The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1900-03-31
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.


Iron Alloys Made Magnetic by Cold
Dreams Always With Us-Scienti1c
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. in Sex-Water
Glass Colors in Gems-The Latest
Animal Census-A Disappointing Rock
Breaker.
A singular property of certain nickel and man
ganese steels, pointed out by f. Osmond to the
Paris Academy, Is that they are not magnetic
until after exposure to a very low temperature.
Immersion in liquid air usually effects the
change. a bar of steel containing 059 per cent.
of carbon, SO per cent. of manganese and 3.77
per cent. of nickel was not attracted to power
full electro magnet. but after five minutes i'm
merson in liquid air 1t became magnetic. and
continued 30 up to $500 c. The cooling also in
creases the permeability and reduces the den
sity. A Is per cent. manganese steel, nickel
chromium steels, and others, did not become
magnetic even at the temperature of liquid air.
ars
After an experimental study of more than five
years at the psychological laboratory of the
Salpetriere. NJ. Vaschide has concluded that the
brain Is always active and there is no such thing
as dreamless sleep. He has watched the sleep
of SO subjects. ranging in age from twelve
months to eighty years, and his own obserya-
tions have been checked by those of 40 other
persons. He finds that the dreams of deep sleep
differ from the Authorizations that come at the
moment of falling asleep and that of waking.
The superficial sleep reflects more the sensa-
tions of every day, while the dreams of deep
sleep are more continuous. more logical, farther
from reality, and have more to do with ones
earlier existence.
Liquid hydrogen is transparent, and the light
- r.
sinking lit like lead. A whitish substance seen
at the bottom of the vessel on Prof. Dewar's
first exhibition was really solid air, or air ice.
While the causes of atmospheric electricity
are doubtless various, DIR. F. de Courmelles
shows that friction of the sand under the siroc-
co produces electrical phenomena of great in
tensity in the Sahara.
In the details Of practical gardening we are
not much in advance of our forefathers. notes
Dr. Maxwell Masters, President of the Inter
national Conference of Hybridization, and we
can only dimly perceive the enormous strides
that will be made under more complete guild
ance by scientific Investigations. 1t is In cross
breeding that we have greatly out-distanced our
ancestors. The first artifcially produced hybrid
on record was mentioned by Richard Bradley In
17l7 as being then to be seen in the garden of
Thomas Fairchild of Hoxton, and as a plant
(which was raised from the seed of carnation
that had been impregnated by the farina Of the
sweet William" Even then the Importance of
a knowledge of plant fertilization as means of
modifying fruits was recognized. Linneus OBJ
served and initiated natural hybrids, Dean Her
bert overcame certain religious scruples by
showing that many wild narcissi of the Pyrenees
no lin fraot Ixr cot
aside the prejudices of botanists by teaching
that hybridization is one means of ascertaining
the true relationships of plans and the limita-
lions of species and genera. The new plants
of the present day, like the roses. the chrysan-
themums, the fuchias, and so many Others, are
the products of the gardeners skill. From
peaches to potatoes, from peas to plums. from
strawberries to savoys, the work of the cross
breeder is seen improving the quality and guam
tity of our products, adapting them to different
climates and conditions, fastening their pro-
duction in spring, prolonging their duration in
autumn. Here we have made progress
IA
brood of five Nesting sparrow-ha hawks has
furnished DR.. r. W. Shufedt some curious re-
suits. The birds were so graduated in size that
it appeared the female must have laid the eggs
az regular intervals probably three or four days
apart, and that incubation commenced imme-
diately after the first egg was deposited. Still
more remarkable was the fact that the sexes
alternated the Oldest bird being male, the
next female, and so on.
ga
Experimenting with hot water, DIR. G. Barus
has so impregnated glass that it melts below 2000
G. Glass as a colloid mixes with water in all
proportions. and the solutions, when sufficiently
int ~lo 1ir,o
pearance and low melting point
The color of precious stones and other miner
ais is little understood. The staining material
rtT'soJtnu1tsJIrJ7,sdyS q herman
chemist, can be ascribed to nitrogen. The same
has been proven for smoky quartz, often erro-
neously called smoky topaz. The origin of the
amethyst's color is yet undetermined, but the
belief that it is due to compound of sulpho-
cyanide with iron has been shown to be wrong.
The color of many minerals is caused by chrome
This has been long known of certain varieties
Of garnet, spinel and diopside, and Is now found
true of such highly priced stones as the ruby,
the sapphire, the oriental amethyst. the green
zircon, and topaz of Brazil. The proof that
red. blue, yellow and green stones are colored
BY chrome has been in some cases synthetic
rather than analytic, yet fairly convincing. In
large NUMBER OF OCncr minerals, the c0l0rlng |
yet remains to be explained, or verified If it is
already suspected.
The following estimate of the number of re- |
,ognized species of animals was made three |
vears ago by DR.. David Sharp: Mammals, $500: |
eptiles and amphibians, 400; birds, 1880: |
ishes, 12000; tunicates. 900; moluscs. $4,000; |
$50; bryozoans, 1900; crustaceans,
00OO; spiders, 10000 myriapods, etc., 5000; in
ects, $4,000; echinoderms, 10000 worms, $3.50;
oelenterates, 1900; sponges, 1900; protoloans,
100. Total, $4,000. This estimate is already
bsolete, and DR.. L. Stejneger, of the Smith
oman Institute, places the total number of
pecies at 10000. as he finds the reptiles and
to number about $500, while DR.. |
Ashmead sees good reason for putting the
nown insects at 100000.
"a
Blasting with liquid air at Vienna has led to |
he conclusion that, to be effective, the liquid
hould be used within fifteen minutes after
reparation. As tried after ~ hours, when half
{ it had evaporated, it had no destructive effect
-.
German experience is reported to show de-
recitation of acetylene when kept for q time in
as holders, the lighting power being apprecia-
ly less at the end of twelve hours.