The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 5, 1896, Page 25

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, APRIL 5. 1896. 25 1Y = S SCIENCE, LITERATURE /), N OLONEL W. H. BELL, at present / Commissary officer for the Depart- ment of California, U. 8. A., is the inventor of a new intrenching tool or shovel that will very likely soon be introduced into all branches of the ser- vice. and seems to fill all the requirements of such an instrument. It is several years since Colonel Sell started to work on his invention, and he had the full benefit of nearly four decades of active service to tell him what was re- quired in the tool. Asitis completed it is difficult to see how it could be improved 1pon. The tool could of course be made but the one that is finished is | € as the regulation army cay- inches across at the widest Front View of New E; [From a p! place. The general shape of the blade of | the tool is that of a shaliow bowl, with | ons knocked off on two sides of a sec- | n that comes to a point. Two handles | laced on either side of it and itis y for use. i are rea It is the details of the tool, however, that make it so valuable. The bowlshape permits it to be placed over a canieen where it is held in piace by a chkain that stretches from side to side. A ring slips over the neck of the canteen to avoid jar- ring, and the position of the handles issuch that they will not get in the way when a man wants to drink. The total weight of | the tool is only nine ounces, and the space it oce i cally nothing. tention to make the tool of n order to keep the weight low the bowl must be very thin. This would sourse quite weak and liable to work. To over- el Bell basso constructed e tool that it bears all of re, and the bowl sim- e for the loosened earth or rock. About a year ago the War Department had a test made of several kinds of in- g too!s at Fort Snelling, Minn. to the most severe trials 1 has just received the of- is tool is given the prefer- It stood the most Jolonei B ial report. ence over all others. E£ntrenching Tool Attachcd to Canteen. [From a photograph.] severe strains and handled more soft earth than any of the others. One tool was sub- mitted Captain Zalinsky tkat stood most of the tests, but failed when it came to digging in frozen gravel. Colonel Bell's tool not only accomplished this, but also took several large stones out of the sub- stance and at the end of the trial was not bent in the least. The report says: “The tool went back on the canteen perfect, and only a few scratches on the sharp nt showed that it had been put to any Not only is the intrenching tool likely to be put to use in the regular army, but the New York militia has made tests and ved to adopt it assoon as the State makes the necessary appropriations. It has been ascertained that the tool can be made in largs quantities for a little over 30 cents a piece. If sold at a moderate price there 1s no reason why campers The new tdol is simplicity iuelfi | | | | | | | tion of his new palace on Fifth avenue. | crystal handle of the walking-stick isa | It will be found useful for finding key- who has been ‘‘roughing it’” how valu- able a shovel would be at certain times. | After 84,000,000 Sunken Gold. 1 The Amsterdam Gazette mentions that | a company has been organized for the raising of a treasure sunk with the ship Lutine, which was lost almost 100 years ago off the Dutch coast. This boat sailed from London in 1799 for Hamburg, there being on board a very large sum in gold, which was intended for payments of Con- tinental accounts by English merchants. It is believed that there was $4,000,000 in gold in iron coffers aboard the Lutine. The vessel was sighted off the Dutch coast, and that was the last ever seen of ber, and she was never heard of again. Several attempts have been made to find the wreck in the last minety years, but all efforts were fruitless until recently. It seems that the hulk of the old vessel has been located, and a company organized to raise the prize has gone to work. At last reports four guns had been raised, but 0 1ar no coins have been discovered. | The work of salvage is carried on by ex- perienced divers, who have succeeded in clearing the hulk from sand by means of great pumps. The wreck is located not very far from the island of Vlieland, on the Dutch coast. An Electric Cane. John Jacob Astor, the multi-million- aire, is an amateur electrician and de- signed the fixtures for the illumina- Incidentally, says the New York World, he has invented an electric cane, for which, in years to come, many people will call him blessed. A storage bat- tery is confined in the heart of a black- thorn stick. In the end of the precious small but powerful incandescent lamp shining through a crystal lens. The light is turned on and out at will. Mr. Astor’s Cane. holes, reading doorplates, deciphering bouse numbers, reading