A New Heating Project

1895

One of the schemes for future engineers to work at will be the sinking of a shaft 12,000 or 15,000 feet into the earth for the purpose of utilizing the central heat of the globe. It is said that such a depth is by no means impossible, with the improved machinery and advanced methods of the coming engineer.

Water at a temperature of 200 degrees centigrade, which can, it is said, be obtained from those deep borings, would not only heat houses and public buildings, but would furnish power that could be utilized for many purposes. Hot water already at hand is necessarily much cheaper than that which must be taken when cold and brought up to the required temperature. Once the shaft is sunk, all cost in the item of the hot water supply ceases. The pipes, if good, will last indefinitely, and as nature's stokers never allow the fire to go out there would come in the train of this arrangement many advantages.

When by sinking a shaft in the earth we can secure a perpetual heating apparatus which we can regulate by the turning of a key, one of the trials of life will fade into nothingness. — New York Ledger.

Cooling of the Earth

1914

The application of Stefan's law to the calculation of the mean temperature of the earth, at a given latitude, shows that at the latitude of 80 degrees, the temperature was in the neighborhood of 90 degrees Cent., when the sun's radius was about one and a half times its present dimensions, i.e., about two million years ago. Thus it would appear that life commenced on the earth in the vicinity of the poles. The same reasoning leads us to the conclusion that in less than two million years, when the sun's radius will be reduced by one-tenth of its present value, the temperature on the earth will have fallen below 0 degree, even at the equator. — Scientific American.

New Earthquake Theory

1910

Areas of earthquake and volcanic activity are traveling westward about twenty-five miles a year, according to the investigation of H. Wehner, a German physicist. He accounts for this by the novel theory that the earth's solid crust encloses a thin layer of liquid, within which is a solid nucleus rotating about the same axis as the outer shell, and in the same direction, but with a slightly less velocity, the lagging behind causing the nucleus to make a revolution to the west in the crust in about 952 years.

It is assumed that earthquake and volcanic disturbances result when projecting or active spots on the nucleus are moved under weak portions of the crust. From reports by ships during the last 60 years it is calculated that the active spots of the Atlantic are nearly all collected at the present time under the region between 35 and 41 degrees west longitude and one degree north and one degree south latitude, and that this area off the northeastern coast of South America may be regarded as a danger zone.


Grecian Nose Worth £1,000

Mlle. Boucheraud, a fascinating Parisian actress, once had a perfect Grecian nose. Now it is slightly concave in its lower part, and she is claiming in the law courts £1,000 from M. Lang, who was the direct cause of the alteration. M. Lang considered that Mlle. Boucheraud did not reserve her fascination for himself, and in the course of a lovers' quarrel struck her heavily on the face.

Get Measurements of Earth

1905

Elaborate Methods Used by Scientists in Getting a Base Line

Ever since the caliph, Almamoun, in 814 A. D. set his astronomers to measure a degree on the earth's surface with wooden rods, there has been a craving for greater accuracy in this supremely important starting point of geodesy.

Science and ingenuity have been employed to devise some measuring rod which shall be absolutely reliable and not subject to variation. The American Inventor has some interesting remarks upon the subject:

The science of geodesy is making rapid strides along the line of accuracy, and there is not much left to be perfected in the way of method. The all important problem of modern, as well as ancient geodesy, of course, is the measurement of the dimensions of the earth, which enters into all practical work of surveying, navigating and terrestrial physics.

The International Scientific association several years ago undertook the problem, the different nations having agreed to contribute their share toward an accurate determination.

The determination was undertaken in Ecuador in 1901, and extended from the Colombian to the Peruvian frontier, and every possible refinement to attain the maximum degree of accuracy was adopted.

The Great Sargasso Sea

1896

Sailors have always been superstitious fellows. No wonder, then, that the ignorant sailors of Columbus, anxious for some excuse to turn back to Spain, believed the "sargasso sea" — that tangled mass of seaweeds in mid-Atlantic — was a trap set by Providence to catch them. Science to-day analyzes and explains all such natural phenomena once deemed supernatural. What is it that causes that mysterious sargasso sea?

Simple enough. The rotation of the earth, the rush of the tides, the steady winds unite to cause a vast surface current in tropical waters, moving at about ten miles an hour from east to west, known as the equatorial current. This, in the Atlantic Ocean, feeds the Gulf Stream, which then is shifted by the contour of the North American continent out across the Atlantic to warm the outlying shores of Northern Europe and only spend itself away on the frozen borders of Franz Josef Land. What results? An eddy. Put a few bits of wood in a basin of water and stir the water till it acquires a circular motion. The bits of wood will all collect in the center of the whirling mass.

