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King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 565, 7 May 1913, Page 2

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TELEGRAPH POLES OF CON- * CRETE.

Concrete telegraph poles, 17ft. 6in. high, have been erected at Niagara Falls. They are ift- 4'm. square at. the base, ioin. square at the top, and are reinforced with eight Ain bars bound with £in hoops 1 ft. 6in. from centre to centre. Three 1 ft. square struts are used for supporting the poles, which are erected on a roof. WHEN MACHINERY BREATH E S S. An English writer on engineering subjects, Mervyn O'Gorman, calls attention to the fact that a piece of machinery, such as an automobile, laid aside after beingused, is in danger of internal rusting through a kind of respiration which affects the cylinders, gear boxes, clutch chamber, interspaces in ball bearings, and so forth. Every enclosed air space "breathes" bv drawing in air when a fall of temperature contracts its walls, and expelling it when the walls expand through heat. The moisture introduced with the air is deposited in the cavities, and may produce serious damage through rust. The popular belief that oil will protect the inaccessible parts of unused machinery is fallacious, since nearly all oils take up about three per cent, of water in solution.

THE SUN AND SUN-SPOTS. Our great brilliant sun, when considered in connection with the uni\ltsc at large, is but a star, similar to many of the twinkling points of light in our heavens. Aside from its relation to the motion of the earth and the planets comprising the solar system, the sun is of special interest in any consideration of the larger problems of the constitution and ultimate nature of the universe. Instead of being placed at an all but infinite distance, as are the other stars, it is sufficiently near the .earth to enable men to study it with great facility. With the spectroscope can be ascertained and determined the various chemical elements composing the sun and the: oilier stars, and from their colors and spectra astronomers and astrophysicists have hazarded shrewd and probable conjectures as to their relative ages and natures; while from their positions and motions, with further assistance from the spectroscope, their distances and masses have been respectively computed in millions of miles and of tons. It is but natural, therefore, writes Air. Herbert T. Wade in the '•Scientific American," that astronomers have appreciated always the importance of solar studies, not only for the light that they throw on the sun's nature, but also in the development of cosmical theory. Chinese and other ancient observers early noticed a mottled appearance of the sun's surface, and prior to the invention of the telescope the dark spots were thought to-be due to the passage of a planet such as Mercury in front of the sun. Galileo from his early telescopic observations demonstrated conclusively that whatever these sun-spots might be, they were either attached to the sun and revolved with it around an axis, or were in very close proximity to its surface. He also discovered that the sun-spots were most abundant in two regions on either side of the sun's equator. In addition, he noticed the frequent appearance of groups of sun-spots, and it was apparent to him and other earlyobservers that changes in the size and shape of the individual spots were in progress. The spots as seen by' Galileo, and reproduced by him in some excellent drawings, consist: of a dark central part or "umbra" separated from which by a fairlv sharp line of demarcation is a somewhat brighter part or dark fringe of filaments known as the "penumbra." As they have always been the most conspicuous phenomena of the sun aside from those witnessed only at times of eclipses, sun-spots have figured prominently in all speculations and theories as to the nature of the sun. In fact, for many years it was believed that they would furnish the most important clue to this problem ; and while modern methods make other phenomena available for this purpose, the sun-spots still have a predominant significance.

METEOROLOGY IN TINAThe Argentina meteorological service possesses 32 first-class stations equipped with automatically registering instruments; 148 sec-ond-class stations, where observations are made at S a.m., 2 p.m., and S p.m. ; 10 third-class stations, and 86;? fourth-class stations. The dailv weather map includes, also, reports from several stations in Brazil, Chili, and ("ruguay, and thus shows the meteorlogical conditions reigning from Para (Brazil), •situated on the equator, to the southernmost limits of Argentina, extending over a region of 55cleg\ latitude,£ reports being received by wireless telegraphy from NewYear's Island and Ushuaia. The service also maintains tti rivergauges, and issues flood-warnings besides carrying on extensive observations in terrestrial magnetism