The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-04
SCIENTIFIC.

An electric siren is suggested as a more
effective signal than the steam whistle A
thin sheet OF iron placed over an alternat-
ing current magnet produces a most pierre
ing sound, that can be heard for miles and
controlled from distance.
Davyum which was announced in 1877 as
a new metal from platinum ore, proves to
be of very doubtful existence as an element.
Professor Mallet has found that a substance
apparently identical is really composed of
rhodium and iridium, with trace of iron,
A Tudor storage battery in a new station
at Antwerp, Belgium, is believed to be the
largest electrical battery in the world. 1t
consists of 40 cells, with a capacity of
$3.50 ampere hours at rate of 609 amperes,
and total power of 500 kiloWatts, or nearly
], 100 horse power.
Appendicitis is not the surely fatal disease
it has been often regarded. Professor Moth
agel, of Vienna, finds that not less than 50
per cent. of the cases run a simple course
and recover under purely medical treatment.
He states that opiates should be given, but
no purgatives There need be no uneasinesS
if the patient has no movement of the
bowels for six or eight days.
Although chemical composition seems to
show the superiority of brown bread, Drs.
Lander Brunton and Tunnicliffe conclude
from experiment that weight for weight,
white bread is the more nutritious People
with irritable intestineS should invariably
prefer the white bread Those with slug
gish bowels may find advantage in brown
bread, as may also those whose food and
drink are deficient in lime or whose diet
lacks fat. The teeth decay Of working peo-
pie living chiefly on tea and bread may be
due to preference for white bread.
A singular observation has been reported
to the French Academy by NJ Brandy
When small disks of copper, tin, brass or
silver were piled together they showed
principally no resistance to an electric cur
rent; but iron, bismuth, aluminium and
lead gave somewhat remarkable resistance
when the disks were gently built up, but
much greater resistance when allowed to
fall together-the effect being greater on
the following day M. Branly declares that
imperfect contacts offers no real explana-
ton.
Chemically hardened railway sleepers-the
idea of Munich architect named Hassel-
man-are proving quite satisfactory on the
Bavarian state railroads. The process, last
ing about six hours, consists in a double
baking of the wood and treatment with oil
of vitriol and sulphate of iron, followed by
placing in a bath of chloride of lime and
milk of lime at n temperature Of 100 to 125
degrees c. and a pressure of about two and
one-haf atmCsphereS. The cost is about
2 cents per tie. The first baking destroys
the germs of fermentation and induces me-
chanical union of the personalities with the
fiber of the wood, and the second imparts
remarkable hardness and so changes the
character of the wood that it remains dry
even IN damp places.
Electric governors for marine engines are
being tested in Italy. In one form the
steam supply is gradually shut off or turned
on, as the ship rolls, by means of two cleo
tromagnets, whose action depends upon the
mercury in two communicating vessels. AS
the propeller rises out of the water the
mercury runs from the rear vessel. cutting
out resistances in the current of the electro
magnet that closes the valve. When the
bow rises the reSiStanceS are brought in
again one by one, reducing the force of this
electromagnetic while the current is turned
on to the electromagnetic that opens the
valve When the keel is level no current
passes through the electromagnetic.
BY means of a special apparatus Drs.
Wather and Schlossmann spray a mixture
of fornaldehyde and glycerin into a room
that is to be disintected until thick fog
results. about four pounds of the mixture
per 1,09O feet being needed. The room need
not be Theoretically closed ordinary circu-
lation of air helping to spread the disin-
fectant The most refractory germs were
killed within three hours, and live guinea
pigs and rabbits were freed from all bac-
terra in their skins. The advantageous eff
feet of the glycerin is attributed to it's
MICROSCOPE character and its power of adj
herring to and penetrating household ma
terias. Further shortening of the neces-
sary period of disnfection seems possible,
come much the most powerful agent yet
known against infectious disease.
In tuberculosis. says Sir Robert T. Thorne,
we have to deal with group of diseases so
fatal that they cause some e0,00o deaths
yearly in England and Wales. Yet prevent
i've measures have reduced the annual rate
per million from g. 4S3 in 1S5l-1S50 to 2122 in
1S91-1S95-a decrease of 1862 per cent. There
is no reason to be ashamed of such a re-
suit but the influence has been slight in
some forms of TIE disease, and large class
of the most helpless of the popuation-in-
fants and young childTen-remains practi-
cally unidentified The chief administrative
cause of the reduced death rate has un-
dOubtedly been the giving of ventilation and
access of sunlight to houses and factories.
Sae eSre s plan. the death rate On from
phthisis is very nearly twice great as
where the buildings permit free circulation
of air.
The autographs Of the stars written i'm
the troscope-hundreds of light years,
it may be, from the source of the energy
that writes the lines-are messages by wire
less biography as wonderful as anything
we know. They tell not only Of the ele-
ments of the distant suns. but of the phys
ical characteristics as well, and have en-
abIed so keen an interpreter as Sir Norman
Isockyer not only to recognize various
classes among the stars. but to foresee that
here will in future wears be read the secret
of Inorganic evolution The hottest OF the
stars are furnaces of glowing hydrogen,
helium and perhaps other gases. In stars
OF somewhat lower temperature the gases
are largely replaced by vaporized metals
while in a third and still cooler class are
shown metals with carbon All stars ex-
cept the hottest are proven to be growing
either hotter or cooler-ArcturIls and our
sun belonging to the cooling class Some az
the cooler stars are discovered TO be nebulae
OF gases or metallic yapors, and as the facts
accumulate they all 60 to demonstrates the
evolution Of the cosmos we know 1t from
swarms cf meteoric particles cQIliding and
becoming hotter and N, xssecrs1f f,9rSfse,.