The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1906-05-19
C0svsspoadsncs Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY,

Correspondence Baltimore County linton.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
An Automobile Timer-A Tide In q Saucer
-Pollantine-Tmproved friedrich The
Electric Cooking Stove-Crematicn Pro-
gregs-A Land Depression Filling Up
Gravitation In q New Light.
The time-recording camera lately patented in
England takes photograph Of any rapidly pass
ing object, the exposures ranging from one
twenty fifth to one-thousandth of second, and
at the same time photographs watch, thus
giving the exact time. With two such cameras
and synchronized watches, the police can OBJ
tain picture OF motor car at each end Of
measured strip of road, the exact speed being
made easily obtainable from these data.
~
The precision Of modern observations brings
to light unexpected facts. At the Paris Obser-
vatory Jean Mascart has noticed that the sur
face Of thin layer Of mercury is not plane, but
undulated like water disturbed by the plunge Of
q stone; and also detected another movement
that proves to be true tide, due to the sun and
moon. The measurements have been made re-
peatedly during the month with the six micro
scopes Of the instrument The tidal motion is
slight, but greater than the possible errors.
~
The hay-fever serum. or pollantine, Of DIR.
Dunbar Of Hamburg, is shown to have proven
very effective. Having first proven that hay
fever Is due to the pollen poison from grasses,
cereals and other plants, the investigator sought
preventive by repeated vaccination Of animals
with the bison Of pollen. The antitoxin thus
produced in the blood serum neutralizes the
poisonous effect Of pollen in the eyes and nose.
The serum is not injected under the skin, like
others. but simply applied to nose and eyes.
sss
Headache and other Ills Of overcrowded rooms
are found by DR.. Paul, Of Breslan. to be due to
retention Of tho heat By the body, even 10 per
cent Of carbon dioxide doing no harm in a
regulated temperature.
new heat-resisting material is carborundum
fre-sand. This is carborundum or silican car
bIde In uncrystallized form, and when 1t is
mixed with about 10 or IL per cent. of its weight
Of q thin, sorupy solution of sodium silicate.
the result is plastic substance that is easily
nodded, and that can be tamped into place and
slowly dried out. AS a lining in crucible
furnace it will outIast several Innings of fire.
brick. Another mixture that can be used is a
mortar of 80 to 60 parts of this firesand with 40
to 50 parts of fire-clay, and this material has
proven successful for the walls of lead and
copper smelling furnaces and in other places
exposed to intense heat
-.
The newly patented electric cooking stove of
Prof. Elihu Thomson, is heavily jacketed out
side with layer of asbestos, fre-clay or ma
terial wool. and Is provided with a lid of the
same character. Inside is placed mass of re-
fractory substance. within which is embedded
q granular resistance material: Silicon is re-
commended as resistance material, as 1t has
high specific resistance, and acquires a suit
able temperature without fusing or oxidizing.
The whole interior of this stove can be kept
red-hot, and it is anticipated that the running
cost for cooking through the day will not be
excessive.
Body-burniDg gains favor very slowly. Statis-
tics Of the French society for the encourage
ment of cremation, show that there are now co
crematories in Europe and America, and in
these $4,000 bodies have been incinerated. Ger
many has crematories, in which 1881 bodies
were burned in 1904. a gain Of 300 over the pre-
vious year. South America is becoming in
terested, and Buenos Ayres reports $40 crema-
lions for last year.
Butter with a fishy taste has aroused COM
plant in Australia, where investigation has
shown that the flavor has no connection with
fish but is due to one or more of four micro
organisms. The rusty iron of cans was found
to have bad effect on milk and cream.
-
The surface Of the dry land sinks to a level
below that of the ocean in six places, viz: The
Salton Basin in San Diego County and Death
Valley In Inyo County, California the Valley of
the Jordan in Palestine, where the Dead Sea is
nearly 1900 feet below sea level; two small areas
In the the Saraha Desert of Northern Africa,
and larger than all others together-the Valley
of the Caspian Sea in Western Asia. which is So
feetlower thanthe Black Sea. The Salton Basin,
once connected directly with the Gulf of Cali
f0rnia. has been gradually closed in by silt from
the Colorado River. A complete barrier was
formed at last. shutting of the basin from both
gulf and river, and separating lake that soon
disappeared through evaporation. In times Of
heavy rains the silt is sometimes cut through,
though only at long intervals. The last flooding
In this way was in 1922, but in the spring of
this year the opening of an irrigation canal left
breach, through which the summer flood has
poured lake of many square miles. With the
foothold gained this new body of water may re-
main long time before sitting and evaporation
again leave dry basin.
-.
Gravitation is explained by the new theory of
W. A. Nippoldt as due to the motion of matter
having the tenuity usually assigned to the ether.
All matter is in motion and the smaller the ag-
gregati0n the greater is the maximum velocity.
Open space contains very minute particles in
rapid motion in all directions. The particles are
small enough to pass between the molecules of
ordinary bodies, and they are stopped or refec-
ted in proportion to the mass Of the body bonn
barded. Two bodies in space shield each other
on one side, being thus apparently attracted.
~
In the leprosy experiments at Manila 25 cases
have been treated by Roentgen rays and are
reported actually cured while the disease has
been checked in several whose bodies are par
TALLY gone.
What the Hen Is Worth
Boston Globe
Americans probably do not realize what
valuable possession they have in the American
hen. They will easily understand, however,
il they will look over the annual statistics of
the Secretary of the department of Agricul-
ture. That enthusiastic official reports that in