The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-05
SCIENTIFIC.

Rain gushes in thunderstorms have been
variously explained, but Prof. Cleveland
Able finds it still an open question whether
these gushes bring about the formation OF
| lightning, or vice versa.
A recent calculation shows that electric
heating for cars costs over five times as
much in fuel as heating by stoves, an ex-
| penditure equivalent to six horsepower be-
| ing required to raise the temperature of
an ordinary car for twenty-fOur people
| from zero to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. 1t is
estimated that double windows would re-
duce the fuel expense one-half.
The rusting of iron under paint is usually
| supposed to be due to minute cracks in the
paint A study of the subject by Edmund
Simon shows that paint resists temperature
changes, but is always hydroscopic, and
when swollen by moisture readily admits
water and gases. To prevent the rusting
Herr Simon recommends three or four coats
of very adherent paint containing the larg-
est possible quantity or oil.
Carbolic acid has been effectively used
for tempering steel tools by M. Levat, a
French engineer. Two cast-steel gravers of
fine quality were heated to a cherry red
and one was dipped into water and the
other into a solution of commercial carbolic
acid. They were then tried on chiSeled iron
and on extra hard white cast iron. The
water-tempered graver was notched in sew
eraI places, while the other resisted per-
fectly.
The rate of chirp Of the cricket, Prof.
A. E. Dolbear notes in the American
Naturalist, seems to be entirely determined
by the temperature, and this to such de-
gree that One may easily compute the tenn
perature from the chirps per minute. Thus
at 60 degrees +. the rate is eighty per
minute At 70 degrees F. the rate is 120,
a change of four chirpS minute for each
degree Of change. Below a temperature of
so degrees the cricket has no energy TO
waste in music and there would be but
forty chirps per minute.
From records of an immense number of
observations DR.. Gerhardt Schott draws the
conclusions that the so-called gulf stream
does not exist as warm current east of
40 degrees west, and has no rapid movement
east of 60 degrees west; that the Labrador
current does not anywhere touch the sea-
board of the United States, and has moth
ing to do with the cold wall" and that
on the Great Banks there is practically no
current. The warm and cold streams are
irregular movements, not liable to definite
changes with seasons.
Psychologists have yet to record many
curious workings of the mind DR.. Ginostos
has reported to a Bordeaux society the case
of young man who, since he was ten
years old, has had an irresistible impulse
to count the letters in words and phrases.
This he does continually while awake, with
out interfering in any way with his daily
IL,
When not talking he invents phrases and
counts the letters, thirty-two being a num-
Der that gives him satisfaction, while thir
teen -displeases him. At night he sleeps
without dreaming The editor of Scientific
Miscellany may add a similar experience,
having been frequently aroused to the con-
scousi.ess that while absorbed in some work
he had been automatically grouping words
a printed page in pyramids, each word
chosen having one letter more than its
predecessor.
Glass is usually colored by fusing with
metallic oxide, the entire mass being
changed. In the new process of NJ Leon
Lemal patterns are beautifully stained upon
the surface by penetration, a yellow color
being given when silver salt is placed in
contact with the glass and the whole heated
to $50 to $50 degrees Fahrenheit. The depth
of penetration depends upon the time of
heating, the shade upon the quantity of
the salt applied. In five minutes the color
had reached depth of 1-150thS of an inch,
in an hour this depth was doubled, and in
eighteen hours q plate one-sixteenth of an
inch thick was colored throughout The
yellow has fine greenish or blush fiuores-
cence. Photographic collodiOn negatives
can be applied directly 10 the glass. and lace
patterns can be transferred by simply dip
ping the lace into weak solution OF nitrate
Other salts-such as those of gold, copper
and iron--can bs used. silver. with little
copper giving a red color.
The canning of sweet corn is an indus
try of remarkable growth, the first corn
having been packed about 1853. while 1900
tons were put up in the United States in
1895. Recent large losses from souring have
led to an investigation at the Massachu-
sets Institute of Technology. The souring
is found to be due to fermentation set up