Newspaper Page Text
S Oliver E
wer Luvans,
g Th entific Mi
- The Scientific Miller
A 5 T 2 eWt7 sot
é .By Rev. Thomas B. Gregory.
teend} At
00000000000 HEN the farmer has harvested his grain and got the golden
0000008009 o 1 safely into his garner, the next question is: “How
shall his wheat be prepared for food and for shipment to the
distant parts where it is wanted?”
It is known to all that the ancient method of grinding
grain was that of the hollowed stone, or the mortar and
pestle.
009900000000 By such means did the old Hebrews, Egyptians, Phoeni
cians and Greeks grind or crack their grain,
It*was a long time after the building of Solomon's Temple before the
Romans improved upon the very ancient system by inventing the running
stone and stationary grooved one—the “upper and nether mill-stones,” which
were, of course, at first operated by hand.
In the early part of the eighteenth century the millstones invented by the
Romans were made mueh more effectively by the process known as “dressing,”
or grooving, the meeting faces of the stones,
Crude as these means were, they were all that men unsed in milling until
well along toward the beginning of the nineteenth century.
It was in 1790 that Oliver Evans of Delaware, wrought his great revolu
tion in the milling industry,
By Evang’s system, from the moment the grain was emptied from the
wagon to the final production of the flour at the close of the process all man
ual labor was dispensed with. The grain was first put into a box hung on
a scale heam, where it was weighed. It was then run into an elevator which
raigsed it to a chamber over cleaning machines, from which place it was run
down to a room over the hoppers of the millstones. When ground it fell from
the millstones into a receptacle which carried it to the drying floor, where an
other contrivance kept it in steady motion until it was thoroughly dried, when
‘it was conveyed by machinery to the holters,
. The Evans system-—bhetween which and the older one there was no com
parison—prevailed in the Old and New World for more than three-quarters of
a century.
Within the past generation there has, of course, been a revolution in the
milling business greater even than the one made by Evans at the close of the
eighteenth century.
Ahout thirty or thirty-five vears ago it was discovered that the coarser
portion or kernel, of wheat, which lies next to the skin of the berry, and be
tween the skin and the heart, is the most valuable and nutritious part of he
grain, as it congists largely of gluten; while the interior is made up chiefly of
starch. »
It was such knowledge that ted {o the modern revolution in milling meth
ods and gave us the “roller” process in lieu of the old faced stones.
. The new process consists of removing the outer skin of the wheat and
its adhering impurities from the “middlings,” then separating the middlings
from the central part, and then regrinding the middlings into flour,
Under the old system the coarser part, known as middlings, was thrown
aside and ground up into cattie food or into what was considered an inferior
grade of flour, by which arrangement the cattle got the cream of the wheat,
while the man, in his ignorance, was eating the poorer part, thinking that he
was getting the best.—From the American.
S S el emnef ] fio
p. . .
arties and Principles
T S S A P9O
” % 2
By A C. McLaughlin.
: | o NYeangrsrnanaey
POLITICAL party may be truthfully defined—or its content
ronghly suggested—in some such way as this; it is a body
of men, somewhat fluctuating in personnel and in numbers,
who have Degun so work together to attain some political
purposeé or to oppose other men to whom for some reason
& & they”m &*nugnmt!ox This. body, acquiging erganiza
-2 tion and graWhally devloping esprit de corps and a sense
of self, continues in existence even after its first purpose is
; accomplished or abandoned, indeed after it has lost a dom
inating purpose of any kind; it aceepts new doctrines to wrest office from its
opponents; its activities rest largely on tradition, on party name, on personal
pride and sometimes on a dominating principle. We should not be far
wrong if we should declare that there are two or more great armies in ex
istence, each controlled by a select few whose main ambition is victory, and
that objects of the people’'s desire are attained by the organization’s accept
ing a principle as a means of winning success. This does not mean that
a party government would usually throw over a principle which is believed
was unpopular and likely to bring disaster. If this is not true, why condemn
My, Bryan for adhering to free silver, when its advocacy had not brought suc
cess 2 Atlantic,
KRRt ddtttAt Attt att ettt an
e rflrs o pruonanan,
Glori ] T
orious Things to Talk
About for a Year
S—— — .o ——
By Chancellor Day.
