The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1900-07-20
SCIENTIFIC 1!|, ,,,,,,,r
A Lively Moon-Ohio's Plants
Growth Under Seal.
AN UNRELIABLE COAL TEST.
A Promising Beverage-A New Material
For Electric Heating-A Cold weather
Liquid-A Luminous
Cral.

Liquid-A Luminous
The two tiny moons of Mars-neither |
more than 10 or 15 miles In diameter
give our neighbor planet celestial dis
plays, not elsewhere known in the solar
system. These satellites travel about
the planet from west to east, but Pho
bos, the nearer, makes a complete rev.
olution in Z hours, 80 minutes, outstrip-
ping the planet in its rotation in "a
hours, 36 minutes, and thus accomplish
ing the unique feat Of rising in the west
and setting in the west The slower,
Deimos, with a rotation period Of 20
hours, Is minutes, rises in the east, like
other well regulated satellites. Phobos
is only $3.50 miles from the surface Of
Mars and the two moons, moving in op-
posite directions. should appear Of large
size, while if-like our moon-they
turn always the same side to the planet,
the latter would seem to them a vast
immovable disc-1 900 times larger from
Phobos than our moon is to us. If both
moons are in the plane of the planets
equator, Deimos must be occulted by
Phobos about every ten hours, while
transits of the sun occur every few
hours, both satellites frequently cross
ing the solar disc together. AS Phobos
Neturns to the same meridian in il
hours minutes, while the night is IL
hours IS minutes long, 1t may be twice
full or new at any place on the same
night, passing through all the phases
for which our moon requires 29h days.
The present flora of Ohio is found
by Prof and Mrs. Kellerman, to include
1900 Towering plants, of which 430, or
a little more than 21 per cent, are intro
duced species. OF these foreigners 325
came from Europe, 80 from Asia, 2
from Africa, SO from southern and wes-
tern United States, 81 from Central and
South America, and 8 from unknown
sources. There are 40 weeds among the
imported plants and 40 among the ma
tives.
A Belgian method of preserving wood
from decay consists of exhausting the
air from it's pores and filling them with
a melted mixture of two parts of gutta
percha and one part of paraffin.
The growth of plants in air-tight
spaces, even in Theoretically sealed
TASKS, has been a puzzling problem.
A cactus (Echinopsis multiplex) has
been shown by Ludwig Rust, a German
pharmacist, that had been growing in
a sealed flask for seven years, and this
has been presented the Berlin Botanical
Garden in a thriving condition. 1t was
at first explained that the plants deriv-
ed carbonic acid from the algae that
at times appeared on the sides of the
flask. This explanation becoming in
Sufficient, 1t has been decided that the
necessary oxygen must be furnished
by the enclosed air and that the car
bonic acid required in excess in time, Is
supplied by putrefaction in the soil in
quantity sufficient to sustain the life
of the plant.To determine the source of
the necessary water has been most diff
ficult, the final conclusion being that
1t is furnished by the decay of cellu-
lose and animal matter in the soil.
Various causes have been assigned for
the ice found in many caves. A new
work by E. S. Balch shows that the
"ice caves" or freezing caverns, are
found only in regions where the winter
temperature is below freezing, and
that winter cold is sufficient to account
for all the observed phenomena. The
thermometer shows that the tempera,
ture Of the caverns Is relatively con-
slant throughout the year. They are
not colder in summer than in winter, a,
is generally believed, this notion being
doubtless due to the fact that the in
side air Is colder than that outside IL
summer and warmer than the QUITE
air in winter.
Medical experts have recentl,
convinced Vienna jury that railwa!
accident caused change of the heaI
Of the plaintiff from the normal posi-
tion to one lower down in the body
where it could be felt beating as usual
1t was testified that the man nigh
live several years, but that he woul
De especially liable to heart failure an
would find difficulty in doing his work
German experiments have prove
that the quality of coal cannot be ac
curately determined by Roentgen rays
as suggested. Goals having the sam
amount of ash gave very different I'M
ages, the variations depending upon tn
proportions of iron instead of the quan
tity Of non-combustible matter.
Attempts to produce an oxygen wa
ter have proven unsuccessful accordin
to DR.. Wender, because oxygen alor
does not impart an agreeable taste. u.
ing both oxygen and carbonic acid,
Berlin establishment has now produce
compound water that not only has
pleasant acid taste, but is given hig
therapeutic value by the oxygen. 1t
prepared by impregnating the wat'
first with carbonic acid at atmo
pheres, then with oxygen up to s a
mospheres, and drawing off at atmo
pheres. The product is clear and r.
freshing. The cost of oxygenating
but fraction Of a cent per 100 bottle
= and the oxygen is obtained in a con
pressed state in steel bottles. like ca
bonic acid.
A crab lately dredged from As fatl
n,,,c In, tho India n onaan and cinca v,Ia