The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1908-09-05

Safe Gasoline Storage-The wireless
Telephone Receiver-GreatestH Head Tor
Water-Power-A Novel Are-g ge10ns ~
Plant-Growing-A An Unexplored Big hiver
The Lure of Light The Fuel CnemlsSs
Problem.
Experiment has shown that gasoline tanks are
kept quite cool in the hottest confiagration II
they are buried beneath 20 inches OF eartn, ana
Martini and Huenecke have made storage and
distribution practically safe BY providing an
underground reservoir, with Especial double de-
livery pipe. and filling the upper part of the
tank with .carbonic acid gas under pressure.
This prevents the formation of any explosive
mixture ofinfiammable gas and air, as well as
explosion from expansion of vapor by heating.
The inner pipe leads from the bottom Oh the
tank to the self-closng delivery cock, the liquid
being forced out by the pressure of the inert
oaa. and the outer pipe stops at the top OF the
reservoir. being therefore filled only with inert
gas. In a great fire in Berlin $1,000 gallons OF
gasoline lay safely in an underground reservoir
beneath ruins burning for "a hours.
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Tn the Poulsen wireless telephony, adopted by
the German wireless Telegraph Co., speech 10
received by placing in the ordinary telephone
circuit Scholmilch electrolytic detector. COM
prising vessel of dilute sulphuric acid WIN t"o
electrodes, the negative with very nne poinI.
The smallness of the negative and It's MIN OF
hydrogen bubbles from electrolysis make the
normal resistance of the detector cell very high.
The bieh-freouency oscillations from the aerial
electric waves tend to dissipate the hydrogen
bubbles. increasing the telephone current, and
the variations set up by speaking into the micro
phone at the sending station produce like varia-
tons in the current through detector and teie-
phone, reproducing the spoken words.
az
The ak turbines of Norway factory are 70 TO
caive water through 7-mile tunnel from lake
a5ae feet above sea-level, the total head being
32S7 feet, or " feet greater than the nisness
hitherto.
The strange new industry of weaving concrete
,oIoa and tubes suggests revolutionary posi-
Utilities. and not least of the advantages IL Offers
IL an important lessening Of the demands upon
our forests. Both hollow. tapering poles anu
straight t1Ibes or pipes are made automatically Dy
fba vvonderful machine just installed IN LONDON
Tn manufacture, metal core has the Strength
enino stee wires or rods attached 1t, and as IL 10
rotated and gradually passed out of the machine
n small conyeyor belt wraps spirally around IL,
under great pressure, alayer OF concrete ana
bandage of cloth. After the concrete Is given
little time to harden, the core is witnoraWn anu
the bandare removed. Poles 40 feet long are
extremely liCht-the shell being / to inches
thick-yet as strong as iron poles. and Tor carry
ing telegraph and other electric wires they are
eheaper than iron and even wood, while they
ora sunar;or in appearance and durability. The
uipes-in lengths up to 20 feet and diameters up
In 3 feet-are very strong, and more durable ana
economical than iron pipes for water ana gas
mains, sewers, etc.
Tests with red, green, blue ana Wnite hgnC
during the last two years have shown french
experimenter that colors have effects on vegeta-
ton that may prove of great practical import
.ance. Under red light, for instance, the growth
of vegetables was fifteen times as rapid as unoer
blue light. Blue light on the other hand, had
remarkable preservative power on growing vege-
tation, and two years after planting, the nrst
leaves of an oak tree were as fresh and vigorous
as ever OF even greater economic value seems
the discovery that ripe fruit keeps remarkably
under blue screen, showing no decay after
several weeks.
The worlds greatest river is located by Prof.
Mudd in Australia. Peculiar geological cond1-
tions lead much of the water of this continent
underground and he estimates that great SUD
.terranean river flowing through the center Is as
much as 200 miles wide.
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The fight of Massachusetts, against the gypsy
and brown-tail moths has been going on for
wears. and large sums have been expended Tor
spraying trees, destroying eggs. and experiment.
ing with moth-parasites. These methods, now
ever, have proven clumsy and inefficient. Tney
have emphasized the need of real and econom-
ical exterminator, and this long sought doom
seems to have been discovered at last in the re-
markable electric-light trap reported from lit
tau, Saxony. This apparatus in portable form
should be able to free large area from pests OF
:. r- -
lights. and these are arranged over powerful
exhaust fans, which suck the air into deep
receptacle. In the first trial, the trap has been
placed at the top of the municipal electric sta
ton. The refiectors at night, throw two great
streams of light upon the wooded mountain
sides half mile away, and the effect has been
amazing. Lured along the great white ways, the
moths have come in huttering armies. Alta GER
tain distance from the ref1ectors, the draught
from the fans catches the dazed victims, which
are then whirled into the pit beneath. The first
NIGHTS catch of three tons should mark new era.
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With the coal consumption of the United
States grown to more than 400, 600 900 tons annu-
ally, the use of coal in the last ten years having
been more than in the preceding century, it is
humiliating and APPALLING to reflect that less than
five per cent. of the total heat value is converted
into useful work. The best power plants utilize
only ten per cent of the energy of the fuel loco
motives only three to five per cent and electric
incandescent lamps only one-seventh of one per
cent. To reduce this enormous waste is one of
the great engineering problems. Nearly 2.OOO,-
600 horsepower of the waste is represented by
gas from blast furnaces, and this loss is now be-
ing lessened by installations of gas engines.