The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1903-08-15


piration-A New Silk-Life in Dead
acknowledgements Rubber-The Al
buminoid of Maize-Work With Great
Heat-Falkland's Living Stones-Boil-
ing Metals in a Vacuum.
In the ore-finder of Daft and Williams high
tension electric current is sent through the
earth between iron spikes about 1O0yards apart.
Waves are radiated in all directions, and IN
sensitive telephone produce sounds that are
modified when any metallic conductor is pres
cnt in the ground. 1t is claimed that the re-
ceiving telephones can pick up the waves four
or five miles away from the electric apparatus,
or even, with sufficiently powerful generators,
fifteen or sixteen miles away. Not only can the
ore be thus located and its richest parts be
picked out, but the sounds distinguish between
iron pyrites and zinc blende, galena and zinc
blende, or between ores Of copper and lead.
The indications of tin are uncertain, while
small amount of gold in iron pyrites is not easy
to detect. A new set of instruments for Aus
tralia is expected to indicate metals to depth
of LOGO feet, and to show the depth of the ore
within ~ per cent.
Ireland's boys are better than gold mines and
should transform the country, in the roseate
view of Sir Richard Sankey. He estimates that
these boys contain the equivalent of 5OOO,OOO,OOO
tons of coal, and he would create power for
varied industries by converting the fuel into
electricity on the spot, an electric main of l5O
miles suficing to reach any part of Ireland from
the boys of Mayo. In America electric current
is readily transmitted 200 miles with loss of
only 20 per cent.
The attention of g French society has been
called to the case of a woman whose respira-
NAL fifteen per minute to an average of four or
five, the number being three before breakfast
and rising to seven under varying influences.
A dog whose pneumo-gastric nerves had been
cut showed exactly similar slow breathing.
-
Sawdust is very destructive to fishes in aquar-
ium experiments, but seems to prove much less
so in rivers.
The nests of caterpillar of undetermined
species, living in a single forest of Madagascar.
offer a possible new source of fine silk. NJ.
Thery, of the Madagascar forest department.,
states that these nests, which are attached to
trees, are of dazzling whiteness, and are about
16 inches long, consisting of Subdivisions, very
flexible and very tenacious-much resembling
that of the common silkworm. From 100 to $50
caterpillars live in each nest going out at night
for food. The caterpillars are very prolific, and
it is probable that they can be successfully in
troduced into other forests. Experiments are
being made to determine the value of the silk.
az
1t is becoming understood that death is often
If not always-a gradual process, cells and It's
sues remaining active for hours or even days
after the organism as whole is dead. Prof.
Herring points out that this is especially notice
able in some lower animals. The action of Gill
ated cells from the gills of clam or the trachea
of dead frog may be observed for long time
under the microscope, and when supplied with
nutriment solution cells from frogs brain
have even been kept alive more than a week.
Hearts of animals often move long after re-
moval from the body. The heart of frog will
beat for hours, and that of turtle or snake
sometimes for week.
-.
Rubber that grows underground is an inter
esting new product of the French Congo. 1t is
obtained just beneath the bark of several plants,
the best samples being from the root-bark of
the Lanciolphia Tholloni and it is of the finest
quality. When the bark is broken, the two
pieces are held together by the rubber lining.
which is of great elasticity.
-
new albuminoid substance, which has been
named ''maisine," has been obtained by E. DON
ard and H. Labbie from maize, of which it forms
to As per cent. 1t is an extremely light and
fine white powder, and resembles wheat gluten
in appearance, but differs from it in chemical
properties It is insoluble in hot and cold water
and saline solutions, but dissolves in alcohols,
acetone and alkalies.
mr. hof haa hao nod
in recent years in manipulating substances at
paper by DR.. F. Kraft. Glass vessels soften and
melt at comparatively low heat but in the now
quartz tubes metals may be boiled and evapora-
ted at temperatures up to 1900 G. and with care
up to 1,400o, even in high vacuum, and the
tubes-even when containing metal at 1900
may be safely removed from the furnace, cooled,
and afterward replaced without fear of break
ing. Using an electric furnace, it is possible to
regulate the temperature within 20 or 80 be-
tween lSo and 1,40O0 c., while the joints between
the tubes and an air-pump may be made tight
with wax without risk that it will melt al
though within few inches of the greatest heat
-
The most singular forest growth in the world
is encountered in the Falkland Islands, dismal
region constantly swept by strong polar wind.
What appear to be weather-worn and moss
covered boulders are scattered about, and when
one of these curious objects is seized in an at
tempt to overturn it strong roots are found to
hold it down, these "boulders" being, in fact,
native trees, which the wind has forced to as
sumo this shape. The wood appears to be a
twisted mass of fibers, almost impossible to cut
up into fuel.
s*s
In the experiments made in Germany with
metals heated in vacuum, cadmium boiled at
400 c., zinc at 5450, and bsmuth below 1,OOOe.
Lead distilled rapidly at 1882; anthony at
1902. Silver evaporated quite rapidly at 1900 /;
but did not boil at 1,3400; copper evaporated
at 1850; but gold gave only very slight evap-
grafton at 1852, the highest temperature
reached.
-.
A mixture of the essential oils of thyme, eu
calyptus, baptisia, willow and mint has been
named "Listerine," and Partisan psychologists
have found it much more powerful as a germi
eide than any one of the oils singly. 1t is quite
harmless, carboic acid being LAG times as poison