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T H E CHEM AWA AMERICAN
BIRDS AND ANIMALS ARE CURIOUS
Most animals, like man, have a prominently de
veloped bump of inquisitiveness. They must needs
investigate and inquire into every new and curious
thing they encounter. As a result they sometimes
meet with disaster and not infrequently interfere seri
ously with m an’s affairs.
An adventuresome squirrel climbed a pole support
ing a wire carrying an electric current of 36,500 volts
at St. Cloud, Minn. He grounded this powerful cur
rent and paid for his curiosity with his life. His
body was later found at the foot of the pole, his whis
kers and eats burned off and a big hole rent in his
body. Incidentally, the service of a number of sub
stations over some 26 miles of line was interrupted.
In another case a 2200-volt feeder of a railroad
signal system was burned out. Men sent to locate
the trouble found that the wire was grounded and
broken. Following it up to the point of breakage they
discovered the charred bodies of two mice. Evident
ly the inquisitive animals had gnawed through the in
sulation and short-circuited the current with unfor
tunate results to themselves as well as to the signal
system.
A semaphore board at a railroad crossing in T arry
town, New York, was observed to swing up and
down in an unwonted manner, giving the signals
“ danger” and “ clear” alternately. The gateman,
glancing at the other semaphores, found them all do
ing a similar crazy dance and decided that something
very unusual must have happened. Looking into the
conduit carrying the wires over which flowed the elec
tric current for operating he discovered a ground-hog.
A fire was built to smoke Mr. Ground-hog out, al
though it was not his regular outing day. Another
watchman, seeing the smoke, concluded that the
crossing was on fire and stopped all trains on his side
of the station, including fast expresses. The ground
hog finally gave up and crawled out, and the trains
proceeded, their crews all angry at having been de
layed .
Sometimes birds and animals through accident
rather than curiosity get mixed up with man-made
contrivances and cause serious trouble and incon
venience. Often they lose their lives to boot.
Just after a heavy downpour of rain some months
ago the current for the motors that run the presses
and other machinery at the printing plant were sudden
ly shut off. The power company was notified and a
“ trouble” man was sent over the line to discover the
cause of the interruption. A few squares away from
the building he found a b ird ’s nest built against the
wiies. This had caused no trouble while dry but after
becoming soaked with water it became a sufficiently
good conductor to short-circuit the current. When
the nest was removed the normal flow of current was
resumed and the machinery started running as usual.
A crane alighted on a tower supporting a high-ten
sion electric wire in California but its rest was of short
duration; the 104,000-volt current shot through its
body to the ground, putting both the bird and the
electric line out of commission, the former for all time.
Night-flying birds are sometimes attracted by the
light of lighthouses, much the same as moths are
drawn to light from any source. Many are killed as
a result of crashing with terrific force against the glass
of the windows. One winter, during prolonged zero
weather, it was noted that the lights of certain signs
in New York city were unusually dim. On investi
gation great numbers of birds, including sparrows,
pigeons and larger species, were found clustering
about the bulbs absorbing what warmth radiated from
them. This heat, though comparatively slight, ap
parently saved the lives of thousands of the feathered
wanderers.
NEAR-PERPETUAL MOTION
James Cox, a London jeweler, is credited with hav
ing produced the nearest approach to a real perpetual-
motion device that the world has ever seen, unless we
count the gas-meter, as someone has suggested. This
device was a clock, built in 1774. It proved a real
puzzle, even to the learned scientific men of that day.
When the secret finally came out it was found that a
barometer supplied the motive power. The mechan
ism was cleverly devised to be run by fluctuations of
the atmospheric pressure, operating through the baro
meter.
At length the clock was sent to the Chinese emperor
as a gift. It was stolen from him and no-one knows
what finally became of it. Perhaps it is still running
in some out-of-the-way corner of the world, as an em
inent man of science who studied it in England de
clared than it would keep on going until its parts,
worn by friction, would no longer function.
FORT LAPWAI SANATORIUM SCHOOL
A U n ited S tates G o v ern m en t School an d S an ato riu m com bined,
for th e tre a tm e n t, tra in in g an d in stru c tio n of In d ia n boys an d
g irls of school age who are afflicted w ith in cip ien t tu berculosis.
E lig ib ility ru le s g o v ern in g e n ro llm e n t of p u p ils at n o n re serv a
tio n In d ia n Schools ap p ly .
A su m m er cam p in th e m o u n ta in s is m ain tain ed d u rin g July
a n d A ugust.
W e have room for about tw en ty ad d itio n a l p u p ils w ho are
w illin g to com e a t th e ir ow n ex p en se.
F o r fu rth e r in fo rm atio n and ap p licatio n b la n k s ad d ress,
O. H . I.IP P S , S u p t.,
Lapw ai, Id ah o .
The less coal we had the colder it got.