The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1900-10-20
Correspondence Baltimore County Uaton.
SCIENTIFIC MIS- CELLANY.

The Latest Rara Avis-The Electric Phon-
oeraph-A New Radiant Element-An
Eclipse Mystery-A French Conquest
Color Pyrometry-Wood Changing by
Electric Endosmosis--A Little Under
stood Habit-Snow Colored by Fleas.
New Zealand is distinguished for its fightless
birds. The Takahe (Noto7nais hochstettera0 which
was first captured in lS49 and of which the
fourth and best specimen was taken two years
ago, has now been described by Sir W. Il. Buiier
as a handsome bird of the rail family. about as
large as a goose, blue breasted, having heavy
gait, and with a very noticeable beak In the
form of a large equilateral triangle OF pink
horn, one angle being directed forward. It's
most remarkable characteristic is that it is abso-
lutely unable to use its wings for flying. Inc
first two specimens obtained of this Eighties
rail are in the British Musum, the third was pur-
chased by the Dresden Museum for $500. and as
much as 81 800 has been offered for this fourth
specimen.
Some telephone subscribers in Copenhagen
and neighboring places now have their messages
automatically registered in their absence by the
telephone of Valdemar Poulsen, Danish engi-
neer. This is a modification of the Edison pho
nograph using steel tape or wire instead OF
wax cylinder as receiver. The steel tape is
passed between the poles of an electromagnet,
with whose coil telephone is connected, and it
is variably magnetized at different portions of
its length as the current is varied by the speech
vibrations in the telephone. The magnetization
is long retained, giving reproduction of the vi
brations and speech when the tape is again
passed through similar electromagnet.
-
Actinium is the name given a new radioactive
element of the iron group discovered by A.
Debierne in pitchblende. The substance has
now been sufficiently concentrated to show that
its rays have the same effect on barium platico-
cyanide. Photographic plates and a magnetic
field as those of iridium and polonium while it
is evidently distinct from those elements.
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The earliest meteorological record now known
was made by Rev. William Merle for the seven
years 1337-1344, and is preserved in the Bodleian
Library at Oxford.
About a minute before and just after totality
in a solar eclipse, alternate bright and dark
bands-sometimes called shadow bands and
sometimes diffraction bands-are seen sweeping
across the country. The dark bands are but a few
inches wide, moving not more than ten to twen-
ty feet per second. They cannot be conDected
with the moons shadow, as has- oeen assumed,
for that moves with "s'nnon-paii velocity, and
the theory to- they are due to striae in the at
rosnh.le seems not wholly satisfactory Prof.
%. ". Wood, of Madison, Wis, hopes to get re-
ports concerning these bands from persons in
many localities witnessing the May eclipse. He
has asked for details concerning the width,
nd ~ 4;
ing reversed as the eclipse passes,) with particu-
lars concerning the wind and general atmos-
pheric conditions.
Fns,s- snnd dimes of the Gascony eoasts are
stated by r. LIE Mang to occupy belt or
miles wide and $50 long, in which area they fire.
quently rise to a height of 125 feet and in one
case reach 300 feet The shifting sand has been
that along the shore. Barren of vegetation,
this has been blown about by every wind, and
has buried fields, forests and villages, and has
caused disastrous foundations by blocking the
mouths of the streams. The evil has been fl
nally remedied by long experiment and nearly
a century of systematic work. A gently slop-
ing, half artificial dyke runs along.the beach,
next to which is a strip quarter of mile or
more wide which has been covered with stunted
frs and bushes, and behind this is a great arti-
fetal forest of frs and oaks, the whole effectu
ally checking the sand invasion.
-.
From numerous pyrometic measurements, NJ.
White and F. W. Taylor have prepared the fol-
lowing color scale as most accurately CORE
spending to the temperatures-in Fahrenheit
degrees-of heated steel under average work.
shop conditions: Dark blood red. black red, 1907
dark red, blood red, low red, 1,0500 dark cherry
red, I,175o; medium cherry red, 1850 full cher
ry red, 1852 light cherry, scaling heat, light
red, 1852; salmon, orange, free scaling heat,
$500 light salmon, light orange, ,725o yellow,
!, 2S5o light yellow, 1852 white, 2,2000.
-.
Guaxima, proposed new paper material, is
very abundant in Brazil. The fiber is long and
very strong, resists the action of water, and is
much more easily prepared than that of jute.
-.
The ageing of timber, which formerly re-
quired long storage, is now completed by cleo
tricity in few hours. In the Nodon-Breton-
neau process, the timber is piled on a lead frame
IN large wooden vat, is nearlytimmersed in
chemical preparation, and is covered over by
shallow vessels of water having porous bottoms
Of felt and linen. The positive pole of dyna-
mo is connected to the lead frame and the mega
tive pole to the water vessels. On the passage
Of the current the sap is driven to one side of
the wood and expelled, and the chemical liquid
enters the pores and takes its place. After dry
ing the wood is ready for use.
-
Winking is a common phenomenon whose pur-
pose is not yet clear. 1t varies greatly in fire.
quency in different persons and at different
times, and one theory is that it serves to give
the eye momentary rest, becoming more fire.
quent as the eye grows tired, while another
view is that it serves to moisten the eye-ball.
Its duration, which is too slight to interfere
with distinct vision, has been subject of inves-
tigation by Herr S. Garten. By Photographic
method he has shown that the entire wink lasts
almost four-tenths of u second, the downward
taking only about seven to nine hun
dredths, while the upward movement of the lid
averages seventeen hundredths, and the eye is
shut about fifteen hundredths of a second.
-
The little insects known as glacier 1eas" have
been found to be the cause of the color of a re-
cent singular fall of "black snow" at Molding,
Austria. 1t is supposed that these insects
were carried from the Alpine glaciers by vic
lent snowstorm.
Red pigeons, blue pigeons and rainbow-hued
are among the freaks DR.. Sauermann,
an Austrian experimenter, has been able to
produce. The birds are colored by introducing
aniline dyes into their food.
-
Geese are driven long distances to market at
Warsaw, Poland, and their feet are protected
for the trip by being "shod,' the creatures be-
ing made to walk alternately through tar and
sand several times.
The number of plants known to commerce is
placed at 400, and of these 420 are applied to
the making of perfumes.
THOMSON PROPERTY FOR SALE.
We offer for sale a desirable DOUBLEEl