The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1909-04-24
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.


Correspondence Baltimore County linton.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
Metallic Inlaying-An Electric Coil with
5O-Inch Spark-Prussic Acid in Gas
Radium Energy---Safe Celluloid-Poi-
soned Animals as Food-Land Tides
Kinds of Disease in Metals-A Miners
Sentinel-The Messina Observatory
Warning.
In the ancient art of damaskeening, in which
Damascus excelIed in the thirteenth century.
surface of bronze or iron was engraved with
lines or figures. and threads Of silver or gold
were pounded into the design with mallet. At
tempts have been made to produce the same
ornamental inlaying by some cheaper method.
The latest process is that of Sherad Cowper-
Coles. the British metallurgist, who coats the
object to be decorated with protective compo-
sition, and in this cuts out the design. Placed
in an iron box, in which it is surrounded with
filings of the ornamenting metal. the object is
then heated to the proper temperature. The
metal deposited in the design forms firmly adj
herring alloy with the metal of the object, and
the effect is very artistic. Several inaying
metals may be used, with separate heating to
volatilize and deposit each one.
"a
Within the last score of years several expert
mental induction coils of large size have been
built, the latest, by an American maker, being
the largest using direct current with me-
chemically driven circuit breaker. Its primary
core is feet long by 4inches in diameter, weigh
ing 210 pounds. The primary winding is 100
pounds of No. B. & S. gage magnet-wire, in two
layers; and the secondary winding is made up
of 284 separate coils of very fine wire, which has
80
pounds. The circuit breaker is a drum one foot
in diameter carrying 40 semi-circular copper
bars or brushes, driven by small direct current
motor. On 1lO-volt direct current, using 25
ampers. the coil yields spark 80 inches long, the
voltage necessary to bridge such gap being es-
timated at 100000 volts.
-
About 10 grains of prussie acid per quart has
been found by an Edinburgh chemist in the
water taken from a gas meter, indicating that
the domestic gas supply must contain an appre-
ciable quantity of this powerful poison.
The change that decade has wrought in the
conception of atoms and molecules is not easily
grasped. Attempting to make it more clear in
a late Royal Institution lecture, Sir ]. ]. Thorn
son pointed out that radium, representing the
greatest concentration of power known, breaks
up with the emission of million times as much
energy as is produced by the combination of an
equal weight of OXYGEN and hydrogen. The cor
puscles or atoms of helium thrown of move
with a tenth of the velocity of Lighter about
$4,000 miles second. A ship under the fire of
DreadnOughts would be exposed to mere child's
play as compared with the bombardment of an
atom by these particles; and some idea of the
condition of a gas under the action of radium
can be had by imagining town bombarded by
shots as large as houses and moving with
thousand times as great velocity as any projec-
tile ever shot from cannon. To account for
this amazing power is one of the most interest
ing of problems.
Many unsuccessful attempts to produce nom
inflammable celluloid have caused new sub
stances to the kind to be received with skepti-
cism. but is claimed that the cellite of DR.. A.
Eichengruu, now made at Dusseldorf, Germany,
has withstood tests proving it to be cheap and
useful material. Celluloid is mixture of COLO
dion cotton, a nitro-celulose less highly mira
ted than guncotton, with camphor and suitable
coloring matters. In cellite the nitro cellulose
is replaced by an acetyl-cellulose, made with
acetic acid instead of nitric acid, and variety is
given to the product by substituting different
lite is thus made SOFT hard, elastic or flexible.
1t is slow burning, with none of the explosive
combustibility of celluloid, and can be used in
stead of glass, gelatin, leather. paper and vari-
GUS fabrics, or as waterproof coating, butis ex-
pected to prove especially valuable for really
safe moving picture films.
-
A peculiar poison of Gypsies known as darb
has just been identified in England. by J.Myers,
as barium carbonate, known to mineralogists as
witherite. An old practice of Gypsies was to
poison pigs and then eat the flesh; and Prof.
Sherrington concludes that if the poison was
barium carbonate, the flesh would be safe to eat
provided all parts coming in contact with the
entrails were carefully washed
AFs
The solid earth is being constantly strained by
the varying weight of tidal waters and ice ac-
cumlations, by changing air pressure, by the
pull of the moon and the sun, and by expansion
and contraction from alterations of tempera
ture. By reflections of the pendulum, Prof.
Hecker of Potsdam has recently shown that the
moon causes in the solid earth two tides dailyof
about eight inches In the Kimberley diamond
fields of South Africa 1t has been found that the
earths crust is never at rest, and sensitive appa
ratus at Kenilworth Observatory has indicated
Ou6 udli1 luolcdu VI IWOs CNluCuIy
connected with the sun instead of the moon,the
range being more than eight inches. This rise
and fall, vastly exceeding the movementsin any
earthquakes, pass unnoticed because they are
very gradual. Besides this daily movement an
annual one has been observed, probably due to
the influence of the seasons.
80
Three classes of diseases of metals were de-
fined by late lecturer at the Royal Society of
Arts in London. The first class, diseases of
treatment" embraces metals that are correct in
composition and otherwise satisfactory in quail
ity but have been made weak or unsuitable by
improper heating or mechanical treatment.
either by user or producer. Diseases or COM
position" which form the next class, result
from the presence of substances that should
either be absent or present in smaller quantity.
The third class is diseases of decay" and it
depends on the action of outside causes, chemi-
cal or mechanical, that lead to deterioration.
"a
An automatic hosting record, including sig
nails as well as trips, is kept by new instrument
used in mine of South Africa. AS the cage or
skip moves up or down, a small disk carrying
needle travels along strip of paper ruled into
time spaces, and thus marks down the time of
the trip. Each ring of the signal bell perforates
Jne paper. Jne UuLuUeF VI buOWluB
whether the hosting has followed the signals.
a.
The Messina seismograph records a slight shock
ten minutes before the destructive earthquake.
An efficient alarm system could have saved
many people in that time.
THE THREE lawyers who settled up the estate
of Lucky" Baldwin, of California, without
going into court received in fees the sum of
$500, GOO. There promised to be big conten-
ton over the will, but the lawyers brought
the warning relatives together and proposed
basis of settlement that was finally agreed
upon. A dispatch says: "a remarkable
feature of the settlement is that it has been
effected within a month of the death of the
multi-millionaire and without the filing of
single paper" Baldwin started his career as
a money getter on the race track and every
thing he touched literally turned to money"
MOTOR CABS in London are increasing so fast
that third of the hanson cabs have been put
out of business. Yet in spite of cases of this
kind horses are in demand and cost as much
as ever.