The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1908-12-19


Sterilization Near Boiling-Pneumonia
from Water-Cheap Aluminium.
The ingenious plan by which Debrix. q French
inventor, measures the distance of an invisible
vessel depends upon the difference in the veloc-
ity of sound waves, which travel about HOO feet
per second, and of Hertzian waves, the passage
of which is practically instantaneous. The re-
ceiving station-which may be lighthouse on
shore-has train of clockwork that moves
pointer over dial one division per second. A
sound wave from gun or whistle and Hertzian
wave are started simultaneously from the ship.
and the Hertziani wave ssets the clockwork In
motion, while the receiving observer notes the
position of the pointer when the sound arrives.
The number of divisions.passed over multiplied
by the sound velocity per second gives the yes
sells distance. suggestion is that lighthouses
send out Hertzan and sound signals at regular
intervals, with. distinguishing peculiarities to
indicate the stations, and then any vessel having
the simple receiver necessary could determine
its position at ans. time.
&c
A simple method of obtaining argon in consid-
cradle quantity has been worked out by Fischer
and Ringe, German chemists. A powdered mix
ture of 90 per cent. of calcium carbide and lOper
cent of calcium chloride was heated to 6O00 c.,
and after sufficient circulation over this both
oxygen and nitrogen we're completely absorbed
from the air. The so called crude argon remain
ing-.OO937 by volume of the air used-was mix
ture containing 0.75 per cent. of argoD and 025
per cent. of helium, neon, krypton and xenon.
In two days about three gallons Of crude argon
was obtained.
whether warts spread by contact has been
much discussed. A Glasgow physician mentions
that maid with many warts on hands and arms
was employed in q certain family. and warts
soon appeared on the hands of the three chill
dren. The youngest, boy of s, with habit OF
biting the fingers, developed two warts on the
lip and one in the mouth.
Ass
In Germany, where the retail meat dealer is
usually his own butcher, efforts are being made
AS elsewhere-to substitute humane slaughter
ing for the old-time practices that have caused
much suffering. Saxony is taking the lead, and
now has strict laws forbidding bleeding until the
animals have been made unconscious. Cattle
and other animals are stunned by blow in the
center of the forehead, Usually with something
more certain than the hammer or axe of a few
years ago. Many butchers apply the slaughter
ing mask, which covers the eyes and has sharp
bolt that is driven into the brain by single blow
from a wooden hammer; but less strength and
skill are required in apparatus using powder
one of these being in the form of tube like a
telephone receiver that projects bolt when the
cartridge is exploded by gentle tapping, while
another fires a sharp-pointed bullet instead of
the bolt. An improved instrument just intro
duced into England is the poleax gun, which
has steel barrel in place of the striking end of
the ordinary poleax. with wire through the
wooden handle. for pulling the trigger. In Ger
man, italian and other cities, abattoirs are pub
lie institutions, where butchers go to slaughter
| their animals under municipal supervision.
-.
| Homemade gas from cork refuse is used by
Spanish peasants in the cork-oak region. Asde
scribed by L. Lodian, the process consists in
| filling several large tea-kettles with the waste
bark, and placing each in turn over the fire dur
| ing the evening, burning the volatile gas as 1t
escapes from the spouts. The carbonized resi-
due forms the fine black-brown pigment known
to commerce as spanish brown
| az
The punkah, or large fan so necessary for Sc
/ curing a comfortable nap in tropical India, is
| operated by native servant. Attempts to drive
| it mechanically have failed. but success at last
| is claimed for an electrically-driven punkah
that. by means of lathshaped spring. gives the
jerking or slapping.motion needed to keep away
| the insects.
| In the sterilization process of Baron A. T.
Pfeiff, of Stockholm milk is heated to 200o Fah,,
and this is claimed to be more effective than
ordinary Pasteurization at considerably lower
temperature, while the peculiar favor impaired
by boiling is almost-if not completely avoided.
/ a careful microscopic test of different samples
of five drops each was made at Stockholm. The
samples of raw milk showed 1,IzO000 bacteria.
the sample of the same milk which had been
Pasteurized at 1852 still contained 200 bacteria,
but no organisms at all could be discovered in
the milk treated by the Pfeiff process. The
Tactic acid bacilli being totally destroyed, the
milk remains sweet and fresh much longer than
untreated milk. In demonstration plant now
being tried in England, the apparatus includes a
litter for removing dirt, heater in which the
milk is circulated in concentric passages with
steam between them, slightly rounded surface
over which the milk flows in open air to aerate
it, and a cold-water cooler for reducing the
temperature to $50.
In the singular experience reported to Paris
medical society by Drs. Chauffard and Vidal. a
man and his wife were taken with pneumonia
within few hours of each other, and the dis
ease ran an almost identical course in each case.
Their illness began on day in June following
one on which they drank much cold water from
well. One could not have taken the disease
from the other, as is usual in family epidemics.
and common unfavorable surrounding could
hardly have had simultaneous effect. That
pneumonia germs from the well water inocula-
ted the patients seemed to be the only conclu-
sion possible.
Early difficulties having been overcome alum
mum is now rolled even thinner than tin-foil.
As tin is eight times as heavy and now costs
twice as much per pound, aluminium foil is likely
to replace tin-toil for wrapping food and other
uses, while aluminium in other forms is taking
the place of copper.
miscellaneous.