The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1903-02-07
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MIS- CELLANY.
Status of Color Observation-Disclosures
Motors for Ocean Vessels-Electric
Fertilizing-Light-W Weight Storage Bat
teries-The New Shorthand-A Prob
lem of the Moon-A Novel Ray Screen
Automatic Car Signals-Mystery of
Mars.
Though some imperfect tinted prints have
been made under selected screens. true color
photography is yet to be realized. Some have
hoped for solution of the problem by the fad
ing out method, says Mr.. Sanger Shepherd, the
ord theory being that black mixture of fugi-
tive red, blue and yellow pigments should give
a direct positive in color, the light passing
through the red part of the transparency, for
instance, fading out the yellow and blue and
leaving the red, and so on. The serious difficult
ties are the lack of knowledge of the necessary
fugitive pigments and of means of fixing them
Some progress has been made by Herr Worel,
who has increased the sensitiveness of the
mixed black by adding certain ethereal oils, and
has thus been enabled to make camera picture
of colored flowers by an exposure of two hours
in strong light. Removal of the essential oil
gave partial fixation, which was increased by
using strong solution of copper sulphate.
-
The first large vapor motor applied to naviga-
tion is to be placed on the fishing boat of NJ.
Emile Attain, now being built at Boulogne.
The vessel, which is 80 feet long and is designed
to carry 800 tons, will be provided with 200
horse power motor, together with Sails and will
also have % horsepower motor for operating
nets. The motors will use either gasoline or
alcohol. of which the tanks will contain 5000
gallons.
Electricity is to be used in agriculture as
fertilizer as well as for mechanical power. The
novel battery just perfected by two Russians is
to be buried in the soil. which is thus magne-
tized, and yields increased and earlier crops, as
proven by tests with potatoes, beets, barley, etc.
~
physician of Colombia has found decoc-
ton of coffee husks to be effective in malaria
and other diseases where quinine had failed.
-
One of the best solutions thus far of the prob
lem of an accumulation for automobiles seems
to have been reached in the type of battery
known as the "Phenix." Instead of plates
cylinders are used for electrodes. and these con-
sist of cores of lead-antimony alloy, which are
surrounded by the active material of peroxide
of lead or spongy lead, the whole being contain
ed in special sheath of ebonite rings for the
negative electrode and of porous earthenware
tube for the positive. The active material is
kept in contact with the supporting lead rods
without risk of shaking out. The cylinders are
set up in the usual hard rubber Jars, and the
complete battery is one of the lightest yet pro-
duced, with an exceptionally large capacity,
perfect solidity, and almost unlimited life. The
sulphuric acid in the jars penetrates the porous
sheaths without acting upon them.
-
StenOQranhic " writing has ean disc nnoinf-
ing, but the new "Stenodactyl" of NJ. Lafaurie,
a French inventor, is claimed to promise very
.usefui-if not srevolutionary-results. 1t has
ZEN ke55y one for each finger, printing on roll
of paper tape. With these keys are rapidly
made single characters and combinations repre-
senting all ordinary vocal sounds, without re-
gard to spelling, and an operator who can write
20 words from dictation on an ordinary type
writer, can write 200 on this machine. The work
is easily read after few hours practice. while
an hours study day for four weeks has given
writing speed of $50 words minute.
s%s
Astronomers and amateur observers are still
speculating on the Ight-streaks that radate
strikingly from some of the lunar craters. 1t
was long ago thought that these streaks-one of
which has been traced from Tyeho to a distance
of LOO miles-represent gigantic trap-dykes,
but Prof. W. A. Pickering has more recently
suggested that may be pumice driven out by gas
or steam from the volcanoes.
-
More than 200 different types of cells are de-
scribed by an English electrician, Mr.. S. r. Bot
tone, in a new work on galvanic batteries.
-
An optical screen used in Tyndall's expert
ments was transparent only to the heat rays of
the spectrum, cutting out the ultraviolet as
well as all visible rays. For third of a centu-
ry, physicists have been seeking similar screen
that would pass only ultraviolet rays, cutting
off all others. This dscovery-stated to be of
great scientific value-has been made at last by
Prof. r. w. Wood, who has been aware for
some time that nitroso -dimethyl-aniline would
exclude all rays except the ultraviolet and
some red and violet, bat has only succeeded in
obtaining the desired effect by combining this
substance with cobalt glass; A remarkable pc
culiarity of the chemical named is that it gives
spectrum thirty times as broad as that yielded
by ordinary quartz.
An electric lantern is being adopted for auto
matte signals at street railway crossings in
Leipsic 1t consists of two boxes, one above the
other, each having two sides fitted with red glass
and two with green. Cars on one line cause the
incandescent lamps of the upper box to glow,
those of the other line affect the lower box
The arrangement of the colored glass causes
green signal to indicate a clear track on one
road, while a red signal gives warning on the
other road to stop. The lamps being shielded
from the sum- the signals are visible in the day
time.
Doubters still insist that the so-called canals
of Mars are an optical illusion. late expert
menter MIR. B. w. Lane, made drawing of the
chief markings on the planet, emitting the
canals, and when these drawings were copied by
two ladies and two boys from distance of ten
feet or so, all copies showed canals in the posi-
tons given by ScniapareIi.
~
curative effect of vaccination upon whoop-
ing cough, first noticed by some italian physi-
clans, has been confirmed by the extended OBJ
servations of DIR. Dietric in Algeria. degree
of immunity, moreover, was conferred against
the disease.
micPhotographs of Harper's Ferry
The January number, Book of the Royal
Blue" published by the Passenger Department
of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, gives an in
teresting article on the recent advances made in
panoramic photography, illustrating same with
half-tone reproductions of the most remarkable
photographs ever taken of Harper's Ferry. Each
of the original photographs, taken from opposite
points of view, represent S0degrees of the hori-
zon showing for the first time the magnificent
distances in the scenery at this historic point.
One of the photos is taken at an altitude of $50
feet on Maryland Heights, looking down upon
the village. 1t not only takes in the whole viii
LACE but includes the Potomac and Shenandoah
-ivars the Chesaneake and Ohio Canal and nor