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THE MEYERSDALE COMMERCIAL, MEYERSD ALE, PA.
HEAT OF THE SUN.
its Source of Supply 1 a Puzzling
Problem to Science.
ARMORED VESSELS
Probably the most puzzling problem °
We have in connection with the sun is
to account for its tremendous output
Of heat, which we are told has varied
no more than a few tenths of a degree
in 50,000,000 years, the period general-
ly given by geologists for the duration
of life upon the earth.
If we accept the theory mos gener-
ally advanced in the past that the sun
was formerly a vast nebula extending
at least as far as the planet Neptune |
i
and that its heat was maintained by !
slow contractions, computation shows |
us that only 25,000,000 times the pres-
ent output would be maintained from
this source—that is, if its heat were
supplied by contraction alone it would
have lasted only half as long as life
has been known to exist upon the
earth.
This is plainly impossible, and
though contraction undoubtedly sup-
plies part of the solar heat, there must
be seme other source of supply as well.
“The discovery of radio-activity in re-
* cent years may have much to do. with
explaining this mystery.
It is interesting to consider that if
the sun were composed of coal and its
heat were kept up by the process of
combustion more than a ton of coal
would be required per square foot of
surface per hour to supply the present
output of heat. The sun would be en-
tirely burned up in 5,000 years if made
of coal.—New York Sun.
OUR UNPAID LABORERS.
Birds Do Great Work, Yet We Do Not
Properly Protect Them.
One form of national waste which is
far more serious than the American
people realize is a result of the deplor-
able neglect to conserve bird life in
this heedless and ungrateful country.
Ornithologists and other intelligent
observers of nature who have made a
study of the subject say with the sanc-
tion of crop experts that insects de-
stroy one-tenth of the products of agri-
culture in the United States. More
than 100,000 kinds of insects have beep
enumerated in the fields, orchards,
meadows, pastures, vineyards, gardens
and woods of this chief agricultural
country of the world. A very large pro-
portion of these insects are injurious
to crops. Birds are the insects’ worst
enemies.
Nearly all birds destroy insect life.
“The federal department of agriculture
has examined the stomachs of forty
kinds of birds to determine: accurately
‘what they consume. It was found that
among the birds which most effectively
aid the farmers are phoebes, kingbirds,.
catbirds, swallows, brown thrashers,
rose breasted grosbeaks, house wrens,
viroes, native Sparrows,
shrikes and meadow larks. Even the
<row and the crow blackbird. which
have rested under suspicion so long.
do more good than harm to the farm-
ers.—Chicago News.
The Indoor and the Outdoor Man.
In the American Magazine Dean Her-
' aman Schneider says:
“The characteristics of men are so
much on the surface that a keen ana-
iyst usually will uncover the correct
one in the first interview. They signal
the indoor and outdoor type of man.
‘When a blizzard is beating against the
house an ‘indoor’ man likes to hear the
roar of the wind because it empha-
sizes the coziness of the inglenook
and heightens his sensé of protection.
“The ‘outdoor’ man is straightway seized
by a desire to get out and fight the
storm. Draw a picture of prospecting
or construction work, and the second
aman will lean forward with tense mus-
cles and radiant eyes. The other will
«draw more and more into himself, as
4f for shelter.”
Toilet of the Tidy Ant.
No creature is more tidy than an
ant, who cannot tolerate the presence
cuckoos, ori-
- oles, warblers, shore larks, logg certiedd
How the Great Steel Plates That
Protect Them Are Made.
ger
A SEVERE TEST OF SKILL.
The Various Processes That Produce
the Conflicting Properties Necessary
In These Modern Projectile Resisting
Warship Jackets. :
Only armored warships could live in
a naval battle with modern big gun
projectiles in use, and hence the mak-
ing of armor plate has become a
science. The manufacture of armor
plate has developed considerably in re-
cent years, and in no branch of the
steel industry is there greater oppor-
tunity for engineering and mechanical
skill, coupled with metailurgical knowl-
edge, than in the operations of forging
and rolling, followed by the exact heat
treatment essential to produce the al-
most conflicting properties necessary
in modern armor.
