The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1897-07-02
Written for the Citizen. ,

Oh considerable scale III Norway Is
made by the process Of Rosendahl, a
Norwegian engineer, which consists IL
heating the peat in closed retorts tC
2500 G. for seven hours The finished
product retains so per cent. of the orig
inal tar and gas. Analysis shows this
coal 20 consist of 65 per cent. ofcarbon
Is per cent. of oxygen, per cent. o
hydrogen, 81 per cent of water anC
only per cent of ash, and its heating
value. is that of average bituminou'
coal. The cost of manufacture j:
about 60 cents per ton, the selling price
being little over $l.00 per ton, OIL
about quarter of the cost in Norway
of natural coal. The peat coal has
proven suitable for foundry work and
rooms have been heated with it at eX.
actly half the cost of the same effect
from ordinary coal.
The scheme of covering the Sahara
with forests is pronounced by M. P.
Private-Deschenel utterly impractica-
BILE, the arid plateaus being a hopeless
desert. On limited scale, however,
the valleys-most of which are favored
with small amount of waterway
be successfully planted with tamarisk,
acacia, eucalyptus and poplar, the last
named tree having unexpectedly
proven the most suitable. La the for
est shelter, vegetables and fruit trees
may be grown.
In some late experiments on the
bursting of small fly-wheels, the first
wheel tested, 15B inches in diameter,
burst at speed of 6,525 revolutions
per minute, or a rim speed of over five
miles minute A timber casing
around the wheel was completely de-
molished, and piece of the rim was
shot like bullet through inches of
pine and % inches into the hardwood
floor.
A new X-ray tube, with adjustable
cathode shows that the exact position
of the cathode enormously affects the
penetration of the rays, change of a
third of an inch giving a range of pen
etrative power from the highest almost
! to none at all.
The use of ether for forcing plants
has given Mr.. Johannessen, of the Ag-
ricultural High School at Copenhagen,
results so decided as to suggest great
possibilities for florists and market gar
deners. The plants are etherized by
being placed for twenty-four to ninety
six hours in closed vessel filled with
ether vapF, cylindrical glasses being
used for small plants and oil painted
lined with tin-toil for larger ones. The
cost of etherizing lilacs is said to have
been from cent to cent and one
half for each plant. In the expert
ments Of the last three years, tulips,
lilacs, etc., etherized late in the fall
and then placed in dollhouse, devel-
oped much more rapidly than usual,
and had pretty color and great dura-
bllity. Little benefit was had from
ether applied before the middle of Sep
TENDER. Trials on greater variety of
plants are planned for this year, and q
study of the effects of varying and re-
peated doses of ether will be made.
The ether being very infiammable,
great care must be taken to keep it
away from lighted matches or any
other flame.
An incandescent lamp of three or
| fOur aunA lp.nOWnr 10 uood hxy M ponl
Noel, a French entomologist, for CAP
night. The lamp is connected by wires
to a small storage battery on the bank
OF the pond, weighted by semicircle
of iron, and placed over a net having
an opening two feet and half across.
The net is of coarse pack-thread, closed
by a string. The weighted lamp and
the net are slowly sunk in the water,
the lamp is lighted, and insects, fish,
lizards, frogs, tadpoles and larvae of
every kind rush up to it. The string
is pulled, quickly capturing several
pounds of victims.
Fluorine, remarkable both as the
most active of the chemical elements
and as the only one forming no COM
pound with oxygen, was with great
difficulty isolated by Moissan in 1887.
Its liquefaction, just announced by
Prof. Dewar, adds new and extraor-
binary detail to the chemistry of cold.
The gas liquifies at temperature of
1852 below zero Cent, and the product
is yellow mobile liquid which
has lost the intense chemical energy
and become entirely inert
New discoveries of rocks dangerous
to navigation show no signs of dimin-
ishing, not less than 200 rocks and
shoals not before known having been
reported to the British photographer
in 1896.
A singular eruption was witnessed
early this year by postman who was
crossing the sands of Skeidara, in the
south OF Iceland. A sudden long, groan-
ing sound drew his attention to gla-
cler about two miles i'm front of him,
when he saw huge masses of ice thrown
into the air from the glazier, followed
by flood that swept down upon the
level sands, carrying everything before
it. Turning his horse, he fed to the
station of Nupsstad. On returnieg to
the sands six days later, he found them
covered by belt of ice-foes or waves
about four miles wide and seventy to
ninety feet high, reaching from the
glacier to the sea, distance of at least
twenty-five miles. Six newly-formed
t'rrents rushed from the glacier on the
opposite side of the ice-field. The erup-