Crrvvnstis e Vi
ALK of nothing for a year but the great and glorious things
y " of America. "Talk of the thousand varieties of handy and
“heap forms into which meats and fruits and vegetables, all
edibles, are being put for men in all places and pursuits,
from the day laborer to the North-pole explorer. Talk of
the difference between kerosene at 15 or 20 cents a gallon
and kerosene at $1 a gallon and every gallon at that time
: 0 might blow you into kingdom come. "Talk of the by-prod
ucts once in the dump heaps that are adding hundreds of
millions annually to our country's wealth and the comforts of the rich to the
homes of the poor. Talk of unnumbered forms of manufacture, those most
active agents of civilization, which must be eredited up to our great land. Talk
of the raitways, which from opposition in their inception to persecution
throughout their history, have pushed on opening up states, tilling the nation
with teming millions, transporting us for a fraction of the cost of conveying
ourselves in all directions, hurling our papers and letters off at every wayside
village at a mile a minute, and taking to the tidewaters for the markets of
the world the products of our fields and the work of our shops and factories,
Talk about these great things a year and see how few things there will be to
complain about.—~From Appleton’s Magazine,
RURLRURRURRRAARERt et an
M d\,—-’b
.
Precocity and Degeneracy
Rese e s S b
{ By W. A Newman Dorland.
IR\ N 2
RECOCITY is not always a thing to be desired. Indeed, it
may, just as surely as a prematurely ripened fruit indicates
decay and early death, mean an early degeneration and loss
of the mental faculties, By many biologists it is considered
an expression of premature senility. As Lombroso has in
dicated, many of the men of genius were subjects of degen
eracy. There is a period of antenatal growth known to sci
entists as the senile period, embracing the fourth and fifth
wmonths of prénatal existence, It has been found that a
slight arrest of development at this period is characteristic of the class of be:
ings kuown as degenerates, and precocity is recognized as one of the expres
sions of this development defect. Relief de la Bretonne, who composed at
fourteen a poem on his first twelve loves, is a remarkable precocity. “A wit
of five is a fool of twenty,” is an adage founded upon the popular appreciation
of this unpleasant truth.—From The Century.
A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE SHOWS IT WILL BE A STRANGE
WORLD INDEED FOR OUR POSTERITY,
Anthracite Gonz, Soil Wa—s;::i: Electricity the Savior—
By the Time City 3%s Mature Sun’s Rays Will Be
Conserved, Watercourses Will Be Chains of Reservoirs
and Air Will Fertilize Earth—So Says Dr. Steinmatz.
Dr. Charles Proteus Steinmetz, pro
fessor of electrical engineering at
Union College, Schenectady, and con
sulting engineer of the General Elge
tric Company, predicts that all youneg
men now living will see the exhaus
tion of our supply of anthracite. The
natural course then will be to rely
upon our deposits of soft coal for pro
tection against freezing, but the Goy
ernment, in Dr. Steinmetz’s opinion,
will be obliged to prohibit this or the
air we breathe will become permeated
with poisonous gases. The hope of
the future for life, as Dr. Steinmetz
gees it, lies in electricity.
The United States that is to come
will be a country entirely devoid of
its present river scenery. The riversg
of the future will be merely a succes
sion of sluggish lakes, with electrical
power stations in between. All the
little streams will have been utilized
and their combined strength con
verged into the great bodies of water
that are to supply the heat, light and
power of the future.
But even the hushanding of all our
water power won't be sufficient.
There must be economy along other
lines. 'The energy of the sun itself
must be trapped and saved. Our
building methods will have to un
dergo a change. Provision will have
to be made for the utilization of the
sun’s rays in the heating of our (or
somehody else's) homes.
Dr. Steinmetz also sees in the
mind’s eye the city of the future—a
collection of office buildings, factories
and bachelor apartments. All the
married men with their families will
have moved to the water-courseless
country. The development of the
uses of electricity is already bringing
this change about. .
Dr. Steinmetz took this look into
the future in a lecture at the Amer
ican Institute of Electrical Engineers,
33 West Thirty-ninth street.” The lee
ture was given for the New York
Electrical Trade School, and most of
the audience were students from that
institution. Dr. Steinmetz’s subject
was “The Future of Electricity.”
