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High Speed on No. 20 Crossovers To the Editor of the Scientific American: After following very closely the controversy in your columns precipitated by Vice-President McHenry, and the complete knocking out by you of every leg which he attempted to stand on in his argument, my attention is drawn to the inclosed half-page advertisement in the Springfield Republican to-day, which I presume is being published extensively in the prominent papers through the eastern part of the country, as a large amount of the stockholders' money is being squandered at the present time in this manner. The point to which I wish to call your attention and ask for technical information on is in the first paragraph, which has been marked; as in your argument the statement was made that the No. 20 crossovers between New York and Philadelphia daily cared for the trains at full speed. As this advertisement purports to be the second time that the truth has been told, it would appear as though a misstatement was made; as, without further knowledge, I should much prefer to tie to statements which you made regarding the daily operations on the Pennsylvania. H. E. Schmuck. Springfield, Mass. [The overturning tendencies of a No. 10 crossover are nearly four times as great as those of a No. 20. The Pennsylvania expresses daily run through No. 20 crossover at far higher speeds than the slow order speed of 35 miles an hour, and they do so without risk.--Editor.] The Reindeer in Alaska To the Editor of the Scientific American : The note about the Alaskan reindeer herds in the issue of August 10th, 1912, calls for some statement of facts as commonly but accurately known throughout interior Alaska. Any success resulting from the introduction of the reindeer into Alaska has been confined entirely to narrow strips of land bordering the oceans, and capable of supporting but a small population. A few, a very few, people have been able to make a living with them. These cases have been quoted repeatedly. On the other hand, continued and persistent attempts throughout the interior have been expensive failures, because of the scarcity of the variety of moss which the reindeer requires. Mere moss can be found almost anywhere, but the only kind upon which reindeer can live is found only occasionally. Consequently, as a draft animal, it is impracticable for the greater part of the country, since long detours must be made in search of food. Such detours are expensive and often unsuccessful. I recall one instance, happening at Anirk, in the winter of 1908 to 1909. The superintendent of schools for the Government came in one day with several reindeer, drivers, etc. They had hunted for suitable moss in vain, and now had to hire native guides to lead the way to the nearest patch, some twelve miles away. Arrived there, they had to shovel snow several hours in order to make it possible for the reindeer to reach their food. The superintendent was at the time on his way to remove the small herd at Holy Cross, which had been a great expense to the Government during that winter, requiring the continual service of between thirty and forty men, whose main duty was to shovel snow off the moss for the herd. Your article states that it is expected that the exportation of reindeer meat will soon become an important industry. This is absurd, as can plainly be seen from the fact that thousands of beeves, as well as sheep and poultry, are annually imported to supply the meat needed. There is a continuous but unfilled demand for caribou and reindeer meat. The price of meat here is far higher than in the States, so that a surplus of reindeer meat from the coast herds could much more profitably be shipped here than elsewhere. As it is, the Government itself buys hundreds of beeves to supply meat for the army posts and for the Signal Corps men stationed along the telegraph line. So it is that, both as a draft animal and as a meat producer, the reindeer has proven a failure in Alaska except in a few localities. For unfrequented trails, the Alaskan dog (Harky or Walamute) is the peerless standby. On the mail trails, hard packed and continually used, stage coaches and horse-drawn double-ender sleds prevail. At each station of the Signal Corps will be found a horse or dogs, according to the nature of the surrounding trails. Meat is shipped in hundred-ton lots or driven in from Cordova or Valdez in herds of hundreds. Practically all reindeer herds have been withdrawn from the interior, since careful attempts have shown that their eare and keep far exceeded the returns. In view of these facts, counteracting the limited success in a few places, it is little more than a quibble to make such ambitious claims for the Alaskan reindeer herds. Chena, Alaska. A. W. Williams. Artificial Respiration With a Lemon Squeezer To the Editor of the Scientific American: Lately a great deal of interest has been shown in resuscitation from electric shock. We live in an age of electricity, and electric accidents are getting to be of every-day occurrence in most places, and, what counts . more with the electric companies, we have now a national employers' liability law as well as similar laws in some of the States. These laws take their pet defenses away from the companies and lay them open for damages. Everybody seems to agree that in artificial respiration must be placed our greatest hope in such cases, but how this is to be done there is a difference of opinion. The thorax or chest resembles a rubber bulb like those we use on atomizers. Now, we all agree that such a bulb can be emptied of air by compression, provided there is a way for the air to get out. After the compression the rubber bulb regains its former size and shape through its inherent elasticity, and in doing so it must suck in air. The chest in my method of artificial respiration is worked just like a rubber bulb. First a way for the air must be provided. If we put an unconscious man on his back, which is the natural and handiest way to work him, his tongue will fall back , dose his larynx, and so render his upper air passages, mouth and nose useless. To prevent this, an assistant has to grasp the tongue with a cloth and pull it out to the limit. The neck should at the same time be stretched. If there is no bystander to do this, I put a rolled coat or so under his neck and tie a handkerchief over his pulled-out tongue and lower jaw, knotting it in the back of the neck. Then the common procedure is to compress the lower part of the chest with my hands. In adults I used to straddle them