The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1907-10-12
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

correspondence baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
Wealth in Waste-The Military Search
ht-Gas-Preserved Food-Smoke and
Lung Disease-The Land of Caves-A
Chinese Product-Harmless Phosphorus
More Engineering Necessary-A Ra-
dunn Paradox.
The Stag from iron smelling furnaces, former
ly a waste product, serves now for variety of
uses, Of which few are enumerated by DR..
Theodor Roller. A blast of steam converts the
hot Stag into mineral wool, non-conductor of
heat and sound which is valuable for covering
steam-pipes, filing the walls of ireproof safes,
and placing between double floors. Nodded Stag
forms excellent building stones while crushed
Stag is good for road gravel or for making into
building bricks with lime. Very durable and
easily replaced paving stones are made by burn
ing crushed Stag and clay until glazed. By an
English process the hot Stag direct from the fur
mace is economically formed into glass, and
makes transparent plates very suitable for roof
ing and sky-lights. A French patent covers
method of obtaining sulphate of alumina, gela-
tinous silica and calcium chloride by treating
residual furnace Stag with hydrochloric acid,
sulphuric acid, and chalk.
81
The automobile search-light adopted for the
British Army is on a vehicle designed for ~ to
% miles an hour, and, having cannon wheels
with bronze treads and heavy pneumatic tires.
traverses cultivated fields and bad roads at IL to
Is miles, The steel chassis is 20 feet long, carry
ing a 4-cylinder Brooke petroleum motor of 45
horsepower, and a three-foot lens projects
10000 candle-power beam of light or miles.
With four men. the apparatus supplies light.
&roxy or Of for or h0t1rq without
interruption.
Fish shown at Paris in 1900 had been preserved
In nitrogen for seven years. Oranges, pears,
grapes. cherries. etc., are now being packed In
paper boxes containing nitrogen, and the ex-
clusion of oxygen seems to keep the fruit from
decay for an indefinite time.
-
Smoke or SCOT is rated by Dr. A. jacob as the
chief cause of acute infammations of the lungs.
which Ascher of Stuttgart has shown are in
creasing in England. Germany and America
The increase is chiefly among infants and old
people. Industrial districts had mortality of
nursIings six times as great as agricultural COM
munities, and districts of dense smoke had
much larger death rate than other industrial
centers. The rate among coal miners is 100 per
cent. above the average Of the male population.
Animals inhaling smoke-like those in large
cities-have been found to contract pneumonia
and tuberculosis much more frequently and
quickly than those in clear.air, although there
is q singular belief that SCOT in the lungs pre-
vents tuberculosis. On that theory the metal
grinders of Sheffield, until rs years ago. sought
immunity by visiting places charged with coal
dust after being in metal dust all day. Few es-
capped grinders asthma" and that is really
tuberculosis.
Probably no region OF like extent has.so many
caves and sinks as the Karst, desolate lime
stone plateau Of Austria Hungary, between
Carniola and the Adriatic Sea, north of Trieste.
Since recent careful exploration, E. Boegan
has charted not less than 347 of the caves and
pits, giving their exact positions and specifying
dry caverns, underground watercourses and
other features of the honey combed rock. In
the country around the Karst are hundreds Of
other similar caverns.
.+s
The secret of the joss-stick. the candle and in
cense of the Buddhist has been partially re-
vealed by L. Decker and P. Hurrier. after long
residence in ASIA A rod of squared bamboo, of
the desired length and thickness, forms core
and on this is rolled mixture of odoriferous
powders agglutinated by slightly heated resin.
one end being left bare for handle. The COM
position varies, in Canton province consisting of
camphor. sandal-wood, aconite, Glove and ten
other drugs, the camphor giving pleasant odor
and free burning
Solid phosphine is material containing phos-
phorus in a non-poisonous form, and has been
brought forward by Purgotti, an Italian, as
safe substance for matches. 1t is yellow foe
culent material, devoid Of taste and odor, con-
tanning twelve molecules of phosphorus to four
of hydrogen. Gaseous phosphine is an impurity
of crude acetylene. and the new form is obtained
by electrically heating calcium phosphate with
carbon and decomposing the resulting calcium
phosphide in an atmosphere of carbon dioxide
by dropping water on it. Three notifications
of phosphine are produced, the solid remaining
behind with the calcium bydroxide, and being
separated by hydrochloric acid. The solid phos-
phine bias so little effect that dogs bear dose of
more than four grams daily without injuring
their health.
The regulation of the atmosphere is a serious
future problem for cities that is foreseen by DR..
H. Henriet, of Paris. His experiments have
proven that in large city. especially if in a
valley, the lower layers of the atmosphere are
stirred by the winds. but are not renewed as
rapidly as they are devitalized. Oxygen is be-
ing withdrawn more rapidly than replaced.
The effects upon the inhabitants are marked,
though never assigned to the true cause, and
include inferior physical development, nervous
disorders attributed to the strain of competition,
weakened vision. and even psychological results
like violent acts of mob that are absent in
oxygen charged air. The need of the city is a
new. better and brighter atmosphere.
a.
In the new radium problem of W. Thorpe, the
British physicist, pellet of mercury in capil-
larry tube connecting two glass bulbs slowly
creeps toward a bit of radium bromide in one of
the bulbs. AS any emanation would cause an
opposite motion, this curious effect has proven
very mystifying.