The Baltimore County union, the Towson news., 1909-09-18
(corespondence Of The Union Newa.l

Commerce-Wealth in Chemical Syn
thesis-Paint for Heaters-New Liquid
Metals-A Resource for Miners.
Correspondence of The Union News)
A successful method of making bread direct
from wheat, without the intermediate grinding
into flour. is claimed by Desgofe and Gorges,
two French inventors. eirapparatus is called
"panincator." and consists of large screw
turning loosely in an uprightor horizontal cylin-
der. on the interior Of which Is ascrew thread In
the reverse direction. The threads diminish In
size toward the exit. The wheat, cleaned and
swelled to double volume BY soaking six hours
in tepid water, is fed through funnel, passes
in whole grains into the body of the machine
and is crushed by the finer threads, emerging
as continuous roll of dough. Salt and yeast
can be added before or after passing through the
machine. After being put into a warm place
until it rises the dough is cut into loaves and
these are baked 40 to 45 minutes. The bread has
a much more marked agreeable odor than ordi-
nary bakers bread. There is no bran by this
process. both kernel and envelope being crushed
into homogeneous mass, and 100 pounds of
wheat yield $50 pounds of bread containing the
entire material of the grain.
The automobile wireless telegraph station Of
the French army resembles an ordinary limou-
sine in appearance. weighs 1890 pounds with
crew of six men, can be driven 26 miles an hour
on level by its 22-horse-power motor, and can
be made ready for operation in six minutes, the
normal radius ofaction being more than 90 miles.
The rear of the two compartments of the car
contains 5-horse-power dynamo, the receivers
and the operating key. A telescope mast. con-
sisting of number of concentric metal tubes
ten feet long is raised to height of 60 feet in
few seconds, the five antenna wires-each 100
feet long-being attached to its top, the lower
end of four being insulated from the ground,
and the fifth passing to the receiver.
-
The radiations of the human body that affect
Photographic plates have been found by De
Fontenay to be warmth and moisture.
81
The time that has elapsed since the first ap-
pearance Of life on earth has been variously es-
timated at 1OO,OOOOOO to 9OO,OOOOOO years. To tax
our powers of comprehension as little as possi-
BILE. DR.. H. Schmidt, of jena has taken the
shortest estimate. and has tried to make under
standable the five great evolutionary periods
through which life has passed by comparing
them with day of "a hours. This is the result:
The Archeozoic period (52 million years. is rep
resented by IL hours 80 minutes; Paleozoic "a
million years., hours minutes; Mesozoic III
million years., hours 38 minutes; Cenozoic q
million years., 43 minutes; Anthropozoic 100000
years., 2 minutes. If the last period, the age OF
man, be compared in its subdivisions by the
same scale it is found that the historic por-
tion covers only seconds, and 2 seconds are
sufficient for the Christian era. 1t seems in
credible but the evidence is convincing that
this does not exaggerate the time relations of
our written records with the records of the
rocks.
Perhaps the most novel and remarkable en-
tries in any trade catalogue of the day are ra-
dium salts, which are quoted by Siemens Bros.
Co., London agents of the Banque du Radium
of Paris One gramme Of radium salts contain
ing only O0025 per cent. of the pure bromide is
listed at about 81, and from this the prices range
according to the strength of the material up to
$4,000 (e16,OOO) for gramme of pure radium
bromide. Physicians and others may hire radio
active salts. For a centigram of pure radium
bromide-a pinhead quantity-the charges range
from 81 cents lis. 6d.) per hour for the first "a
hours to half that rate for longer period, full
time to be reckoned from leaving the Banqued du
Radium to return there. A deposit for the full
vulue must be made.
s.s
Ultramarine is cited as an example of the in
dustrial value of chemical investigation. When
this was made by powdering lapis lazuli. a very
rare mineral, the cost exceeded its weight in
gold, but since the chemists discovery that the
same material can be made from such cheap sub
stances as sodium salphate and carbonate, sui
phur, charcoal and rosin. the price has fallen to
few cents pound.
So
Whether painting radiators has any effect on
heating is problem of much interest. A prac-
tical investigation has been reported by John r.
Allen to the American Society Of Heating and
VentiIatng Engineers, and has brought to mo-
tice the influence of various kinds of paint The
transmission of heat was found to be about the
same with fourteen coats of paint as with two,
the effect produced seeming to depend upon the
last coat applied. 1t is concluded that the con-
dition of the surface affects the heating more
than the material through which the heat is con-
Quoted, but the vehicle carrying the pigment
has some influence. Copper bronze and shellac
gave better results than copper bronze and lin
seed oil. Copper and aluminium bronzes seemed
to be the poorest coverings, enamels the best
materials tried, but lead and zinc paints trans
mitted heat very nearly as well as the enamels
-
Liquid alloys of sodium and potassium are
produced in France by Jaubert from mixtures
of sodium hydrate with metallic potassium and
metallic sodium with potassium hydrate. OF
the two alloys produced one contains equal
parts of sodium and potassium, the other 70 or
so per cent. of potassium and 20 or 25 of sodium.
From IL parts of potassium and Of pure, dry
caustic soda, the alloy with an excess of potas-
sium is obtained, and also when IA parts of So
dium are mixed with 16 parts of caustic potash
containing 10 per cent of water and heated TO
4370 f. From 55 parts of sodium added to s
parts Of potash and heated to 662'. the alloy of
equal sodium and potassium is formed. Air
may be excluded by performing the operations
under melted parafine, when the temperature
cannot be more than 4OOo; but in the laboratory
vacuum is best used, metal and alkali being
placed in a strong glass rotort with air-pump
connection and heated by an oil bath.
"a
The emergency respirator for mines devised
by Clarence Hall, of the q. s. Geological Sur
vey, is said to consist of two cans. The air is
breathed from can in which the oxygen is in
creased by dropping water on sodium peroxide
and the expelled breath passes into the other
can containing lye to absorb carbon dioxide.