The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1906-04-28
Corrsspondencs Baltimore County linton.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
Voices Of Fishes-Regulating q Great
Rivers F1ow-Britain's Altitude-Gas-
Cooled Cars-A Dwindling Desert-Hair
Stimulating Rays Electrically Made
Barrele-New Theory of Deafness-A
Big Cake Of Ice.
The stalk Of fshesn is peculiar, as Prof. T. W.
Bridges, British lecturer, showed the other day
in pointing out the voluntary sounds OF these
creatures. Some part of the bony skeleton Is
movable. and when this is rubbed against some
fixed part of the skeleton the friction of the
rough surfaces sets up sound. The stickleback
gives an illustration. In other fish murmur-
ing sound Is produced by the pressure of air
upon the valves of the air-bladder. In still
other fish there are two little flexible spines. at
tached to which Is muscle whose contraction
causes the spfnes to tap against the air-bladder,
and this produces sound like the roll of a drum.
-.
The Sudd country, to the south of Egypt, is
region of papyrus swamps which has resulted
from the sitting up of an ancient lake, more
than 1000 square miles in area, which once re-
ceived the waters not only Of the Albert Nile
but also of the Blue Nile and the Sobot 1t Is
proposed to cut on this swamp area from the
river channel by a canal from Dor to the juno
ton Of the Sobat and the Nile. distance of 200
miles. The summer discharge of the Upper
Nile, about 600 cubic meters per second, would
thus be passed on to Khartoum. and would in
crease the volume of the stream at that season
30 per cent. instead Of being lost by evaporation
in the swamp. No storage works at the equa-
torial lakes can give effective regulations with
out this "cut off,
OF the 1894 square miles of England and
Wales. Miss Nora e. MacMunn finds that 26,4S2
are under $50 feet in elevation above the sea,
1886 are between $50 and 800 feet; i0476 are be-
tween 500 and 1000 feet; 4,69s are between 1000
and 1000 feet 800 are between 1000 and 1900
feet; and are more than 1900 feet.
-
Refrigerator cars cooled by the expansion ana
re-evaporation of ready liquefed gas were
tried last season with good results on one of the
railroads leading from Paris. Evaporation was
controlled by an automatic thermostat. This
consisted Of a coiled tube filed with volatile
liquid that expanded to a considerable degree
on heating, and as this caused the pressure to
rise the coil was unwound. and the motion OF
coiling and uncoiling was made to move the
valves controlling the liquened gas. The Their
mostatic regulator was so arranged as to be
automatically thrown out of gear or restored to
working condition on the opening or closing OF
the doors of the car.
~
The worthless area of the Sahara Desert is
proving smaller than has been believed. Prof.
e. II. Gautier, the first explorer since 1926 to
cross from Algeria to the Niger, has lately found
in the Adrar plateau, $50 miles from Gao or the
Niger, wide belt of steppe having from six to
twelve inches of rain year, and covered with
ponds and grass. Evidences of large Stone
oh fno1ndfuO
grinding-stones, rockdrawings and graves. 1t
appears that the region must have gradually
dried up, but that the desert conditions are now
disappearing and the rain-belt is again extend
ing more and more to the north.
So
ultraviolet light is claimed by Prof. Kron-
mayer, German experimenter, to have had
remarkable effect in the treatment of falling
hair and badness. In thirty-two cases where
every other remedy had failed the light rays
cured twenty-seven, and not only the hair but
in some cases the eyebrows and beard were
restored, although the trouble was mostly of
long standing.
Siberian ice is reported by Middendorf to have
an ordinary depth of l.5O meters Give feet to
1.sOmeters never exceeding q 0meters. In just
completed measurements on running streams,
Prof. voickov has found thickness Of 90 to
O8O meter on the Jenessei, to 2.35 meters in the
extreme north, and only 1.S0 meters at Verk-
hoyansk, one of the earth's cold spots, in latitude
SO 30.
Steel barrels are now welded by electricity.