The plate must be hard, glass hard,
to resist penetration by heavy projec-
tiles moving at tremendous velocities,
yet tough and fibrous enough to take
up the momentum without cracking or
distortion. Mechanically. then, the
plate must have an extremely hard
surface and a fibrous backing. These
requirements were attained in part by
the old compound armor. Molten steel
was poured on to a wrought iron plate
and cooled. The slab was then re
heated, forged and rolled to the re
quired dimensions. If the operations
were successfully carried out -the line
of demarcation was scarcely visible.
Recently a modification of .this proc-
jess was introduced to cheapen and
render less tedious the production of
armor. A layer of hard steel was
poured -into a cooled mold, the under-
side quickly setting. On the still fluid
or pasty surface a thick layer of soft
steel was poured. By careful manipu-
lation the union of the surfaces was
almost complete, and it was impossi-
ble to detect the break in composition
on viewing the fractured section. This
method of manufacture was undoubt
edly an improvement on the old com-
pound method.
The increasing size, velocity and
hardness of modern armor piercing
projectiles have necessitated the intro-
duction of the modern armor. The
process of manufacture essentially
consists in case hardening to a depth
of about two inches the surface o!
a homogeneous tough nickel chrome
Steel. Special . air or self har
nickel and more complex steels are
used for lighter armor, gun shields
and cast armored structures.
The stéel i8 made in Siemens fur-
nates” and carefully cast into ingots
up to eighty tons in weight. These in-
gots are then slabbed under powerful
hydraulic presses (18,000 tons) or roll-
ed direct to the required dimensions,
depending on’ the power of the mills
and appliances. During the rolling
~ operation, which lasts about an hour,
' the slab is reversed and inverted to at-
tain uniformity of working, and scale
is removed by wood fagots and wa-
ter jets. After rolling the plate is
usually quenched.
The next operation is that of case-
hardening, and in this two plates are
put face to face, separated by a layer
of the carburizing reagent if it be
solid, or if gaseous hydrocarbons be
used the plates are slightly separated,
to allow free passage for the harden-
ing gases, by bricks arranged in rows,
The plates are maintained at redness’
in a car furnace for three weeks and
withdrawn after the hardening carbon
has penetrated to the required depth.
The plates are thus carburized and so
made capable of being hardened, but
{they are not yet actually hard. At this
of dirt on its body, says a writer in |
St. Nicholas. These little creatures
-actually use a number of real toilet
articles in keeping themselves clean.
A well known authority says their toi-
let articles consist of coarse and fine
‘toothed combs, hair br#shes, sponges,
apd even washes and soap. Their
combs, however, are the genuine arti-
«le and differ from ours mainly in that
stage all holes are drilled and plugged;
and any bending or machining neces-
sary is carried out.
From this point onward the treat-
ments differ. Some makers insist on
heating and quenching in oil or water
to remove any coarse structure that
i may have been formed during the
‘ next essential joperation
long annealing while carburizing. The
is’ that of
‘ hardening, and this is usually car-
they are fastened to their legs. The !
ants have no set time for their toilet
operations, but clean up whenever th
get soiled.
It Was Not Her Fault.
Dr. Black—I suppose, Mrs. Brown,
that you have given the medicine ac-
cording to directions? Mrs. Brown—
Well, doctah, I done my bes’. You said
give Pete one 0’ dese heah: pills three
times a day ontil gone, but I done run
out o’ pills yistaday, an’ he hain’t gone
_yit.—Christian Herald.
Quite So.
“The bride’s mother has the advan-
tage of the bridegroom’s mother at the
ceremony.”
“How so?”
ried out in one of two ways. Either
the plate is uniformly heated to the
hardening temperature and quenched
by a series of water jets playing on the
upper surface with sufficient force to
prevent the formation of steam or by
a process known as ‘differential
quenching,” by which the carburized
surface is heated to a temperature
from which it will harden and the
under side kept well below, so attaining
a gradual fail in temperature from the
top to the bottom. The whole plate is
then immersed in water, the hotter sur-
face alone being hardened, while the
bark is toughened. Further mechanical
operations can be carried out only by
grinding or cutting with oxyacetylene,
as the plate has now undergone the
treatment conferring maximum hard:
! ness.
