The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-19
SCIENTIFIC.

The magnetization limit of iron has been
found by Mr.. Henry Wilde, F. r. s.. to be
APO pounds per square inch, with no gain in
the power of magnets by the double pole
or horseshoe form.
The total foreign patents issued from
earliest times to 1870 are estimated by the
United States patent commissioner at 1885,
10S; since 1870 to the close of 1896, at SIS 100.
The United States patents for the same
periods numbered 120,573 and 463, 752 re-
spectively.
A new electric propeller for pleasure
boats sails ahead of the boat, but is rigidly
connected to it, the accumulation cells and
switch gear being on the boat itself. The
vibration is less than in ordinary stern
propelled launches, but there is probably
much less of efficiency
Nervous folk may be relieved to learn
that DR.. Fab's prediction of a collision Of
the earth with Temples comet on Nov. 10,
1899, resulted from an error. DR.. F. Bids
chof, of the Vienna Observatory, calcu-
lateS that the nearest approach OF the
comet in 1899 will be II, 1900 miles.
Improved methods of signaling will be an
important feature of future polar explora-
ton. The apparatus of Mr.. e. S. Bruce, as
described at the London Imperial Institute,
includes small captive balloon lighted in
side by incandeScent lamps, and this is to
be fixed to the ship or taken away by an
exploring party, in either case serving as a
beacon that under favorable circumstances
could be seen eighty miles or more. Such
balloons can be inflated with, compressed
hydrogen, carried in steel cylinders.
An artificial black marble is being made
at Catania, Italy, and is said to be much
cheaper than genuine marble, from which it
is not easily distinguished. 1t is made by
impregnating white sandstone with a mix
ture of equal parts of volcanic asphalt and
coal-tar pitch. The sandstone blocks-cut
into the desired shapes-are supported on
gratings in a large square iron tank into
which the molten mixture is admitted from
an adjoining boiler the liquid being Kept
boiling in the tank for thirty-siX hours.
After cooling the stones are pollsned IKE
other marble. 1t is claimed that the new
material will resist acids, atmospheric ac-
ton, heat and cold, and does not favor the
development of germs.
Acetylene gas has proven to be violently
explosive under a pressure of somewhat
less than two atmospheres, but reasonably
free from liability to explode unless mixed
with air or oxygen at less than an atmos-
phere and half The British Home Office
has decided to consider it safe under
pressure of twenty inches of water above
that OF the atmosphere-or about an at
mosphere and twentieth-while regarding
it as subject to the act regulating exp osives
If greater pressure is used. The French
authorities have fixed the danger line at
an atmosphere and half and the German
and restrict the keeping or making or the
gas at higher pressure.
Plague bacilli, it appears from the elab-
crate report of the German government
commission to Bombay, in most cases enter
the system through small wounds or
scratches, and the disease is mostly con-
fined to jewellers in poor and insanitary
localities. The bacilli are very quickly
killed by ordinary antiseptics and heating.
little DrOtect1On
the Bombay epidemic, but Hank1neS
method proved very successful. This con-
sistS in incubation with the products OF
bacilli culture. To a virulen: growth of
plague bacill was added carbolic acid solu-
ton or essence of mustard. destroying the
microbes but leaving products having re-
markable protective power. An even bet
ter vaccine resulted from heating the
plague cultures to $50 degrees Fahrenheit
for hour.
While valuable scientific facts have been
brought to light by untaught men, such dis
coveries have seldom been direct result of
ignorance. A patient who had just left an
Algerian hospital, however, has been cured
of sciatica of many years standing through
his laundering idea that spirit of salt
(hydrochloric acid was a saline prepara-
ton of greater strength than the salt solu-
ton the doctors had been administering
hypodermically with little relief. Reasoning
that the strong preparation should have
greater effect, he painted his skin with it,
with the most astonishing success. On
learning of the experiment, the physicians
at the hospital adopted the remedy, and DR..
c. Gennates, of Montpelier, has prepared
thesis based on a dozen cases OF Sciat1ca,
all Of which have been completely relieved
through this means. The APP lcation is sim
pie. Three or four coats of strong hydrochlo-
rio acid are brushed over the painful part
of the nerve, and the limb is covered with
a cottonwood dressing. The heat and smart
ing are severe, but quite bearable. The APP
plication can be repeated in twenty-four or
forty-eight hours, but not again for several
DAYS lest sloughs should appear. The twelve
patients were all reported cured in three
70 ave sittings, extending over a week 10
twenty-five days No serious inconvenience
or sloughing is produced by the strong acid
carefully used the watery blisters some
times formed disappearing in two or three
days.
The termite mounds of Australia are quite
as wonderful examples of insect architec-
ture as the more familiar nests of the Afri-
can white ants. Mr.. w. Saville-Kent de-
scribes three distinct types of the large
mounds. The largest ant nests known are
doubtless the buttressed columnar ''ter.ni-
taria" occurring in the northern territory of
South Australia, some forty miles inland
from Port Darwin. these often exceeding
eighteen feet in height and being also re-
markable for an almost equal diameter from
top to bottom. Mounds nearly as large.
towering above the head of horseback
rider. are to be seen in York Peninsula,
North Queensland. this form tapering
slightly to one or sometimes several sharp
points. In the Kimberley district of West
Australia a lObuiated mound Is very cbm-
mon. this type often exceeding fourteen feet
and being usually c0nical or hemispherlcal
in general form, but always having a lolhE~
lated appearance, as of being built from
ls,ade ~ 4 "a rses7,., : 49,. Il -