The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1900-07-17
SCIENTIFIC
MISCELLANY.
Ornamental Materials From
Waste ElectrOtherapy.
ICE IN THE TROPICS
A stereoscopic View of the Moon Strange
Sea Depths-A Volcanoes Lights
Russian Diamonds-An Ef-
fective Filter.

fective Filter.
Prompt cures in certain forms Of
disease are reported by DR.. d. A. Kess-
Ter from the use of an incandescent
lamp Of i6 to 100 candle power. The
lamp is provided with a parabolic re-
fiector of proper focus and connected to
a battery or to a street current supply.
The treatment Is applied in one or two
sittings daily, according 20 the severity
Of the pain. The light and heat rays
combined very quickly relieve pain,
cause ehemorrhagic effusions C'black and
blue" marks) to be rapidly absorbed,
reduce the time of treatment of eczema,
and have no equal In cases of acute
rheumatism. The appearance of per-
spiration is a signal to close the sitting.
Care is taken to avoid the exposure to
cold of the treated part.
Coal slack has been brought to the
consideration of the Sydney water
board as a filtering material through
the conclusions of Prof. Bostock Hill.
This expert has found coal to be su-
perior to coke or ballast in purifying
sewage, as 1t has at once chemical
action, and it's purifying power Is mark
ed from the first day of use, although
still better results follow after two
or three months.
The metal waste of machine shops is
utilized by e. Apart, of Jumet,
Belgium, by cleansing from impurities
and then pressing into moulds and rais-
ing to the melting temperature by a
powerful electric current. When hot.
the metal is compressed by means Of
a die. The roughly shaped product can
be finished in the usual way and IL the
filings of different metals are used,
very decorative effects are produced. A
similar plan has been proposed for US
ing the waste mixture of glass powder
and abrasives that collects in English
ss-grinding works. The glass binds
the particles Of sand, ETC., together
when semi-fused at a bright red heat,
and hard, tough block Is formed.
Greater attractiveness may be given by
adding powdered vitreous enamels or
metal filings.
Acetylene is readily decomposed into
its elements, Carbon and hydrogen, and
the finely divided and absolutely pure
Cdl DOH llDtIdttu SuptIlOT " tic DtSl
lampblack. A French engineer, NJ. Ha-
bou, therefore suggests the use of the
unstable quality of calcium carbide,
| that is always waste product of car
bide factories, for acetylene black. The
manufacture consists in forcing the
| acetylene from this low grade carbide
into the explosion vessels filled with hy-
| drogen, until q pressure of about rs
pounds Is obtained, and then exploding
| the mixture by raising a platinum wire
within the vessel to white heat. The
pressure reached during the explosion
| is prevented by the dilution with hydro
gen, from exceeding $40 pounds per
| square inch. Each cubic foot of acety-
| lene yields one ounce of acetylene black
and one cubic foot of pure hydrogen, and
the latter may find ready sale.
| Ice is sometimes formed in India
when the air is at 10 or 20 degrees above
| freezing, by exposing water at night in
earthenware pans resting on rice straw
in little hollows in the ground. An ice
industry depending on the same princi-
pie has been discovered by o. H. Ho-
warth at an elevation of 5000 or 5000
| feet in a valley Of Oaxaca, Mexico. A
| large number Of shallow wooden
| troughs are filled with water, and dur
| ing winter nights become covered with
a thin sheet, never exceeding an eighth
, of an inch in thickness, of earth, which
| is collected and buried in considerable
| masses in the earth. In these pits the
ice consolidates, being then cut when
needed and carried to the towns on
| mules.
Among some remarkable lunar pho
tographs made by Messrs Loewy and
Puiseaux, of the university of Paris, Is
stereoscopic image of the whole hem
isphere Of the moon, the direction OF
light giving relief and showing very
strikingly the details of craters and
mountainous regions. The picture was
obtained by taking plate Of the moon
at ten days and another at twenty
days enlarging these to so times. and
carefully placing side by side.
| A gold watch made in Berlin Is said
| to be less than quarter Of an inch In
| diameter weighing less than two
grains, and to be a good time-keeper.
| Exploration of the depths Of the Black
Sea during the last ten years has
brought to light a unique condition. Sir
John Murray states that the greatest
| depth found is 1900 fathoms, and that
a fresh water surface current flows out
ward through the Bosporus and the
Dardanelles into the Mediterranean
while salt under-current Is steadily
flowing inward. The density Of the salt
| water Of this under current prevents
vertical circulation. The greater depths
are consequently quite stagnant and
they are so inspregnated with sulphur
cited hydrogen that no life is possible
beyond 100 fathoms. Water from a
depth of 300 fathoms smells just like
rotten eggs. Thus the bottom deposits
unlike those of the open oceans, are
barren of life; and they show the fur
ther extraordinary difference, unknown
elsewhere, of an abundant chemical
~