The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1904-02-13

w. I'I III III
Correspondence Baltimore County UnEon
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
Coming Synthetic Products-Lightning
in Warfare-H Harmless Match Material
The Appetite . Safe Guide-A Scien-
tiac Station for Arctic Regions-Acety.
lene Storage-An Extinct Plague.
Ethylogen. new carbide, has been the sub
ject Of curious and promising French expert
msnts When plunged into water, this carbide
gives on ethylene gas. and when this gas is
cnk igt0 DhH5lG apa . Il phSaEn6e REe
the raw material for many organic products.
Distilled with much water, this yields alcohol
with less water. ether. The addition Of oxygen
gives other products. such as acetic acid. ace
tone, and even other carburets. Alcohol and
ether really proceed from coke and water, as
all other materials required may be used re-
peatedly. The chief cost is for the carbon and
the electric energy for producing the carbide,
and this new development Of synthetic chemis-
try opens wide field Of possibilities in supply
ing light and power. Through similar pro-
cess, said to be nearly perfected, nitrogen from
the air Is being fixed IN fertilizers richer than the
nitrates Of Chill.
To destroy armies by lightning is thought by
Emile Guarini, French writer, to be posi-
bility. Receiving shock from wireless tele-
graph apparatus through an umbrella, he ex-
perimented with Ruhmkorn coil, and found
that shocks could be transmitted through the
cir with moderate currents. He concludes that
nr.r - 1onf .<It~
could be concentrated by antennae SO as to de-
stroy life at a distance Of twelve miles. The
present difficulty, which he believes will be
soon overcome, is that Of controlling and d.
rectIng the electric waves.
-
Portland cement from blast-furnaee Stag and
limestone. as made in Germany and Belgium, is
claimed to be not only cheaper than that from
the usual materials but more reliable in compo-
sition. Mortar Of part Stag cement to 3 of
sand had tensile strength Of 1888 pounds per
square inch in days. 55l in 20 days.
-
The new German material for matches is a
form Of red PHOSPHORUS, first prepared by DR..
schenck, and it differs from yellow phosphor-
GUS in giving of no fumes and In being there
fore quite harmless to operatives who dip
matches. It is produced by heating a solution
to about 1800C. It is precipitated out of the
solution. and after being filtered of is freed
from yellow PHOSPHORUS by washing with car
bon disulphide. While the igniting point of the
substance Is that OF ordinary red phosphorus,
tho new variety is in state of such fine divi-
sion that when mixed with potassium chlorate it
isreadily set on fire BY rubbing against any sur
face
-.
That taste is reliable guide to our food needs
is the theory Of P. T. Borissow. a Russian physi-
clan. Such curiosities of taste as the craving
for chalk coal, acids etc, result from real ne
cessIties. and children often eat earth, wall
plaster and the like at an age when the growth
Of the bones is most energetic and an extra
Slf0SE appdEte 81 chiidfe Tor sweets and fari-
naceous foods is explained by the requirement
Of carbohydrates during work and the produce
ton Of animal heat. To verify his theory. the
author experimental on chickens, and found
that roosters, which lay no eggs, have less crav-
ing for mineral substances than hens, and are
Indifferent to plaster, egg-shells and small
stones. The lime foods, moreover, are sought
by the hen periodically during her laying season.
-
Danish scientific institution in Greenland is
urged by DR.. George Brandes. of Copenhaven.
Its work would include study of Arctic vege-
table life and inland glaciers.as well as meteoro-
logical observations. and would extend also to
Investigation of the fisheries search for useful
ores. and utilization of the waterfalls for cleo
trical industries.
The safety of the acetylene storage method of
Messrs Claude and Hess, French engineers,
seems to have been fully demonstrated. The
process consists In dissolving acetylene in ace
tone, and in q review Of the results achieved,
Janet states that, with minimum pressure
OF about $50 pounds per square inch it is posi-
BILE to enclose 100 volumes of acetytene. The
steel cylinders are completely filled with porous
material. SO as to avoid all accumulations Of
compressed gas. When the outlet valve is
opened there is regular and continuous dis
charge Of acetylene, and cylinders have been
now in regular service for considerable time
with no accident whatever. The cylinders have
even passed intact through disastrous fires. no
explosion having occurred. The use of stored
acetylene for Thanksgiving is one of the most
important Of the many applications made in
France; and it is also of great value for the
acetylene-oxygen blowpipe, new portable
source Of the most intense heat.
80
A great plague visited Athens in l20 B. c., re-
naming three years, and carrying of a quarter
of the population. It is the first great epidemic
that has received medical attention, although
more than a score of earlier ones have been
enumerated. Even Of this no account has been
found from Hippocrates- who was living at the
time-but Thucydides left very complete de-
scription, showing the disease to have been
most terrible and loathsome. with high fever,
violent coughing and spasms, diarrhoa, and
Anal rotting Of the limbs. Attempts have been
made to identify the malady as bubonic plague.
typhus, or small pox. DR.. G. s. Cumston has
lately shown that it could not have been one Of
these diseases. and he concludes that it was an
eruptive fever Of kind now extinct
%ss
miles in circumference at the base and 600 feet
high. Large blocks of the stone are quarried,
and are first heated in great furnaces and then
in watts of boiling water. from which the alum
o1,rvofollf1ou