The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-04-12
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

Correspondence baltimore county Ons0D-
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
The Atom of Electricity-Lightning and
New Stars-A Chemical Revolution
Doubly Electrified Glass Rods-Educa-
ton of the Brain in Sections-Quickly-
Formed NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. Butter
flies.
The behavior of rarehed gases under electric
discharges led Sir William Crookes in 1879 to
bring forward the theory of radiant matter,
or matter in fourth or ultra gaseous state and
he believed he had touched the borderland
where matter and force seem to merge into one
another. At Royal Society meeting the other
present ''electrons'' of DIR. tombstone Stoney:
The electrOn is the separate unit or atom OF
electricity, still presumably the original atom
of the universe and the probable basis OF all
chemical atoms, and the latter theory makes
clear much that was mysterious before. A
chemical ion consists of material nucleus or
atom of matter, which forms much the larger
part, and few electrons OF atoms OF electricity.
Electrons liberated at the negative pole In
those Of fog or mist than those of a gas. and
the lighting up of parts of the Crookes tube Is
explained by the tendency of the atoms OF rare
visible by the rushing swarm OF electrons from
the negative pole. An electron Is calculated Dy
]. ]. Thomson to be about LOO as large as the
hydrogen atom. On the two-fuid theory, the
electrons constitute free negative electrlclty:
and the rest of the chemical atom is charged
W y
not known. Franklin's original one-fiuid theory
is simpler, the electron being the atom or unit.
Then so-called negatively charged cnem ih;sa
atom is one having surplus OF electrons, while
a positively charged atom is one with DELI
cheney of electrons.
The spectrum of lightning, which has been
photographed at Harvard University through
telescope provided with an objective prism, is
not always the same, but curiously resembles
the spectra of new stars, such as that in Perseus.
Many of the lines appear to be due to hydrogen.
suIphuric acid is one .. q the most important of
chemical substances, being the basis of most
chemical industries and used in enormous guam
titles. 1t has been obtained by leading the vapor
of burning sulphur or iron pyrites into large
lead chambers. oxidiZing it by air and nitrous
fumes aided by jets of steam, and concentrating
the resulting dilute acid in expensive platinum
stills. Many unsuccessful attempts have been
made to utilize the discovery, patented in Eng
land in 1881; that the catalytic action OF finely
or dioxide, to burn to trioxide, which with water
forms sulphuric acid. Within the last decade
German chemists at Lugwigshafen took up the
matter and made the strong acid direct by burn
ing the purified gases from the pyrites burners
in the presence of mixture containing plati-
mum, but the operation would cease unaccount-
ably after few days or even hours. The RENEE
dy has been discovered only after some years Of
patient research, the source of the trouble be-
ing found in the presence of arsenic as an i'm
purity. The process seems to have been made
practicable at last, and the product has the adj
vantages of requiring no concentrating plants
and of being free from arsenic.
A*h
The Identification of glass on rubbing is known
to vary with the different specimens of fur or
flannel used. An experimenter has lately no
ticed that smooth rod of soda glass is always
Certain piece of fur, while vigorous rubbing
gives negative charge, and the two kinds of
electrifcation may be produced in different
parts of the same rod and varied at will. An
other observer reports the same results with
seaing-wax rubbed with silk. attributing the
varying effects to differences of temperature.
The extremely sensitive test-paper of X. Die
trich is made by painting alcoholic solution of
shellac and fuorescein on black background.
The slightest trace OF alkali causes character
istic green fiuorescence, part of ammonia in
100000 being detected.
Some striking differences have been drawn
from the extraordinary case of word blindness
reported by DIR. ]. H. Wood. An Englishman,
fluent in French, Latin and Greek, suddenly be-
came totally blind to English, but retained I'M
impaired his ability to read Greek, and could
still understand French and Latin with lessened
clearness. This case with other results inclu-
ding those of ambidextrOus training in school,
suggest that memory is built up in Jumps. One
language, for example, is recorded in a part of
the brain isolated from the impressions of pre-
viously-learned languages, and it is possible
that brain lesion may obliterate any single
language. As many mental faculties have their
seat in the left side of the brain, it is asked
mother tongue, thus ensuring against the worst
form of word blindness by kind of extended
ambidexterity
In calcareous soil the carbonic acid carried
down by rain water acts upon some of the lime,
which then finds its way as bicarbOnate of lime
solution into cavities, where the added carbonic
acid and the water evaporate. The carbonate of
lime, in its original insoluble form. is thus de-
posted in crystalline rings that gradually en-
large into stalactites and stalagmites. M. Stan
slaus Meunier gives an account of remarkable
formation of stalactites in SO years. in disused
cellar that in 1868 was walled up after being
partly filled, and was opened in 1899. More than
800 perfect stalactites, with many fragments,
were found. The cellar had received the drain
age of a courtyard, and the presence of much
animal matter had fastened the growth of the
deposit
The butterflies of Central America and Mexico
number .SO5 Species according TO Goldman and
Savin. Only 645 species are known to occur in
North America north of Mexico.
With his electro magnetic gun Prof. Birke-
land. who has been experimenting at Christi
ania, expects to hurl 1000-pound projecties
much farther than they can be thrown by ex-
plosives
Crows Build Nest in Church Steeple.-
The Baltimore american says: Residents in
the vicinity of Christ Protestant Episcopal
Church, Chase and st. Paul streets, are watch
ing with interest an aerial building enterprise
that is under way on the very top of the tall
steeple of the church. Some young married
couples are up there, and have been for the
past few days-getting ready to go to house
keeping.
They are crows. Five have been seen at
one time wrangling over their work, but one
was probably a visitor, and the lofty home
L.. I..,stk e. Eat i