The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1907-03-02

SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
Carnegie Spelling Needed-Moss Rubber
Race Rav1ug F1sne5-
Improved Water-PipS Packing-A Stray
Acknowledgements in EiectrocuCon
"A New Porcelain-Mountain Movlngs
The New OWNING Rod.
singular condition, known as congenital
word blindness has been brought to notice by
ophthaImic surgeons within the last few years.
It's victims have great difficulty in recognizing
printed words or learning to read and recent
Inquiry in London elementary schools has led
DR.. G. ]. Thomas to conclude that about one
person in 1900 is affected to considerable de-
gree. The trouble. most common In the lower
classes, occurs much more often in boys than
girls. Last year q bright boy Of eleven could
only make out few words Of three letters
with difnculty although he had been In special
class four years. and could read Arabic numerals,
work out problems in arithmetic. and recognize
many words when spelled aloud. In another
case. really brilliant child became an excellent
surgeon. getting his knowledge at lectures and
classes, with practically no reading. Thei initial
difIlcuItyis having so many letters to remember,
with so many variations in sound. and for treat
ing the word-blind an English teacher has de-
vised a special series of reading books, with
simpliaed and phonetic spelling until the pupil
is considerably advanced.
~
For an artificial rubber a German authority
recommends mixing an infusion of Carragheen
moss with starch, and drying on slightly oiled
metal plate. When the transparent sheet pro-
duced is broken up, it softens in cold water. and
on substance. which may be used for thicken-
ing paint or for many of the purposes Of rubber.
80
Is a National Matrimonial Bureau among the
reforms to be proposed by President Roosevelt?
Expert opinion seems to regard 1t as already
proven that more scientific selection of husband
and wife cannot fail to produce more virile
and higher type of American men and women.
-
One of the queerest of odd creatures is the
mud-skipper or jumping fish of the large rivers
of India and the neighboring sea-coasts. At ebb
tide these little fishes leave the water to hunt
for tiny crabs, fiies etc.. and their strong pee
toral and ventral fins, aided by their tail, enable
them to move about easily and to climb upon
trees, grass and leaves. With their huge eyes,
seeming to project far out of the sockets, they
can see well on the land as in the water.
They progress in short, quick leaps. effected by
sharply bending the rear third of the body to
the left and suddenly Strengthening it. In
color they usually light brown with dark
green. They are easily caught, and are much
used in Burma for live bait
sFs
Lead wool, new British product for packing
water pipes, consists of very small ribbons of
lead, cut by patented machinery in lengths of
three feet. Hemp or yarn is first pressed into
the socket. and then the strand of lead wool is
twisted In and well caulked at each turn until
the whole space is tightly packed with mass Of
lead. 1t is claimed that the joint is stronger and
more satisfactory than when closed by the
usual troublesome method of running in molten
lead.
The asteroids or minor planets, of which
nearly 600 have been recorded since the begin
ming of the nineteenth century, have been sup
posed to form ring in the space between the
orbits of Mars and Jupiter. One discovered on
February I'D of this year, however, has unique
interest in having been proven to be beyond
Jupiter, its mean distance from the sun being
5s5 to Jupiter's $50 while its aphelion distance
%, 151-exceeds that of Jupiter by nearly the
earths distance from the sun.
-
OF 30 accidents from electric shock in Switzer-
land last year, 81 were fatal, while Austria had
but fatalities in So cases. A fifth of the acct
dents we're from currents of $50 volts or less.
and mason was killed by 12O volt three-wire
supply, while in another case shock from 26,OO0
volts did not kill. OF Is attempts at resuscita-
ton. only one was successful.
~
Asbestos porcelain, the new material of Gar
ros a European chemist, is claimed to have the
desirable properties of true porcelain and GER
tain advantages in addition. As asbestos fibers
are very thin, with diameters between 100000
4 ana 1o. 49,
an exceedingly fine powder; this is made into
a paste with water. and after repeated kneadings
me mass Is poured into molds. When the OBJ
jects thus shaped are heated in crucible to
170O0 c.. transparent product like ordinary
porcelain is obtained. If the powder has been
washed with suphuric acid, porous asbestos
porcelain of pale yellowish white color re-
suits when the nodded articles are kept for IS
hours at 1900 G.
A continuous change in attitudes in noun
famous regions, especially in the Swiss and
Austrian Alps, has been noted by NJ. de Varigny,
q Swiss geologist. Many villages in the canton
Valais and in the Bernese 0berland have been
raised or lowered from IL to 30 feet in the last
six years. and the SUBMITS of mountains have
undergone changes quite as great. The numer-
GUS slight earthquakes are suspected of being
the chief cause of the phenomenon, at least
they accompany it, while they produce ava
lanches in number now increasing.
An electrical divining rod, claimed to operate
more certainly and scientifically than the
cient and dishonored twig, has been devised by
Adolph Schmidt a Swiss engineer. 1t seems to
consist essentially of glass-covered box en-
closing coil of insulated wire in which slight
ly magnetized needle is free to rotate over
graduated dial. When the apparatus is placed
over subterranean water, with the axis of the
coil in the magnetic meridian. the needle, it is
asserted, oscilates more or less rapidly for to
10 and even up to 50 degrees.
"a
Recent corrections of surveys show that India
is placed on the worlds maps 500 feet northward
and tx miles eastward of its true position.
Attitudes are to IS feet or more in error,
Mount Everest's corrected height being 49, 41
feet instead of $4,000 as usually given.
*s%
The vine of British Royalty at Hampton Court
is one of the worlds notable plants. 1t is now
in its 13Sth year, and so carefully is it tended
that its average yield is 800 punches year, and
1t has produced 22OO AS both tree and fruit are
benefited by occasional curtailing of produc
ton, only 500 punches were allowed to ripen in
1905, the result having been supply of unusu-
ally delicious grapes, most of the punches
weighing more than pound each.
In argon and helium has beel seen the anon
ally of elements without chemical affinity
DR.. T Cooke has shown the London Royal So
ciety that even these gases follow the rule. s
at about 1902 G. argon forms an unstable COM
pound with zinc and helium with cadmium.
-
A singular spring lately discovered in New
Mexico discharges saturated solution of
sodium sulphate at temperature of 1l00 F.
IIke weight of the liquid is 104 pounds per gal
lon, that of distilled water being only So pounds
The overflow from the spring has solidifed into
a perfectly level, snow white bed of sodium
salts, miles in extent.
~
Silver-ou- glass mirrors have been long IA
miliar. In a new process, an English electrician
electrolytically deposits copper from the black
oxide, and produces very brilliant mirrors of a