The short-circuit beetle et al : (U. S. D. A. Clip Sheet No. 908)
✍ Scribed by C.
- Book ID
- 104130699
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 1936
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 35 KB
- Volume
- 221
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0016-0032
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
430
CURRENT TOPICS.
[J. F. I.
A Numismatic Note.--According to a blue folder issued by the International Nickel Company of Canada, Limited, the oldest coin extant is a Bactrian piece attributed to 235 B.C. ; it was hammered from a crude copper-nlckel alloy of Chinese origin. A coppernickel alloy coinage was adopted by the United States of America in 1857 when its copper pennies were minted to contain 88 per cent. copper and I2 per cent. nickel. The present "nickel" or five-cent piece is an alloy of 75 per cent. copper and 25 per cent. nickel.
C.
The Short-Circuit Beetle Et AI.--(U. S. D. A. Clip Sheet No. 908.) California lead-cable borers often damage aerial-telephone and high-tension lines in or near forests by boring holes in the lead sheathing. The holes are bored for the purpose of establishing new homes and not for a variation in diet. Moisture eventually finds its way through the perforated lead covering and short-circuits the electric current. Linesmen for the telephone and power companies call the borer "the short-circuit beetle."
According to entomologists of the Department of Agriculture many other wood-boring insects easily chisel their way through lead and tin signs which block their passage-ways. Curious squirrels sometimes gnaw aluminum identification tags off trees. The ground mole sometimes gnaws into concrete, and cases of rats cutting lead pipes in buildings are not uncommon.
C.