The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-03-29
Correspondence Baltimore County Dai0n.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

Telegraphy by Storms-Making Cold
A Smoke-Producing Shell-Seeds That
Need Fungus-Infection-U undiscovered
Planets-Siik Armor-Mind Mysteries
New Theory Of World-Heat-A Nerve
60Other.
The electrograph Of Prof. Lancetta is now at
work in several Italian obseryatories. 1t con-
sists of an elevated wire or anteanna. connected
to earth through coherer, which lie affected by
electric disturbances In the air and acts upon q
recording apparatus. A lightning flash, for ex-
ample, causes the coherer to ring bell and
make pencil mark upon revolving clock dial.
With an antenna forty feet high on an elevation
without surrounding obstacles. a thunder- storm
can be detected more than sixty miles away
and the apparatus is expected to do valuable
service in signaling the hail-storms so much
dreaded by italian vine-growers.
-
For producing low temperatures down to 60oC
below zero. NJ. d,Arsonval recommends chloride
of methryl evaporated in porous vase. To
reach 112' or 1l5o below zero, liquid carbouic
acid or acetylene may be used, and may be con-
veniently dissolved In acetone. Liquid air offers
the best means of obtaining greater cold. This
should be slowly dropped from a silvered glass
flask through rubber tube into quart vessel
of silvered glass with double walls, the vessel
being placed in a bath of gasoline. A little more
than an ounce of liquid air sufHces for giving
1919 below zero for an hour.
~
While smokeless powder has been expected to
give battle scenes in the future greatly chang
ed appearance. a new German shell Is intended
to reverse them. The powder charge of this
projectile contains anonymous phosphorus, and
when the shell bursts 1t emits thick white
smoke that shows the gunner, even at great
distance, how accurate has been his aim. The
smoke also tends to obstruct the enemy's view.
sss
Australian blue-gum timber has been chosen
by British engineers for harbor works because
it will sink If washed away, and win not en-
danger shipping.
A remarkable dependence of certain plants
upon others of different kind seems to have
been discovered by M. Noel Bernard, French
botanist. The orchids produce many seeds,
some of them millions to the single plant, yet
they are very rare plants. and it was long sup
posed to be impossible to grow them in any way
except by transplanting the bulbs. Success
with the seeds was at last reached by sowing
IL.
From his Investigation, NJ. Bernard concludes
that the seeds terminate only after they have
been penetrated by certain species of fungus,
and that infection of the soil, which would re-
suit from the roots of the older plants is neces-
sary for the cultivation of the young plants.
-.
Mysterious dark bodies have been seen occa-
sionally to cross the suns Disc An English as
frf,r hoo,o o11
of these transts the earliest being June 8, 1851,
and he finds that these dates indicate the exist
ence of two unknown planets within the earth's
orbit, with periods of about ia and 20 days re-
spectively. One of these bodies must be nearer
the sun than Mercury, with mean distance of
about 100000 miles. The other is calculated
to revolve between Mercury and Venus, at a
distance of about 81, 100000 miles, and should
have a diameter of 1,7O0 to 1000 miles. At its
most favorable position for observation, it would
appear as third magnitude star SOo from the
sun.
The protective vest of Jan Szczenpanik, the
Polish school master inventor. is most remark
able as product of the weaver's art. The fab
rio is undyed silk, about as thick as the material
of winter overc0at and it is claimed that the
extraordinary thread combination. gradually
worked out by weaving experiments, give the
elastic fibre the cohesion and resistance that
make it proof against dagger-thrusts and re-
volver bullets fired at short range. The silk
vest fully covering the breast, weighs about
three pounds.
horn piercing the skull * inches was found
on nearly paralyzed wild bullock lately shot
in Australia.
There are cases of thought transfer and like
effects that puzzle even scientific students. In
a recent lecture, Sir Thomas Lauder Brunton
pointed out that particular senses in some per-
sons are extremely sensitive. and showed that
slight impressions may sometimes transfer
thought, and that impressions made upon one
sense may affect another. Unsound senses also
may account for much. Visions have been
brought about by some defect in the eye, and
voices have been heard through some defect in
the ear, and it is possible that some defect in
the nerve going from the eye to the brain may
cause Authorizations. But there are other phe-
nomena, impossible to explain at present, that
Sir Thomas suggests may foreshadow the dis
covery of brain-waves similar to the waves in
Marconi's wireless telegraphy
~
Electricity. aided by chemical action, is looked
upon by n. I. Skvortzow as the chief molder of
the earth, instead of heat. The earth's heat,
which has increased in Importance as the earth
has taken more material form, is attributed to
electric currents, which circulate near the sur
face, the earth's interior being possibly as cold
as the greatest depths of the ocean. Changes
in the aspect of the earth, as well as meteoro-
logical phenomena, are supposed to be due to
electric currents induced by solar influence.
The temperatures of different planets depend
less on their distance from the sun than on their
reserve of energy and on the currents induced
by the sun through their axial and orbital mo-
lions.
Common SALT snuffed up the nose in doses of
four grains, has been reported by DIR. George
Leslie to have remarkable effects upon the
nerves of the face. In thirty or forty cases of
toothache. facial and other neuralgia, the pain
disappeared almost instantly, and only two
cases failed to yield to the treatment.
80
Sunfower pith proves to have aspecific CRAWL
ty of only O02s, while that of elder pith-hither-
to thought the lightest solids 0O9 and that of
cork is 0.24.
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