The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1903-04-11
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

Cannon Firing Pressure-r ris Oeno1o
-Light-Repelled Duet-Inaccuracies OF
Guns--Stars on the Moon--Weights
Sustained in Fig tan Economicai
Light-Arctic Animals.
Furnaces for metallurgical work and glass
making usually have smooth interior, put +.
Del Marmol, French engineer, maintained that
HOMECOMING the inside walls with cavities sets
up eddies that ensure the thorough mixing OF
the combustibe gases with the air supply,
greatly increasing the heat. An experimental
furnace had CRATE 3K by * feet. with stack
30 feet high. With the ordinary smooth inner
surfaces, charge of glass could not be melted
in less than to 10 hours; but on rebuilding the
furnace with rough walls. the cavities being
half brick in width and depti; and one brick
between centers, the time of melting was re-
duced to between 2K and hours. The furnace
walls soon reached brilliant white heat.
"a
At the power station of Vouvry, Switzerland.
twenty 500 horsepower turbines are to be sup
piled with water at the extraordinary head"
of 3,117 feet. The water is conducted from Lake
Tanay, pond Of Ill acres draining less than
three square miles at a height of AGA feet
above sea-level, and the lower part of the con-
Quits consists of two steel pipes about IL inches
in diameter. The pressure on these pipes Is es-
timated to reach 1O.667 pounds to the square
inch-scarcely less than that of powder explo-
sion in cannon
The freezing well'' of Raoul Pictet is a fur
lined steel cylinder about five feet deep. In
this is placed the sufferer from lung. stomach or
kidney disease. for five to fifteen minutes. and
liquefied mixture of sulphurous and carbonic
acids at 110o below zero, is circulated by special
1t~.1o
By eight applications of this treatment, which
gives no sensation of cold. Pctet claims to have
cured his own dyspepsia of fifteen years.
standing.
The corn from an acre-40 to 80 bushels-is es-
timated to have the fuel value of / to TX tons of
coal Burning the stalk would increase this
one-fourth or one-third.
80
The comets tail has been initiated by Prof. E.
f. Nichols and G.. +. Hull under conditions re-
sembling those of nature. A mixture of emery
powder and puff-ball spores was placed in an
hourglass-shaped vacuum tube, and the air was
withdrawn completely as possible, with pre-
cautions to get rid of mercury vapor. On pour
ing the powder from one part of the tube to the
other while illuminated by the concentrated
rays of an electric arc. the lighter portions of
Lne pOWuer were seen 10 De DlOWu out as bnOuBn
repealed by the light. The behavior of comets
tail was very accurately reproduced, and the eff
fects we're found to agree with the calculations
of the pressure of light made by these expert
mentors.
A study of the vibrations of gun-barrels has
been made by two German physicists. Several
military rifles of different caliber were used.
hafnO affhar held IN oorlr nn1pporfc or In fho
usual way, and the shadow of projecting wire
was photographed. with that of a vibrating
tuning fork, on moving film. An electric con-
tact recorded the exact instant at which the
projectile left the barrel. 1t was found that the
vibrations are elliptical, that with no caliber
larger than millimeters * inch) were the vi
brations delayed until the bullet had left the
muzzle, that right-handed breech caused a
slight deviation to the right and a left-handed
breech to the left. and that the bayonet altered
the phase of the vibration at the instant of the
bullets leaving the muzzle.
-.
From observations of OF OCCUPATIONS of stars
by the moon, G. W. Hough divides the phenome-
ma into four classes. In one curious class the
star appears to be projected upon the moons
disc for some seconds before its final disappear
ance, the cause seeming to be the passage of the
star behind depression on the edge of the disc.
In the occulation of a close double, the star was
seen again after its first disappearance, and
second disappearance was recorded seconds
after the first.
~.
The new automatic pistol of Lieut. Hino. of
the Japanese infantry. fires so cartridges min
ute, and has range of more than 1000 yards.
~.
The largest flying machine in nature is found
tyls of ancient days. whose body weight was
probably about 80 pounds, and whose extended
wings measured about 20 feet from tip to tip
The largest of existing flying creatures is the
albatross, which has weight of IS pounds and
spread of wing of Tx feet, though its wing
area is but square feet while it develops only
twentieth of a horsepower ; and such is this
birds power of progression by mysterious soar
ing that tagged individual has been known to
traverse at least $3.50 miles in IL days. Whether
the pterodactyl represents the extreme possible
limit of weight carrying by wings is one of our
interesting problems Langley's steel flying
machine had a supporting area of 81 square
feet, weight of 80 pounds developed ~ horse
power, and repeatedly flew from one-half to
three-fourths of mile.
-.
A vacuum tube of any length up to six feet,
in which mercury vapor is raised to high incan-
descence, constitutes the Cooper Hewitt electric
lamp. The light is curious and unusual, being
of vivid violet hue almost completely free
from red rays, and its weird effects unfit it for
domestic use, although it is claimed to have adj
vantages for many purposes. 1t is stated to re-
quire only seventh as much electric energy as
the ordinary glow lamp, while it has run con-
tinuously without renewal for 200 days of 10
hours each.
The known mammals of Greenland are stated
by Herluf Winge to number thirty. Of these,
sixteen are cetaceans and six are marine carni-
vores (seals.) On land there are two rodents
(the polar hare and the lemming two ungulstes
(the reindeer and the musk-ox,) and four car
nivores (the Arctic fox, the wolf, the polar bear
and the stoat or ermine)
80
Since 1896 the weight of storage batteries re-
quired to give two horsepower has been re-
duced from 81 to cwt., while the efficiency has
been increased from 70 to 90per cent. The cleo
trio motor has been reduced to one-fourth its
former weight.
"Reasonableness of Woman Suffrage"
This was the subject of an address delivered
by Rev. Peter Ainslee, pastor of the Church of
the Disciples, before meeting of the Woman's
Suffrage Club of Baltimore, few days ago.
He said in part:
II grant that woman suffrage is a radical
ISSUE all reforms necessarily are, but no cause
in the political world has more reason for recog-
milton than this. There is nothing to prevent
tnow but prejudice and all good things have
to fight for recognition. Up to less than fifty
years ago the higher education of women had
the prejudice of the world against it, the clas-
sizes would ruin her morals, philosophy would
ruin her religion and mathematic would ruin
her health, and in general college training
would take away her desire to be good wife
and mother, and so all colleges were closed
against her. The same thing is true in bust
ness When a New England merchant first
employed saleswoman. his store was boy
cotted and the curious peeped in through the
windows as though it were menagerie to see