The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1909-04-10

Correspondence Baltimore County Union
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Succession Plating Of Aluminium The
Best Tree.Pianting IN ew Criminal Reg.
istry-Scientinc Pearl Hunting Bat
terry That Works ia Li9ht-Car Sickness
'Explafned-1A Buoy ant LIFE Freeerver--
A Novel Kind OF Pfdno4sound 10 Halls.
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Theproblefn. Of plating aluminum with some
metal resisting corrosion Il claimed to hayebe
solved at last, The plating bath used in the
new process Is solution Of the metal to be em-
ployedi in aIcoh0l.an excellent results have been
obtained with gold. copperand nickel. although
silver and lead proved unsuitable. 4 The results
with zinc and.p platinum have been Indifferent.
A current OF TX to volts Is used. and the alumni
mum to be plated Is frat connected to the anode
to remove the oxide. the connections being then
reversed Oxide docs, not form again. clean
surface being obtained that satisfactorily takes
the plating metal deposit. q eas@si bees
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That the elaborate care usually, taken in plant
ing fruit trees is waste Of labor Is indicated by
the last report Of, the Woburni Experimentaldi
Fruit Barmin England. IL iscommonly thought
necessary to prepare large, shallow hole spread
ing out the roots in an directions and arranging
them near the surface with slight upward turn
at the ends. and then sitting in the soil with J
many precautions. This method of planting
was tried. with that of cr0wding the roots into
small holes and ramming down the earth. The
experiments were made not only at Woburn.
but at Harpenden, Bedford and other places,
and SO per cent. of the sets showed In favor of
ramming, 81 per cent showed no difference, and
only II per cent. were against ramming.
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The new method of Identifying criminals of
Prof. Tamassia consists in preserving photo
graphs of the veins on the back of both hands.
These show striking diversity In the two
hands; but more important are the differences
in the hands of different persons, and these give
unalterable evidence Of the identity of a crimi-
nal arrested at different times. The hands be-
ing much larger it is far easier 70 trace slight
peculiarities of the lines than in the minute
prints Of finger tips.
Science has effected no more remarkable saw
ing of waste than in the revolution begun In the
ancient industry of pearl-fshing. Only very
small part of the oysters have pearls. but in
Ceylon, the chief center of the industry, it has
pile to decay. when the pearls are washed out.
In this way there is enormous destruction Of
oysters at the time worthless, many Of which
would produce pearls If kept alive longer, while
there is the further great loss of seed-pearls that
are not permitted to grow to useful size. Radi-
ographs exhibited by DR.. Raphael Dubois in 1901
and 1905 showed pearls in their natural position
in fresh-water mussels and marine oysters and,
seeing these, John Solomon, an American cleo
trical engineer, decided to study pearl culture
and the practical use of x-rays as suggested.
Going to Ceylon after time, he built house
on the deserted island of IpantiOn, in an i'm
mense bay. Here the fishes bring their oysters,
which are placed in trouehs containing 100 each,
and in the x-ray room photographs of as many
as 20 troughs are made in minute. The good
pearls shown in the pictures are removed at
once. The oysters having no pearls are put
back unframed into the sea, and the shells con-
tanning seed pearls are placed in marked area
of the bay called the nursery, where the pearls
will be given time for growth.
Ars
The "photo-electric cell' is q form of dry
battery that represents a recent interesting de-
velopment. as it becomes active only when ex-
posed to light. 1t consists of a glass tube with
the air exhausted to high vacuum, in which
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is an amalgam of potassium and sodium. Ex-
posing the amalgam to a strong light causes
current to flow from the platinum strip to the
amaIgam through the vacuum table.
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Looking out of the windows is the cause found
for car sickness by an American physician. Near
objects fit by rapidly, those little farther away
move more slowly, those very far of are almost
stationary, and the whole landscape appears to
| be revolving around common center. The I'M
! conscious effort to take in everything produces
rapid lateral oscillation OF the eyeballs, easily
seen in the passengers on any train. The eye
strain is enormous, and this is the chief factor
| in producing car sickness.
srs
The novel life-belt of a Hamburg inventor is
hollow belt of rubber. 81 inches in diameter, to
| the upper surface of which is fastened small
metallic cylinder filed with liquid carbon diox-
ide. The ends are fiat plates that can be quickly
and easily hooked together beneath the arms.
When tap is turned, the liquefed gas escapes
and instantly volatilzes, initiating the belt to its
fullest capacity Of FIX quarts. The support of
| the belt permits person to keep perfectly up
right in the water, and the buoyancy is greater
than that of any life belt in use. For example.
the gas-infated belt weighing A pounds sustans
weight of So pounds, while the ordinary cork
belt has weight of pounds but sustains in the
water only 16 pounds.
The dulcitone of Thomas Machell of Glasgow
has the keyboard of piano, but the key-ham-
mers produce sound by striking steel forks-like
shankless tuning forks-instead of wires. A
semicircuar steel spring carries the vibrations
from each fork to the sounding board. The tone
is softer than that of the piano. but it has great
clearness and carrying power and is adapted for
solo playing as well as for accompanying other
instruments or the voice. Important advan-
tages are the Jack of necessity of tuning and the
portability. dulcitone of octaves weighs
but 40 pounds, but piano of the same range has
a weight of $50 pounds or more.
Ars
Objects and materials in an auditorium absorb
sound in a striking degree. which has been lately
determined. The standard OF perfect absorption
taken is an open window. through which sound
passes and does not return. large audience
absorbs SO per cent. of the sound, Persian rug,
20 per cent. of the incident sound; upholstered
furniture, oil paintings, 26 per cent; curtains.
% per cent; linoleum on the floor, IL per cent;
pine flooring, 6 per cent; glass, 3x per cent;
brickwork or plaster, 2K per cent. This explains
why it is necessary to speak louder to large
than to small audience; also why hall with
unpleasant echoes when empty may become
easy to speak in when filed.
DR.. TRANSPORTER, of the University of
Minnesota, claims to have discovered process
that will produce one hundred times as much
wood pulp paper as was heretofore believed
possible. He has been experimenting for
twelve years and describes the perfected process
as placing small pieces of waste wood or saw
dust on a steel incline over furnace and fore.
ing distillation of the waste wood by saturating
it with carbon bisulphide, or gasoline, thus
causing the turpentine and rosin to pass off as
gases and leaving wood pulp free from pitch
and perfectly adapted to the manufacture of
paper. The common method of distillation
leaves the pulp in the form of charcoal chem
ically of little value. DIR. Frankforter ex