The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1906-03-10


Handy Welding Latest Rock Smash
or-Pulee and Altitudo-LoadB Boring
LarvB-A New Fire Engine - Lighter
Magnetism Weighing Gas Leaks-White
Hot Life-Electric Plant Growth-Porus
Quartz.
In the novel method Of electric welding Of a
Berlin firm, the heat applied Is evolved by an
electric arc formed between the working piece
and carbon electrode at the place where the
weld is to be made. A relatively small electric
generator is used with storage battery con-
nected up in parallel, and the carbon, f1ed in
the holder. is readily shifted as desired. The
great heat melts both the working piece and the
metal to be welded. insuring an intimate juno
ture. Welding material is supplied until the
joint or aperture Is filled. and by gradually re-
ducing the arc the weld is cooled slowly. The
process supplies especially q cheap and simple
means for making small repairs In large castings.
~
vigorite the new explosive Of Prof. shulz and
Engineer Gehre Of Switzerland, is nitrous COM
pound which. united with saltpeter, has given
results claimed to indicate strength about ten
times greater than that Of any other explosive.
In the open air it burns without exploding. 1t
has the further advantages of being insensible
to friction, shock or conclusion. while 1t Is not
injured by wetting or by freezing.
sss
A table Of pulse beats at the different stations
on Pixies Peak up to about 1900 feet was made
by Prof. Clayton in 1901. The atmospheric pres
sure for the stations has now been calculated by
7. Okada, a Japanese meteorologist, who finds
very regular increase Of one heartbeat per min
ute for each third Of an inch decrease in pres
sure.
About seventy specimens Of the extinct great
aux are now preserved in museums. A speci-
men recently sold In London brought $1,000.
---n~~--ua. -luuo-DUrfng -1nsecr RIVE are now
known. In Australia, for q number of years,
perforations have been noticed ia the lead COW
ering Of telegraph cables suspended from poles
BY twisted steel wire, and as these have given
trouble IN the season of thunder storms, they
have been attributed to electricity. An inves-
tigation recently showed holes In the lead up to
quarter OF an inch In size, as many as fourteen
being discovered in length Of sixteen inches.
The little black insects (bostrycus jesuica) were
found, and have been watched at work, their
purpose seeming to be to reach the tarred linen
covering portions Of the wire under the lead.
Other insects bore through lead to escape from
confinement.
The new chemical automobile fire engine, Of
Leicester. Eng. carries large cylinder Of car
Donate Of soda solution. with q bottle of sui
phuric acid suspended over 1t, and travels thirty
miles an hour. When the acid Is tipped into the
soda water, carbonic acid is rapidly generated,
quickly giving pressure Of $50. pounds. This
pressure forces the water in q four-ffths inch
stream to height Of forty feet. and as the water
reaches the fire the carbonic acid escapes in
great volume. providing out the air and smother
ing the fire. The cylinder is emptied in four
minutes.
The recent discovery that alloys not contain
ing iron can be made as magnetic as iron has
suggested the new theory that magnetism de-
ponds upon the grouping of the molecules.
When the special magnetic structure is made
better known. it is hoped to improve upon cleo
trical magnets by adapting for them an alloy Of
great power, thus tightening the moving parts
in electrical machines.
sss
A balance of precision weighing mixture of
Illuminating gas or fire-damp against an equal
quantity of normal air is the novel eas-detecting
alarm that has been brought before the Paris
Academy of Sciences.
Ass
Life on earth began when the surface was
sea of molten rock, If we may accept the theory
Of Godfrey Martin. Of Kiel University. Unjust
have been based on silicon instead of carbon,
and associated with it as fundamental elements
we're perhaps phosphorus. sulphur and oxygen,
in place of the hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen Of
modern life-forms. This silicious life Is sup
posed to have fiourished in the sea Of molten
rock. with which it blended at death, leaving no
trace. A possible trace, however, may remain
in many remarkable minerals, whose hbre-llke
structure may be due to former existence in
organic form, asbestos being an example. With
the cooling of the earth, carbon entered more
and more into the composition Of living matter
and the silicon solidihed out. There may now
be worlds at high temperature, it is contended,
with life in its Silicon Age.
sss
How electricity influences plant growth has
been not easy to explain. It is pointed out that
the heat can have little effect as this cannot re-
place or even greatly reinforce the heat of sun
shine. The electricity acts rather as a stimulus
to all the vital processes. Capillary attraction
Of water is promoted by positive current flow
ing upward. and as electric influence is benef-
cial only with an abundance of water, the rise of
fluid is assumed to play part. In some excep-
tions q positive flow downward gives the best
results, which is thought to mean that more food
is supplied by the leaves than is commonly sup
posed.
The new quartz vessels, so valuable for their
endurance of temperature changes, have disad-
vantages. They leak ct high temperatures, and
Berthelot, using tubes with walls 100 of an inch
thick. lost third of the oxygen and a sixth Of
the nitrogen none hour at 1.4O00 @. The sealed
up gases were originally at about air pressure.
Permeability for hydrogen is quite marked at
SO00, but with hydrogen chloride and carbon
dioxide it is scarcely appeciable below 1902.