The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-23
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY
HOW BOILER STEEL SHOULD BE
 TESTED.
Anthrax Antitoxin-A Slight Destroy inG Adulterant--Carbene
 trical Purigeatien of Flour
 A Factory of the Ages.

The tensile strength If steel at Various temperatures has been tested by c. Bach. who has found an increase up to 800 degrees c, and decrease at greater heat. One specimen, for ex ample, showed tensile strength of twenty-seven tons per square inch at ordinary temperature. 30.7 tons at 300 degrees and 1S.1 tons at $50 degrees. The effects of compression were less at 200 degrees than at ordinary tenn l perature or at 300 degrees or higher. Prolonged action of the load had no effect on the tensile strength at ordk nary temperature, but caused a slight decrease at 800 degrees, and a still greater decrease between 400 degrees and 500 degrees. It is made evident that steel for steam boilers, piping. etc, should be tested at higher as well as | ordinary temperature. T The loss of life from anthrax, or wool -sorters' disease, has been much reduced among sheep and cattle l through the work of Pasteur, but some cases still occur. and the disease is l transmitted to persons handling wool. I l The serum of Professor Sclavo. of Sien- na, Italy, Is the latest remedy, it's &C., ] ton being similar to that of diphthe- ria antitoxin. Tn 160 cases of anthrax
 reported from different parts of Europe. the serum has reduced the percentage of deaths to 6, as compared with 25 per cent of fatal cases fin Great Britain
 in the last five years.
 Wood alcohol is much more danger ous than was formerly supposed.
 recent laborious investigation through
 American physicians and health officers has traced 142 cases of blindness, and
 sixty-two deaths directly to this sub stance, either pure or in adulterated essences, extracts. and other prepara-
 tions. Even the vapor from liniment
 may cause partial or total loss of
 sight.
 A prize of 5000 francs has been of- fered for an e1ectric-current meter by
 the French society of Manufacturers A discovery that may open up . new
 use for poor coals has been made by Auguste Lemoines French chemist. Noticing that a small quantity of good coking coal failed to produce good coke on sudden heating. he inferred that something had been driven on, and after long investigation he has isolated the substance from the tars. It is a new compound of carbon, hydro gen and oxygen to which he has given the name 'carhene." It resembles bi- luminous carbon. is black, solid and friable, and shows tendency to crys- tallize. A fragment heated In test tube coats the interior with tenacious tIack varnish. This vanishing a It, tle in advance of actual disttllation sticks the particles of coal together. and when two per cent. of carbene was added to few ounces Of poor coal snIendid coke was produced in the cru cible.
 Tn the electrical treatment of flour hv fine lately patented process of J. N.
 Alison. the apparatus consists of two arc launps in parallel with coll made to yield an arc as muoh as IS inches Ion9. The arcs are enclosed by tubes, and the air within these is electrified. nroducfng a gaseous mixture contain ing nitrogen peroxide and traces of ozone. The gas Is drawn on into re- volving hexagonal drum. where it IS thoroughly incorporated with the hour. The treatment not only bleaehes and nurif,es the flour. but is claimed to add to its hutritive quality, chemical analysis showing eonsideraoie ln- crease of nitrogen.
 The oldest workshop in Europe. it Is believed. has been unearethed at Wlnz- nan switzerland. It is in the cave
 
 inhabited before the Neolithlc epoch and to have been constantly tenanted
 from 5000 to 1000 B. c. The remains include not only stone instruments ana pieces of decorated vases and oyster shells, but many bones or men, ruml-
 nants and wild animals.
 In study of cancer at Fontainoleau,
 where 75s out of 11.04S deaths were
 due to this disease. Foucault has shown that the cancer houses were aiways
 damp, badly ventilated and Hue ex' ] posed to the sun.
 | Although the problem of color pnoto- l graphy is still far from solved pro 1 gress is being occasionally made new German diseovery-that or pr
 Koenig-relates to printing from tri- color negatives, and depends upon the
 us eof paper coated with collodion so- lutions of colorless compounds of green
 ish blue. eherry-red and yellow ayes
 that develop the original colors on ex- posture to light. The set of three neg
 atives is first made under the usual light filters. The printing paper IS | first coated with the solution of the dye
 that Is changed by light to greenish-