The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1906-04-07

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SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
Track Laying by Electric Power-A Scien-
ti1c un-6ighc-New Problems OF the
ARA Promising Material-A Great
Botauy-New Heat Indicator-Corpses
for Building Stones-Light Of Microbes.
portable electric plant for fixing rails and
packing sleepers, the invention Of A. Collet, OF
Paris, 10 In use on several French railways
The apparatus runs on wheels adaptable for
ordinary roads or railway tracks, and includes
q % horse-pow steam engine. which is cou-
pied by belt to the dynamo that generates
electric current. Steam is supplied by verti-
cal tubular boiler Of capacity Of only l5K gal
Ions. The engine being in place. q copper cir
cult Is carried along the permanent way three
nfths Of . mile on folding ladders. and contin-
nous current Of go volts ID led to the track
laying machines. With two wood-screw ma
chimes on a small truck. four men lay 1877 yards
Of track in ten minutes, setting 200 screws, this
being seven times the rate by hand. The sleep
er-packing tool gives 400 strokes per minute,
and enables six men 20 pack sleeper in broken
stone In one minute or In sand In 50 seconds.
sss
The novel gun-sight Of Sir Howard Grubb acts
upon the principle Of the camera lucida. and
projects an apparent image Of white cross upon
the target. The cross Is scratched upon trans
lucent screen on the top Of the instrument, the
rays OF light being bent by double refraction so
as to appear suspended in air just in front Of the
object toward which the gun points. The cross
10 sharply defined, although the eye is focused
on the distant object. This sights superiority
10 in appearing as distant as the target, so that
when they are superposed, due allowance being
made for elevation, the gun is correctly aimed.
An interesting hygrometer is made by dipping
strip Of calico in solution Of part Of cobalt
chloride, Of nickel oxide and 20 Of gelatine in
200 Of water. The strip is green in fine weather.
fading as moisture appears.
"a
The carbonic acid Of the atmosphere offers
problems that A. Krogh, Danish physicist be-
Ieves TO be of great Importance. Twice as much
of this gas is found in the air of Greenland as In
that OF temperate regions, and the excess seems
to come from the deep sea. where 1t is stored
under pressure, but the cause of this storage
and the exact place Of origin are unknown. The
proportion Of carbonic acid in the air at Kew
has varied In series of years from 2.43 to 3.6O
parts in 10000. It is greater in winter than in
summer, at high pressure than when the barom-
eter ia low, and is constantly changing. tits be-
lieved that its fluctuations at certain parts of
culture. Greater knowledge may not enable US
to regulate the supply. but some day we may be
able to foretell the autumn crops simply from
our knowledge Of the proportion of carbonic
acid during some month or fortnight
The new calcium steel'' which has been at
tracing attention for various ceramic indus
tries. is mixture of feldspar sand and lime. It
is compact and very hard. resists oxidation and
acids, and is poor conductor Of heat and cleo
tricity. It can be fled, bored, chiseled and pol
ished like metal, and enameled, painted on or
otherwise decorated like glass and porcelain.
The mixture can be pressed into molds and then
strongly heated, or it can be melted and poured
into molds like metal. The material is white,
but can be colored as desired. and it is specially
adapted for water and gas pipes.
-.
The new North American Flora,r of which
the first part has just been issued, is to include
30 volumes, OF 100 to $50 parts. and will embrace
the plants Of the whole of North America from
Greenland to Panama and the West Indies. It
Is being published by the New York Botanical
Garden. through the aid of fund bequeathed
by Charles P. DAILY.
shawl-like spider-web lately taken from
Queensland cave was IL feet long and feet wide.
"a
The remarkable thermopile of Robert L. Mond
and N. Wilderman, English electricians, is made
In novel way without fusing soldering or even
heating the two metals or plates. compound
wire, strip or plate-consisting of q core of one
metal with covering Of another-is drawn to
the required thinness, and portions of the outer
metal are dissolved away in acid, leaving the
core bare. The alternate compound and single
sections of the wire are then wound in grooves
in circular rod of porcelain or other insulating
material. Though intended for measuring the
intensity Of light, this thermopile is claimed to
be adapted for other uses.-such as for measur-
Ing high temperatures and for accumulators on
motor cycles.
Both burial and cremation would be abolished
by Karl Schott, Cologne engineer. He would
place the corpse in q simple cofin-whicff might
be made of concrete reinforced with steel and
would then fill this with quick setting liquid
cement. The siicic acid and lime of the cement
would bring about immediate petrifaction, en-
surfing preservation superior even to that of an
cient Egyptian embalming. 1t is suggested that
utilitarians may go still further, and build the
cement blocks into vast monuments that shall
be the future cities of the dead.
80
The luminosity of certain marine microbes of
the Baltic has been proven by N. Tarchanoff, 4
Russian psychologist, to depend on respiration
and oxygen absorption. On injecting culture
of the microbes into the blood of a number of
frogs, the latter, supplying the necessary oxy-
gen, were made luminous at night.
a+s
The so-called sacred running oxen' Of Ceylon
are the smalesto of the OK family, and it is afirm-
cd that their height never reaches more than
thirty inches.
CASTORIA
For Infants and Children.
The Kind You Have Always Bought
p..~. .ha IN