So the Atlantic Ocean is one great eddy, and the sargasso sea is only the center of it. A "marine meadow," the Spaniards first called this stagnant water. Later it came to be called the sargasso or sargassoa sea, from the Spanish word sargazo, meaning seaweed. Here the seaweed detached from the bottom of the ocean collects, buoyed up by peculiar little air-cells.

Woe to the ship that wanders into the meshes of this great net, six times as big as all France. The same conditions that produce the great sargasso sea of the Atlantic make similar eddy-spots in various regions of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, though much smaller. The Chinese, always ready to utilize whatever is at hand, use the sargasum weed as a food, and as such it is both palatable and nutritious. — Pathfinder.

Harvesting the Sun

1896

When we sit in front of a coal fire and enjoy its generous warmth, do we realize that the heat and light of the burning coal are really sunshine that has been stored up for ages? Such is the fact. Centuries ago the sun shone on the earth, the plants and trees grew, fell, and grew again; they were covered by geologic deposits, and acted upon by great heat and pressure, until in the course of years and ages these broad layers of organic matter were transformed into coal. The coal thus represents the work done by the sunshine years ago, and when it is burned the imprisoned solar energy is loosened again.

Our system of power production depends upon this presence of energy. But coal is a wasteful source of energy. Even the best engines do not utilize over 10 per cent of the calculated energy of the heat of coal. And, besides this it is an inconvenient thing in many ways; it has to be mined, freighted and stored. Can we not find some more economical way of using the sun's energy?

During the last few years the great progress in electrical science has enabled man to utilize the solar heat in a thriftier way. During its day's work the sun draws up a large amount of water from the oceans and damp earth. By the action of its rays plant life flourishes, and plants draw from the ground and evaporate into the air large amounts of water. Thus an oak tree of average size, with seven hundred thousand leaves, lifts from the earth into the air about one hundred and twenty-three tons of water during the five months it displays its foliage. This evaporated water, sooner or later, falls as rain, and by the action of gravity begins to flow downward. Thus the great rivers are fed. Round and round incessantly goes the water lifted by the tireless sun to fall when deserted by him, and again to fall and run seaward as long as it may exist upon this earth.


Peculiar to the Locality

Some interesting discoveries have recently been made about animal life on the Hawaiian Islands. It appears that all the land and fresh water shells are peculiar to the locality. Nor is that all. Fifty-seven out of the seventy-eight species of birds, and seven hundred out of the one thousand species of insects do not exist in any other portion of the globe.

Movement of Earth's Poles

1904

One of the strange phenomena of nature for which an explanation has long been sought is the fact that the earth's poles undergo a certain more or less irregular displacement, says Harper's Weekly.

Professor John Milne, of England, well known as an authority on earthquakes, has suggested that this displacement may be due to movements of the earth's crust, and consequently depend on the number and frequency, of earthquakes. The theory attracted the attention of M. A. de Lapparent, who has studied the subject with the aid of observations made of earthquakes, as well as of astronomical observations of the movement of the poles, and his results are strongly confirmatory of the English seismologist's theory.

Any movement of the earth's crust, such as the sinking of an ocean bed or the rising of a continent, apparently occasions earthquakes and earth tremors and it is only reasonable to believe that such movements must produce some change in the distribution of the mass of the earth, which would, of course, directly affect the position of the earth's axis, which is also affected by other and exterior causes.

Conversely, by studying the change in the position of the earth's axis by astronomical observations it would be possible to study the changes in the earth's crust. This new science, according to knowledge, "might almost be called the new astrology, since we might perceive, in the apparent motions of the stars' cataclysmic action, possibly of direct influence in man's destiny on the earth."

Old Style and New Style Calendars

1874

When the calendar of Julius Caesar was reformed under Pope Gregory XIII, in 1582, by a brief it was ordered that October 5th should be called October 15th. The adoption of the Gregorian calendar in England took place September, 1752, when the 3rd of the month was called the 14th. To change Old Style to New add 11 days. George Washington was born Feb. 11, 1732, O.S., but adding the 11 days, we celebrate the 22nd in honor of his birth. If the revolution of the earth around the sun occupied exactly 365¼ days, the calendar would never need correction. As that is about 11 minutes longer than the real period, we add a day every four years to February, omitting it in 1700, 1800, and 1900.


