The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1906-06-09
CDgTswmdsnes Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

GOAMAt At ~ m1OOM4A1Akt
The Coming d-Electricity in House
Work-Chart Photography-Savag
Fire Making Nests Made of Bubbles
The Photograph as Bird Trainer-A
Gorgeous Flower.
Airship travel seems to be already popular.
w. de Fonvielle estimates that 200 or 800 balloon
voyages are now made annually and states that
the members of the French Aero Club alone
made more than 200 last year. The forms and
colors Of the clouds. the brightness, and the
new views of the earth give wonderful charm
to sky automobiing. This is increased at night
and Camille Flammarion, whose wedding trip
was made In balloon. has expressed his surprise
at the splendor Of the lights of a great city-in
this case Paris well as at the briIliancy of the
consultations. The number Of the stars is I'M
believable, the dog star becomes as bright as
Venus, while some of the nebulae appear like
gas Jets. The shooting stars are terrifying
Their explosions seem to be heard. and this may
be really true, as the balloon acts like gigantic
car-trumpet, and catches such earthly sounds as
the whistling of locomotives and barking of
dogs. Hyeiencally, the complete renewal Of
the air in the lungs is a delightful sensation.
-
That electricity is soon to replace the manual
labor of the house maid is the prediction Of Col.
r. e. Crompton. the English electrician. 1t is
capable of washing dishes, kneading dough-
chopping meat. and even doing the family wash
ing, as well as many other things. The use of
the motor to compress air may give cold
storage room for every mans house. Domestic
motors have been greatly cheapened, and cleo
trio lighting companies are profting by selling
current for day use at reduced price.
Tho strange home of a pair of swallows is
under the awning Of a steamer making trips
along the coast of Trinidad. The birds are seen
going ashore, but evidently have no home except
their floating one.
Russian war equipment includes number Of
sets Of special apparatus, provided by the Topo-
graphic Institute Of st. Petersburg, for the
automatic taking of photographs from ballons
or kites. Each set is expected to give pictures
Of the entire landscape to the horizon on all
sides, and consists of one camera covering what
is directly beneath and six others arranged in
circle around the central one with their axes in
clined at an angle of thirty degrees. The seven
shutters are operated simultaneously by the
electric current. A leveling device is ingen-
iously inserted in the circuit, with clockwork
for closing the contact at any desired time, and
these ensure that the automatic exposure shall
take place only. when the apparatus has reached
a sufficient height and is quite horizontal.
sFs
The curious fire. kinder used by natives of
Northern Luzon consists OF hardwood tube
having a bore of a third or half inch and a
length of two and half inches. with piston
slightly smaller and shorter. The tube is closed
tightly at one end. The piston is made tight
fitting by a winding of waxed thread, and has a
slight cavity at the inner end, the outer end
being provided with handle. A finder of dried
lint from weather-be timber is used. bit
of this is placed in the cavity of the piston, the
latter is inserted half an inch In the tube. and is
then driven in by a smart stroke of the palm.
The heat of the sudden compression sets fire to
the lint.
Acetylene lighting is quietly gaining favor,
and the German Acetylene Association finds
that the gas is supplied the public by IS places
in Germany, 2O2 in the United States, 10 in the
United Kingdom, and 10 in the British colonies
while Germany alone has 5000 private installa-
lions.
Recording bird migrations, Otto Herman,
Hungarian ornithologst, is surprised to find that
swallows take los days to complete their passing
from Gibraltar to Lulea, in Sweden.
s~s
A popularity of nearly or quite all of the
fishes allied to the celebrated climbing perch
(Andbds scandens) as that they place their eggs
in nests or floats of bubbles. These fishes are
all brilliantly colored and all are natives of the
Indo- Malayan rivers except one African species.
Among the species making these nests are the
gourami renowned for its excellent flesh, the
paradise fish, and the fghting-fsh, the last So
by the Eiamese for fighting. Specimens of the
two latter recently studied by an English natur-
alist have built their bubble-rafts, of dome
shape, in an aquarium. The paradise-fish grad
ually increases the layers of bubbles-which are
blowed by the male-until the eggs are raised
above the water and are so Matched.
a*s
In teaching parrot to talk, the usual plan is
to hide behind a screen. or to cover the cage
and repeat over and over the words to be said
The average bird takes week to learn SINGLE
sentence. The task of teaching therefore is
very tedious, and the happy thought of the wife
of leading bird fancier promises to become
great labor saving idea. 1t occurred to her to
put the task upon the photograph. The first
experiment. upon eight birds, has proven highly
successful. and they are rated as the finest talk
ers in the world, with high value.
*Fs
The most beautiful wild flower is claimed to
be the Table Mountain Orchid (Disa gTdndi ford)
of South Africa. 1t is popularity known as the
Flower of the Gods is not easily cultivated. and
Is at its best in June and July. It's most brilliant
colors are scarlet. light rose and gold.
-.
The alpha rays of radium have been found by
Prof. Rutherford to have one-eleventh as great
velocity as light.
AMERICA HAS absorbed more than 100000
German immigrants within the past thirty
years It may interest the Kaiser to learn that