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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (March 1, 1880)
March, 1880. THE WEST SHORE. 87 NEGLECT OF THE EVE. Whatever an mince of prevention may be to other memberi of the body, it certainly is worth many pounds of cure to the eye. Like a chro nometer watch this delicate organ will stand any amount of use, not to say abuse: hnt when once thrown off its balance, it very rarely can be brought back to its original perfection of ac tion, or, if it is, it become ever after liable to a return of disability of function or the seat of act ual disease. One would have supposed from this fact, and from the faotthatmodern civilization has imposed upon the eye an ever-increasing amount of strain, both as to the actual quantity of work done and the constantly increasing brilliancy and duration of the illumination under which it is performed, that the greatest pains would have been exercised in maintaining the organ in a con dition of health, and the greatest oare and solic itude used in its treatment when diseased. And yet it is safe to say that there is no organ in the body the welfare of which is so persis tently neglected as the eve. I have Known fond and doting mothers take their children of four and live years of age to have their first teeth tilled, instead of having them extracted, so that the jaw might not suf fer in its due development and beooiue in later yean contracted, while the eye, the must intel lectual, the most apprehonsive, and the most discriminating of all organs, receives not even a passing thought, much less an examination. It never seems to occur to the parents that the principal agent in a child's education is the eye; that though it gains not only in sense of the methods and ways of existence of others, but even the means for the maintenance of its own) nor does it occur to the parents for au instant that many of the mental as well as bodily attributes of a growing child are fashioned, oveu if they are not created, by the oonditiou of the eye alone. A child is put to school without the slight est inquiry on the part of the parent, and much less on the part of the teacher, whether it has the normal amount of sight; whether it sees objects sharply and well-detiued, or indistinctly and distorted; whether it Iw nosr-sightod or far sighted; whether it sees with one or two eyes; or, finally, if it dues see clearly and distinctly, whether it is not using a quantity of norvous force sutlioient after a time not only to exhaust the energy of the visual organ, but of the ner vous system at large. Or. tklmtrd Q. Loriny. A NOVEL IDEA. The idea of making a train lay down and take up its own rails as it moves along is not a new one, but an interesting realisation of the pro gress which is being made in that direction is now tn K wHnwwrrt (n (tin .Tardtn ,lu TulLri. Paris. The system is that of Clement Ador. The rail on either side of the carriages oonsist of a series of jointed pieces of rail, with tlat supporting picoee; they inoloso the system of wheels, passing down over the front and up over the end wheels, and all the wheels have two Manges to prevent any derailment In front tho chains of rail are guided by two distributing wheels, which are governed by the traction, so that on pulling obliquely, right or left, the end less way automatically follows the same direc tion. At the end of the train, again, are two taking up wheels, provided with differential motion to meet tho difficulty of going in curves, which involves an extension of the rail on one side and a contraction of that on the other, so that whatever the curve (to six or seven meters radius) the way is regularly put down and lifted. From the mechanical point of view ono is struck with the smallness ol the force required to move a train thus arranged. In the Jardin des Tuileriee tho train oqnsists of three carri ages, oapable of containing in all thirty children and often full. Those are drawn by two goats, which work thus for seven hours. The total load is rather more than a ton. To draw a like weight in three carriages on ordinary roads would require a doxen goats, four for each vohiole. The eoonomy of carriage, then, is in contestable. The normal speed is three to four miles per hour. The system is, of course, not designed tor passenger traltlo, hut lor goods, and in many places, with bad roads or uone, might lie very serviceable. DlATH MOM AN ElsXTIIK' Shock. 11 aool dent of an extraordinary nature occurred on Tuesday night, Jan. 17, 1H79, at the Nolle theater. Aston, a suburb of llirmiimham. T I stave is lighted bv two olectrie lights, and when the candles are not burning the eonneo tions used for the purpose of crossing the cur rent are hung up uver the orchostra. After the performance of the pantomino, Mr. Bruno, the euDhnnium nlaver. was Ic mug with the other members of the band, when, presumsbly out of curiosity, he cauuht hold ol the two I, run con nections referred to: the man in charge called ont to him with the object of warning him of the danser he was incurring, lhe warning, however, came too late; Mr. Bruno received the full shock of the electric current . generated by a powerful battery which supplies the whole of the larnns in the building and grounds. It is said that tho candles not being then burning n 1.1 ,.. Aim I -,,f .n,! air. nruiw w m uuauio w iuo,ggv ... ...... nulled the wire down. The shock rendered him insensible. A medical man was at ono sent for, and restoratives were applied, but Mr. Bruno died in about 40 mitiutes afterwards. Tkt EUetrieia. CtmioKiriKH 01 mi LoOOMOtlVK Our first- class narrow gauge engines weigh, empty, 44, UOO pounds, and are worth l(i cents pur pound I hey will consuinu one cord of wood and I. Vim gallons of water per hour, and will generate J , . . n K t cubic feet ol steam er hour, ol a pres sure equsl to that of the atmosphere, '('heir heating sllrtaco la ol tho extent ol the bottom of a boiler ill feet in diameter. The strain upon the iron of the shell of boiler, to burst it open lengthwise of the boiler, is from (l.DUU to 1 1,000 pounds per square men under ordinary pres sures. 