The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1908-10-10

Gr6pny-Wn6ac as q F6r0nu1al-A new
Piano-Surgery in Vacuum-Magneti-
zation Weight-Radium's Projectiles-
A Great Electric Machine-Book Sterili.
zing-Visibility Of Lights-The Smallest
Brain.
A novelty recently shown at the Berlin Ex-
hibition of Inventions was the compressed air
typewriter, which Is without springs and levers
to wear out and break. and has go per cent. less
parts than the ordinary lever machine. The
horizontal type-wheel. with letters sliding radi-
ally outward. rotates constantly around verti-
cal shaft. Below the type-wheel, and rotating
with 1t, is a vane. which has channel taking air
from the source Of supply and branching to the
diaphragm chamber inside the type-wheel. In
its rotation the vane passes around the inner
periphery Of fixed ring which has openings
connected by tubes to the keys. The air from
the rotating vane normally passes through these
openings and escapes from the keys, but when
the finger covers the aperture In the key, the air
is forced back into the tube, and the pressure
produced as the vane passes the closed tube
pushes out the diaphragm, pressing the letter
opposite against the paper on the platen. Only
touch of the finger is necessary, the air doing
the work, printing the character in the loo of
second. While the type wheel is operating as
usual, an automatic duplicating attachment can
Dc unuO W pcElOFdbc paper pdbbcru, duu db
this is passed over the keyboard the perforations
cause the machine to reproduce the writing, any
number Of successive copies being possible. An
electric or water motor gives compressed air for
few cents day.
The new method by which Berlin company
plates iron and other metals with lead, zinc, tin
and their alloys seems to be remarkably simple
and effective. After the object to be coated is
thoroughly cleaned, the finely pulverized plat
ing metal, mixed with suitable liquid, is ap-
piled as paint, which is dried and then fused by
gas-hame or in furnace. A pound of the
metal paint givesan even. rust proof coating for
nearly 100 feet of old or new surface.
s*s
Photography in the dark offers an interesting
field for the inquisitive amateur. In the expert
ments of DIR. Russell sensitive plates have been
strongly impressed in total darkness when
placed near or in contact with leaves, flowers,
seeds, stems and tubers of many plants, the ex-
posure varying from a few minutes to more than
Is hours, and action being quickened by heat up
to 13OoF. Even leaves that mad been dried be-
tween plotting paper for three years gave faint
impression. Sap is very active in Affecting the
plates is also the oil of nuts especially on oxi
dalton. Castor oil. however. is inactive even
oAeCA AAOhtuc Va GA pOcuTO W duu uO cucCb 10
produced by some plant parts-such as the coty-
ledons of beans and the outer envelopes of some
fruits-nor by such substances as starch. cellu-
lose, gum. sugar, pitch and pollen. That the
phenomenaare not due to radioactivity has been
proven by the fact that interpreting sheet of
glass or mica prevents all action. The effects
are ascribed by DR.. Russell to hydrogen peroxide
or dioxide,-which many investigators have
found to be one of the first products of plant
growth, and generated by turpentine and other
resins and is so active that one part in million
parts of water affects Photographic plate in "a
hours in the dark
By his new method of wheat-farming, Gen.
Levitsky, of the Russian army, claims to pro-
duce an enormous yield of grain and unusually
stout straw, and believes that he has converted
the plant into perennial. He simply sows
single grains at the bottom of conical pits IL to
Is inches deep. The seed is barely covered with
earth, and as the leaf appears above ground it is
just covered. the operation being repeated five
or six times, until the pit is full. In this way as
many as 1888 shoots have been obtained from
one grain.
The piano is improved and its sound increased,
according to the claim of j. Cadenbach, Ger
AAoA AAEOhtOIs ny LuO ptdH VI lcLblu8 WOOucA
cups into the back of the sounding-board.
A%s
In his new method of operating on the organs
of the chest, Prof. Ernest Sauerbruch. of the
University of Marburg encloses part of the body
in a cabinet from which the air has been partial
ly with drawn. The air in the lungs is lighter
than that outside, under normal conditions and
when the surgeon exposes the lungs the in
creased pressure tends to flatten them, with
great risk of fatal collapse. By operating in q
partial vacuum, added pressure is avoided. The
patient breathes the outer air as usual and
there is no disturbance or the ordinary balance
between internal and external pressure. The
new plan has been very successful in the twelve
cases in which it has been tried.
"a
Magnetization proves to have a measurable
effect on weight. The influence has been tested
at a number of stations in the United States and
Canada, the magnet being pointed in various di-
rections, and the special balance used being free
from magnetic material. When the south pole
of the magnet was to the north the weight was
about part in ,OO0 600 more than when the posi-
ton was reversed. In regions of magnetic dis
turbance the difference was greater, and ex-
ceeded part in 100000 The increase in weight
on magnetizing metal seemed of the order of
l part in 100000.
The alpha particle of radioactive matter trav-
els about 3inches according to Prof. Rutherford,
its average speed being 5000 miles second. Its
path is marked by extraordinary violence, and
about 100000 molecules are broken up giving
rise to much heat, and producing positively and
negatively charged tons in the process.
-
The largest static electric machine ever built
is owned by a New York physician, and is feet
high over all, feet long, and feet wide, weigh
ing $50 pounds. 1t has 40 glass disc, each 40
inches in diameter, of which 20 revolve while the
others remain stationary. 1t is driven by an
electric motor of one quarter horsepower. be-
ing first excited by a small au Hillary hand ma
chine, and at full speed may yield spark 30
inches long and X inch in diameter. To fully
excite the huge machine requires from to 10
minutes, the charge. however, being retained for
as much as IL to 10 hours
"a
The new sterilizng oven of NJ. Berlioz, a
Frenchman, is designed for treating books and
other easily damaged articles that do not admit
of baking in an ordinary oven for destroying dis
ease germs. 1t has device for the evaporation
of aldehydes, and, at atmospheric pressure and
below boiling point, it completely sterilizes such
objects as closed books, without the least effect
upon the paper or covers. Delicate bindings
may be protected by wrapper A volume of
1900 pages had been soiled with pus and fecal
matter as far as the inner margin, but 1t was
completely sterilized in hours at temperature
of less than 2O0oF.
80
Red lights have been proven to be visible to
greater distance than green. In recent tests on
a clear dark night, red light of candle-power
was clearly discernible at mile; one of CAD
dle-power, at 2 miles; 10 candle-power, through
a binocuar, at miles; and SO candle-power, at
miles. On an exceptionally clear night, a
white light of 3.2 cande-power could be distin-
guished at miles; 17.2 candle-power, at5 miles.
-
A healthy regularly formed brain of "a ounces,
scarcely half of the normal average, seems to
have been the smallest ever recorded for an
adult. 1t was recently found in Daniel Ryan, a
New York coachman who died suddenly at the
age of 46.
TREES NHRHRS