“Hverybody assumes that the bride is
getting a little the worst of it.”—Louis-
ville Courier-Journal.
Found Out.
“Would you like to hear a secret in-
volving Mrs, Next Door in a dreadful
scandal?”
“Yes, oh, yes; tell it to me!”
“I don’t know any such secret.. You
«certainly have a mean disposition.”—
Chicago Herald.
Her Ability.
to keep y¢
*Are you al ur servants
1 unit may
In resume, it will be noted. that there
are three distinct operations in modern
methods of manufacture—the mechani-
cal working of the plate to the required
dimensions, the carburization of the
surface, quenching the carburized
surface to harden it. These operations
call for exact manipulation, super-
vision and control, for the skill of the
engineer and metallurgist may be put |
to the severest tests, not of the labora
| tory or the testing machine. but out in
the “gray mists,” when fail
Oi d
imperil the sat
hesion of the whole.— Chambers’ Jour- |
nal
od and evil is
ening
and c¢o- |
SAVE THE TREES.
The White Pine Blister Rust and a
Warning and an Appeal.
The American Forestry association
has issued a warning and appeal for
co-operation in fighting the disease
known as the white pine blister rust
that threatens the destruction of all
the white pine and other five leaved
pine trees in the United States.
This disease has already appeared in
Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont,
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Is-
land, New York, New Jersey, Pennsyl-
vania, Wisconsin, Minnesota and in
Quebec and Ontario.
There is no known cure for it. It
kills the white pines
spreads steadily. The spores or seeds
are blown from diseased pines to cur-
rant and gooseberry bushes. They
germinate on the leaves of these
bushes. The leaves then produce mil-
lions of spores or seeds of the disease,
which are blown by the wind from the
bushes to the pines, and these, even
those several miles distant from the
nearest bushes, are infected. become
diseased and die.
The white pines in New England are
worth $75,000,000, inh the lake states
$96,000,000, in western states $60,000,-
G00 and in the national forests $30,-
000,000, or a total of $261,000,000.
Unless the ravages of the white pine’
blister rust are stopped these pines
will be destroyed.
The American Forestry association
urges peopie in all the regions where
{ the disease has been discovered to de-
stroy at once all currant and goose-
berry bushes, diseased pines and oth-
ers exposed to infection. This will
help stop the spread of the disease.
The great forests of dead and dying
chestnut in Pennsylvania, New Jersey,
New York, Connecticut and Massachu-
setts stand today mute but convincing
witnesses to the fact that such dis
eases must be checked, if at all. in
their early stages.
The pine growth of this country is
far more valuable than the chestnut
ever was, and the damage the blister
rust may do is accordingly greater
than the injury that has been or can
be wrought by the chestnut blight.
But experience proves that the rav-
ages of the blister rust can be, if taken
in season, stopped much edsier than
the chestnut blight. In a number of
places where started it has been near-
‘ly or entirely eradicated. May the
pific forests of America be saved and
is too late!—Tree Talk,
Musical Vibrations.
We can take the scale of vibrations,
beginning with the shortest wave
‘gamma rays given off by radium,
which are only about ‘one ome-hun-
dredth of a millimeter long—and end-
ing with the longest known electro-
magnetic waves, 10,000 meters or more
of octaves like the musical scale. In
the Scientific Monthly Professor Da- |
vid Vance Guthrie of ‘the Louisiana
State university says they will cover
just about forty-eight octaves, of |
which the rays that are visible to our
eyes comprise but one.
Wrens Good Insect Eaters.
The wren, according to A. A. Saun-
ders of Norwalk, Conn., is a valuable
and interesting bird. It has a cheerful
song, and during the summer months
it sings almost incessantly. Its food
is largely iusects. A pair of wrens
ing long June days gathering cater-
feed their young. I have known them
to visit the nest with insects on an
average of three times in five minutes.
The number. of insects destroyed by a
pair of wrens and their young in a
season is enormous.—Tree Talk.
The Constitution.
