The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1900-07-21
COrresp0ndsnce Baltimore County Union
6cIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.


SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
Automobile Economy in France-A Climb
ing Electric Locomotive-After Coal
What2-A Military Stereoscope-Stam-
mering and Skull Deformation-Sun-
Cure for Rot-Romes Water-Keeping
the Dead Unchanged = Welding by
Aluminium Heat-Earth-Shine.
Reviewing the results of French experience
with automobiles NJ. g. Forester concludes that
the steam engine best meets the requirments
where there are sudden demands Tor power. as
on steep grades and in starts on upward lncnnes,
while an interval combustion motor is satsiac-
tory on fairly level roads, and has much less
weight. Motors of both classes have shown IN
creased economy since the early tests OF 1877,
with the prospect of further Improvement.
Details of the trials of light vehicles cannot be
easily summarized, but the cost of running
cab may be placed at l926 francs PEE Gay by
tricity while the corresponding figures for a de-
livery wagon are 1872. 1880 and 1880 francs:
Interest, depreciation and the maintenance OF
electric accumulators are included.
-
The most powerful racx-wheel machine yet
constructed Is said to be the new electric loco
motive for the steepest portion of the Jungfrau
Mountain Railway. The motors are placed
under the passenger car. the truck OF which mas
two driving axles between two bearing axles.
Two motors, each of 125 horsepower at 800 revo-
lutions per minute. drive the toothed wheels
through duplicate gearing. and If required can
be worked up to 800 horsepower. The current
is conveyed overhead at tension OF 5OO volts.
In the worlds use OF power. Prof. Lunge
recognizes three great periods-that of wood,
that of coal, and that of solar energy. We are
now in the second period, but the inevitable
failure Of the coal supply must bring US 10 tne
third within few centuries at most. Mechani-
cal industries must then depend upon the vast
energy of the suns rays, partly transformed
into water power
Vast numbers of small fish are destroyed on
the British coast By anglers well as Dy steam tT
latter waste cannot be avoided, but that most of
sRadG ths Jaw coMBsed t6eir prompt return m
to the water.
Neglect of military optics seems to be among
the causes assigned for the defeats of the Brit
ish army in South Africa. The great range at
which action is now begun has made necessary
not only the use of range finders. but also a
better equipment of feld-glasses for studying
the enemy's position and locating entrench-
ments- The scientific Germans have now sup
piled every battery of artillery with kind of
long distance stereoscope, called the scissors
telescope whose object is to give relief to the
images of the field-glass, thus bringing to view
slight ridges and depressions that are liable to
escape detection. The apparatus opens verti-
cally, like pair OF s1sSorS, and the object
glasses can be brought as much as five feet
apart, separating the planes of an object five
miles away as much as ordinary vision would
do at quarter OF mile. 1t may be noted
further that this wide separation of the lenses
makes it possible for the operator to use one or
both tubes of his glass while he is himself
shielded in trench or behind tree.
A remarkable cure Of confirmed stammering
in boy of thirteen has been brought to the
attention of the Paris Academy of Medicine by
Prof. Jonnesco, of Bucharest. His theory
being that the defect is often due to fiattening
of the left side of the head. preventing develop
ment of the skull over the part of the
brain to which Broca assigned speech his opera
ton consisted in cutting tissues to relieve the
dura mater at this point. His success leads to
my xyfrcr mil
by surgeons of the later stone age may not
have been performed to relieve stammering.
A history of Rome's waterworks has been
preserved in two books by FrOntinus water
commissioner in 81 A. ID. A recent translation
shows that nine aqueducts had been bnilt and
that the daily consumption was about 38 gallons
per persOn-althOugh cyclopedias give this as
800 gallons, or three times that of American
cities.
The great preservative powers of formation
nave met with little favor in museums. The
substance is of special advantage, however, for
hardening and keeping fiabby animals, such as
geily-nSn; and it is convenient to the field col
lector, on account of its small bulk, as the COM
mercial fluid requires diution with IS times its
volume of water before use, while specimens
can be packed in it much closer than in alcohol
In Mauritius, M. Camille Sumiere has been ex-
perimentfng with an apparatus using constant
currents OF formalin vapor, as lately proposed
by DIR. u. de Rechter of Brussels. For this
method is claimed the advantage of preserving
specimens as at DEATH the tissues not being
hardened ana na1r ana Feathers being uniuiured
in texture or color In the trials made a guinea
pig was in perfect condition after twenty days
in the apparatus and eight days in the open
museum. 1t is declared that the process not
only offers great possibilities in natural history,
but, what may be of more popular interest.
that it may be specially valuable in cases of
suspected poisoning, as bodies can be kept any
desired time in condition for examination.
-.
Heat from the burning of powdered aluminium
has found other applications besides the reduc-
ton of refractory oxides. In Germany it is
used for welding copper and steel, and the pro-
cess is available when smithy or electric arc is
not at hand or readily available. For welding,
molten iron is produced from aluminium and
iron oxide in a cruicabe. the contents of this
tGfc clnpeTaGClrC k)enus uIUf the
amount OF aluminium fuel, control is easy.
80
The visibility of the entire lunar disc near the
time of new moon has bad curious explanations
some OF which have been collected by French
astronomer. POsidonius held that the moon
was more or less transparent, and that the dull
glow resulted from the suns rays shining
Through. illumination by Venus was Tycho
Brakes suggestion. The real cause, reflection
by the moon or sunlight reflected from the
earth, was discovered by Leonard de Vinci.
"a
The special havorS, odors, constituencies and
colors of salt preserved foods are found by DIR.
A. Peterson to be chiefly produced by various
miero-organisms.