The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1886-09-04
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
,,on nnrAr A NJ, 4, AM.


The recent French surveys have SHOWN tnat the
magnitude of the Algerian sea project has been
greatly exaggerated. No large part OF Northern
Africa can be flooded, the Desert of Sahara prov
ING to have an average height of LOO feet, and
the only area below sea-level being comprised In |
two "chotts" commencing about 100 miles due |
Of sd hs Su6 f ssSss and only
Lake Ontario. The flooding of the depressed
region would give lake averaging 70 feet In
depth. The creation of a new sea of such size
could hardly produce the great effects upon the
worlds climates and upon the depth OF the ocean
which have been foreseen in the speculations OF
some scientific writers.
WHY HAVE YELLOW FEvERI
Singularly fattering reports continue 10 De
made concerning DR.. Domingos Freire's system OF
preventive incubation in yellow fever. late
one to the Paris Biological Society states that
dnrinp the three hot months in Brazil ending with
February last, 3,051 subjects were inocuated in
Rio de Janeiro and not one had the fever, whereas
in the same districts and houses 27S non-vaccina-
ted succumbed to the disease. " hat is more re-
markable is that severe cases were inoculated IN
the second stage of the disease and all recovered
FREEZING THE GASES.
Sinca the scientific world was surprised, in 1877,
nv Cailletet's and Pictet's announcements OF the
production of lquefed oxygen, several expert
menters-especialy Wroblewski and Olzewskl-
have successfully attacked the problem of lique-
flying the So called permanent gasses 1t was at
first thought necessary to employ great pressure
in addition to great cod but in the later researches
both oxygen and nitrogen, as well as atmospheric
air. have been made liquid by intense cold at very
moderate pressures. Among the interesting re-
sults obtained are the following At 152 degrees
below zero Fahrenheit chlorine forms orange
colored crystals at us degrees below hydrochorlc
acid is a solid at 200 below ether sohdihes; at
2O2 below absolute alcohol freezes; at 299 below
D I Iolox osr hollis md a
below air boils in vacuum. These extraordi-
nary temperatures were measured by means OF
lowest temperature yet measured is 373 degrees
below zero, which was produced by the evapora-
ton of solid nitrogen on suddenly reducing the
pressure. From these results it appears probable
that every known substance within the reach OF
man will be eventually obtained in solid form by
the mere withdrawal of heat
AFRICAN lockwood.
new species of box wood, from South Africa,
has Just been described by Sir Joseph Hooker
under the botanical name of Burus Mdcopdnt.-
As it is in considerable quantities and is suitable
for engravers' uses, it may prove valuable ad-
dition to the diminishing supplies OF european
lockwood. When seasoned without cracking the
wood is valued at two cents a cubic inch.
A NEW COAL BREAKER.
safety cartridge of a novel kind has been in
troduced by DR.. Kosmann, of Breslau for use IN
one part and suphuric acid in the other. The
cartridge is introduced and the hole bored to re-
ceiye it is firmly clowed, when the tIbe is broken
by means of an iron rod. The sulphuric acid is
thus brought into contact with the zinc, and the
rapid evolution of Hydrogen gas which follows
exerts a pressure on the sides of the hole estima.
ted at $4,000 atmospheres, and rends the rock
THE TEA-DRINKERs.
Statistics lately published in India show that
the Australians the greatest tea-drinkers, the
average annual amount of tea used by each per-
son in their country being nearly seven pound;
and three quarters. In great Britain the average
is nearly five pounds, and in this country only q
pound and third. Holland is the only country
in Continental Europe in which the consumption
per individual exceeds one pound year. Ii
Russia, generally regarded as a land of excessive
tea-Orinkers, only three ffths of pound per heat
is used.
NEW METAL.
Since the recent death of Prof. E. Linnemann
of Prague a description of new metallic elemen
has been found among his papers. The meta
was obtained from the orthite of Arendal, and il
named "Austrium" 1t may throw new light OF
the constitution of the sun, one of its spectra
lines appears to be identical with one of the three
unidentified lines in Angstrom's map of the nor
NAL solar spectrum
MISCELLANEOUS.
More than 80, 600 tons of naphtha is estimated
to be floating down the Volga from vessels de
strowed by ice in the spring. Great injury to thu
fisheries is expected to result
The River Euphrates is reported to be gradual
ly disappearing in the spreading marshes jus
below Babylon, which have ruined the steamboat
channel and are now obliterating navigation fo
row. boats.
boring made by the Prussian Government a
Schladeback in search of coal is said to be thu
deepest in the world. Its depth is 1850 feet, it
breadth at the bottom two inches, and at the toI
eleven inches The temperature at the bottom i
lis degrees.
InLa new French method nf dia onosing the con
dtion of the eye is accurately ost'"St"d ny maam
of ,ror;otions in sounds sent through sensitlv
form of telephone placed against the eyebaii.