Dr. Steinmetz said that the handi
cap against electricity now is ietzlsh‘%
cost of production. That high cost is
occasioned largely by the irregular’
nature of the distribution, Electricity
supplied - for twenty-four hours to a
mill could be obtained on one gapt
ver kilowatt hour, whereas the
tricity used for lighting pugl¥
would cost ten times as much. @& |
hope of the future for economygf
teinmetz’s opinionw lay . in, JEFE!
'S'fitilzfi; 55 el,ecgricnkhtmfi*‘m‘
that it would go out evenly oveNg
twenty-four hours, and not in a hapt,
hazard and unsystematie way as at
present.
“The cost of production,” said Dr.
Steinmetz, “depends on the distribu
tion of the ‘loads,” and when they can
be evened out over the twenty-four
hours in a systematic way the end
will have come for kerosene and gas
as illuminants.” :
The same conditions will usher in
the age of cooking by electricity, if
the coal supply hasn't given out be
foi¥ then. i
“The time will come,” said the pro
fessor, “when we will have no more
coal, and it is not far in the future.
Anthracite will not last long: many |
of us who are here will be alive when
the last is gone. Many of us will see
the time when there is only soft coal.
Some of you may see the time when
soft coal is exhausted, but probably
not, for there is a supply of this even
in Greenland’s icy mountains. But,
nevertheless, we can see the end, -and
when we approach it what are we £oo
ing to do to keep from freezing?
That seems to be the problem that the
next generation will have to meet,
and maybe we ourselves.
“But the Nation also will have to
wake up to the problem of the poisan
that escapes in the burning of soft
coal. Look out around Pittsburg
where we se¢ the pine trees dying. |
They have been poisoned. The ever
green tree, like ourselves, has only
one set of lungs. Other trees get a
new set every year, 1f you go through
all those valleys where the great steel
plants are you will never find a pige.
It may be even before the soft coal
is gone that we may have to drop its
use, that we will wake up to the vie
iousness of the practice of burning it.
“And what does this mean? It
means that we must use electrical
power. When we reach the end of
the soft coal the only remaining
sources that will keep us from freez
ing are the water powers. We are
developing the country's water power
now, but we are only making a be
ginning. In the single State of Mas
sachusetts there is more water power
going to waste than is found in Ipi
agara herself.
“Electricity in the future will have
to solve the problem of collecting the
water power. Now we convert it
where we find it into electricity; we
haven't started collecting it as yet.
We have been dreaming of transport
ing Niagara's power to New York.
They will never do that, but the dif
ferent powers joined together may
feed the same system.
“What we get to-day, however, of
our real water power is a mere noth
ing. No attempt is made to get the
enormous power that goes to waste in
the spring floods. Look at the enor
mous unused power in. the little
creeks and rivulets. New methods
will have to be devised for collecting
the joint power of all these creeks
{and rivers. That is what we will have
to do when we face the possibility of
freezing. :
1 "“There are hard times coming for
future generations. We can see now
im what direction things will tend.
We think now it is not worth while
doing these things, but the time will
come when they will have to be done.
They won’t live in houses such as we
have now. They will have to collect
the sunshine. They will appreciate
that it takes a lot of electrical power
to produce a little heat.”
‘But in Dr. Steinmetz’s opinion
there is a vaster problem facing the
nations of the world—a problem
which only electricity can solve.
That has to do with the exhaustion of
the soil. It's a cardinal principle
that you’ve got to put back into the
soil what you've taken out if you are
ing to keep the soil's capital intact.
%at hasn’t been done in this or other
countries. New lEngland, for instance,
48 no longer a farming country. The
capital there, according to Dr. Stein
metz, has all been taken from the
soil. The time will come, too, when
the West will be exhausted, and we
can go no further.
- “We will face the Pacific, and he
{ vond that,” said the speaker, “the
millions of China.”
The attempt to fertilize the ground
put back, Dr. Steinmetz held, only a
-§mall proportion of what was taken
out, and it would be only about ten
vears when the supply of saltpeter,
fised in fertilizer, will have heen ex
gausted.
