The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1909-08-07

Cats for Plague-Smelted salt-Electric
Heating Of the Body Photographic VS.
conscience vs.. Superstition--SolidF Fuel
for observation-disclosures Voting and
Insanity Tempering in Qnartz Tubes.
The keeping of cats Is the solution offered by
Lieut.. Col. A. Buchanan. civil surgeon of Am
raotl. Berar. India, for the plague problem that
is now 50 steadily growing upon the worlds at
tention. At Nagpur 1900 people have died
from plague, and 1000 at Kalmeshwar. There
places are 10 miles apart. and on the roadside be-
tween il the village OF Aria, which has had no
plague. Cats have kept the village free from
rats. Following up the hint. census showed
that 10000 people of the district Of Amraoti had
5000 cats and that 145 villages having cats In at
least half of the houses had never had the
plague. OF more than 5000 cases Of plague in
the district last year, there were no cases in
groups OF houses containing more than one
house protected by cats. It Is now known that
the plague IL spread by rats. The gun, the trap,
the ferret, the terrier. poisons like phosphorus
and arsenic. and bacteria have been suggested
as remedies but Col. Buchanan believes that the
plague In India will cease when the cat-which
has been overlookod-is recognized as the true
rat-exterminator.
Salt is purified by melting in the new and
rapid English process The crude rocksalt is
fed automatically to table contained in large
furnace, is then fused and runs into troughs
from which it is drawn at one side of the fOo-
mace into large cauldrons. Air is forced into the
motion mass and lime is added. The impurities
sink to the bottom. and the upper portion is
ground and screened, while the lower part is
used for chemical manure.
The physiological effects of high-freQuency
currents are traced by two French experiments
to increase Of body temperature. This gives
them value in arterio sclerosis. Brights disease
and other maladies, and as q mild substitute for
warm baths and other heat applications.
S.
The sensational prophecy has been made that
within year we shall be seeing by wire-even
across the AtIantic-and it ia interesting to note
that scientific authority admits the possibility.
DR.. Shelford Bidwell. the British physicist.
weights the chances. By method similar to
that which now telegraphs pictures to photo
graphic plates, it would be necessary to pass the
selenium cell transmitten over the entire trans
hitting screen in long spiral at least ten times
every second, or the persistence Of vision would
not combine the successive impressions into one
view. At each passage the light variations Of
the selenium would be transmitted from each
division of the many thousand Of the transmit
ter screen to a corresponding division OF the re-
ceiver screen by receiver synchronized to
move exactly with the transmitter. Such
| mechanism Ia not to be considered. and the only
| practical plan seems TO be to provide selenium
cells and independent wires for each division OF
| the scene. To produce received image 2inches
square. made up of units l-150 of an inch square.
would require 10000 elementary working parts,
| including selenium cells, luminosity controlling
devices. projecting lenses for the receiver. and
conducting wires. The scene would be projected
by 8-foot lens upon q surface of selenium cells
| feet square. the receiving apparatus would
occupy 1900 cubic feet, and the cable between
the stations would be or 10 inches in diameter.
line of 100 miles would probably cost So 1000.
IS
Ill-considered advertising of divining-rod
| achievements Is pointed out by British engi-
| neer as a serious injustice to METEOROLOGICAL
| experts and artesian engineers. The mysterious
| twig shows water no oftener than ordinary
| guessing. Science has far better record, and
| in his own experience water has been found in
hundreds Of places all over Great Britain by the
study of geology and physical geography. not
] one attempt in 50 having failed where success
was confidently expected and hardly success
having been recorded where conditions seemed
adverse.
A solid fuel being in many respects desirable
for motors and automobiles firm of German
manufacturers has adapted the gas engine for
using bricks Of naphthalene. This is a compare
lively cheap hydrocarbon distilled from coal-tar.
melts at TIA degrees Fahr., and often causes
trouble by condensing from coal gas and stop
ping up the pipes. Fed every two or three
hours into a special cylinder attached to the
gas engine. the bricks are melted by the waste
heat from the Jacket water and the exhaust.
The melting naphthalene passes down pipe
which Is jacketed BY branch pipe from the ex-
haust-to the spraying device, which is heated
by the exhaust end the air entering the cylin-
der is also preheated to keep the napthalene
| from clogging the nozzles. The one disadvan-
tage of this fuel is that it is necessary to use
gasoline until the cooling water and the exhaust
become hot enough to melt the naphthalene.
~
Female suffrage appears to be many-sided
problem. A Finnish physician, DR.. Onni Gran
holm, even accuses it Of increasing insanity. At
Nurmes the number Of lunactics was only 20 in
1900. with II 1888 inhabitants but had reached 81
| in 1906 with population of 12,l37. Neither
heredity nor morbid religious movements ex-
plain the increase. and the sociaistic and poiti-
| cal excitements of Finland have not reached
this remote place. But the especially
teachers-are intensely interested in the newly
acquired right to vote and hold office. The do
nestle life has suffered in consequence. becom-
ing unfayorable for development of the young.
and more mental alteration is result
80
In the novel tool-tempering apparatus OF W..
Rosenhain, as exhibited at soiree of the Lon
don Royal Society, the metal is heated in vacu-
UNI tube, and at the required temperature
shown by thermo electric indicator-is
quenched by admitting water. The new silica
tubes admit of sudden cooling from redness or
greater heat.