The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1904-05-07
Correspondence Baltimore County linton.
soTENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

The New Physics-Water In the Ground
A Perpetual Electric Generator Speak
ing Moving Pictures-A Radium Inoica-
tor-Intensity Of Sunlight-The Brain
Under Electricity-Where the Air Is
hydrogen.
Condensed into few words, these are the
Modern Views of Matter" as expounded by Sir
Oliver Lodge: Electricity is substance, the
only kind of substance. and all matter is mere
ly an accumulation OF electric charges It ap-
pears probable that these electric charges are
all Of exactly the same amount, although some
are positive and some negative; and that the
atoms Of the chemical elements are formed by
varying numbers and arrangements of these
charges. or electrons. There are about 700 cleo
trons $50 positive and $50 negative, in the hydro
gen atom, which has been 90 long regarded as
the final and indivisible unit of matter, there
must be about sixteen times as many in an oxy-
gen atom; and about e55 times as many, say 1oO,-
900, in a radium atom, the heaviest known.
&c
The land surface of the globe covers 100000
squares, and the water surface IA, 100000. TAX
ing the average pore space of the surface rocks
occupied by.moisture of 10 per cent. s. Slchter,
Of the q. s. Geological Survey, estimates the
amount of ground water-which reaches depth
Of six miles-at $4,000 million million cubic
yards. This is thought to be about one-third
the amount of oceanic water, and would cover
the globe to depth Of 5000 or $500 feet.
-
Radium constantly generates heat, and Wien
has now shown that it may constantly generate
electricity. It gives OF both positive and mega
tive electrons, and the former-several hundred
times as large as the latter-may be held back
by a sieve of glass or any other of variety Of
substances.
(alton afE7rrna that barsdfty sa ono half derived
from parents, one-fourth from grandparents,
one-eighth from great grandparents.
-
An apparently simple idea upon which re-
cent inventors have toiled is that of moving
pictures that can speak. The words and other
sounds are easily recorded by the monograph
and moving objects are pictured by the cine
matograph, but it has seemed well-nigh inn
possible to make the two kinds of apparatus
perform their work In exactly the same time.
It is claimed that the difficulty is at last over
come by the s'chromophone" of Gaumont and
Decaux, two French inventors. The cinemato-
graph needs considerable power while the pho
nograph requires uniform speed, but perfect
synchronism has been secured by operating the
moving-picture machine by motor receiving
electric current through the photograph shaft
and automatically regulated by the turns of the
latter. Edison's early dream of mechanical re-
productions of operas and plays seems destined
to be realized.
-
Suggestive at least are the conclusions Of Hon.
r. ]. Strut. of Bath, Eng. Helium-which Sir
William Ramsay has found to be slowly given
OF by radium-exists in the gases of the city's
largest hot mineral spring, and a test of the de-
posit in the spring has revealed small proper
ton of radiuin. 1t is believed that these sub
stances are brought up from a large deposit Of
radium deep in the earth.
-
BY an ingenious Arrangement, Oh. Fabry has
diminished the suns light by passage through a
slit and then through an ammoniacal solution
of copper sulphate, and has compared it with a
light of known candle-power. He concludes
that, with the sun at zenith, the solar light at
sea-level is more than 100000 times that of a
standard candle at distance of one meter. The
intensity of light at the SUMS surface is about
ten times as great for the same area as that in
the electric arc.
Paper car-wheels, made by pressure from rye
straw paper, are usually in condition for a
second set of steel tires after the first set is
worn out by a run of 100000 miles.
81
Brain substance, Won Ziemssen has shown, is
the best conductor of electricity in the body
about 5000 times more conducting than muscle.
Investigating the action of the currents. s. Lee
due concludes that electricity is avoided in the
treatment of brain disease on account of an ex-
aggerated notion of the dangers, but that when
properly applied, from back TO front, the cur
rents are not only harmless but beneficial.
When a contiguous current is passed from ear
to ear the effect is different, giddiness being
All OBJECTS. Sleep may be pr0uuced, and Tor
this the best arrangement is a current of mil
liamperes at 30 volts, interrupted 100 times per
second for nine-tenths of the period of inter
ruption. Speech disappears first, then the mo-
tor faculties. Respiration and pulse are unaf-
fected, but may be temporarily or finally stop
ped by more powerful current. Awakening is
instantaneous, the after affect being one of re-
freshment.
The atmosphere near sea-level is found by
Prof. Hahn to have this composition: Nitrogen,
rs per cent. oxygen, 81 argon, 90; carbonic
acid, O.03; hydrogen, Dol; the three other ele-
ments, from 0001 to 0OO01. At six miles, the
average temperature being zero F., the gases
have these percentages: Nitrogen, 81; oxygen,
IS argon. 0.45; carbonic acid, 0.O15; hydrogen,
O.O85. At SO miles, where the air is nearly 1900
times as light as at sea level and the probable
temperature is 1l00 below zero, the proportions
are altogether different, beingi: Nitrogen, OIL;
oxygen, O; helium, o.; hydrogen, 90.
aFA
Milk is ozonized by a German apparatus by
being poured in thin stream from one vessel
to another, an electric current being arranged
to give constant sparkling through the stream
or near it. 1t is claimed that sufficient ozone is
produced to destroy all germs in the milk.