““When the capital of our farms,”
said the speaker, “is exhausted, we
will have to produce fertilizer. A
large part of what we take out of the
soil we dump into the rivers as sew
age. Billions of dollars of capital is
carried down by them into the ocean.
But we cannot hope to utilize ail of
this. ; :
- “Electrical power is the only means
{hat will combins the elements of the
air necessary for a fertilizer. That
process we are just reaching—the
production of fertilizer from the air.
It is not practical yet; the cost of
clectrical power is too great. This
fertilizer is produced only in Sweden,
where electrical power is extremely
.cheap. - Every year we can see the
- sessity of restoring the capital to
' farm. That situation will have
. jmet within our lifetimes.”
~ eerring ‘again to the possibilities
o RIS p1y..»1m,.‘ Steinmetz
~gl Ve may get an enormous amount
wr¥ower by collecting the water.
‘here will be no more creeks and
rivers. The rivers will be lakes joined
by power stations. It will not be a
~question of saving the beauties of na
ture but of saving human life. All
‘will have to be utilized, even the
spring floods, in restoring what has
‘been taken from the soil. We might
‘be able to get along without physi
cians—the human race would prob
;'ably continue—but we would not be
able to get along without the elec
tricians.”
‘Dr. Steinmetz, speaking of the de
velopment of the uses of electricity on
railways, said that its effect on the
social life of the Nation had been and
would be incalculable. -
~ “To realize it,” said he, “go out
iinto the country. An enormous
‘change is gradually taking place. In
the old days the country districts
‘were becoming depopulated; the peo
ple were moving to the cities. Now
conditions are changing. The city is
‘rapidly sending its people back to the
country. The overpopulation of the
cities is being relieved by the country
becoming practically part of the
citles. The city is fast becoming the
place of business, with factories
office buildings and boarding houses
for bachelors. The families will live
in the country. This will progress
further and further until the Nation
will again live in the country but
work in the cities and towns.”
Dr. Steinmetz believes also that
the application of electricity to rail
roads and to street car lines will ulti
mately afford the solution of the
labor problem on the farm.
“At present,” said he, “the farmer
complains that he hasn't enough
help; that the farm has been depopu
lated. He wants a man for only a
few weeks in a year, and then he is
through with him. By operating be
tween the town and the farm the elec
tric roads will make it possible for
the town man to meet those periods
of demand and to work in the fac
tories the rest of the time. At pres
ent this isn't feasible, but the time
will come when we will have to econ
omize. The time will come when we
will have to co-operate in systemically
distributing according to the season
the work that is to be done. Then
we will combine the city and the
town,"—New York Sun.
eet e eet
Strong Upon Him, y
Miss Mathilda Owens hung upon
the arm of the editor of the Laneville
Bugle, to whom she had been en
gaged for three years, and endeav
ored to-turn his gaze toward the sky.
““Just notice the moon, William!"
she said in a melting voice. :
“At the usual rates, Matilda, 1
shall be happy to do so,” he replied;
~—Youth's Companion. . .
| The Circus From the Inside
s
By JOHN S. LOPEZ.
“Most performers,” said the Pink
Lemonade Man, ‘soak away their
gpare change in sparklers so as to
shave somethin’ to hock if they go
broke. I flash mine mostly for busi
ness reasons, though I ain’'t denyin’.
I've converted it at times. Diamonds
adds dignity, specially in small towns,
where they can only recognize a gen
tleman because he wears a high hat,
patent-leather shoes, and swell
clothes. Besides, it makes ’em feel
easier to let 'em see you trustin’ a
fine sparkler like that in the liquids
yvou're selling 'em.”
Here a shower of sawdust fell
about us. Two boys were fighting in
froni of the stand, rolling on the
ground and pelting each other with
sawdust.
“Well, I'll be—" began the Pink
Lemonade Man, as a quantity of it
{ landed in one of the tubs. Then he
smiled philosophically.
“It’ll draw a crowd, and maybe I'll
land some of ‘em. Here, Jimmy,”
he called loudly to his assistant, “take
this tub over to the dressing tent and
empty it.” He turned to us.
