The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-05-20
Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

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The Telescope Microscope -Automatic
Meteorology Novel Air Soundings-
Magnetic Streams from the Sun-Mod-
ern Botanical GardeDs-Another Cold
Spot-Body Heat OF Plants-A Promis-
Ing Alloy-Another Filament.
The bioscope of De Gasparis, which constitu-
ted late striking exhibit in Naples, is micro
scope Of very long focus, the rack-mounted tube
containing system of achromatfc detectives
and an eye-piece of wide field. The magnifying
power is somewhat more than IL diameters at a
distance of 20 inches. The new instrument gives
revelations that are marvellous, as it shows the
actions and emotions of such creatures as ants.
spiders and flies in their ordinary undisturbed
life. gives wonderfully clear views of the doings
Of aquatic animals. and enables the medical man
to peer into the larynx and other body cavities
as never before. 1t opens new era in the study
Of nature.
Lapland has weather service of automatic
apparatus. at two stations in the Lapland Alps
-one at $500 feet on eahkok mountain and one
at 6.0O0 feet on the Portitjokko-have been in
stalled the registering apparatus devised by
Prof. Axel Hamberg of Stockholm, and records,
including falls Of snow and rain and the direc-
ton and velocity of the wind, are kept with no
human Intervention except at long intervals.
It is necessary to wind the ciockwork and re-
place the paper registering cylinders only once
q year. Difficulties due to frost and moisture
have been largely overcome, and the mechanical
observers have done their work two years with
little interruption.
The rubber meteorological balloons used at
Pavia, Italy, are usually sent up in pairs and
rapidly rise to 10000 meters or more, where 60
degrees Cent. below zero may be recorded. The
upper balloon eventually bursts, when the lower
one, smaller and not fully inflated, acts as a
parachute to bring the registering instruments
gradually to the ground
-
Something like tangible proof of connection
between magnetic storms and sun spots appears
in the recent discovery of E. ". Maunder, of the
Greenwich Observatory. 1t was long ago mo-
ticed that the magnetic needle is DETECTED regu-
larly at intervals of FIX days, and after long
attempt to trace the influence of spots, faculse
and prominences on the sun, it has at last been
seen that series Of magnetic storms often fol-
lows large spot at like intervals. This period
Of FIX days is the time uired for point on
the sun to go around on and again appear op.
poslte the earth. The storms often recur several
times after the spots have ceased to be visible,
and they usually come 20 hours after the arrival
Of the spots place opposite the earth. this be-
ing evidently the time taken by the stream Of
magnetic matter to reach the earth. Certain
centres of the sun-notaby the I'D degree of
longitude-show remarkable tendency to de-
velop spots and magnetic streams.
~
The railways are maintaining the great pre-
serves of native plants. An American botanist
points out that while cultivation and grazing
are changing the plants of the country. the mar
gins Of the railways afford refuge for the hard
pressed plants of nature, and in these places are
to be found better presentation of the native
fora than exists elsewhere. Many of the plants
blooming in masses-can be recognized even
from the windows of the express train.
The coolest place on earth may no longer be
considered Werchoiansk, Siberia, with record
of 60.S degrees Cent. below zero. In 1872 an Aus
TRAN expedition visited the Straits of Matotch-
kin. Nova ZembIa. and minimum thermometer
left there has been lately found registering 70
degrees Cent. (94 degrees Fahr) below zero.
maximum thermometer showed IA degrees Cent.
above zero as the highest temperature since 1872.
~
Various ores including cinnabar, realgar,
hematite and copper and lead chlorides-are
found to be deposited in the steam jets, or
fumaroles. issuing from the cone of Vesuvius
~
The fact has been slowly brought out that
plants, like animals, generate certain degree
OF heat. by their life processes, though the
amount is relatively very small. 1t has been
noted that the sap of trees does not freeze in
winter like other liquids, that the interior Of
f1brous plants is sensibly warmer than tine OUT
side air in cold weather, and that snow melts
of
the foot Of dead ones. A more careful study
has lately shown NJ Dutrochet that certain veg
etables, with temperature independent of that
of the atmosphere, grow warmer until the mid
die Of the day, then become cooler as the sun
declines. Certain plants show increase Of tenn
perature in Towering, the rise being half degree
in one case observed, while the spadix Of the
arum of Italy may have daily increase OF 10x
degrees, and the spadix of one plant has been
known to be as warm as 40 degrees Cent. in an
atmosphere of only Fl degrees.
-.
A new German alloy of aluminium is known as
zImalium. 1t results from the addition of small
quantities of manganese and zinc to fused alum
mum. It is harder than pure aluminium and
takes a tool BETTER and its tensile strength is
double that of aluminium. 1t behaves in some
respects like brass wire. The cast metal-whose
cost is ten or twelve per cent. less than that of
pure aluminum-has a lower conductivity than
the pure metal and can be easily filed, forged
and drilled.
The new tantalum lamp hlament of German
makers is claimed to have an important economy
over the carbon filament. The metal is used
alone or alleged with some other of the same
group-such as vanadium or niobium-and it is
affirmed that removing the layer of oxide de-
posted as the fiament is drawn ensures against
any blackening Of the bulb.
a.
Among the suspected new traits of ants is that
OF hypnotism and of the ability to recognize in