The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1909-05-29
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

Correspondence Baltimore County Unson
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
Sowing Fertilizing Bacteria-A Storage
Battery Lamp-Churches and Lightning
Rods-A Useful New Alloy-A Modern
Ferry--Occasional Color Blindness
Nom Cracking Glass-Automatic Ticket
Printing--The New Compass-Cloth-
Marked Lead Bullets.
A fertilizing earth filled with nitrifying bac-
teria.has been cheaply prepared by the director
Of the Prague experiment station. Stoklasa, and
four tons of this novel fertilizer applied TO the
acre have increased crops one third. This mate
rial was suggested by the;somewhat disappoint-
ing results of sowing bacteria cultures direct
upon the land. Nitrogen is assimilated by plants
only In the form of nitrates, and recent investi-
gators have shown that the nitric acid Is pro-
duced in organic matter in decay by the agency
of certain bacteria. Stoklasa concluded that
when laboratory cultures of the bacteria are
scattered direct upon field they become less
prolific, while they are in too small number to
accomplish all that has been expected. He there
fore made culture liquid of 2parts of gluclose.
1-5 part of carbonate of lime and / 20 part of
phosphate of potassium in 100 parts of water and
added few drops of pure cultures OF Radiobac-
ter and Aztobacter, very active nitrifying bac-
terra. When the bacteria had filed the liquid,
the whole was sprinkled over a heap of pre-
pared earth, consisting of $500 parts of ordinary
soil mixed with 80 of dephosphoration Stag and
moistened with 100 parts of molasses in 1000 of
water. This earth fertilizer was used after
few days, and the results proved that passing
through the two media had quite acclimated TIE
bacteria to the soil of the field.
ArA
A decorative table lamp for public dining
rooms, free from the disadvantages of candle
and having no troublesome wires. is simply an
electric lamp carrying storage battery. The
whole can be set in vase of cut flowers, and
the light cleaning through the flowers and
water. is very soft and pleasing in effect.
A list of 244 church buildings in England that
have been damaged by lightning in the last ten
years has been collected by Alfred Hands. He
estimates that 25 or 30 per cent. of the churches
of the country have lightning conductors, and
that the "A buildings damaged each year not
more than have conductors that fail to protect.
A%s
Monel metal, of which about 800, 600 square feet
have been used on the roof of the Pennsylvania
Railway station In New York, is attracting much
attention on account of its remarkable qualities,
as it is practically untarnishable, has strength
comparable to that of some grades of steel, and
in rolled sheets is as malleable and flexible as
copper. It is a silver-white alloy, containing
essentially about 10 per cent of nickel and 80 of
copper, although small quantities of iron, sui
phur, carbon, silicon. etc., are usually present.
It can be rolled hard or soft, has been made into
castings up to three tons. and at present is cast
in two grades, very similar to hard and medium
cast-steel, with tensile strengths of about Sand
81 tons, and reductions of area at fracture of %
and 50 per cent Its specific gravity when cast
is $780, its melting point. 243O0 f. Its resistance
to corrosion lisa particularly striking property.
and it is little affected even in the presence of
strong sulphuric acid.
"a
The electric ferrybo crossing the Rhine be-
tween Godesberg and Niederdollendorf accom-
modates 645 passengers, besides vehicles. and is
propelled by two screws, each coupled directly
with 80 horse power seres-wound motor, max
ing 800 revolutions per minute. The storage
battery of 100 cells has voltage of about 300 and
a capacity of 1886 ampere hours. The actual
crossing time is about AZ minutes, and after
eight trips in each direction the battery is re-
charged at Godesberg. The same battery feeds
three auxiliary motors on the boat. one used for
pumping and the two others operating the land
ing bridges.
AFs
An occasional temporary red blindness is the
singular defect in his own color sense reported
by G. r. Gibson to the Royal Philosophical So
ciety of Glasgow. At times he fails to perceive
the red in an object, but at once perceives the
true color when his attention is called to and
concentrated upon it. His color vision other
wise is quite normal.
sFs
frrT{fo <oo% hoc hoo <,oqcp
chimneys from the glass works at Baccarat,
France. They were designed for safety in coal
mines containing much fre-damp, and when ten
of them were suddenly plunged into water at
SOC F. after being slowly heated to the boiling
point Of water, not one of them cracked.
The ticket-printing machine adopted by the
German Government is designed to simplify the
work of railway offices, and makes unnecessary
the usual large stock of many kinds of tickets at
each station. The apparatus at Cologne-made
for 1900 stations-is feet long, 4 feet high. and
20 inches wide. 1t carries q printing plate for
each kind of ticket required, and an alphabet
cal index-scale shows at a glance the names of
stations to which tickets are issued. The only
stock needed is a supply of pieces of cardboard
of the right size. When a ticket is called for, a
blank card is slid into place opposite the re-
CURED station, handle is depressed and the
ticket drops out, printed with the names of the
departure and destined stations, consecutive
number, fare, route class of carriage, and other
facts. At the same operation a duplicate is
printed on a continuous sheet, to serve as a rec
ord. Actual gain in time is claimed, a clerk hav-
ing issued as many as 500 tickets in an hour
there is no delay from the giving out of the sup
ply of certain tickets, and at the end of the day
the continuous sheet gives an accurate record of
the business done. With this system in use,
there can be no ticket robberies, no issue of un-
accounted for tickets.
80
The gyroscope compass, invented some years
ago by DR.. Anschuetz Kaempfe of Kill, seems to
have proven practical instrument tits based
on the principle-already applied in the auto
matte steering of torpedoes-that rapidly ro-
and during nine months test cruise of the
Deutschland in different parts of the world, it
kept the true direction, and on one occasion was
left INTENDED and unchecked for month. On
being adopted in the German Navy, it is expec-
ted especially to prove much more reliable than
the magnetic compass for submarines.
81
new aid in some criminal cases may be the
impression left on bullets by clothing, as v.
Balthazard has assured the Paris Academy that
these markings are not effaced on penetrating
the flesh except as they come in contact with
bone. Careful inspection of the bullet makes it
possible to identify the character of the garment
that has been passed through by the leaden