The Baltimore County union, the Towson news., 1909-09-25
scIENTIFTC MIsoELIANY.

SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
steel Tubes by Spiral Winding--The
Electric Bakery-Farms from the Water.
After Coal, What 2-The NJ a g n etic
Piano-Steam- Turbine Evolution-Seat
of the Sixth Sense-A Lamp Novelty
Solid Alcohol.
Correspondence of The Union NewsJ
HelicaI steel tubes of great strength. from one
to six inches in diameter, are being rolled by an
improved method at factory Of Stockerau'
near Vienna. The hot-rolled fiat bars are cold
rolled, cut into width equal to the diameter of
the intended tube. then timed. Fed into ma
chine at the proper angle these strips have inter-
nal recesses formed at their edges by two sets OF
pressure rollers, with counter rollers mounted
at right angles to the thread of the spiral. and
the edges being fitted together, they are pressed
on spindle so as TO form closed joint
second set of rollers, extending across two laps
at once. completes the shaping. In the finish
ing process the tubes are immersed in bath OF
tin or lead, and this forms lining and at the
same time so soldiers the joints as to ensure per-
feet tightness. Tested in Vienna the two-inch
tubes of one third inch plates showed an average
bursting strength of 1928 pounds per square
inch.
The new electric oven of bakery at Kerns,
Switzerland, is about eight feet long by four
wide, with baking surface of three square
yards, and will bake 100 pounds of bread at
time in two-pound and three pound loaves. Tne
furnace has ~ electrically heated tubes arranged
along the base and the vaulting The baking
heat is reached in two hours. and in IL hours
eight 100 pound patches Of bread can be baked
at a cost of 1.G cent. per pound for heating.
10 oh
sening the current toward the back of the oven
where cooling is least
The face of the country in Europe has peen
materially altered by human effort. VI tine
tillable land of Holland 90 per cent. has been
wrested from the sea, and in Great Britain
work scarcely less has been done, for third OF
the present land is said to have been bogs and
marshes in the time of King Alfred. In the
United States, where the work of reclaiming is
lust beginning, it is estimated that drainage Will
add 100000 square miles to the farm land.
Pessimistic as it may seem, the conclusion tnab
mans downfall will begin with the exhaustion
of our coal is strongly suggested. Geologists
find that since the beginning of the Paleozoic
era various leading animals have appeared
reached their elimination and declined. Some
LQOuSdlQS OF bcuc VI OuOucahuo VI JSs-~S ~o~ -
human epoch began. Since then man has be-
come the dominant ANIMAL occupying the place
held by gigantic reptiles in the Mesozoic era
and has been approaching the culmlnatlng stase
of existence When his resources have been
fully utilized-some centuries hence-can de-
yeIopment go further? 1t is confidently but
vaguely asserted that before the coal is gone
something to take it's place will be found, but
an INQUIRY by Sir W. Ramsay into the known
sources of energy are discouragiDg for Great
Britain and not reassuring for other lands.
These possible sources are: First-water power
from rivers and reservoirs Second-water-
power from tides. Third-wind-power Fourth
the earth's internal heat, to be reached by shafts
eight or ten miles deep. Fifth-the discovery
of a catalytic agent that may accelerate the loss
of energy by substances like radium. Sixth
solar heat OF these the first will replace coal
to a limited extent, though not in Great Britain.
The second and third are not economical. the
expense and difficulties of the fourth are pro-
hibitive, the fifth is hypothetical and not likely
to give important results, and the sixth is avala-
BILE only in warm climates.
~
A new kind of piano. the Choralcelo. has the
ordinary keys and hammers, which may be used
if desired, but is also provided with electro
magnets, arranged to vibrate the wires without
striking with the hammers. The tones, when
produced by the action of the electro magnets,
are said to resemble those of an organ combined
with stringed instrument, giving novel possi-
bilities of melody.
On beginning his steam-turbine experiments
in 1891, the Hon. G. A. Parsons found that the
fine drops of water in steam travelling $500 feet
per second cut the hardest steel, wearing hard
file 1-32 inch in 145 hours, but in the present
compound turbines the difficulty has been over
come so that even brass and copper blades can
be used. Steam consumption has been greatly
reduced. The Turbinia in 1897 used 16 pounds
per shaft horse power, but in 1907 the Lusitania
and Mauretania used only IL and 11K pounds
respectively.
An attempt to locate the distance sense of the
blind has been made by DIR. Woelf1in, a German
investigator, who finds from his own and other
experiments that this sense is probably func-
ton of the sensory fibers of the first of the
three branches of the tri-facial nerve or trigem-
mus. This nerve. ramifying through the face,
has been credited with the threefold function of
a nerve of notion of common sensation, and of
the special sense of taste. 1t has been long
known that some persons among the blind can
move about with remarkable certainty without
coming into contact with any large object, and
half a century ago Spelanzani showed that bats
fly about confidently and safely in darkness and
even when blind. The idea that reflected sound
waves act as a guide through the hearing has
been disproved by stopping the ears of a blind
man, when the distance sense remained, al
though diminished. In the few blind persons
who have the sense it exists in greatly varying
degree, and the possessors locate it in the fore
head saying that it is vague and somewhat re-
sembles light touch.
new safety lamp for miners has the lamp
bulb enclosed in large air-tight glass globe,
and the heat of the light expands the enclosed
air. creating considerable pressure. If the
bulb is broken in any accident the compressed
air rushes in and extinguishes and cools the in
candescent flament before the explosive air of
the mine can reach it. Asingle-cell storage bat
terry, enclosed in celluloid case, supplies cur
rent for twelve hours on a single charge, yield
ing a light of between one and two-candle power.
80
Alcohol briquettes, small tin boxes filed with
dough-like combustible material, can be car
ried in the gripsack and used as a spirit lamp at
any time until exhausted. Putting on the cover
extinguishes the flame. The filling is prepared
by heating denatured or ordinary alcohol to
14O0 Far. over water bath, adding 80 parts of
grated and dried Venetian soap and two parts of
gum lac, and stirring until the added substances
are completely dissolved. The solution is at
once poured into the boxes and the covers
closed. When cool the mixture is solid
CA STORlA