“What he'll do,” he confided, “is
strain it through a cheesecloth we
’ keep on purpose. He'll bring it back
in a minute, that is, unless Made-
I moiselle Fleurette is hanging ‘round.”
The Serious Student heamed.
“Are there many little romances
around the circus?” he asked, eager
ly. “I presume she is his sweet
heart?” %
The Pink Lemonade Man threw
back his head and gave up to such ex
]plosive and sprinkiing mirth that I
shuddered for the lemonade.
“If Jimmy heard you,” he finally
managed to splutter, “he'd probably
iry to beat your face in. Mademoi
selle Fleurette's a young man. Him.
an’ Jimmy uster Dbe pals, but now
most every time they meet there's a
scrap. Fleurette’s got a swelled head
an’ puts on airs. Jimmy gets back
at him by insinuations concerning
him passin’ for a perfec’ lady.”—Har
per’'s Weekly.
‘“What's Mine is Thine.”
The simple statement of a New
foundland report that the St. Pierre
fishing fleet lost 123 men during the
season recently closed makes little
impression on the casual reader. Be
hind the words, however, is deep
tragedy. There is much pathos in
the lives of those northern fishermen
as well as in their deaths. They are
‘a hard working class, used to all sorts
of dangers, and experiencing little of
the common comforis of existence.
Mr. Willson in ‘“The Tenth Isiand’’
gives an instance of generosity which
might well shame the boasted hospi
‘tality of wealthy civilization, -
The Newfoundland fisherman is
_the personification of hospitality. He
is a great, warm ,heartedr-'leuog;{
| whose be 4 and board and good offices
‘are at”-fi-dhow In hut, cabin
or cottage everything you see belongs
to you for the time being, but bhe
careful not to express a wish for it.
A Yankee comedian once came to
Newfoundland during the shooting
season. He was much struck by the
extraordinarily and picturesquely
patched trousers that his host wore,
“I ghall have a pair like them,” he
said, jocosely, and jotted down notes
as to their appearance.
When the actor and his friend took
their leave, their hostess, in her lord’s
absence, pressed a parcel on them,
which they accepted, thinking it was
fish.
“We couldnt very well decline it,"”
remarked the actor. *“lt’s the custom
here, I believe. I vote we give it to
the first man we meet. By the way,
1 suppose it is fish.”
The parcel was opened and found
to contain the trousers of the host.
The two strangers ran back, and sur
prised the fisherman mending nets in
his wife’s skirts. It was a chilly day
and he had worn those precious trou
sers for seventeen years, yet he was
much hurt because they were not ac
cepted.
R S et
Found His Place at Last.
““Take a phrenological examination
and learn what profession or calling
in life you are best fitted for,” was
the injunction painted on the show
case at the bottom of the stairway,
and the young man who had been
looking#at it and studying the ‘‘ex
hibits”” in the showcase went up the
stairs to the second floor, where he
found the phrenologist's office.
“Is this where you examine peo
ple’s heads?” he asked.
“*Yes, sir.”
“Well, I wish you'd run your fing
ers over mine, and tell me what I'm
good for,” said the caller. ‘I haven't
found out yet.”
The phrenologist made a thorough
examination of his head, but seemed
in doubt,
“To be perfectly frank with you,
my friend,” he said, ‘I can discover
no marked characteristics on which
to base any definite plan of life for
you. There is no predominant devel
opment in any one direction.”
Here he paused a moment.
“Have you ever tried any kind of
occupation?’’ he asked.
“Yes, sir. I've tried life insurance,
sewing machines, real estate, bill col
lecting and book canvassing, and
made a failure of all of 'em."”
“What is your name, may I ask?”
“My name is Sweet."”
“Ah!" exclaimed the phrenologist.
“Young man, start a candy factory.
My word for it, your name and that
business will make a winning combi
nation.”