address cards and 100 other purposes. The idea has been pateated. Mr. Astor’s own cane is a thing of beauty. Cheaper canes with thé light equipment will soon be on the market designed for their utility. Edison’s Latest. The wonderful fluorescent screen, behind which a man stands while the operator is looking through the flesh and examining the bones, recently “invented by Mr. Edi- son, is fully described in the New York Journal: ‘“‘Here,"” said Mr. Edison, pointing to a great box-like structure the size of a door, “that is my screen. I will have a man Crookes tubes behind him, and you or I or a surgeon will look through him as clean and as clear as though he were made of gauze. We can look through his eves into his skull and see everything that is to be seen there. A physician may diagnose his case in an instant. He will simply put his hand before the screen and then penetrate him through from head to foot.” state of calcium; inother words, tungstate and lime. Tbe two substances are fused ina furnace, and at a proper degree of heat form little crystals, perhaps one- | eighth the size of a’ French pea These | crystals are glued to a piece of paper by means of collodium, & transparent cellu- loid paint. The screen is made in the shapeofa | monster mill hopper, standing on end. | The face on which the crystals are apphed will be about eight feet high and four feet broad. To this face will be fastened sides that will slant inward to a sharp point. At | this point there will be left a slit just large | enough to see through with ease. This should not use 1t, as every one knows slit will be protected by means of a rubber Fdison. Fluorescent Screen. step in front of that, put four or five | The fluorescent substance used is tung- ! flap, in such a way as to exclude all light when the eye is applied to it. The screen will be set up so that the side on which the tungstate of calcium has been glued faces a row of four or five Crookes tubes, set one above the other at an equal distance. The person to be examined will then step in between the screen and the light, and he will be instantly penetrated and become visitte to the eyes of the ex- aminer at the screen. Every defect, every crEnn will be laid bare to the physician or other person who 1s making the examina- tion. It will not be necessary to go to the trouble of disrobing, as the clothing worn will be penetrated as if it were the flimsiest mosquito netting. How the Megatherium Looked. Some idea of the proportions of extinct mammals, birds and reptiles may doubt- less be gained from their skeletons prop- erly restored and mounted in museums, but the-impressions thus acquired are neither accurate nor distinct, and must prove unsatisfactory, when we attempt, aided by our fancy, to use them in bring- ing before our mental vision the real gtat:re and bulk of the animals in the esh. There are two reasons for this, says J. Carter Peard in Popular Science News. Skeletons are considerably smaller than the forms of which they are the frame- work, and objects the size of which are fa- miliarly known to us are wanting for con- trast. A skeleton in a glass case, or set up by itself on a platform, has this in com- mon with most itlustrations in popular books of natural histories—there is seldom anything very near it by which the size of the animal represented can be imamedi- ately grasped ana recognized. Size is so much a matter of comparison one object bears to another that we can form any idea at all of magnitude. could put on glasses that magnified the objects we saw about us twenty diame- ters we would soon become so accustomed to the apparent size ot everything that unless we took off our spectacles, they would not seem to magnify at all. it can truly be said that no two persons see alike in respect to the apparent mag- nitude of what they see, 30 that if one per- | son could look tirough the eyes of an- other, he might, as long as the impression remained of things as he had formerly seen them, be surprised av the different size they now assumed. Truly, however, if the reader could be transported back to some of the geological periods through which our earth has passed he could easily imagine he was lool through some medium that greatly magnitied the objects upon which he gazed. Among mammals in the quarternary period he might possibly encounter one re- sembling nothing even in the wildest fan- cies of poets or painiers (so much stranger is truth than fiction) that has ever been imagined as a form of life. This is the megatherium, literally great beast. He is seen in a grove of American agaves or century plants, upon which he feeds, and as he rears his huge form aloft he overtops them all and rivals in height | the lofty flower stems of those in bloom: | indeed he far surpassesin size and bulk the largest existing elephant, being no less than eighteen feetlong. His comrarulively