1 here is also an additional strain 01 about 4,000 pounds per square inoh exerted lengthwise ol the boiler to pull it apart cross wise. The whole pressures exerted against all the internal surfaces of the boiler amount to '20,000,000 of pounds or 10,000 tons. The crown sheet of furnace, alone, carries a load of I '20 tonal The usual distance traveled by the loco motive, being in motion but about one eighth of the time, is equal to once around the globe every year. In going Ml miles an hour, m leet are traversed per second, five revolutions of the driving wheels are made requiring 20 strokes of the piston, and '20 intermediate p. nods of action of the valve, equal to the division of a second into 40 parts. A GLACIER IN COLORADO. A gentleman who has during the past two yean traversed the mountains in the vicinity of l.eadvillo, and penetrated almost every one of the secret recesses, informed a enid reporter ....... 1. 1.. mat uiere la within '20 miles of thia city one of the must interesting curiosities of nature -a veritable glacier, presenting all the characteristics of the glaciers of Switzerland, both 111 magnitude and motion, its progress be ing gradually down the gulch. The scene of this curiosity is located in the Mosquito range, about 10 miles uorth of the pass. Our inform ant states that he first discovered it about three years ago, when out on a prospecting tour. It was then nearly a mile in length, and at the bottom of the gulch presented a sheer precipice of ice not less than 100 feet In hight. faster in the season the place was visited again, when It was found that the great mass of ice had melted until at it face it was not mors than KM) feet high, the loss from the surface reduc ing its length to about half a mile. Again, early in tho following year, the place waa visited, ami the glacier was fnuud to hava re gained its bulk, showing that the accumulation of ioe and snow during the winter was about one third it gross bulk. lhe rocks on the subs of this immense mass of ice show the marks of attrition, proving be yond all controversy that the glacier la In motion. Indeed, the earth at the foot of the glacier, heaved up in great masses, shows that 11 is gradually moving down ine giiion nun mo valley. During the summer a large stream ol water llowa from the face of the ioe cliff. Our informant is of the opinion that the glacier, aa it progresses out of the deep gorge III which It was formed, will slowly melt away, and that It will not last many years, It is out of tha way of ordinary travel, and the unite to the scene la exceedingly dilllcult, so that It la not likely to Iw visited except by prospectors and hunters. l.rtuMlle mil. A Nrw Ki.kvatkii IUii.iiiiaii, Mi. Charles l.cavitt is exhibiting in 1 'In eland, Ohio, work ing models of an Invention which promises to do away with many of the objections urged against elevated railways. It is described ss dispensing with the inconvenience of tracks in streets by substituting an elevated truss-work sustaining a single or double track, aa may Ihi desired, the ova being stiaietulnl under the track ami oqpng to within about a fnot of the pavement. The trucks travel upon the elevated track with an easy, smooth and almost noiseless motion, and are so secured that they cannot be forced from the rails. The appliance for pro pelling the car consists of an endless steel wire cable, which extends the entire length of the road above the track anil runs in a circle, an that cars upon one track are drawn In one direc tion, those upon the other lu the opposite di rection. The motor is a stationary steam engine, situated at one end of the road, which works directly noon the cable. The cabin IS attached to or deti,. lo d from the trucks of th car by a damp device, which admit of starting or atop- ping the car at any point. A MCMT course of experiments made to de termine the heatins power of km ihows that one cubic foot of ordinary Hi-candle one) gas will develop ;nn neat uniw, wnne wwr - wwm ' 1 : jr. , jive only about 136.6 heat unit per cubic foot sooner completed than was at Ural anticipated. Tiik lit v Rivm. As originally proposed, th Hudson River tunnel would have been a simple liore, large enough to accommodate two railway track. Lately th company hav changed their plan, we are informed, and there will be two small bore instead of one largo ono. These will lie bored throughout with three- ighth inch iron plate. One reason for the change is that small tunnel will h strong, r than a larva on. The tunnela will meet and overlap altnut a foot. When they meet, th brickwork will form a partition ami hold up tha structure so that it will sustain a greater pies sore from above and from the side. It I be lived that th workmen can proceed faster than bv the old method, and that tile work nan In A Lakhk ItAKi Daiaii Ur, Where at on tint, says th Eureka LnuUr, waa Ruby lake there is at present not a drop of water. I his sheet of water, svn or eight yean ago, waa from IH to 'JO inib-s in length, ami varied In breadth from half a mile to two or three mil, ami waa in a number of plaeee vary deep. It waa fed by numberless springs along the fool of Hub) mountain, and a the largest body of water in eaetarn Nevada, For a number of year past it ha been gradually 'Irving up, until at last It ha entirely disappeared. What ha been the cause of Una is a mystery, The Ruby range of mountains is onusidared the largest and lines', between the Hookies and the Sierra Nevadaa, ami besides being well wooded, ha been the beat watered range of mountains in Nevada,