Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1900-12-28

Experiments have for some time
been made in England with smokeless
coal. This peculiar fuel may be burned
either in an ordinary crate or in a
basin in the middle of the room with
out developing any perceptible odor or
smoke at any time. The fire looks like
the finest coal fire, and the fame is
white and blue.
The velocity of propagation of elec-
tro-magnetic waves through space is
about that of light-1S6000 miles per
second. Telegraphic signals have a
greatly diminished speed, due to static
capacity and self-induction. A test be-
tween Washington and st. Louis
showed a rate of sixteen thousand
miles per second
M. Moissan the celebrated French
chemist, whose researches with the
electric furnaces have made his name
so well known in the scientific world,
believes that before long he will be
able to produce pure iron, which as yet
only exists in the brains of the elec-
ICO-Cu6DllSlS. Ills SuDSldlCS, WuCh OD-
tained by M. Moissan, will be found to
be as white as silver, flexible, and
strong, and will be magnificent ma
terial for bridge and other construc-
tion.
Professor Picket, of Geneva, has de-
vised plan by which oxygen can be
IN, oT,,o oroia1 and at
a cost that will greatly enhance its
use. By his method air is admitted into
a condenser the condenser being
cooled by liquid air. The low tenn
pcrature causes the oxygen to separate
by gravity from the nitrogen of the
air. 1t is then drawn off from the bot
tom of the codenser and the nitrogen
from the top, while the liquid carbonic
acid-made so by the low temperature
is drawn into tubes. AS 500 horse
power engine will make 100000 feet OF
oxygen day, it seems that the process
is not expensive. .HT
~.
N. Alvisi, in the Gazzetta Chemica
Italiana, describes new powder,
which he calls canned powder. 1t con-
sists of a mixture of sixty parts OF
perchlorate of ammonium, with twelve
parts of camel coal from Scotia. The
method of making the new powder is
very simple. The finely divided car
bon is intimately mixed with the per-
chlorate of ammonium in an apparatus
to which a gyratory movement can be
impaired. The mass obtained is slight
ly moistened with water containing a
small quantity of gum. 1t is then
compressed and granulated like Or
dinary blasting powder. Samples of
the powder kept for seven months have
shown no alteration. 1t is said to be
more powerful than dynamite.
~-
AS the utility of gargling in diseases
of the throat has been questioned by
several physicians Of prominence in
Europe, series of experiments were
recently made by DR.. Sanger, and are
described in Munich medical journal.
The therapeutic utility of gargling de-
pends on whether the fluid employed
reaches the mucous membrane of the
pharynx and the tonsils or not. To
determine this fact, the tonsils of
patient were painted with methylene
blue, and he then was told to gargle
with plain water. The water elected
from the mouth was found to be quite
colorless, and the tonsils still retained
their blue appearance. In other expert
ments, the velum, portion of the
tongue, and the tonsils were busted
with wheat -four, and a gargle given
the patient in which iodine was mixed
with glycerine 1t was found that the
velum and the tongue showed the blue
color Of the reaction on the starch, but
the flour on the tonsils was neither coll
ored nor washed away. DR.. Sanger be-
lieves that gargling is useless, and
when a local treatment is desired a
swab of cotton wool should be en-
ployed.