Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-01-06
SCIENCE.

trum. the chemical rays. may produce in
fanHmation Of the skin. and that they
may penetrate the skin. These facts are
likely to prove of great Importance in
medicine. Some years AGO., DIR. Finsen,
a Danish physician, concluded that the
skin Inflammation in smallpox was due
to increased sensitiveness to the chem
zeal rays. and on excluding these rays
by placing his patients in red light he
greatly lessened this painful effect. Sun
burn and N-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 kin diseases due to microbes, In
stead of excluding the chemical rays. he
concentrates and cOols them by q spe-
cial instrument. His experiments thus
far have been chiefly applied to lupus.
/ with which he has had sue success that
any failure throws doubts on the d.
agnosis, about $50 cases having been
treated.
Scattered in evanescent cloudlets
Through the air rear the earth are many
odors. Balloonists find reason to believe
that the most powerful Of these exhala- ]
tions do not reach far upward, While diff
fusion laterally is so slow that the smell
or Oil of lines was Is minutes passing
through a tube three feet long, but the
wind transports the odors far and rap |
idly. Rev. John NJ. Bacon, who has been |
investigating the subject, mentions a
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 a boats crew that
was enveloped in a dense wreath of wood !
smokeWhen 400 miles at sea: and also
that of a smell Of primeval forests that
seemed to have been borne by a cyclone |
across the Atlantic to the coast of France.
A remarkable effect in nroSoryinr fruit |
Is shown by shredded banks of the ii
tree and the Melalenca leucadendrOn. in !
which fruit is now packed for shipment
from New South Wales. The prevention
of sweating is a possible explanation of
the preservative power
A patriarch among working machines
lately placed on the retired list at Peters,
valid. Austria. is of far greater interest |
than most old junk. 1t is a hosting
engine built by Daniel Schmidt of Wen
ma, and has the remarkable record Of
service since 1874, working at first with
a steam pressure OF two atmospheres,
which was subsequently increased to six
atmospheres. Its later use was in deep
enlng the mine shaft, it's duties being
to lower material and to raise and lower
the miners. The engine has a single up
right cylinder Of 1919 inches. a stroke Of
271a inches, and is fitted with fiat valve
gear, the valve being worked from an
eccentric on the crank shaft. The motion
Of the piston was transmitted by a con-
Meeting rod n rank to a 1ywheel
shaft. This shaft, in addition to a fy- |
wheel IL feet in diameter, carried a cog |
wheel, which transmitted mower to the
drum through a larger toothed wheel and!
a pair Of bevel wheels. To the original
hard brake. mounted on the rim Of the
fywheel. an automatic steam brake, act
ing on the winding drum, was afterward
added.
The milk-cOndensing process of Mr.. b.
F. Mcintyre, which has been under test
for a considerable time. has been reported
by DR.. H. o. Marcy CT Boston as giving
results that promise to revolutionize the
worlds milk distribution. The milk is
frozen during gentle agitation, and the
Ice Is removed, about so per cent of the
water being thus distracted at much less
expense than by evaporation in a va
cum, and the solids are not affected.
The fat globules are 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 instead of days. A brick of
solid milk several month DID,, made by
further removal Of water is still in good
condition.
A method Of rendering corks very inn
permeable without affecting their elasti-
city has been patented in Germany by
Herr F. H. Wundrum. Caoutchouc is
dissolved in 10 times it's weight Of BEN
zine, and the corks are placed in this
solution and submitted to a pressure of
10 or II atmospheres by means of a force
pump. They are then dried in a strong
current of air.
The time required for various yeasts
to produce a new generation from a par
ent cell has been studied by DR.. d. P.
Hoyer of Vienna. At 6 degrees C. 43 de-
grees F.) most Of them did not produce
a new generation, even after a week; at
% degrees c. one species required 5
hours 13 minutes another 6 hours u
minutes.
The l~ead-covered electric wires used by
the lieutenant governor of Bengal nave
seriously deteriorated in three years.
Trying many colors, H. J. Moeller has
found that medicinal agents are best pro-
tected from light by black, red, orange.
yellow, b~rown-yellow and pure green
glasses. Blue or cOlorless glass offered
no protection against the chemical rays.
Few opportunities have been offered for
the accurate determination Of the dis
lance at which great explosions have been
heard and felt. st. Helans, Eng, being in
a thickly populated district. it has SEEM
ed practicable to trace outward from it's
source the sound of the recent great ex-
p!osion of so tons of chlorate of potash,
and DR.. Charles Dawson has attained 81
records from AZ different places. These
show that the sound was heard over an
elliptical area of about $50 square miles,
the air wave being strong enough to
rattle windows over about the same
area. To the east. the sound was heard
at distances of 24R and 81 miles, windows
being ratified at % miles: and to the west,