Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1904-04-01

Disease-Vibration CIassified-An
Overlooked Factor In Climate-An
Improved Fuel-The Airs Radio-Ac.
tivity Felt Foundations.
Calcium steel, a new material Of A.
Bonnet intended to take the place of
stone and ceramic products, is a mix
ture of sandy feldspar and hydraulic
lime. The mixture may be nodded by
pressing like brick and tiles and then
melted. or it may be first fused and
then poured into molds. 1t may be
colored by the addition of clay or
metallic oxides. 1t is adapted for
building purposes, statuary and pipes
may be worked with tools like metals
and enameled and decorated like
glass, and it has the special advantages
of lightness, resistance to oxidation
and acids. and of being a bad con-
ductor of heat and electricity.
A purely chemical publication of
water has given excellent results to l..
Allain of Marseilles. Iodine, which Is
powerful antiseptic, is added in the
proportion of 1 part to 100000 and in
most cases destroys all bacilli within
quarter of an hour. The free iodine
is then neutralized by sodium hyposul-
phite. The water is finally filtered
through charcoal. and is claimed to
come out limpid. colorless and taste
less.
Gums are a botanical puzzle. DR..
Greig Smith of Sydney, has now
shown that some of them are due to
bacteria, and he has isolated some of
these-like that Of "arabin," and made
them produce their gums in the lab
oratory. He suggests that all other
gums are bacterial products, and that
the worlds supply of gum might be
increased by judicious selection of
susceptible trees.
A new French work by C. V. Houl-
bert enumerates go species Of insects
injurious to books, and gives all known
methods of preventing their ravages.
Physicists recognize two kinds Of
rays-those explained as the emission
of infinitesimal particles. like the cath
ode rays and those explained as vi
brations. Rays of the latter kind have
been arranged by Prof. Braun in ta-
BILE, which shows the varying character
corresponding to different wave-lengths
and rates of vibration. Electrical
vibrations number from so per second,
with wave-length of 5000 kilometers,
this being the usual alternating cur
rent. to $4,000 million per second and
wave-length Of 60 centimeter, as
observed in tiny bit of platinum
wire. The longest known heat rays
show 12 billion vibrations per second,
with a wave-length of 0.024 millimeter.
Red light results from $50 billion vi
brations per second ut a wave-length
of 0.OO069; and white light. from 500
billion vibrations and a wave-length of
0.00039 mllimeter. The chemically ac
tive ultraviolet rays. and finally the
Roentgen rays. have still shorter wave
length and higher rate of vibration.
gap exists between the electrical
and the heat vibrations. and it is sup
posed that Blondlot's N-rays. with a
wave-length Of about 0.2 millimeter,
belong in this place. A millimeter, the
thousandth of meter and milionth
of Il kilometer, is about 0.04 of an
inch.
The electronscope Of Mr.. John Don
of Aberdeen, is a large glass cell in
which a gold-leaf electroScope is sus-
pended and through which air can be
drawn at the rate of about a fifth Of
cubic foot per hour. 1t gives a
means Of accurately measuring the
electrification of the air-that is. the
number of electrons present-at any
time. 1t has shown that leakage from
the charged electroscope may be as
rapid OH dry day as OH damp one,
that it is marked on days when peo-
pie feel depressed. and that a sea-
breeze changes the negative charge to
n positive one. Electrification seems
so important to health that we may
expect a new era in climate study.