The constitution is either a superior
paramount law. unchangeable by ordi-
nary means, or it is on a level with
ordinary legislative acts and, hike oth-
er acts, is alterable when the legisla-
ture shall be pleased to alter it. * * *
Certainly all those who have framed
written constitutions contemplate them
as forming the fundamental and par-
ernment must be that an act of the
Jegislature repugnant to the constitu-
tion is void.—Chief Justice John Mar-
shall,
Judging a Potato.
A. good potato should be firm and
crisp when cut, and a thin cross sec-
tion when held between the eyes and
the light should show a relatively uni-
form distribution of starch throughout
its whole area, as opposed to a large.
translucent, watery central area, which
denotes a lack of starch in this portion
of the tuber. The even distributicn of
starch insures greater uniformity in
cooking and in texture of the flesh
when cooked.
»
Useful Curtain Suggestion.
for keeping papers pinned together will
be found exceedingly useful for clip-
ping up the curtains at ‘night. The
advantage over pins in preventing cur-
tains from blowing out the screenless
windows at night is that the clipsleave
no telltale holes.
The National Hymn.
“The Star-Spangled Banner” is hon-
ored as the nations) alr not by act of
8 0f 1
ices, warcn prescribe that
1t colors and retreat
| Drops of dew o faded flow-
ers; so do kind we BE 3
{ heart.
in length, and arrange them in a scale .
amount law of the nation, and conse-|
quently the theory of every such gov-.
The small metal office elips so handy |
not neglected as the chestnut until it |
lengths that have been measured—the,!
will work from daylight to dark dur- |
pillars and other harmful insects to ||
t
3:
: the ladies that the angered emperor
i
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§
2 | rid of
i Demosthe
i
RESPECT YOUR PROMISES.
Therefore Do Not Make Any Unless
You Can Keer Them.
Keep your promises, so don’t make
any you can’t fill.
Don’t make any in conflict with
agreements,
Neglecting the exact terms of a defi-
nite promise is often a very serious
thing.
The keeping of promises in business
transactions is the “sheet anchor’ in
the establishing of credit among one’s
business associates,
The world of business places great
value on promises.
Not only in all business transactions,
infected, and it Put in everyday life, the keeping of
promises should be looked’ after with
care.
Whatever you do, keep your word.
for the man who breaks his promises
even in little things is sure to break
them in the more important ones.
It is a good plan when making a
promise as to appointments to jot
down in a memorandum book the
man’s name, so that no mistakes can
be made.
It is a question of obligation that is
uct canceled until it is paid.
The man whoo promise or word can
be relied upon is tle one whose intin
ence ig farreaching in any community
or in any business,
Keep your promises. so don't maks
any you can't fill.—New York Mail.
MANNING A CANOE.
The Bow Paddler Should Be Both Cocl
Headed and Skillful.
Contrary to the general notion about :
the relative importance of those in a ca-
noe’s manning, the bow paddler stands
dist, Among Indian voyagers he is the
captain of the crew. His will is law.
Jot arbitrarily is a captain's power
vested in the bow paddler. It is the
o.tccme of experience, and the basis or
it is skill. The advantage of a canoe
is this, that, being lighter in d:u t
than any other known craft, it ean be
taken into very shallow water,
And just bere, accompanying {his
advantage, lies a danger which the
bow man must be able by his skill to
meet. It is his business to watch for
and avoid obstacles—snags. “dead-
heads,” slightly submerged tree trunks
and shoals—and the last two are some-
times very difficult to see before one is
almost upon them. But a bow man
must Le able to see them. Much is at
‘stake, life itself even.
Especially in certain kinds of rapid
running it is his trained eye for navi:
gable water and his skilled band quick
to guide the boat into it on which the
safety of the crew gobeuds. —Outing.
; Father of the American Navy.
A native bor Irishman that the
members of his ruce are particularly
proud of is Commod ore John Barry.
the “Father of the American Nav v.”
He was born in Wexford. ‘Ireland. in
1745. His father put bim on a mer-
chant ship before he was twelve years
old, and at fourteen he was employed
on a ship sailing from Philadelphir
He was a master of ships before he
was twenty-one years old. When the
Revolution began Barry was em-
ployed by congress to fit for sea the
‘frat floet which sailed from Philadel-
phn. Bayes
tow. "which cantare
“war vessel tal en by a regtitar cruiser.
vourcand 4 ths luxing-
ihe first British
Bloc added ar
the elaws
ors aud mz
ton’s Arg,
a superior Beit'sh fleet in
be landed ‘with his saii-
a % and joined Washing-
Metro: t Free I’ress.
