The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1906-03-24

Correspondence Boltimors County Uaios.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
Voice MISUNDERSTANDING Metal by the
Oxygen Jet-Improved Iron Working
The Rains Pulse-Grindstone Speeds
Air Injections for Nerve soothin9-The
Pneumatic Wheel-The Greatest But
terny Museum.
Collections Of voices are being made for various
purposes. The phonograms Of the British Mu-
scum are designed to preserve for future gen.
erations the voices of famous people OF our
time; but the Vienna Academy Of Sciences is
going further, and seeks phonograms Of Ian
guages and dialects for the comparative study
Of languages. Already its collection includes
popular songs Of gypsies and Arabians. favorite
airs Of Red Indian tribes. the idioms of Negroes
and Malays. and 20 on. Il is sending out special
voice hunting expeditions every year. and its
agents are now securing Australasia. Roumania,
Istria. and other localities. Its latest plan Is to
monograph the voices of animals. for scientific
study.
For cutting metals by a Jet of oxygen, the
Jottrand apparatus consists essentially OF q tube
with two branches, terminating In blowpipes,
moved alonga guide at the rate OF about 6inches
per minute. One blowpipe delivers an oxyhy-
drogen fame, which heats the metal to q dark
red along the cutting line. A jet of pure oxygen
from the second blowpipe enters into combus-
tion with the hot metal. and produces clear
channel, like q saw cut, about an eighth OF an
inch wide. the remainder of the metal being
unaffected.
For IS years Camille Flammarion has kept
record of the dates of appearance of leaves and
flowers on the chestnut trees near the Paris
Observatory. Comparing these dates with the
sun-spot cycle. he finds q remarkable coinci-
dence, leaves and flowers being earliest at sun
spot maxima.
Considering self destruction and the weather,
d.. Denis finds an increase in the suicides at
Brussels up to July and August, the minimum
usually being in December.
-
The new iron process Of Bosshardt, a German
engineer. converts scrap wrought iron into
malleabIe iron or steel at one operation. 1t is
carried out In a special electrical furnace. with
the introduction Of various substances into the
molten metal during smelling, and castings
made are claimed to have all the qualities Of the
best malleable iron. with great tensile strength
and ductility. The finest tool steel can be pro-
duced by the same process at one melting. The
process makes it possible to cast various articles
and parts of machinery that hitherto have had
to be forged at great cost. and an important
advantage ig the delivery within few hours
instead Of the wait Of one to three weeks for
converting cast-iron articles into maleable iron.
Furnaces are already in operation in Germany,
Holland, France and Hungary.
80
The old rain-gauge, or pluviometer, showed
only. the total rainfall in given time. The
newer instruments trace the variations in rate,
and with such an apparatus, Gellenkamp. q
German meteorological, has obtained diagrams
within the last ten years that prove the course
an ordinary short shower to be rapid series
Of successive maxima and minima of intensity.
In rains Of some extent. water charged waves
Of air seem to follow each other at short inter
walls. In more local showers. the first condensa-
tion sets free heat that may evaporate part Of
the following drops. repetitions of this process
perhaps giving many oscillations in the intensity
Of the rain.
The need of more scientific running of grind
stones is pointed out by Shefheld factory in
spector. no proper speed being now recognized.
Two factory managers differed by 1000 feet per
minute In estimates Of the safety limit. In file
grinding, speeds very from $500 to $500 feet per
minute; and in seven breakages of stones of
about to 8 feet in diameter. the periphery
speeds ranged from 1.542 to l,526 feet. Soaking
in water over night may reduce the tensile
strength of stone from 40 to 80 per cent.
Sc
Injection of air under the skin as q treatment
for muscular neuralgia and sciatica we're sug-
gested in France two or three years ago. The
suggestion has been acted unon lately by Drs.
Mongour and Carries, who pump air beneath the
skin with special syringe having valve some
what like that of bicycle pump. The quantity
of air injected varies, a general rule being to
stop pumping when the pain ceases. Excellent
results are reported, and an important advant-
age is the absence of harmful after-effects.
How the treatment acts is uncertain, one sug-
gestion being that injection relieves neuralgia
pains by elongating the slender nerve rami6ca-
tions along the muscles.
.ts
The problem of q puncture-proof tire for
wheels still attracts attention. A pneumatic
tire protected by steel rim is one recent solu-
ton offered and Mr.. D. Blake Hslop, Of
Aberdeen, would use pneumatic wheel instead
of pneumatic tire. His wheel has two outer
plates Of steel. between which is a rubber
cushion that expands outward on being inflated
The wheel has on its periphery a solid rubber
tire. and this impinges upon movable cushion
resting on the inflated cushion. In tests on
motor-cars this wheel is claimed to have been
very satisfactory.
The remarkable collection Of butterflies be-
longing to Walter Rotchild, N. p, is now credited
with over million specimens. and both in num-
Der and rarity 1t is the most extensive collection
in existence. The special museum at Tring
Park, London. is kept up by an annual expendi-
ture of more than $4,000 The collection claims
at least one specimen of every known species,
and embraces many rare creatures from unex-
plored regions. One specimen cost $4,000.
-.
Paldiometry, the weighing of children, is the
new science of DR.. variot. of Paris. By an in
genious mechanism he records simultaneously
both increase of height and weight.