The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1908-02-08

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SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
Distant Apparatus Controlled by sound
"A Revolution IN MISUNDERSTANDING Gas
Misunderstanding Out Ones Byee-lce-
Making at Home-Nature's Compass
uranium's Products Garbage Coal
Not Drinking Water Disease.
BY his ingenious system Of controlling distant
electric signals by sound. John Gardner, English
electrician. claims to make an automobile tor
pedo respond like dog to a call. to fire mine,
blow q steamers whistle or give useful signals
on an electric bell or printing telegraph. The
sounds-preferably transmitted through water
must have constant musical pitch, duration
and interval, though several simultaneous
sounds Of differing pitch may be necessary to act
In some cases. The sounds are received By
vibrator Of steel tape, on which is mounteda car
bon pencil microphone, which remains station
airy with silence or an unsuitable note but am
plihes note for which the vibrator IL tuned, and
this diminishes the contact between vibrator and
microphone, lessening the current through re-
lay and thus causing tongue to drop and close
q local circuit, which effects the action desired.
Several distinct operations may be controlled.
In q small model, propeller has been started,
rudder set as desired, and an explosive charge
in tone little above whisper. A powerful
miles.
The new library proposed IN France by r. Gold
schmidt and Paul Otlet is to have microscopic
print on pages Of reduced size. and the books are
to be read by q special magnifying apparatus.
A uniform international standard Of size is sug-
gested The cost of the small books would be
not more than a sixth of that Of the present
large ones. library work would be lessened and
capacity increased.
In q new French Welshach mantle the rare
oxides are consolidated in an electric furnace,
and draughts.
"0edipism" is the name given to the act Of
tearing out ones own eyes. DR.. Oh. Lafon,
French physician. reports the recent case Of .
merchant, made insane by losses, who attempted
suicide by dashing bis head against a wall and
tried to rupture his eye-balls BY pressing his
thumbs against them. The globes were not rup-
tured though blindness eventually resulted.
About twenty similar cases are found to be on
record. and in every instance the patient-al-
ways insane-has tried to tear out both eyes.
Every degree of injury has been inflicted. Emil
nent physicians have doubted that the eyes could
be torn out BY the fingers alone, but recent facts
have proven that the muscles and tough optic
nerve have been torn and scratched through by
the nails and the evidence Is conclusive that the
eyeballs have been completely removed in some
cases. The elfmutilators are all melancholics,
usually with religious delusions self destruction
being the end In view. Temporaryiinjury is in
hicted by designing sane persons, and malinger-
ers-such as working men seeking special COM
pensation and soldiers wishing to secure dis
charge-sometimes mutiIate the eye by intro
ducing tobacco or other irritating substances.
sss
The novel household freezing machine describ-
ed by Consul R. ]. Thompson from Hanover has
a capacity Of five gallons or more. and Is dou-
ble-walled vessel Of tin with a hollow space an
inch deep completely surrounding the inner
compartment. Carbonic acid from ordinary
storage under pressure IL admitted to the bot
tom of this surrounding chamber. passing
through cross armed tube into the top of the
inner vessel. The sudden expansion Of the car
bonic acid yields great cold, and water is changed
to ice in sixty seconds, while meats. fruits. bot
tied beverages etc., may be chilled or frozen in
q few seconds.
The thousands of sandhill nests Of the mag
netic" ant Of Northern Australia lately inspec-
ted by the Governor General-measure to by
10 to Is feet. They form natures compass,
the long axis pointing always north and south.
~
In the transformation Of uranium into helium,
according to Prof. Rutherford's review Of the
latest researches. there is certainly formed q
new substance, for which Prof. Boltwood has
proposed the name ionium. and this substance is
the immediate parent of radium. Associated
with ionium in such manner as to suggest also
an origin from uranium is actinium. For every
gram of uranium present in any mineral there
seems to be certain fraction of radium. and the
amount of actinium also bears definite ratio to
the amount of uranium, although radium and
acrHnAurza appear ~ nave NO u1recp c0uuectlon.
Hon. r. j. Strut has just shown that helium is
yielded BY rare earths containing thorium. This
makes it evident that radium, actinium and tho
rum. the three most intensely radioactive sub
stances in nature. have helium as their final dis
indignation product, or at least as one Of their
fnal products. Whether lead is another product
is still matter Of doubt.
a.
The idea of using house refuse for fuel, as is
being SO successfully attempted in the refuse
small scale in the new fuel-called "coalescine''
-of an English borough engineer. Garbage, bits
of unburned coal from the ashes, and other
waste. are pulverized. mixed with tar. and made
into briquettes This fuel is claimed to be not
only perfectly hygienic, but to show high effici-
ency under boilers. The cost is so moderate that
small towns are enabled to dispose of their waste
By practically self-supporting method.
"a
Typhoid is now known to spring from variety
Of sources, and DR.. Seaton. British health off,
Ger, doubts whether ten per cent. of cases can
be attributed to infected drinking water. Pol
luted food seems to be common cause. and
cases of doubtful origin have suggested that
other germs besides the so-called typhoid bacilli
may produce the disease.