The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1904-07-23

A SEARCH LIGHT TELEPHoNE-EIKcrRrc BAK-
rNc-KEEP1No IN SOLAR N-RAYs-SUFrERERs
ToR ScIENcE-RADrozcTw1rv IN THERArzUr1cs
THE DEADLIEsT PoIsoN-RocKEr LIGHTNING
OZONE AcTrITy-INsEcT TEMPERATURES.
By the photophone of Prof A. Graham Bell
speech was transmitted for a few hundred
yards on a beam of light. The improved appa-
ratus of Ernst RUNNER, of Berlin, uses the
speaking arc as a transmitter instead of sill
vered diaphragm, the arc being in the focus of
a parabolic mirror; and the light is received
as in the older apparatus, by another parabolic
reflector having a seIenium cell at its focus,
the sounds being made audible by telephone
in circuit with this cell. Great sensitiveness is
claimed for the new cell as result Of cooling
the selenium gradually from about $50 degrees
c. The new apparatus can be used for trans
hitting speech to any distance up to ten miles,
and preserves secrecy while being much more
rapid than the ordinary photograph.
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bakers oven heated by electricity is a
novelty at Montauban, France. The heating
elements twenty-are placed at the
side of the interior, and heat is quickly applied
and cut off at once, with considerable saving
in time. No heat is lost up the chimney,
as the only opening IS the door through which
the bread is passed.
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The curious theory of NJ Boyn is that N.
rays keep marine animals in their native habi.
tat These rays enter salt water readily but
are completely stopped by fresh water, and they
have the remarkable property of increasing
visual power, other effects being probable.
To test the mosquito theory Of malaria, two
French physicians propose to be bitten by mos
quitOes fed on an ague patient, and to allow
any fever contracted to run its full course
without treatment.
Thorium, one of the chief elements in the
incandescent mantles of Welsbach gas-burners,
costs $500 a pound, and is the most readily
obtained of the radioactive elements, its radio
activity, however, being many thousand times
less than that of radium. The radioactivity
and carnations are antiseptc and prevent fer
mentation. In medicine for external application,
says DIR. S. G. Tracy, thorium may be made into
paste or rs per cent. ointment, and used
as antiseptic in chronic skin diseases, par.
ticularly those Of parasitic origin For tubercu-
losis the best means of application is the appa-
ratus of Hugo Lieber, thorium oxide being
heated over a sand bath and the emanations
inhaled through suitable mouthpiece The in
halations are continued for IS minutes gradually
increased to half an hour every day or every
other day, and the effect is to deposit in the
lungs fine film that produces induced radio
activity for one to two days after each inhala-
ton. The lung cells are thus kept constantly
in radioactive and antiseptic condition.
s"s
The place of prussic acid as the most deadly
poison known must now be given up to di.
methylarsine cyanide, better know as cyanide
of cacodyl, which was discovered by Bunsen
many years ago but whose properties are just
being brought to attention by Mr.. Lascelles
Scott, British chemist The new substance
is white powder, which melts at SO degrees
c., boils at r4o degrees, and in the air emits
a slight vapor. So powerful is the poison
that three grains diffused in room full of peo-
pie would kill all present, and one-millionth
part in the atmosphere of an air-tight cage
killed four dogs in succession, death being al
most instantaneous
The idea of ascending lightning is not new
although it is not generally accepted Insisting
upon the reality of the phenomenon as witnessed
by Prof. P. Bruhi and himself, Prof. w. H.
Everett states that the flashes seen were un-
branched, that they rose like rockets from
clouds into the clear sky and that their dura-
ton was longer than that of ordinary flashes.
"a
Striking analogies between radioactivity and
the behavior of ozone have been pointed out
by Prof Richarz and DR.. Schenck, Prussian
chemists. Freshly prepared ozone and ozone
that has been decomposed by deozonizers have
the power of causing condensation in a steam
jet. and impart conductivity to the air like the
salts emitting Becquerel radiation. Photograph
&c effects of ozone have been observed. 1t does
not act upon barium platinocyanide or zinc
oxide, but it causes hexagonal zinc blende to
aUEsses brightly syggsssSg 81 as ss iHas s
mum that has been in contact with ozone shows
induced radioactivity. 1t is suggested that the
slight coductivity of the atmosphere and certain
of the effects of radioactive substances may be
due to the formation and decomposition of
ozone.
The human body changes its temperature
very slightly under any conditions of heat or
cold but a Russian naturalist finds that the
body temperature of insects is practically that
of the atmosphere. It usually rises more slow
ly than the air, though more rapidly when the
air is very moist When the insect begins
to move, the temperature rises rapidly, and
may reach about So degrees c. (Ios.s degrees
F.) Below-os degrees c. insects remain mo-
tionless, and the wings are not moved until
the temperature reaches about IL degrees c.
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French statistics show that total of a38,zo3
horsepower from the falls of the Alps is now
used for generating electricity The electric
power serves the following: aluminium works,
zz,s36 horsepower, other metallurgical factories,
zo,4Ss; chIorate of potassium works. 5000;
calcium carbide works, Io4,466; sodium chlorate
works, 1880; transmission of power and light
ing, 1877; various industries, 1899.
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About 7so tons of ore have been used to
produce about fifth of an ounce of radium