and throw my full weight Method of using the lemon squeezer. I, active inspiration; II, deepest unassisted expiration; III, deepest expiration assisted by levers. on them--175 pounds. There is no doubt in my mind that this is the most efficient method of artificial respiration, but it is so tiring for the operator that it becomes necessary to take turns at compressing, especially since artificial respiration must be kept up for a long time in all such cases. Of all the mechanical appliances the lever is the simplest and most efficient, and it occurred to me that a modified lemon squeezer would work well on the chest. So I took two boards for levers, and connected them at one end with a cord for a fulcrum. Two boards, size about 19 by 3 by )i inches, will do. I shape them with my pocket knife iike flat Indian clubs, drill a hole through one end of each, run a string through the hole in one lever, keep the string from pulling through by a knot, and am ready for business. When anybody is shocked around electric work, he should be put flat on his back, his neck stretched, his tongue pulled out to the limit, and his chest compressed with the levers or lung crutches as I call them. They are simply attached as handles to the chest, and the chest worked like bellows. The operator (in electric works the foreman should be so trained) slips the cord fulcrum under the man's chest, runs it through the hole in the other lever, adjusts it with a slip knot to the size of the patient so that the cord is taut behind the back and the handles not quite parallel but a little divergent in front. Then he compresses the chest slowly and easily, keeping time with his own breathing. This he keeps up till a physician arrives and takes charge. Such artificial respiratio!l. is, as far as the change of air intI> and out of the laings is concerned, similar to natural respiration, but is not equal to it. Anyhow, it is the best we can do till a physician arrives and tries to restore the action of the heart by other means. Cambria, Cal. A. C. Muller, M.D. Risks in Straightening Rails To the Editor of the Scientific American: Some few years ago I visited a large mill where railroad rails were being made. The person acting as guide showed me all of the various manipulations, and in the end I saw them being made straight by a couple of workmen. The process consisted of sighting along the rail, which was shifted back and forth under a press which was thrown in and out of action as the various kinks and bends were subjected to the pressure to straighten them. As I stood there interested in the work I saw two rails snap under the pressure exerted. Having noticed a number of articles in the Scientific American on rail failures it occurred to me that possibly not a few of these failures might be traced to a small incomplete fracture caused at the time of straightening developing into a complete one. I would not attempt to offer any suggestion as to a better way to straighten a rail; but surely any act which would break a rail could develop a crack which might develop into a complete fracture with disastrous results. Do you not believe that a careful examination along these lines would result in an explanation of why an , apparently sound rail suddenly goes to pieces ? Nephi, Utah. H. G. Gould. [Our correspondent draws attention to a practice which has been criticised as liable to do permanent injury to a rail. Cold straightening is undesirable, to say the least; the rails should never be straightened when they are below a certain fixed temperature.--Editor.] The Transmutation of the Elements To the Editor of the Scientific American: The interesting article which appeared in the August 24th issue of your valuable paper, Can the Baser Metals be Changed to Gold? attracted especially my attention because closely following an article where the same argument is masterly treated by Prof. 1. Soddy of Glasgow University. Let me consider two possible sides ot the transmutation problem, viz., transmutation from light to heavier atomic weight elements, and transmutation from heavy to lighter atomic weight elements. The first side of the problem offers enormous difficulties and is obviously unsolved. The latter, from your writer's point of view, -seems to be solved by Sir W. Ramsay's and Cameron's 'expe5.. ments. Mr. Rutherford's criticism is reported, and I will add that of Mr. Soddy, who clearly states in the article referred to that: The energy of sub-atomic changes is thus of the order of a million times greater than the energy of ordinary chemical or molecular changes. The energy evolved from the disintegration of a single atom is detectable by radioactive methods, whereas a million million atoms of any non-radioactive element is a quite undetectable quantity even with the spectroscope. For this reason the identity of the final non-radioactive product of the whole sequence of changes still remains uncertain." As a matter of fact, Mr. Soddy is referring here to radioactive series disintegrations, not to artificially produced transmutation, but he next points out that: The fact that it has been found quite impossible, even by the most powerful agencies known, to alter artificially the rate at which a radioactive substance is changing, either to retard or to accelerate it, is obviously the corollary to the well-known impossibility of artificially transmuting one element into another." It seemed to me necessary to note this discordance in judgments for the proper comprehension of the importance of transmutation, that is going to take the preponderant place among the big problems of modern science, both chemical and physical. Buenos Aires. Rico S. Marzoni. Preserve Your Papers; They Are of Permanent Value BY taking a little trouble, when a paper first comes to hand, it may be preserved to form a permanent and valuable addition to the reading matter with which everyone should be supplied. We furnish a neat and attractive cloth board binder, which will be sent by mail, prepaid, for 1.50. It has good strong covers, on which the name Scientific American or Scientific American Supplement is stamped in gold, and means by which the numbers may be securely held as in a bound book. One binder may thus be made serviceable for several years, and when the successive volumes, as they are completed, are bound in permanent form, the subscriber ultimately finds himself, for a moderate cost, in possession of a most valuable addition to any library, embracing a wide variety of scientific and general information, and timely and original illustrations. .Save your papers.
