The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-05-27

Plant Architecture Anti Rodent Mi |
crobes-The Greatest Water-Power-
Gas-Engine Improvement-Wood Alco-
hoI for Motors-An Ancient Family
Steam Saviug-UnnOticed Passing OF
Mammals-American Tin.
Principles Of construction that architects have
slowly worked out, Lord Avebury suggests,
were adopted by plants millions Of years ago.
Some plant stems are round, others are triangu-
lar, and SO on, and it seems possible to give
mechanical explanation of the differences.
Builders have adopted the girder as the most
economical method of resisting strain in one
direction. Plants seem to have built on like
plan. tree-trunks being round to resist strain
from all directions, while plants with opposite
leaves and strain In two directions have two
girders, giving quadrangular stem, and tri-
angular and pentagonal stems may be accounted
for as strengthening against like obvious strains
sss
The secret of the determination of rats and
mice is claimed by the Pasteur Institute In
their experiments to reduce the ravages OF
these pests over five square miles of French
fields, orchards and vineyards, several tons of
bread and oats were impregnated with certain
microbes that seem to be fatal to these animals
and harmless to others. and this paste was scat
tered over the ground. The effect has been as
tonishing. The rats and mice have been de-
stroyed in enormous numbers. and 1t Is estima-
ted that not more than five per cent. survived
the first application.
The great Victoria Falls on the Zambesi are
estimated by British engineers to represent 3D.
100000 horsepower, or five times the power OF
Niagara, with some diminution In the dry sea-
son. 1t is proposed to develop the power for
irrigating Rhodesia, operating the mines on the
Rand, etc. The spray, thrown 500 feet high and
scattered as flne rain. is expected to interfere
with high-tension electrical transmission.
81
new type of compound gas engines has
made suggestive record. The engine has two
high-pressure cylinders and single, low-pres-
sure cylinder between them, and the exhaust
from one high-pressure cylinder is expanded
at every forward stroke in the low-pressure
cylinder, the crank Of which is $50 pounds de-
grees behind the high-pressure cranks. An i'm
pulse is thus given every half revolution. The
high-pressure cylinders, working on the Otto
cycle, give one impulse at each revolution,
and when these were tested alone 12-horse-
power engine developed only $50 brake horse
power, while the result was ID horsepower when
the low pressure cylinder also was used. The
power is therefore increased 1872 per cent by
the use Of the low-pressure cylinder. without
any additional fuel consumption.
-
The calorifc values OF various fuels used in
internal combustion engines have been COM
pared by L. Levi. French engineer, with these
results in British thermal units per pound:
Methylated alcohol, 1O620; mixture of equal
parts of methylated alcohol and gasoline, II, 200;
crude American oil. 1850; refined American oil,
1880. With unmixed alcohol q little warming
of the carbureter before starting is necessary,
on account of the slow vaporization Of the spirit
below $50 F. The principal objection to the use
Of alcohol, however is its cost, which, to COM
pete with gasoline, should be about 20 cents
gallon, or half the present value in France. The
alcohol motor is rapidly gaining popularity in
Germany. where methylated alcohol can be had
for about IS cents.
The celebrated herd of white cattle that has
roamed Charley Park ,Statfordshire for 700 years
Is to be given a new home and it is hoped that
with care they will thrive and increase. The
herd Is supposed to have become reduced to
nine head. These and other wild cattle of Eng
lish parks were long regarded as direct descen-
dants of the wild aurock, but are now believed
to have come from domesticated albino breeds.
-
The economy of high pressure steam has been
demonstrated on French locomotives From ex-
periments on five types of engines during three
years, J. Modal has found that variations of speed
from rs to Omiles an hour have little effectupon
the steam consumption per horsepower hour
but that the consumption of q to % pounds per
horse power hour with boiler pressure of 200
to 213 pounds per square inch rises to rs to 26.5
pounds with pressure of 100 to l25 pounds.
IS
Two of the worlds interesting mammals have
lately become extinct without attracting atten-
ton. An English naturalist points out that the
great straightforward race of the Indian buffalo,
which was occasionally met with fifty or sixty
years ago, is no longer known. The other van
ished form is the wolf of the Falkland Islands, q
type Of considerable importance, which seems
to have been exterminated by strychnine about
thirty years ago.
Tin ore has been found In the Carolinas, the
Black Hills of South Dakota, Southern Califor-
mia and Alaska, with traces in Maine, New Hamp-
shire and elsewhere. Thus far, however, tin has
never been prohtably mined in the United
States. The work accomplished in recent
months at Niger Hill, South Dakota, seems to
give promise of good results, two ore bodies, of
$50 by so feet and 90 by feet respectively. prov
Ing 10 nave an Average falue VI co.'o per Ion'
~
Rheumatism seems to be practically unknown
in Japan. A French observer attributes this to
the sobriety of the people, their vegetarian diet
and their great use of water. They not only
drink large quantities of pure water, but take
two or three baths daily throughout the year.
~
Late experience in the British navy has sug-
Rested that loathsome disease may be spread by
tattooing, and those who must decorate in this
way are warned that the needles should be
sterilized.