Keep to Left Is French Rule.
French railway: retain oo eurious
trace of their origin. Contrary’ to the
Tule of tHe road. "Keep to the right.”
observed in ood large ma jority of for- :
‘eign countries. trains in France have
always kept to the left, as in England,
‘The pioneers of French railways were
‘Englishmen (Sir Edward Blount was
“chairman of the Chemin de Fer du
—
HE Chicago Musical Arts Quartet will be here the last day of Chautauqua
in two concerts. For their afternoon concert they sing selections vary-
ing from classical to popular, and for their evening program they sing
the opera “Martha” in costume. Carl Craven, tenor and manager of this com-
pany, has been engaged by the American Symphony Orchestra to appear as a
soloist with it on a concert tour next winter.
‘Nord until 1898); and nearly all the en.
gine drivers were for many years of
the same nationality. These men fol-
lowed the rules of the road they had
learned at home and passed them on
to their French successors.—London
‘Chronicle, :
An Unlucky Showman.
Punch and Judy originated in China
about 1,000 years before Christ. The
Emperor Mir of the Chow dynasty was
one day making a tour through the
empire when an entertainer namod
Yien Shi was brought into his pres- |
ence to amuse the ladies of his court: ]
During the performance the puppets |
i
cast such significant glances toward |
ordered the originator of the ‘puppet’
play to. be executed.—London Answers.
Wasting Food.
Professor A, E. Taylor of the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania declares one-third
of the annual food production of ‘the
United States is wasted by bad han-
dling. He advocates food storage un-
der interstate control as a means of
checking the waste and maintaining
price levels at reasonable heights,
Didn't Kill Him.
“Brown's wayward son has return-
” »
“Did they kill the fatted calf?’
“No. That would have been murder,
and, besides, he’s as skinny as a rail.”
—Detroit Free Press.
cm ——L reese ——
Expert.
Manager Yes. we have a vacancy in
our financial H ave you
had Vv exper ©
*T'm support ng a $10,000 ‘wife on
$5,000 a year.”’—Life
st way to get
‘rect olirselves,—
The ret
i
The DeKoven Male Quartet
the Chautauqua.
The Chickasha Daily Express recently spoke of the DeKoven Quartet
in this way: “If the opening number of the course given by the DeKoven
Quartet to a large audience Friday evening is a fair sample of what is to fol-
low the patrons of the course have a feast of fine things coming to them. The
DeKovens are a decided success, presenting a program of pleasing variety
which appeals to lovers of classic music as well as to those .who are fond of
light entertainment. The qnartet is composed of Fred T. Johnston, first
tenor; G. S. Pell, second tenor; Clifford A. Foote, first bass and reader, and
W. G. Johnson, second bass. One of the magnificent numbers of the program
was the solo. “The Prodigal Son,” sung by the latier. As a reader Mr. Foote
made a pronounced hit, while the one act play in which all of the quartet par-
ticipated was a scream from start to finish.”
And the paper at Palestine, Ill, had this to say and said it:
“The DeKoven Quartet gave the third number of the course. It is a mat-
ter of fact that we have never seen a better satisfied audience. The feature
was without doubt one of the best that have been given in this section of the
country, and we doubt if there is anything in this line on the road that is
better.”
T: DeKoven Male Quartet will give two conceris here the first day of
debt de fbb hk bh hhh hd dd bh hpi
SPECIAL NOTICE TO CHAUTAUQUA BACKERS, 3
If you wish to see positive Fesulis from the Chautauqua, boost
i The more men and wom
the tent “ench day, the more minds will be at work along constructive .:
lines for community betterment.
Talk the SEASON ticket and talk it hard. Every person in
munity ave one. It puts the cost down low and gives u
he wl
the WwW
a
Bi
should
day a full and represe entative audience.
: THE CHAUTAUQUA CO
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