The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1903-02-28
Correspondence Baltimore County linton
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

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Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
Silver for Automobile Batteries-An IN
worked Scientific Field-Fishes From
Volcanoes-The Electricity of Today-
Progress in Seeing Mars--Suspepded
Life-Co-operation in Evolution--The
Earth From Balloons.
Increased attention is being given to the chem
istry Of storage batteries. and Mr.. A. L. March
foresees that lead cells will be given consider
ably longer life and greater reliability. He
thinks that such cells will retain their place as
an auxiliary for electric light and power sta
tions, although other metals may supplant the
lead for automobiles. Edison's nickel cell
shUrld do what is claimed for 1t, and silver
would have great advantages for traction bat
teries If its cost should be sufficiently reduced.
The power of a lead automobile battery weigh
ing about $50 pounds can be had from a silver
battery requiring about 70 pounds or less Of sill
yer oxide. No extraordinary cheapening of
silver nitrate is necessary to make such a bat
terry economical, and 1t would offer long life.
high efficiency, and easy keeping in order.
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Screw propellers. it is pointed out, have not
followed the usual course of Improvement from
accumulated experience, and, while great num-
bers Of new blades have been brought out, there
has been no tendency to evolve an accurate
theory or scientific design. Such anomalies as
the variable running of duplicate propellers
are still unexplained. The lack Of progress iS
attributed to the reticence Of sea-going engi-
constructors.
ass
The vomiting of fishes from volcanoes is no
new experience, and 1t seems more startling
than mysterious. NJ. ]. Girardin explains that
in the interval between two eruptions- often a
century or more-the craters become filed with
tish-stocked lakes. and the next eruption blows
out the water and its contents.
s"s
French industry is the conversion Of old
shoes into paste which is transformed into
morocco-ike imitation leather. This is used
for wall papers, trunk coverings, etc.
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Recently addressing British engineers on
"Electrons," Sir Oliver Lodge traced the mod
ern theory to Clerk-Maxwell's prediction in 1873
that better acquaintance with electric dis
charges in rarefed gases would throw light on
the nature of electricity as well as on the ma
ture of gases and the medium filling space.
Since then the study of such discharges by Sir
VIM. Crookes, Prof j. ]. Thomson and others
has gradually developed the idea of the electric
atom. or electron. The electric atoms are solid
particles much smaller than atoms of matter.
and they are supposed to give electric currents
by rapid motion, and the phenomena called ra-
diation by the waves they emit when In vibra-
ton. There is reason to believe that even mat
ter itself may prove to be an electrical phe-
nomenon, with atoms made up of aggregations
of electrons. These electric atoms exist in
space, they produce the aurora borealis and
magnetic storms, and their rapid passage gives
incandescence to lamp filaments.
A+s
Comparing the maps of Mars, from that pub
lished by Beer and Nader in 1910 to that pub
lished by himself in 1901. Mr. Percival Lowell
finds three periods of development in what We
ord l;gft markings ware shown ia 1877 to 1872
"canals" in bright regions were seen, and in 1893
to 1902, the canals were detected also in the
dark regions. The maps.agreeing fundamental
ly, show gradual detection of detail in surface
markings.
Living organisms have resumed their func-
lions after enduring the cold of liquid air for
six months. 1t is suggested that the remarkable
experiment should be continued for years or a
generation, for our theories would be greatly
modified by an indefinite retaining of vitality.
and probability would be given Lord Kelvin's
speculation that life may have reached the earth
from space
The red deer of New Zealand are estimated to
number between 1000 and 5000 individuals, the
offspring of two stays and six kinds that were
turned out in 1858.
Individual struggle for existence is not the
leading factor of evolution, in Prince Krapot-
kin's view. His new work seeks to show that
mutual aid has played far more important
part, and points out that most animal species
live in societies. uniting in defence against all
unfavorable natural conditions. The most nu-
merous, prosperous and progressive animal
species are found to be those in which individual
struggle is most reduced and mutual aid most
developed. Human progress in arts and intelli-
geree mas depended on mutual aid, and the pc
RODS when this influence has been most active
have been those of advancement in science and
industry.
In his balloon experiments, Mr.. J. NJ. Bacon
has been able to see the sea- bottom under clear
water from height of 500 feet. all waves SEEM
ing to be blotted out, with no apparent scatter
ing of light from the surface. At 1000 feet or
higher, all water-whether deep or not-seemed
Opaque. Photographs taken during the ascent
on a clear day became gradually blurred until
at 1000 feet good pictures were made impossi-
BILE by the dust particles that reflected the sun
shine, the definition over water being better than
over land.
Leprosy is spread but little through personal
contagion, according to the researches OF Mr..
Jonathan Hutchinson, F. r. g., in South Africa.
It is food disease, the living bacillus entering
the body by way OF the stomach, and the chief
source of the germs is supposed to be badly
cured fish, insuficently cooked. The investiga-
ton is to be continued in Ceylon and India.
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Every animal Is said to have its own kind of
flea, sometimes several different kinds Many
thousand specimens of these fieas have been
gathered in the unique museum of Charles
Rothschild, kept by DR.. Jordan at Tring Park,
the giant of this strange collection being mole
flea fifth of an inch long
GEORGE S. sANDNER. JOHN r. MUMMA.