The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1906-04-21
Correspondence Baltimore County linton.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
The New Atom-Moisture for the House.
1ncandescent OIL Lights-Changing Ele-
ments-Diffusion of Solids-Manuscript
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF the Body's
Electric Waves-Lig htnin GIN ade
Magnets.
The electron, as defined by Prof. Soddy, is an
electrical conception that has been applied to
matter. It is definite 'charge"-the smallest
possibIe-of negative electricity, and its prop
critics, unlike those of the atom, are always the
same. It is particle smaller than the atom,
which was long regarded as the smallest division
Of an element. Each atom Of matter must nor
mally contain at least one electron. and it may
lose this or take on at least one more without
great change. With one or more electrons less
than the normal, the atom becomes positively
charged, or a positive ion; while an atom with
one OF more electrons in excess is negative ion.
Some years ago the addition of moisture to
furnace-heated air was found by DR.. H. ].
Barnes of Boston to make room comfortable
at a temperature several degrees lower. In his
recent investigation in Southern Nebraska, G..
A. Loveand has shown that the air of house
Of 1000 cubic feet should receive from 20 to 40
quarts Of water daily, and that this evaporation
does not increase the relative humidity by more
than 10 per cent The humidity indoors should
not exceed about 40 per cent. otherwise there
viii be troublesome condensation the
windows.
new incandescent light uses ordinary pc
troleum without wick, and tube only one
eighth of an inch outside supplies the oil, which
is vaporized and mixed with air before being
burned In the MANTLE The light is claimed to
be softer and more diffusive than any other.
One gallon of oil is sufficient for 1000 candle
power lamp for fifteen hours, and enables
person to read at distance of forty to fifty
yards
AS hanstone melts in water, It gives OF
large bubble Of air, evidently enclosed under
great pressure.
While the transmutation of elements at will
Is still dream, the alkali metals have given J.
]. Thomas suggestion of control of the change
Emission from these metals In light has been
long known and he has now proven that they
give of slow electrons, or Beta rays, even in
darkness and that the process is greatly infuen-
ced by light, heat and chemical forces. These
act as decorators, splitting up atoms which have
become unstable. This atomic breaking up is
thought to be going on in all matter, with the
setting free of enormous energy and it is calcu-
lated that If the action extends throughout the
earth, the emission by every atom of an electron
once in thousand million years would account
for the earth's internal heat The atomic modi-
f1cation may explain the fatigue" of platinum
and other substances after long incandescence
s"s
The degree to which solids slowly intermix is
oneof the recent surprising discoveries. A New
Zealand teacher mentions the dark patches
which appear opposite the steel winding stems
on the inside of silver watch-cases forty or fifty
years old, tests showing that these patches are
iron, which has vaporized. dissolved in the silver.
and diffused into the solid metal. Still more
remarkable is an instance of the penetration Of
carbon into porcelain. Fresh pencil marks are
easily removed from an old porcelain writing
tablet, but some notes written forty years ago
have sunk into the tablet to considerable depth
and cannot be erased.
In simple German method for copying manu-
scripts or printed matter, the object is placed
face upward on table, anda mirror is arranged
above it at an angle of 42o. The reflection is
focused in the camera in tn usual way. A
smooth surface bromide or negative paper is
used instead of a glass plate, and the picture
shows white letters on dark background. With
proper exposure and development, positive
legible as black on white.
80
The extremely sensitive galvanometer devised
short time ago by Herr EinthoYen, German
electrician, consists of a silvered quartz fiber
stretched between the poles of a strong electro
magnet. the passage of the faintest current
moving this fiber in the direction of the lines of
the magnetic field. The movement can be
measured directly by microscope or recorded
by photography. The new instrument will
measure the millionth of an ampere, and a sug-
gested use is for studying the electric currents
of the human nerves. Muscular contractions of
the heart had been already shown to vary the
Ue1ectric resistance of this organ. 1t is now
claimed that electric waves corresponding to
the beating of the heart have been photographed,
the electric phenomena continually altering
and 1t is predicted that we may be able to record
the state of persons health or the phases of
hysteria or other nervous disorders, or to plot
the wailing and fretfulness of peevish child.
Magnetized places-spots attracting iron like
loadstone-are often noticed in volcanic rocks.
They have been ascribed by Folgheraiter to
lightning, but he knew of no magnetized rocks
that had been tested before the lightning struck.
An instance has now been described. Two in
vestigators had been testing rocks near Mount
Etna when, during September night, lightning
fused telephone wire from which an uninsua-
ted earth wire ran along basaltic wall, which
had previously shown scarcely a trace of mag
netism. Next morning the stones of the wall
were strongly magnetic for five inches on both
sides of the wire, the polarity Indicating that
the current passed upward.
-
For raising sunken vessels, also for operating
floating docks, Pierre Hurry, Frenchman,
proposes using calcium carbide in cans placed
in the vessel or in attached floats. Electrically
exploded caps would break open the cans. wet
ting the carbide, and generating great volume
of acetylene to force out the water.