small head and the apparently dispro- ortionate length of his fore limbs make Klm look even larger than he is. He rises to his full height and stands erect upona tripod formed of his hind legs and his that it is only by observing the proportion | 1f we | Indeed | sumed his mournful howling. The idea of burying the dead cat was extraordinary. Whence came the thought? Could it be imitation, or, which is a better explanation, did the dog have a vague idea of concealing the event, which might possibly be imputed to him? But then it would seem unreasonable for him to call attention to the fact by installing himself on the grave and howling. How- ever, even human criminals are sometimes equally inconsistent. It is difficult to form an exact idea of what gave rise to the | dog’s conduct in this case. A Volcano for Sale. People who would like to buy a volcano may now do so if the advertisements in some of the London dailies are bona fide. Among other advertisements of auction sales the island volcano situated in the Liparian Archipelago, is announced for sale to the highest bidder at auction dur- ing the next month. The crater on this island has been slightly active for a num- ber of years past, though no immediate danger of an eruption is feared. A New Hand Camera. M. Joux has lately perfected a new form of hand camera, which has been used for several months, and which, it is said. gives excellent results, says the Paris Photo- graphic Journal. One of the principal im- provements is what he terms the “block system.’”” By this arrangement it is im- = New Magazine Camera. possible to expose the same plate twiee, since the shutter cannot be released until after the exposed plate has been changed. The mode of changing the plate is very simple, the construction of the magazine being such as to permit of its turning com- pletely into the box after a plate is changed, and there is no lost space. the whole camera being very compactly built. As shown in Fig. 2, the changing of the Charging the Plates. plate is effected by pulling on the handle at the lower part of the side; in this way | the size of the magazine (one of the sides | of which is shown extended) is increased, | and the extended magasine draws out with it at the same time the stack of plates | with the exception of the one situated at | the top. This one, held pack by two small hooks, remains in place and finally The Interior Mcchanism. falls to the bottom when it is no longer sustained by the rest of the pile. When the magazine is pushed back the pile of plates slide over the fallen plates at the bottom, at the same time bringing a fresh plate at the top into position for the next exposure. The magazine contains eighteen plates, and an indicator moving automatically | always shows the number of exposed | plates. A clear finder with a cover folds down into the thickness of the box, when the camera is put into its carrying-case. [ & | P a1 Z [Reproduced from Po, (i A GIGANTIC MEGATHERIUM IN Ry " THE SUBURBS. pular Science News.] enormously thick, conical-shaped tail, his fore limbs, which grotesquely resemble in shape the arms of 8 human being, embrace the trunk of a well-grown tree. He settles himself firmly upon his caudal support and the outer edees of his hind feet, for he does not tread with their soles, and prepares to wrestle with his vegetable prey. In order that the reader may properly appreciate the enormcus size of this long aeceased mammal an illustration is given on_ this page showing his megatherium- ship on a_visit to a quiet street in the suburbs, with a horse near by to empha- size his great proportions. A Dog Mourns for a Cat. A dog and acat belonging to the same master were the best of friends in the world, savs 1'Eleveur, and spent their time in frolicking together. One day while playing as usual the cat died suddenly, falling et the dog’s feet. The latter at first did not realize what had happened, but continued his play, pulling, pushing and caressing his companion, but with evident astonishment at ber inertness. After some time he appeared to under- stand the situation, ana his grief found vent in prolonged howls. Presently he was seized with the idea of burying the Cathode Light. Subject. EDISON LOOKING THROUGH FLUORESCENT SCREEN, [Reproduced from the New York Journal.] cat. He pulled her into the garden, where he soon dug a hole with his paws, and put in it the body of his former companion. He then refilled the hole with dirt, and, stretching himself out on the grave, 1e- The objective with an iris diaphragm is a very rapid Zeiss, F-8; the front part of the box is moved back and forth by means of an ornamented button, and allows a focus of from one meter to infinity. The shutter placed between the lenses is of variable speed; it is worked with the finger or with a bulb, and permits time or instantaneous exposures. The size of the plate is 64 