The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1900-05-19
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY,

Phototherapy-The Spread of Odors-A |
notwithstanding Packing-An Old-Time |
Engine-Solid Milk-Improved Corks-
The Sound of Observation-Disclosures
Copying Process-Yeast Generation.
It appears to be well proven that the rays at
the ultraviolet end Of the spectrum, the chemi-
cal rays, have the property of destroying bacte-
ria, that they may produce inflammation OF the
skin, and that they may penetrate the skim
Those facts are likely to prove OF great impor-
lance in medicine. Some years ago, DR.. flnsen'
q Danish physician, concluded that the skin in
fiammation in smallpox was due to increased
sensitiveness to the chemical rays, and on ex-
GLIDING these rays by placing his patients in red
light he greatly lessened this painful effect.
Eunburn and x-ray burns seems to be due to a
concentration of the active rays. DR.. Finsen
has now taken advantage Of the bactericidal
property, and In cases of skin diseases due to
microbes, instead of excluding the chemical
rays, he concentrates and cools them by special
instruments. His experiments thus far have
been chiefly applied to lupus, with which he has
had such success that any failure throws doubts
on diagnosis about $50 cases having been treated.
-
Scattered in evanescent cloudlets through the
air near the earth are many odors. Balloonists
find reason to believe that the most powerful OF
these exhalations do not reach far upward,
while diffusion latterally is so slow that the
smell of oil of lines was eighteen minutes pass
ing through tube three feet long, but the wind
transports the odors far and rapidly. heVJonn
NJ Bacon, who has been investigating the sub
ject, mentions smell of burning fat that was
drawn by the wind into a stream much more
than seven miles long but of little width. He
mentions the record of boats crew that was
enveloped in a dense wreath of wood smoke
Then 400 miles at sea and also that of a smell
of primeval forests that seem to have been
born by cyclone across the Atlantic to the
coast Of France.
remarkable effect 10 preserving fruit is
shown by shredded barks of the ii tree and the
Mela1euca leucadendroD, in which fruit is now
packed for shipment from New South Wales.
The prevention of sweating is a possible expla-
nation of the preservation power.
"a
A patriarch among working machines lately
placed on the retired list at Peterswad Austria,
Is Of far greater interest than most old junk. It
Is a hosting engine built by Daniel Schmidt, of
Vienna, and has the remarkable record of ser
vice since 1874, working at first with steam
pressure of two atmospheres. which was sub
sequently increased to six atmospheres Its
later use was in deepening the mine shaft its
duties being to lower material and to raise and
lower the miners. The engine has single up
right cylinder of 12K inches, stroke of FIX
inches, and is fitted with flat valve gear, the
valve being worked from an eccentric on the
crank. shaft. The motion of the piston was
transmitted by a connecting rod and crank to
a fiywheel shaft. This shaft, in addition to
fywheel ID feet in diameter, carried a cogwheel.
which transmitted power to the drum through
larger toothed wheel and pair of bevel wheels.
To the original hand brake, mounted on the rim
Of the iywheel. an automatic steam brake, act
ing on the winding drum, was afterward added.
"a
The milk-condensing process of Mr.. d. f. Nc
Intire, which has been under test for a consider
able time, has been reported by DR.. H. o. Marcy,
of Boston, as giving results that promise to rev.
olutionize the worlds milk distribution. The
milk is frozen during gentle agitation and the
ice is removed, about eighty per cent. of the
water befngsthus INSTRUCTED at much less ex-
pense than by evaporation in vacuum. and the
solids are not affected. The fat globules not
broken up, the cream being unimpaired for the
table. Late experiments show that the bacteria
are nearly-not quite-all destroyed and that
the product will keep in glass jars for weeks in
stead of days. A brick of solid milk several
months old, made by further removal Of water,
is still in good condition.
method of rendering corks very impermea-
BILE without affecting their elasticity has been
patented in Germany by Herr f. III. Wundrum,
Caoutchouc is dissolved in 10 times its weight of
benzine, and the corks are placed in this solu-
tion and submitted to pressure of 10 or IL at
mospheres by means of a force pump. They
are then dried in a strong current of air.
s*&