The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1906-01-13
C'0fYe8p07lde baltimore County Union
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

Color Needed in the Tropics Studio Snap
shots-The Valuable Fingers Gaslight
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES Storage for Boilers
Mountain Pack Animals - Improved
Diamond Making EiectroIytic Photog-
raphy.
new significance is being given to the color
Of mans skin. 1t has been suggested that pig
mentation gives protection against the short
actinc rays Of light that are very destructive to
living protoplasm, and Or. G. e. Woodruff, of the
United States army has collected evidence that
the pigment in both plants and animals has been
evolved to meet protective needs. It cuts of
the injurious excess Of light in both tropical and
arctic regions. The first men seem to have been
brunettes. though not black. their evolution
taking place In cold and light climate. Blonde
ness came later, in cold and dark countries.
Transition takes place gradually when the mi
grafton is sufficiently slow for adjustment but
sudden and radical change in environment is
more likely to result in extinction.
~
The flash light of French photographer, g.
A. Liebert, consists of large parabolic reflec-
tor Of aluminium. with series of incandescent
lamps around its edge. and in the centre an arc
lamp with three carbons-one fixed and two
movable. The small lamps enable the photog-
rapher TO give the subject the best pose. When
this 10 done, the pressure of rubber bulb draws
the movable carbons across the fixed one, pro-
ducing an arc for the fiftieth of second. but
energizing an electromagnetic that draws the
movable carbons away. The brilliant flash gives
very lifelIke portraits.
The relative industrial value of the thumb and
fingers has been the subject of various estimates.
Averaging these, two French experts decide
that the loss of the right thum lessons the value
Of the hand 30 per cent. and the left thumb 20
per cent; the index finger 10 to 20 per cent. and
middle finger. s to IL per cent.
~
The light Of burning acetylene is very similar
to sunlight, and the acetylene forcing of plants
offers interesting possibilities. The painstaking
experiments at Cornell have given very practi-
cal results. Some plants reached good devcl-
0pment entirely without sunlight, but in the
most important tests one crop was grown under
sunlight by day and acetylene at night, and an
other in sunlight by day and darkness at night.
The weight of 81 radishes which had been raised
In continuous light was 1875 grams, while 36 rad
ishes which had had only sunlight weighed only
81 grams, or less than half. Peas developed
good-sized pods in the double illumination while
others had not even buds and other plants
showed like differences.
-
The heat storage system of Druitt Hapin has
shown a coal saving of 10 per cent. on stationary
engines, and is to be tested on a locomotive
boiler of the Great Northern Railway of Eng
land. A storage tank on top of the boiler is con-
nected to the latter By pipe. The feed water
passes through this cylinder and is heated to the
temperature Of the boiler by steam taken from
the boiler when the engine is standing or the
safety valves are blowing.
~
Mountain sheep are employed as beasts of bur-
den in some of the ranges of the Himalayas. The
animal carries from II to 25 pounds and lives en-
tirely on waysde heritage. In recent expedi-
ton of famous Indian explorer, flock Of them
we're driven more than 1000 miles. Miners load
them with borax high in the mountains and
after being driven to the plains they are shorn
of wool and return with loads of grain or salt.
Ars
Investigating the energy actually utilized by
the steam engine. NJ. Marechal. French engi-
neer, has found that SO per cent. of the total
heat goes to the condenser in the best systems
and $3.50 per cent. is dissipated in air by free
escapement motors.
The art Of making diamonds has been given
step forward through a study of the diamond
bearing meteoric iron of Canon Diablo. In
section of this famous meteorite Prof. Moissan
has found numerous diamonds-both black and
transparent-togetherw with graphite, and phos-
phorus and sulphur combined with iron, and he
has made experiments to determine the effect
Of silicon, sulphur and phosphorus. Iron was
fused with large mass of sugar in crucible In
an electric furnace. As soon as the molten iron
had become saturated with carbon-partly from
the sugar-a small proportion of iron sulphide
was introduced and the crucible was plunged
into cold water. With rapid cooling as an essen
tial the carbon crystallized out from the centre
of the mass. The iron sulphide considerably in
creased the yield of diamond crystals. as did also
the silicon, but phosphorus had no influence.
"a
An electrolytic process is one of the new sug
gestions in color photography. Certain sub
stances, such as selenium. have an electric re-
sistance varying with the degree of light, and
when such a substance is used as an electrode
and the image projected on it, galvanic deposit
would be formed with a rapidity varying with
the intensity of the illumination. Though the
difficulties seem formidable, experiments are
stated to be in progress with anodes of different
kinds prepared by exposing to light in bath
containing lead oxide in solution with potash.
80
It has been decided that the meat of animals
used for obtaining vaccine is not made unfit for
food The carcasses of many calves that have
been vaccinated are sold in the London market,
and their use as food effects saving of many
thousand dollars annually.
az
Castonite, a dobe carbide of calcium and bari
UNI. is a new product of the electric furnace
that, like calcium carbide, is decomposed by
water. 1t was first made by J. Cartier, French
metallurgist.