The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1903-09-05

NEW EGYPTIAN FOSell-F0dL OOkO- hc
First Sight-Speaking Candles.
A recording thermometer described by an
English physicist consists essentially OF q nat
tened brass tube bent into a nearly complete
circle nearly eight inches across and filled with
creosote, one end of the tube being attached to
stand and the other to lever moving a pen
on a recording drum. A change of Farenheit
degree defects the pen about an inch, con-
tinuous record of changes being marked on the
paper covering the revolving drum. The Their
mometer is converted into regulator for CIV
ing uniform temperature for days and weeks by
substituting an electric contact for the pen, the
closing of the circuit being made to turn on
more current IL the heating is by electricity or
to regulate the gas supply if stove is used.
With such regulator the temperature of
room containing ruling engine was kept for
five days at coz. with no greater deviation than
| fifth of degree.
A curious failure of the gold used in British
coinage has been brought to notice by DIR. T. X.
Rose. This metal is an alloy of 91.6 per cent. of
gold and 8.3 per cent. of copper, and it Is made
so brittle as to be unfit for use by the presence
of minute traces of such impurities as tellur-
ium, lead, bismuth, etc., although considerably
larger quantities of the same elements, except
bismuth, do not affect the ducility of fine gold,
the effect of the impurities is counteracted by
adding copper oxide.
s*s
Seeds of the castor-oil plant are surprisingly
common in Egyptian tombs. Prof. Larit, a re-
cent French investigator, finds that some seeds
from Theoes must be at least 5000 years old and
from an ancient papyrus concludes that the oil
was used for much the same purposes as now.
The Kew Herbarium, begun fifty years ago, is
estimated to comprise considerably more than
100000 specimens attached to 1900 900 sheets.
s"s
In his important experiments upon the re-
sstance of road vehicles to traction, Prof. Hele-
Shaw measures the pull upon a single wheel
drawn behind a motor car. A castor frame six
feet long is arranged for receiving any wheel 10
be tested, with weights for giving any desired
load, and the pull exerted upon the wheel is
transmitted by system of levers to hydraulic
plunger, which through the compression of en-
closed water moves the pen of the recording
apparatus. This apparatus, carefully mounted
to avoid vibration includes drum carrying a
paper band 8K inches wide with pen near one
edge of the paper that registers the tractive eff
fort in pounds and pen upon the other half
that records the speed in miles through the
revolutions of the wheels of the car. The tests
thus far have shown that the pull is fairly pro-
portional to the load, but with pneumatic wheels
on a macadam road the increase with velocity
was slight while it was rapid with iron-shod
wheels running over paving stones.
&*4
OF the slugs, or lung breathing snais with
too small or internal shells or none at all, about
1000 species and 500 varieties have been de-
scribed. Most of these have been brought to-
gether by Walter E. Collinge, an English col
lector, who shows specimens ranging in size
from that of a grain of wheat to a length of
several inches, and in coloring from dull, re-
pulsive tints to the gorgeous hues of the butter
fly. All slugs lay eggs, the numbers varying
from ten to hundred or more and the sizes
from that of pin-point to that of sparrow's
egg. A beautiful and very rare South African
species is a vertible tiger among its kind, prey
ing savagely on other slugs and ON insects, and
several other species are carnivorous and
friends of gardeners.
The Arsinoitherium. the new fossil monster
of Egypt, had head nearly yard long, with
pair of small horns near the eyes and an enor-
nous double bony horn the nasal region.
Prof. E. Ray Lancaster, however, finds that it
differs. from the rhinoceros and was probably
descended from the early elephants.
81
For the polyglot technical dictionary of DR..
II. Jansen one and quarter million words have
been collected already, aid being given by Ger
man, French, English and American students.
-.
Peat from the bog contains IS per cent. of
water with only ID per cent. of combustible
matter. To condense the material into an eff
cient fuel has long taxed the ingenuity of i'm
ventors, and Consul General Mason of Berlin
reports that the process or G. SchIickeysen has
been worked since 1859, having been put in oper-
alton in Russia, Holland, Hungary, Switzerland
and Germany, with constant improvement in
details. The peat is ground, r-dried and kiln
dried until the water is reduced to Is to 1S per
cent. Pressing into briquettes with heat gives
increased value, and another improvement is
the addition of bituminous coal dust, anthracite
culm or sawdust to the peat pulp. more
modern and scientific process is that of Martin
Ziegler. The peat is converted into coke in
closed ovens, the waste gases furnishing heat
for both the coaking and the preparatory dry
ing, and the product is a hard, black, smokeless
fuel selling in Germany at an equivalent of $40
to $13 per ton. It is high-grade coal, especial
ly priced for various metallurgical purposes.
Peat coke is now made at Redkino, Russia, and
extensive factories are to be established in
Germany.
The sensation of seeing for the first time is
difficult to imagine. A man of thirty, blind
from birth, has been successfully operated on in
Glasgow, and on being told to look his ears d.
rected him to the source of the sound. when his
recollection of what he had felt upon himself
showed him that he must be looking upon a
mouth and face-those of the surgeon. The
first sight of yellow made him feel very sick,
but red gave him pleasure.
~
Electric arcs have been made by several
physicists to speak act as telephone receivers.
Two Russians made an ordinary flame speak by
leading wires from the secondary of an induo-
ton coil to Bunsen burners, paraffin lamps or
short candles, a microphone and battery being
placed in a shunt to the primary circuit of the
coil. On speaking to the microphone-even
from a hundred feet away, the flame repeated
the sound.