The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1907-01-26


0orrsspondencs baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
what Rusts 1ron-spectacular Bubble
Blowing Atmospheric Fertilizer
Color Distinguishing Giass-Puzzling
Horns-Biriug Mines by Whistle
Eadium Tinted Germs-Not Artificial
Life-Odd Skull Mending.
So familiar process as the rusting Of iron
appears to have been misunderstood. The pres
enco Of moisture and oxygen has been regarded
as the condition necessary. and the old idea that
carbonic acid plays part has been quite gener-
ally discarded. A different view has just been
brought before the London Chemical Society
by Mr.. Gerald Moody. In very careful expert
ments, q piece Of polished iron was exposed to
!. distilled water and a continuous current Of air
freed from carbonic acid. and the metal con-
tinued untarnished at the end of six weeks.
When air with the normal carbonic acid was
drawn over the sample, however, the bright
surface was dulled ia six hours and was covered
with deep red rust in seventy-two hours.
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The bubble fountain is an English scientific
novelty. said to be capable Of blowing 10000 soap
bubbles per minute. Coal gas may be used, and
very strikingly effect can be obtained at night
will run up the steam Of bubbles. Intermittent
groups Of bubbles are suggested for gun practice,
as they are cheaper than balls of glass or clay,
and their use is more humane than the murder
Of live pigeons.
Calcium cyanamide. known to the Germans as
Kalkstickof. is one Of the artificial fertilizers
that is expected TO take the place of Chilean
saltpeter and Peruvian guano. tits compound
Of calcium carbide with atmospheric nitrogen
and il made by liquefyine air. distilling Off the
oxygen. and introducing the nitrogen into lime
and coke at high temperature.
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while glass cannot fit the color blind for OBJ
serving signals at sea or on railways. Herr
Plchon. OF Cologne. finds that much assistance
may be given in distinguishing between coIors.
Persons having the common form of color-blind-
ness require red and green glasses, as the red
glass absorbs green rays and causes red objects
to appear lighter than to the naked eye. and the
green glass absorbs red rays and adds to the
brightness Of green objects. Those who are
color-blind to yellow and blue can be similarly
helped by glasses of yellow or blue In cases of
color blindness to all eolors. three different
glasses-red, green and violet--are necessary,
and these can be combined in pairs so as to give
determinations. In a special kind of color
blindness disease of the retina causes utter in
ability to distinguish blue and an affection Of
the optic nerve makes it impossible to see red.
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A recently acquired abnormality of the British
Museum is the skull Of an English horse show
ing pair Of rudlmentary horns on the forehead.
Older specimens are rS7tion of a similar skull
with the horns and models Of the foreheads OF
two thoroughbreds also having horns. The
skin extends uniformly over the horns, with no
sign Of thickening or hardening. just what
these horn-like growths signify is perplexing
netnxalista. as none Of the ancestral horses or
Immediately related species were horned ami
mails. and If there is no hereditary influence It
is remarkable that many freak appendages
should appear in the same place.
curious new device for exploding mines at
some distance is operated by waves of sound.
In the interior Of cylindrical resonator disc
Is so mounted as to be free to turn about its
diameter. and when certain note is sounded
this disc will place itself in plane perpendicu-
lar to the cylinder. By causing the turning disc
to complete an electric circuit, a mine can be
exploded by means of signal given by war
ships siren-tuned' to the same note as the reso-
nator.
Many precious stones show a remarkable
change Of color in the presence of radium- III
late German experiments colorless diamond
from Borneo became pale yellow after an ex-
posture Of eight days to impure radium bromide,
deeper yellow in eight days more, and was not
wholly restored TO its original colorlessness by
heating to redness. The light blue Of sapphire
turned to green in two hours, then to yellow
reddish yellow. and, after fourteen days, to
yellowish brown. The color disappeared on
heating. a light yellow invariably reappearing.
however. when the stone became cold. The rays
did not affect the color of the amethyst, ruby,
blue topaz of chrysoberye; but tourmaline
with green end became green at any other
point on which the rays acted.
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The sradiobes' of Mr.. J. B. Burke have proven
a scientific puzzle. even if they have not been
widely accepted as living organisms. The ex-
PLANTATION of Sir William Ramsey that the forms
growing and dividing in gelatine are helium
bubbles from disintegrating radium is far from
convincing. A new theory by Mr.. W. A. Ridge.
another British physicist, is that the growths
form only when sulphuric acid is present and as
result of the diffusion and precipitation of
barium on other element forming insoluble
sulphates. Most radium preparations contain
much barium. The new experiments have
shown that when the gelatine is freed from sui
phuric acid no growths are produced by other
elements, but that even water from street mains
contains sulphates enough to start radiobes in
gelatine containing radium salts.
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A novel one-grafting operation is reported
from Egypt by DR.. voronoff. The removal of
tumor left large hole in the rear of the skull
and instead of inserting the usual metal plate
the surgeon decided to try piece Of the shout
der-bade Of live sheep. The wound healed
promptly. when the accurately-ftted graft was
found to be perfectly Joined to the surrounding
skull