The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1907-12-28
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

.
Peat Gas for Power-Ancient Coinage
An Old Nature Fake-Drill Tempering
by Electric Furnace-Picture Tele-
graphy-A Sensitive fhotometer-Tne
Modern Alchemy-Wire GAUGE for Stop
ping Vapor.
Just as the conversion of peat into coke and
valuable by products seems to have become
practical success in Ireland. the use of peat for
producer gas gives promise Of transforming the
moors OF Germany, into centers of industry.
Peat taken out In excavating the Macard Canal
is to be used first in Dr. N. Caros plant for gasi
flying peat and waste coal in mixture of air and
superheated steam, and it is calculated that one
ton Of crude wet peat will yield 66 pounds Of
ammonium sulphate, worth t1.75, and $3.50
cubic feet Of gas, suitable for driving gas en-
gines and capable of producing 900 horsepower
of energy. Drying and pressing the peat will be
avoided. while the production of ammonium
sulphate-valuable as fertilizer-will ensure
alone fair return on the outlay. Removing
the peat will not convert fertile region into
wilderness. as coal mining often does, but strip
ping the barren moors will change them into
fine farming land.
While ancient coins and medals are numerous,
the only genuine antique die known seems to be
that found at Tel 81 Athrib. Egypt. in 1904 Prof.
G. Zenghelis reports that this is of bronze. 2K
inches high and ounces in weight, dates from
l30 to 322 B. c., and the base is engraved with
the owl of the Ashenian tetradrachma pieces.
The alloy seems to have consisted of about Is
per cent. of copper and Is Of tin. The die is evil
dence of great metallurgical skill-the unusual
proportion of tin being necessary for hardness,
while the extreme purity of the two metals gave
the necessary malleability.
sss
Another old belief has been disproven-
pythons and other serpents in the London Zoolo-
gical Garden being no longer given live food,
but eating with avidity dead rabbits. pigeons,
fowls and goats.
The underground electric furnace promises to
work quite a revolution in mining As made
for the gold mines of the Rand, in South
Africa, the furnace consists Of "a tank lined with
heat-proof material, with an interior iron cru
chile similarly lined. and the crucible contains
neutral salts that are instantly fused by the cur
rent and form a bath in which metal can be
heated to high degree. Two electrodes on
each side, conveying monophess current. are
connected with special transformer that gives
precise regulation Of temperature to any point
between 1902 and 1l00o @. The furnace is de-
signed for drill-sharpening, and it offers impor-
tant advantages, not least of which, it is be-
lieved, is that of permitting the best grades of
steel. which ordinary sharpening affects injuri-
ously although not acting upon cheaper steels.
There is little loss of heat from radiation and
great gain 10 rapidity of working, and the appa-
ratus is useful for annealing we'll as harden
ing. The fused salt not only does notattack the
metal but it forms a coating that resists oxi
dalton.
In transmitting pictures by wire, Prof. Korn.
Of Munich, seems to have been the first to ac-
chieve practical success. but other inventors are
aiding in bringing the art to a high stage of de-
velopment. Already Prof. E. Belin, French
engineer, claims better definition, sending the
image of a carbon print in relief. The photo
graph is mounted on rotating cylinder, and
finger following its contour introduces resist
ance into the line circuit and thus shifts an os.
cillatng mirror at the receiving end. The mir
ror focuses light on a hole 1-15O of an inch in
diameter in contact with a sensitive film on sec
ond cylinder rotating spontaneously with the
first. The light is varied in intensity by the
shifting of the mirror, and, aided by screen of
graduated tone, gives variations on the film
corresponding to the variations in relief of the
carbon print. The scale of tones may be re-
versed so as to produce either a positive or
negative at will.
The new selenium photometer of German
firm of instrument makers is claimed to indicate
the candle power of lamps with ten times the
sensitiveness of any light-measuring device
hitherto used, while it is free from the defects
Of other apparatus. and avoids the errors due to
personal differences of estimate and the diff
Guilty of rating the brightness of different colors
selenium cell is made to oscillate SO that it is
alternately lighted by a standard lamp and by
the lamp under test. The cell is in an electric
circuit with milliamperemeter, and the varia-
tions in the current due to differences in the
light are indicated by the pointer of the measur-
ing scale. When the two Examinations are
equal, no variation of current results, the point
remaining stationary. By moving one lamp
the illumination can be balanced in the usual
way and the strength of the tested lamp COM
pared with the standard is estimated from the
relative distances of the two lamps from the
photometer.
The transmutation of elements is as eagerly
sought now as in the time of the ancient alche-
mists, and the apparent decomposition of plati-
mum by Theodore Crosse, a German chemist. is
new result encouraging to the seekers. Potas-
SUM carbonate in platinum vessel was sub
jected for many hours to an alternatinging cur
rent between platinum electrodes, potassium
nitrate being occasionally added The platinum
vessels and the electrodes lost weight, the cleo
trodes became coated with needle shaped crys-
tails resembling charcoal, and the contents of
the vessel became changed to brown powder
The powder proved to be free from potassium
and carbon. while no platinum was found in crys-
tails or powder.
mask of aluminium wire to absorb mercury
vapors is the suggestion of Signor Tarugi, an
Italian, for avoiding poisoning in mercury
mines, mirror factories, and other places where
s0rKers are exposed to this volatile metal.