by 9 cm. The apparatus, loaded with eighteen plates, weighs 1500 grammes (4 pounds); its dimensions are 18 centimeters long, 8 thick and 11 wide. A Transparent Mirror, A transparent mirror wag brought from Germany to this country a few months ago by a New York firm and the perplexing qualities of the glass excited much curiosity. It was atonce in demand for many purposes and the same firm is now engaged in importing itin large quan- tities. The coating is placed on one side of the glass just the same as the silvering on the mirror and has the same properties of re- flecting the rays of light and color. The difference, however, is that when looked at from the back the coating is entirely transparent. To one sitting indoors the view without is not obstructed in the least, but a pedestrian peering into the window or doorway would be greeted b; his own reflection. The glass is use: largely in lieu of screens where privacy is desired without obstruction of light from mrmnmrmnmrnmmrmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmwmnmmwmmwmrmmmmmnmmmrmmwmrmnrmmmmmnmmmrmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm’m NEW PUBLICATIONS. NEW PUBLICATIONS' NEW PUBLICATIONS. L Rev. Dr. Parkhurst’s Opinion. No. 133 East 85th Bt. } | New York, March 9, 18%6. The Encyclopsdic Dictionary is a LisrRARY condensed _into Four Vorunmes; a Tox of diffu- siveness reduced to Forry Pounps of QuiNTEssENCE, and, withal, as delicate in detail as it is comprehensive in contents. REV.C.H. PARKHURST, D.D. 0.0,0,0,0,0[C,00 0000 00000000000, OO0, Los Gatos, Cal., April 1, 1896 Itake this opportunity to thank gou for rendering it vossible to a ook-lover iike myself, of limited means, to become the possessor, even in these hara times, of this invaluable and almost Indis- ensable work. It is a perfect reasure-house of general and special information, far superier for a busy man to the more bulky encyclopedias. W. WALKER, M. D. 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State here whether by express or frelght. i ZZ200b4UbAAMIIABIATULIURURSUATIATIAIALURAEOLUOLIASUALARLUR LI SIAIAALALRDURHIMIAA DD BIATIASAR LA SRR LML WYYV YT HATY YT IVIYITIN OUMERILCIAUL IR IIRIU RO IURIA RN TR DA HAA DTN LSOOI RO SUAIERTIAAR UM R U AEN O AAR DI AAD AU OIS DDA bty the outside or barring the vision of those in’i;g:'mathod of securing this effect is described in a recent number of the American Druggist. It is as follows: Dissolve one part by weight of silver ni- trate in ten parts by weight of water and label No. 1. Prepare another 10 per cent solution of silver nitrate, but in larger quantity; to this add amionia water, %rop by drop, stirrinz carefully until the precipitate formed at first 1s com- pletely dissolved, and label No. 2. Now add solution No. 1 to solution No. 2 until the odor of ammonia is .o longerrecogniz- able and the liquid has again become very turbid. Now add 100 parts by weight of distilled water for every part of silver nitrate originally used in solution No. 2, and filter until clear. : Label this No. 3. Prepare a reducing so- Iution by dissolving 0.9 part by weight of Rochelle salt in 384 parts by weight of di tilled water, boil, and to the boiling solu- tion add gradually a solution of 3 parts of silver nitrate in 10 parts by weight of dis- tilled water, and filter when cool and label No. 4. %lenu the glass {o be coated thoroughly, lay it on a perfectly level surfaceina room at a temperature_of about 25 degrees C. (77 degrees F.). Mix equal parts of No.3 (the depositing fluid) and No. 4 (the re- ducing fluid) and pour over the glass. The glass may, if preferred, be dipped into the solution. i The time required for the deposition of the layer of silver of just the correct thick- pess has to be determined by the judg- ment of the operator in each case, and this may be aided somewhat by observing a_piece of white paper below the late of glass. When a sufficient gepouit of siver has been made, and much less is required than for an ordinary mirror, pour off the silvering liquid and rinse thoroughly with the dis- tilled water, and stand the mirror on edge to dry, coat the silvered side with a_solu- tion of colorless shellac in alcohol and finally frame the mirror with a backing of clear glass to protect the mirror surface from being scratched. Solace for a Scolding. ‘We are told that nothing ages us so fast as anger. Once an actress got in a rage with Perrin, the Paris manager, and gave him a fifteen minutes’ tongue-lashing. “My dear Perrin,” said Febvre, when told of it, “‘what did you do?” “Nothing,” replied Perrin. *‘1 said noth- ing—and watched her grow old.” ———————— The Alaskans often haveeating matches, at which great numbers of the villagers compete. The man who eats the most is | cunsidered the finest man. WARFARE IN THE AIR—A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE. [Reproduced from “Ucber Land und Meer,"