A Solemn Thought

Ten thousand human beings set forth together on their journey. After ten years one-third at least have disappeared. At the middle point of the common measure of life but half are still upon the road. Faster and faster, as the ranks grow thinner, they that remain till now become weary and lie down to rest no more. At threescore and ten a band of some four hundred still struggle on. At ninety these have been reduced to a handful of thirty trembling patriarchs. Year after year they fall in diminishing numbers. One lingers, perhaps, a lonely marvel, till the century is over. We look again and the work of death is finished.

Busy Stork Brings Fourteen More to Virginia

1909

Busy Stork Brings 14

DANVILLE, Virginia — Two sets of triplets, three pairs of twins and two single babies, born to seven families in the same neighborhood on the same day, is the unprecedented record of Schoolfield, a suburb of Danville, in one day.

Mrs. John W. Yancy gave birth to triplets, two of which are living; Mrs. Jacob C. Brown, triplets, two of which are living; Mrs. J. W. Barber, twins, girl and boy; Mrs. Jane Anderson, twins, both boys; Mrs. P. P. Gridder, twins, boy and girl, and two other women, daughters.


99 Candles on a Cake

WHITTIER, California — Ninety-nine candles, indicating the age of a charming Quaker, Mrs. Lydia Sharpless, blazed on the birthday cake which graced the center of a large table set in the dining room of the Friends' Church. Seventy-five of her descendants were present to offer congratulations to the lady, who clings to dress, manner and speech of the Friends of other days, but keeps informed as to events and movements of the present. She was born in Middletown, Ohio, but have lived in this city for many years.


Please, Mr. Comet, Don't You Kill Us

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island — Frank E. Seagrave, a Providence astronomer, whose calculations relative to Halley's comet have attracted widespread attention, announces that the correction of a slight error in the calculations of the comet has developed the discovery that on May 19, 1910, the comet will reach the same plane as the earth in its orbit. It is thereby determined that the tail of the comet will sweep across the plane instead of clearing it. The earth and comet will meet on the same plane, but not in the same path. There will be a distance at the nearest point of 13,000,000 miles between the two.


16,000,000 Cents Coined

WASHINGTON, D.C. — With a total value of $929,269, there were 16,91,875 pieces of coin executed at the mints of the United States during September. Almost 16,000,000 1-cent pieces were turned out.


If a man is honest, you can always tell it by the way he doesn't talk about it.

A Remarkable Clock – Magnetism Runs It

1878

A Remarkable Clock.

A magnetic clock, invented by Daniel Drawbaugh, of Milltown, Cumberland county, Pa., is sufficiently remarkable to be worth description.

The magnetism of the earth, an inexhaustible source of power, is made to oscillate the pendulum; and the simplicity of all the works gives an assurance of the least possible friction. At a certain point the movement of the pendulum itself shuts off magnetic connection with the earth, and at another point restores the connection, thus securing the conditions necessary to produce its oscillations. The works are so ingenious and simple that it is no wild assertion to make that, were it not for the unavoidable wearing out caused by even the smallest amount of friction, the clock would run as long as the solid earth endures.

This clock is hung against a board partition, with all the works exposed, subject to the jarrings of machinery and obstructions from dust settling upon it, yet since March 1, 1877, it has been running continuously and uniformly, with only slight reported variations, as tested by transit observations at noon.


Whaling News

The American whaling fleet of 1877 was very successful. There were no special disasters, and no changes in the business worthy of note, excepting the continued additions to the fleet. Twelve vessels were built during the year. The present fleet consists of 187 vessels, against 172 on January 1, 1877, 169 in 1876 and 163 in 1875. The North and South Atlantic ocean employ over 100 vessels, while the more fruitful grounds of the Pacific ocean, Japan and New Zealand are almost deserted. The North Pacific fleet lost three vessels, and sixteen vessels came out with an average of 1,065 barrels of oil and 8,550 pounds of whalebone.

Cease Your Worry, World Will Last Ten Billion More Years

1920

Paris, April 13 — There's no need to worry about the end of the world for another ten thousand million years, according to Charles Nordmann, the well known scientific writer. Basing his opinion on the latest researches, M. Nordmann states that the rays of the sun, the source of all terrestrial life, should last at least 10,000,000,000 more years, unless there is a collision between the solar body and another planet.

Two famous savants, Hermoltz and Henri Poincare, estimated that the sun would have burned itself out within eight million years, but the recent discovery that the solar mass contains immense deposits of radium, means the sun's heat will have a vastly greater duration.

—The Chronicle Telegram, Elyria, Ohio, April 14, 1920, page 9.