The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1903-09-12
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

correspondence OOtttHtOTc LOuHey CNtOfts
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
What Is Itp-The Nernst Filament Prob
lem-High Notwithstanding Tor
Coming Generation-A Strange GLASS
Industry-Star OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
Further ELECTRICITY for Infamed Eyes
Metal lnfection-Sun-Spot influence.
A curious phenomenon, supposed to be due TO
some new force, is perplexing Herr Gruhn, a
German physicist. When non-magnetic rods
suspended by thin thread in glass jar, and
shielded from luminous and heat rays, the thread
has no twisting tension, but the rod takes GER
tain position, and when the thread is twisted 1t
follows only part way, stopping perhaps at Gu
degrees if the turn is 90 degrees and at l2O de-
grees if the twist is continued to $50 degrees.
Tho direction and intensity of the force seem to
have a daily period or to be subject to irregular
perturbations. This directive force,'' as the
discoverer calls it, affects different substances
unequally, and on body heavier at one end it
acts like wind on weather vane.
-
The alament of the Nernst lamp is composed
of mixture of metallic oxides, which might be
expected to become quickly reduced in strong
heat, yet the passage of very high continuous
currents for hundreds of hours seems to cause
no deterioration. An investigation by DR.. E.
Bose explains numerous peculiarities of these
flaments. He finds that the metal is reduced
at the cathode but is constantly being oxidized
at the anode, the process being aided by the sur
rounding air, and in vacuum the filament soon
becomes metal and the light is extinguished.
-
The monsoon, so important in India, is to be
observed by kites and kite balloons from special
stations. The first of these stations will be at
Simla in the Himalayas, 1000 feet above sea-
level.
Arsenic in appreciable amount has been found
by Gabriel Bertrand in all parts of the hens
egg. This confirms the new belief that arsenic
- a. IAVAls Oviis anu prouuUIy serves special
function.
Accounts of the sprouting of seeds after hav-
ing been buried many years or even centuries
are usually open to doubt, out DIR. Beal has
shown by reliable tests that IL out of 81 species
had the power of terminating after twenty
years. To settle the interesting question of ex-
treme vitality is the purpose of the experiments
begun by the U. S. Department of Agriculture.
Seeds of 100 Species including common garden
and field plants, as well as many grasses and
weeds, have been carefully placed in dry clay
soil in pots, and buried, complete sets being
inches, and IL sets to 3K feet. A set from each
depth is to be tested at the end of one, two,
three five, seven, ten, fifteen and twenty years,
and from deeper lots at the end of twenty-five,
thirty, forty and fifty years.
Sc
The tools used by natives of Northwest Aus
tralia in making spear-heads from glass have
been interesting British anthropologists. These
tools include piece of the leg bone of sheep
and water-worn pebble of natural shape the
pebble being used for the first rough chipping
of the glass and the bone for the finishing.
Much skill seems to be acquired in the use of
these crude appliances, the products being very
creditable.
Some years ago Weir worked out a rule for
calculating the absolute temperature of heat
ed body from the wave length of its most ener-
getic radiations. From this rule, which gives
very probable results, the suns temperature is
found to range from 4,s50o to 5,45OoF.; that of
Sirius, from 5000 to 6,4OO0; Arcturus, 2,45O0 to
28500, and the electric light, 3,15O0 to $500
White and blue stars are much hotter than red
and yellow
Recent work with rejecting telescopes indi-
Gates that in good atmosphere the photographs
taken by the projected eight-foot reflector of
the Lick Observatory should show us a universe
300 times as great as that revealed by our best
refractors.
The effects of electricity in eye disease APP
pears to be little understood After prolonged
experiments partly successful, DIR. Won Reuss
has found the treatment to have great advan-
tages in cases of Inflammation, and he recon-
mends its use first of all in irits, corneitis and
chloroiditis. Pain usually disappears almost in
stantly. To avoid alarming the patient, the
physician touches one hand to the diseased eye
while the other hand holds one electrode and
the patient the other, and nothing Is felt except
D pricilin in the hand crashing the .eleetrode,
through conpfess tfad over the bryan, III Il de-
sired, the patient himself being able to regulate
the strength of the current.
"a
Unaccountable deterioration and changes are
leading German metallurgists to a belief in the
theory of disease and infection in metals. In
vestigating the injury to copper from over
heating, Prof. Heyn has concluded that the
metal is poisoned with copper protoxide, which
produces sickness and structural weakening.
When steel is poisoned by hydrogen, it is sick
ened and made as brittle as when ruined in tenn
pering. Prof. Bredig has found a tin pest in
roof at Rothenburg, and has shown that when
the white powder of the disintegrating metal
was placed on sound tin the latter became in
fected and itself soon crumbled.
-.
1t is only in tropical stations, according to
Charles Nordmann, that any effect of the sun
spot period upon mean annual temperature can
be detected. From the records of twelve such
stations it appears that the annual temperature
varies with the sun-spots and that the coolest
years are those of maximum sun-spots.
"a
The new Swedish process of "Buddeizing'' as
means of steriizing milk is stated to depend
upon the discovery that the engines of the
milk, at temperatures of 4S0 to $50 c., have the
power of decomposing hydrogen dioxide into
water and oxygen, when the latter destroys all
germs.