the high-tension arc Is more economical than the low tension, and that of the Blondel inverted arrangement is about 25 per cent better than that of the other. This arrangement causes a translation of ions In the same direction as with the rising of hot gases, giving a considerably hotter burning and a steadier light. The measurements made by the National Electrio Light ' association's committee show ihat a 6.6-ampere 110-volt direct-current enclosed lamp, without the outer globe, gave a maximum luminosity of a little over E0 candles, with an expenditure of 7 watts., A 6-am per SO-volt direct- current Blondel lamp, without the globe, gave over J, 700 candlea with an expendi ture of 2C0 watta. The report of the New York lamp-testing bureau states: "The lamp burns very quietly, without hliislng or noise except the occasional feeding of the carbon. The aro travels very slowly and at Intervals remains stationary for considerable periods of time. There are no deep shadows from the supporting arms and the bottom of the lamp, due probably to the distributing effect of the reflecting surface referred to, and, to the eye, the llhrmlautlon is fairly uniform throughout the lower hemisphere, even without the globe. The globe, of course, increases the Ilumlnatlon In the upper hemisphere, giving a more uniform spherical distri bution. The lamp, however, can be burned If desired without a globe." The Mereury-Carboa Aro. The Electrical Review also translates from tho Physikallsche Zeltschrlft an ac count of a recent study or the electric aro between mercury and carbon. The arc was formed within a glass vessel of cylindrical form, with the axis vertical. - Mercury was placed at the bottom and a carbon rod Introduced from above. The entire vessel was enclosed In a second one, through which water was circulated for cooling. Measurements of current and voltage were made for different aro lengths and for dif ferent directions of current, and the results are given in graphical form. They show that, for equal current strengths and equal separation of electrodes, the electrode po tential of the arc Is greater when the mer cury forms the cathode and the carbon the anode, than for the reverse. The potential fall In the arc Is explained In the following way: The are shows for Its entire length the characteristic bluo light of mercury vapor. Independently of the direction of the current. Thla showa that the mercury la vaporised when it forma tbe cathode, as well as when it Is the anode, more strongly than the solid carbon. But this vaporisation la greater than that of the latter. The arc from a mercury anode therefore contains more va por than one from a mercury cathode. The potential fall along the arc depends upon the mixture of vapors. Increasing as these decrease; consequently It will be less for the more strongly vaporised mercury an ode. II Is; h 8ped Electrio Lines, President Mellen'a reported declaration that within ten years a speed of seventy five miles an hour will be made by cars of the New York, New Haven & Hartford railroad by i-ans of electricity, indicates that the inauguration of the new epoch of railroading is close at hand. Undoubtedly the nearness of thla time will be deter mined by the ability of the railroad com panies to meet the financial burdens in volved. Grades must be eliminated, curves straightened and a general overhauling of the line will be necessary before a new and expensive electrical equipment for maintaining high speeds can be installed. Locomotives have been run in this coun try repeatedly at a speed In excess of seventy-five miles an hour for short distances, so that it is not at all necessary to wait for an electrical equipment In order to make fast time. But the ability of an engine to generate steam to maintain a speed of seventy-five miles an hour for the distance between Boston and New York is not demonstrated. Trains have been run In this country at the rate of 100 miles an hour for a minute or two. but the boiler to not large enough to generate steam to maintain this speed. Bo nearly has the limit of development in this direction been reached that we cannot reasonably ex pect a locomotive to maintain a speed la excess of a mllo minute for But W'th "n l equipment uch difficulties a. are met in maintaining peed by a moving boiler are not encount ered. An electric engine capable of going at the rate of a mile in two-thirds of a minute can make the last mile of a Boston New York trip In Just as good time as the first. Boston Transcript. $ Action of Msfctalaar Illustrated. Btr Oliver Lodge recently gave, at th British Institute of Architects, a practical demonstration of the action of lightning, more especially as regarded lightning con ductors. The electrically charged cloud was represented by a thin sheet of metal mounted on nonconducting standards charged from a battery at pleasure, and placed in a position sloping downwards from front to back, so that the model lightning conductors could have their polnta brought nearer to or farther from the under surface of the "cloud" by shift ing their positions on the tablo. 8!r Oliver Lodge placed In operation successive con ductors of three different substances cop per, iron and wet string. The copper was tha most Intense and rapid conductor, pro ducing a sharp crack at the flash; the Iron took it with less noise, the wet string with hardly any, yet it was efficient in protect ing the two other conductors. Sir Oliver Lodge maintained that iron was quite as efficient a conductor as copper and more, that the intensity of action of copter wo more likely than Iron to set up side-flash, which. In protecting bulldlnga, had been the origin of most lightning accidents. B r Oliver illustrated and described his clasi flcatlon of lightning into two kinds, "A-flash" and "B-flash." The former was the normal discharge of lightning from on over-charged cloud direct to the earth; the B-flash occurred when a largo cloud dis charged Into a smaller one, generally though not necessarily bdow It, which was overcharged suddenly and discharged to earth with that violence. Sir Oliver Lodge proceeded to lllustrato why tho B-flash might bo exrected to be moro sudden and Intense than the A-flnsh, and proportion ately moro difficult to protect against, though he would not say that all lightning injuries had resulted from B-fiashes. Pointed Paragraphs Fault Is the one thing that is frequently found where it Is not. When a man constructs air castles he la apt to have lofty views. A man likes to think that others think he Is better than he Is. It takes more than a coat of paint to cover a woman's age successfully. The man who has been fooled twice by the same woman is hopelessly foolish. Many a man on the verge of starvation has committed either suicide or matri mony. If a man is deaf and dumb he escapes the long-distance bore who makes bis calls by telephone. What the average man doesn't know la that he doesn't know half aa much as ho thinks he knows. A doctor is a wise. guy with spectacles who charges you $3 for advising you to cat less and exercise more. If each dancer were forced to pay tho fiddler the latter would soon breuk into tho bloated -bondholder class. If you were to weigh your friends on tho ecu la of adveivity you would be surprised at tho number of light-weights among them. Chicago Newt. Recommended First Stutterer: "1 -you w-w-want to try D-D-Doctor B-B-B-B-rown, old c-c-chap, for that ava-stuttertng of y-y-y-youra" Second: "I-I-Is he a-a-a-ny ff-g-g-goodT" First: "8-S-S-Shure; be' M-f-lneb-b-best la tbe b-b business); h-bo o-c-c-c-cured m-m-ine." Harper's Weekly.