The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1909-05-22
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
An Exploration Awaiting a Carnegie-An
Amphibious Bicycle-Curing Color-blind-
ness--The Gas Mantle Heater--Two
Sources of Observation-Disclosures in
Files-Another Wrong Old Theory
Faulty Halls Remedied-Science Aiding
the Miners.
Engineers have probed the earth only to a
depth of about $500 feet below the surface. and
Camille FlammariOn has lately renewed his old
suggestion that great exploration shaft should
be sunk to the utmost possible depth in thor
ough investigation of the crust of our planet
This pit should be 200 or 300 yards in diameter,
cased with a massive iron ring. The heat in
creases at an average rate of one Centigrade de-
gree for every 108 feet, and the temperature Of
boiling water might be expected at little less
than two miles, but the boring should go much
deeper. The Landes in France, as well as GER
tain plains of Belgium. Holland and Roumania,
should have favorable spots for excavation.
Such an undertaking would offer unknown pos
sibiltes of practical and scientific results, geoog
zeal and palae theological curiosities iron mines,
copper mines, precious metals. veins of gold,
platinum, silver, radium, etc., and multimillion-
aires with dread of dying rich have here an OPP
portunity of acquiring fame and adding to human
knowledge.
The amphibicycle, the novel machine of a
Lyons mechanician, for travelling on land or
water, is bicycle mounted between two cylin-
drical steel floats feet long and a foot in dia-
meter, propeller and a rudder being attached.
In water the rear wheel of the bicycle operates
friction wheel to drive the propeller. On land
the floats. etc., are raised so as not to touch the
ground, and the bicycle carries them along as it
travels in the usual way. The total weight is
about 27O pounds. The machine has travelled
readily on ordinary roads, and easily made or 6
miles an hour on the Saone.
A+s
Late experience has shown that the color
blind may be taught to name ordinary colors
correctly, although they may not see colors as
others do. conductor on the Southern Rail-
way was discharged for color blindness, when
he began to study colored woolens and paints,
and in five weeks passed a rigid color examina-
ton without mistake. DR.. Brawley has over
come the disadvantages of color-blindness in
other persons by like course of color study.
A*s
The incandescent gas mantle is modified into
heating radiator by Marcel Delage Paris en-
gineer. A tube of asbestos thread, of open mesh,
is formed on the same mold as the gas mantle,
and it is cut to proper length and the top drawn
together to form head. Greater soidity is
given by dipping into silicate of soda, then dry
ing and caloining on a gas burner. 1t is next
dipped into nitrate of cerium solution and again
dried and calcined, this treatment being essen
tial, as the great heat radiation is due to the
cerium salt. The completed mantle may even
be dropped on the GROUND without breaking.
In use it is suspended over blue flame. six in a
row in an open-front stove form of radiator be-
ing an effective arrangement and it heats quick
ly, making the best use of gas heat by radating
large part of it horizontally. The bright glow
of the mantles gives an attractive and cheerful
appearance to the radiator.
"a
There is good reason for believing that the
moon was torn out of the earth, the Pacific
Ocean being possibly the remaining scar, and it
appears that the stony fragments Prof. 7. c.
Chamberlin thinks may have been projected into
space in the great cataclysm are even now re-
turning as meteorites. OF the two chief classes
of meteorites, the stony ones are found by Prof
w. 81. Pickering to be all explained by this
theory, while some of the iron ones may have
had the same origin. Unlike the stony meteo-
rites, however, the metallic ones seem to be as
ISOLATED with comets and star showers, coming
| from more distant regions of space, and falling
| with greater velocity. The meteoric stones and
| irons are about equally represented in museums
| Many more stones are actually seen to fall, how
| ever, and, as they soon decompose and are not
easily recognized, they may have been more
numerous in the past than now. OF the 20 ele
| ments found in meteorites, all are terrestrial.
"a
An astonishing variation in the efficiency Of
| files has been shown by new testing machine
| Five files were worn out in almost exactly the
| same number of strokes-about 10000, but the
amounts worn away were respectively IA, 1l5
49, 23.5 and 1873 cubic inches. The variations are
| more marked on cast-iron than on steel. Vari
| GUS factors determine the cutting efficiency, but
with differences so great the use of a poor file
may change profitable piece of machine worl
into losing one. There is evidently room fol
progress in the scientific making of the old ant
familiar file, as well as in their grading.
| -.
| The heating of a greenhouse by the sun il
| usually explained by the fact that glass permits
the passage of light rays, but is almost impene
trable to heat rays, so that as the light falling
upon the enclosed objects is converted into heat
| and partially reflected, the reflected rays can
not escape through the glass. Thus the heat &C
cumulates. To test this long established theory
| Prof. r. w. Wood blackened two pasteboard
boxes, and covered one with a plate of salt
which readily conducts both light and heat, and
the other with glass. The sat-roofed box be-
came even warmer than the other, this being
| true also when the heat was first filtered from
sunshine through glass. The conclusion is that
| Ah1
the incident rays, and that this heat is then
spread by convection currents, but, as the con-
fined air cannot mix and circulate with the outer
air, it concentrates larger amount of heat.
| ia
| A remedy for faulty acoustic properties in
large halls has been discovered by Gustave
Lyon after long research. The great hall of the
Trocadero, the largest in Paris. is a notorious
bad example, and the echo heard in some parts
of the hall, especially at the presidents box.
made it almost impossible to understand q
speaker. The treatment applied has given a
] wonderful improvement. The surfaces giving
the echoes were first located by an ingenious
method, and then received a double covering OF
pieces of cloth spaced few inches apart. While
| the double cloth was found to be effective, the
reason that the single cloth does not deaden the
echo is yet to be learned.
"a
The mine-t testing laboratory established at Lie
win, Department Bias de- Calais, France, has been
| provided with a first cost allowance of $4,000,
with an annual appropriation of $4,000. Greater
safety in mining is sought by study of coal
dust explosions and their prevention, the con-
troll of the stability of explosives, mine lamps
and electrical apparatus, safety and rescue ap
planes, and all other pertinent problems.
Special attention will be given to the investiga-
tion of serious mining accidents in other coun-
tries as we'll as in France.
CAS-
For Infants and Children.
II. Vii W., lI.v. hI..,..~ n.u~hI