The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1909-03-13
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
A Three Color Lantern-Poison Gas from
a Ships Hold-Vessel's Lights In Tri-
angle-Metal Ribbon-Pyramid Houses
Land Erosion-Fatigue-C Curing by An
titoxine--Earth elephony-Jupiter'
Far Off Moon.
The production on a screen OF Photographic
pictures in natural colors has been greatly sim
plifed by the camera-stereopticon of Andre
Cheron, French experimenter. All Unsuccessful
pictures of this kind so far have depended on
the "three-color process" in which three mega
tives are made under screens of the three pri-
mary colors, and the three pictures are In some
way superposed OF. combined so as to be seen in
a single view. The new apparatus is small
camera divided into three compartments ar
ranged in a triangle. Three object-lenses of
equal focus are placed in front of the compart-
ments, and each is provided with an appropriate
color screen. With lens of proper focus fitted
into ring that surrounds the three detectives,
three different single color negatives Of the same
object are taken on a single plate. To project
the views, a positive is inserted in place or the
negative strong light is thrown upon the plate
from behind, and a suitable lens in the ring
around the three detectives concentrates and
automatically superposes the three images on q
projection-screen. Though there is some slight
blurring, the colored pictures 30 obtained are
brilliant and pleasing.
-
Ferro-silicon, now coming into extensive use
as a ready means of adding silicon to certain
grades of steel, is produced by heating in the
electric furnace a mixture of iron ore, quartz,
coke and lime. When wet it gives on much
phosphoretted hydrogen. arseniuretted hydro
gen and other gas, and the death of five Russian
immigrants last December, while passengers in
the steerage of a steamer from Antwerp TO
Grimsby, has been traced to poisonous emana-
lions from cargo of this material.
s+s
An arrangement of a ships lights in definite
triangle on known plan is urged by d. H. Shut
tleworth- Brown as a safeguard against collision.
The lights would then show an observer on IAN
other ship the vessels course, her distance from
the observer, and her approximate speed.
AZ
Not least interesting of accidental discoveries
is the new method of rapidly converting metals
into ribbon form, which was hit upon by Mr..
Gilbert, British chemist, while seeking some
way of making whitehead without handling.
The molten metal is dropped upon rapidly re-
volving drum filled with cold water, and from
the surface of the drum it shoots out at the rate
of twenty miles an hour as delicate silvery rib
bon 1900 to 1000 of an inch thick cooled that
it can be caught in the hand. In this way metal
ribbon can be produced at an expense of $500 or
$1,000 a ton, or perhaps twentieth of the cost
of. making zinc turnings by the old method.
Numerous applications are expected. as ribbons
of lead will take the place of lead shavings or
turnings for packing joints and bearings and
other purposes. zinc ribbon will probably be
useful in thecyanide treatment of gold ores. and
in chemical industries various metals will be
brought into solution more quickly when first
made into ribbon form.
Ats
A new dwelling proposed at the late hygienic
congress in Berlin is! to have each successive
story narrowed from three to six feet, with sew
eral feet of balconies to widen the terraces thus
formed. This plan. recommended particularly
for sanatoriums and houses for the poorer
people, provides an abundance of air and light
for each story, and supplies an open space for
recreation out of doors. Asa material for build
ings of this kind, reinforced concrete has n.y.
gienic and other advantages.
."s
The United States is wearing down at the
average rate of one inch in 76O years. This re-
suit is computed from twenty years of stream
gauging and water analysis by the Geological
Survey. the Engineer Corps of the Army, and
the Weather Bureau, supplemented by some
State and municipal work. The streams carry
of each year an average of 81 tons of dissolved
solids and 1855 tons of suspended matter for each
square mile of surface-equivalent to total of
nm nf
suspended matter.
shs
Fatigue has been shown to be poisoning of
the body through the accumulation of waste
products under certain conditions, and some
twenty years ago Prof. Mosso, of Turin, found
that the illness sometimes following the eating
of the flesh of game or cattle is due to over-fa-
tigue of the animals at the time of slaughter.
The active agent was found to be specific
toxine, instead of an alkaloid, like the strych-
nine and brucine produced by plants The toxine
was isolated by DIR. Weichert, and proved to act
as an antitoxine in small injections, while large
injections produced the symptoms of fatigue,
followed by death. A firm of German chemists
has now produced an antidote for fatigue by a
simpler method than extractingit from fatigued
muscles. When albumenis broken up by heating
products gives the physiological effects of ia
tigue, and long heating or boiling destroys this
poison. yielding substance that neutralizes its
action. The antitoxine is separated by dialyzing
through porous membrane and extracting with
acetone. 1t may be injected into the body. and
is claimed to neutralize fatigue, preventing in
furious effects.
The introduction of magazine rifles into the
army is said to have ended the custom of using
the rifle as telephone by placing the muzzle to
the ground and listening at the breech for the
movement of distant calvary. A new apparatus
on the same principle is the acoustele of NJ. Mar
tel, French inventor. This is q trumpet
shaped tube yard or more high. enclosing a
central cone and it is claimed to be so sensitive
that the tick of q watch can be heard several
hundred yards away. In listening for sounds
through the earth, it is best placed In a special
hole.
The eighth satellite of Jupiter. discovered at
the Greenwich Observatory in January of last
year. proves remarkable not only for being so
far from the planet but also for its very eccen-
trio orbit, its distance from Jupiter varying
from about 100000 to 2O,OO0,00O miles. 1t re-
wolves around the planet in about twenty six of
our months.
CASTORIA
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