The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1886-03-27
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
Use OF POWER AT A DISTANCE.

USE OF POWER AT A DISTANCE.
French experiments on the transmission of
power by electricity have resulted less successfully
than was hoped. Theoretically the plan is feast.
BILE, but it is found to be more economical and
practicable for manufacturing purposes to use the
power directly at the source of supply. Modern
railway facilities make it cheaper to transport
goods than power, with its attendant loss of fifty
per cent.-not to mention its uncertainties.
THE MICROSCOPE IN BUSINESS.
A member of the London Microscopical Society
has described case illustrating the value of the
microscope as detective agent. Fraudulent ad-
ditions were made to bond, and the ink being
darker than the original the forger traced over
the whole writing to give it uniform shade
Under the microscope the difference between the
original and the added portion was clearly dis
cernible, and the forgery was established.
ARCTIC COAL.
Commenting on Lieut.. Greely's discovery of coal
within the Arctic Circle in Greenland, Mr.. w. NJ
Williams expresses himself dissatisfied with the
prevailing notion which demand sa sub-tropical
climate for the formation ofcarboniferous deposits
He has himself described the deposition of coal
that is in actual progress at the present time in
Norway, within four degrees of the Arctic Circle,
and believes that similar deposits may be found
much fartherhorth. No very violent alteration
of climate, therefore, need be assumed to lain
the Greenland coal.
THE PLANT FOR BANKS.
Experience on French railways has shown that
the double poppy is the best pant at present known
for consolidating, by the interacing Of its roots,
the loose soil of an embankment The usual grasses
and clovers develop slowly, but the double poppy
grows enough in two weeks to give some protec-
ton to the slope, and within three or four months
its roots, ten or twelve inches long, retain the
earth far more firmly than those of any grass or
grain.
MECHANICAL OBSERVATORY.
meteorological station is about to be estab-
lished among the highest mountains of Mexico, at
an elevation of nearly 10000 feet above sea-evel.
As access to such place is difficult and often i'm
possible the recording apparatus will have to be
made almost independent of human attention, ana
as far as possible, all the instruments will be made
TO run year without stopping.
FOREST INFLUENCE ON CLIMATE.
In paper read before the Royal Meteorologi-
cal Society of London, DR.. Woeikof stated that
the first step towards a scientific investigation of
the influence of forests upon climate was taken by
the establishment of the Bavarian Forest meteor
illogical stations. This example was FOLLOWED by
Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy and other
countries. In general it has been found that dur
ing the warmer season the air and earth tempera-
lures are lower in the forests than in neighboring
woodess places; that their variations are less,
and that the relative question shows that in the
western portions of the Old World extensive for
ests materially influence the temperature of neigh
boring localities and that the normal increase of
temperature from the Atlantic Ocean towards the
interior of the Continent is not only interrupted
by their agency, but they cause the summer to be
cooler in regions situated further in the interior
than those nearer the sea. Hence, forests exert
an influence on climate which does not cease at
their borders but is felt over greater or less dis
trict, according to the size, kind and positions of
the forests. 1t follows from this that man may
considerably effect the climate by clearing forests
in one place and planting others in another.
MISCELLANEOUS
The schools of Austria have been forbidden
using paper ruled in square or diagonal lines, as
such paper has been found to iniure the eyesight
of pupils. In future only paper plain or ruled
straight across is to be employed.
The eye of rabbit has been successfully trans
planted to a human subject. The movement and
appearance Of the natural eye was excelently Sc,
cured, vision not being expected.
A number of travelling juries have been created
by the French Government to visit foreign lands
and collect information useful to science,
and navigation.
A case of hydrophobia of spontaneous origin in
man is believed to have occurred recently in Paris
Attention has been called to the fact that the
streams in certain cultivated portions of northern
Texas now run during the part of the year when
they were formerly dry. This is not attributed to
any change in the rainfall, but to a more even
absorption of water over the cultivated areas.
The curious and remarkable discovery is re-
ported that South American shrub, called "aliza"
exudes juice which acts SO powerful in stopping
flows of blood that when knife is smeared with
it and used for surgical operations, the largest
vessels may be severed without any hemorrhage.
In Japan, according to government report,
553 earthquakes occurred during the nine and
half years preceding December, 1884. The record
is evidently incomplete however, as Prof. Milne
has been able to trace an average of an earth
quake day in Nagasaki, in the extreme south of
Japan.