The young man paid the fee and
went out, with a sarcastic smile on
his face. But the curious part of the
story is that he took the advice—and
wchieved suceess,
T QCIENTIFICT 2
AR &T X
Y NDUSTP\I
The highest authorities place the
total number of years elapsed since,
in the light of the best geological evi
dence, men first appeared upon earth
at 288,000,
The statement that radium loses
activity on healing has heen tested
by Dr. H. W. Schmidt, who finds that
at 1300 degree C. its effects are ege
actly as at ordinary temperature,
The aluminium books for the blingd
now being printed in Edinburgh are
of thin sheets embossed in the usual
way. They are easier to read than
paper hooks, do not soil, and are
practically indestructible. Their ex.
pensiveness is their drawback.
Many cases of astigmatism arise
from the practice of reading in bed,
particularly by persons recovering
from a severe illness. It strains the
muscles of the eye to such an extent
that they alter the curvature of the
cornea —the abnormality to which
l the term astigmatism is applied.
l Plans have oilen been made to de
velop the power of the tides, but in
most cases these have failed of com
mercial sueccess. Now, however, a
project is well advanced to harness
the power of the tides on the coast of
Maine. A company has bonded land
| on either side of Back Bay, in Port
land, where it is anticipated a tidal
power plant will be located capable
of developing at least 25,000 horse
power or enough to run all the elec
tric cars, lights and engines in the
i city.
Mons. Dufour, a French scientist,
has succeeded in making thermome
ter tubes of pure quartz. Not only
are these tubes exceedingly transpar
ent, but their resistance to heat and
other advantages make them superior
to glass for thermometers intended
to measure high temperatures, In
such thermometers melted tin takes
the place of mercury, and the scale
reads from about 465 degrees Fah
renheit up to over 1000 degrees. It
! could be run up to 1800 degrees, for
quartz does not soften below that
' temperature,
t The meteor trains studied by Pro
fessor Trowbridge, of Columbia Uni
' versity, are the luminous streaks of
’ten seen in the wake of shooting
stars, and they may continue many,
. minutes, or even an hour or more.
| They drift slowly and become distort
_ ©d, as if by air currents. They seem
. 1o De self-luminous and may some
| times be seen in daytime. They some
! what resemble the afterglow on turn
. ing off the current from vacuum tube
'Ȏlectrode& The glow is greenish yel
low, diffuses 100 yvards a minute and
is most striking at a pressure caleu
~lated to be that of the atmosphere at
| a height of fifty-five miles. >
*————-_
; The Honey Guide of Africa,
i The honey guide belongs to Africa.
When -it desires to feed upon some
comb which it hasdiscovered it makes
its way to a human being, flutters
about restlessly and hops from bush
| to bush and from one ant to another
" until it succeeds in attracting the
! man's attention. During this time it
' utters a shrill ery of ““Cherr, cherr!”.
| The native who understands its hab
i its follows it. The honey guide now,
' goes ahead, always watehing to sce
| that the man is following. At length
the honey nest is reached. While the
native attacks the nest and rifles the
comb the bird still flutters abonut,
| chirping. When the man departs the
! honey guide descends from its perch
and helps itself.—Springfield Repube
! lican.
l Life Under the Microscope.
! Everybody who has used a micio
; Scope has no doubt regretted the dif
ificulty of seeing small insects, and
I other living objects not of mere mi
croscopic dimensions, magnified while
: alive and moving freely in the field
% of view. A recently invented English
.instrument, called the vitascope, is'
said to supply a desideratum in this
| respect. It is shaped like a telescope,
| a foot long when closed, and an inch
| and a half in diameter. The lenses
[ are so combined that an object twen
]ty inches away may be magnified
| twelve diameters. At a distance of
five inches the magnification is sixty,
l diameters. 55
i o i
Substitute For Hard Rubber.
An Englishman has taken out 4
butent on a composition which he
says has all the properties of hard
rubber, but is much cheaper. Tan
bark and sulphur ave used in its prep
aration. A coarse black powder is
said to result from stirring these ma
terials when heated. Later the pro
duct is ground fine and placed in a
mold under the proper pressure. If
heat is then applied to the mold, says
the inventor, the contents set into a
hard, durable mass,
Flume Seventy Miles Long. %
In the Dawson mining district the
Yukon Gold Company is building a
seventy-mile ditch, fiume and pipe
line to supply water for placer min
ing. The whole water supply system:
when completed will cost about $2,-
500,000, It is expected that the con
duit will be completed in the fall of
this year. .