At factory at Uxbridge. Eng, rectangular
sheet of steel is rolled into cylindrical shape,
the edges are trimmed by shearing, and the
quarter-inch opening is closed by rapidly melt
ing into it strips of steel two inches long and
half an inch wide. The sheet is held by clamp
ing to an anvil which serves as one pole of an
electric circuit, a carbon rod in movable handle
forming the other. For each head Hanged dish
is driven in, fiange outward, strip of steel is
clamped round the joint on the inside and an
other on the outside. and the four thicknesses
thus formed are welded together by the arc. A
stamped steel bung hole is welded into hole
punched for it. A product of the factory is its
own chimney, which is Sc feet high and Az feet
in diameter, and is formed of quarter-inch steel
plates with electrically welded horizontal and
vertical joints. Electricity is supplied by con-
tinuous current generator, with capacity of
2,1OO ampers at 95 volts.
-.
A new plan for improving the hearingis being
tried in France. Action of the drum of the ear
as is we'll known, vibrates chain of three tiny
bones impining upon a liquid. which in turn ex-
cites some 81 900 minute hairs terminating the
auditory nerve land deafness is usually regarded
as a disease of the drum or the middle ear The
idea CT Drs. KONG. Marcel Natter and Rousselot
is that unless distinct external defect is shown,
atrophy of the nerve-hairs is the cause of i'm
paired hearing. Each of the fbers responds to
a certain specific tone, and by means of the
''tonometer," an apparatus yielding a great
variety of tones through the action Of tuning
forks and sounding board, it is sought to give
exercise to as many nerve ends as possible. This
has seemed to strengthen the responding nerve
fbers. while others are gradually aroused into
activity.
The largest mass of ice on earth is beyond the
control of the Ice Trust. 1t has been accumu-
lating in Greenland for thousands of years, and
the immense block is supposed to average
mile and half in thickness, its area being about
100000 miles.
PropertyTransfersinB Baltimore County.
Deeds, etc., received for record in the office of
the Clerk of the Circuit Court for Baltimore
county;
Overlea Land Company to Maggie E. King.
Same to George J. Sponsel and wife.
GOttlieb- Bauernschmidt- Straus Brewery CO.and
Mercantile Trust and Deposit Co. to John A.
Nickel.
Robert Culver to John P. James.
Sarah Williams to John P. James.
w. ]. Todd, executor, to VIM. ]. Todd.
VIM. Madison and wife TO Nj. A. Sternart and VT.
Same to William Madison.
Anna B. Rogers and hus. to Carrie W. Holmes.
w. A. Peterson and wife to p. ]. Oskins and VT.
Robert NJ. Craig to William A. Peterson.
Anna NJ. Storm and Sophia Sorensell to William
II. Johnson and wife.
George Scheufell and wife to Henry Gerries.
John N. Peetz to John f. BetZ and wife.
W. N. Rollins and wife to W. q. Meredith ct al.
Jacob R. Selegmen and wife to Carrie e. Rolf.
Joseph A. Hill to John s. Patterson.
Roland Park Co. to George Bichy and wife.
ID. Markley and wife to ]. E. Rufennacht aud VT.
j. Vogel and wife to Israel Nicholson and Nose
Nicholson.
]. Quick and wife to R. R. Holland wife.
Mary A. Siebold ct al. to G.. G. Morrison ct al.
W. B. Wilson and wife to Marie E. Wilson.
J. Quick and wife to Q. G.. Metz and wife.
Francis Schleunes, Jr., to B. +. Simons.
A. A. Sanner and wife to H. Worthington and VT.
Henry G. Bowman and wife to @. +. Emmart.
Isaac N. Todd and wife to Henry s. Bell
Rosinia Del to John Del.
VIM. +. Patterson to George r. Tracey,
VIM. v. Elder and wife to Charles Playford.
Henry Albert and wife to Frederick Leidlich.
ID. Dreber and wife to VIM. ]. McGraw and wife.
- ~ Dale 90.