The Baltimore County union, the Towson news. (Towson, Md.) 1909-1912, 1909-10-30
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
A Dynamo That Speaks-Electric Power
from the Wind = Building Up Boys
Faces = The Comet that Struck the
Earth-The Eye Magnet = An Earth
quake Recorder for Automobiles-The
Latest Word on Snake Poisons-An-
nual Strata in Geology.
Correspondence of The Union News.)
In the novel telephone experiments of Prof.
w. Peukert of Brunswick, Germany, magnets,
alternating current transformers and even dy-
namos have been made to talk without the use
of vibrating plates or membranes. core Of
soft iron enclosed in a coil in microphone cir
cult was at the same time surrounded by sec
ond coil of wire traversed by direct current and
was thus kept constantly magnetized while sub
jected to the feeble variations of the microphone
circuit. Words spoken into the microphone
were reproduced by the magnetized iron so
loudly as to be heard several yards. Trying the
dynamo the field magnets were excited by a
special continuous current, and the microphone
circuit was applied to the brushes. Both speech
and song delivered before the microphone were
reproduced by the dynamo so clearly as to be
distinctly heard in a good sized hall
So
If the wind blowing over London to a height
estimates, it would do work equivalent to that
of steam engine of half million horsepower
working day and night. Wind turbines can be
used for many purposes, are simple to erect, and
do not usually require towers more than so feet
high. In Germany wind-power electric gener-
ating equipment has been brought out. No at
tention is needed except to reduce the sail area
of the wind wheel in storms, storage battery
stores the excess current from the dynamo until
needed, and a special regulator automatically
keeps at constant pressure the current supplied
for housekeeping or driving small farm or other
machines.
Besides striking improvement in stature and
health, boys taken from London streets for the
British navy have shown a remarkable change
In the shape and expression of the face. DR..
Robbins curiously attributes this development
to growth of the lower jaw brought about by
the chewing made necessary by the salt junk
and other navy rations
-
The theory that large comet colided with
the earth just $50 years ago appears to Professor
W. H. Pickering as quite plausible. Biologists
have reached the conclusion that the now
famous crater near Coon Butte, Arizona, is the
scar left by great fall of meteoric matter aid
the fact that seven of the ten largest known
meJeOflLeB nave Deen lOunu WlCnln SOU Uileo VI
this place suggests that all have been scattered
fragments from the same fall. They similar
masses of iron and nickel weighing from three
to twenty tons each. Geological evidence at
Coon Butte indicates that the collision occurred
less than 5000 years ago, and stunted cedars
growing in the crater show by their annual
rings that the time must have been at least 700
years ago. Annals of Cairo. Egypt, seem to
place the date in August 1929. The record men
tions great meteoric shower. such as might be
witnessed over the earth on collision with a
comet, and there was not only brilliant light
but great noise, in contrast with the stiffness
ofother meteoric showers that have been known.
~
The type of powerful electromagnetic that is
being used in many English hospitals for re-
moving iron and steel particles from the eye has
core of the best Swedish soft iron, three feet
long and six inches in diameter, which is wound
with 200 pounds of insulated wire in two coils.
The threaded end of the magnet is adapted to
receive terminals of shapes varied to suit special
cases. Mounted on ball bearings the magnet
can be moved easily in any direction, and spe-
cial form-for reclining patients-is geared so as
to be tilted by hand crank. A rheostat varies
the strength of the magnet, which, at the maxi
mum, exerts pull of 80 pounds per square inch
at a distance of one inch.
-
A seismograph registering the jolts of motor
vehicle was a novel exhibit by Hon. R. G. Par
sons at late soiree of the London Royal Society,"
The apparatus consists of a weight carried by
the horizontal arm of bell-crank lever. the
other arm of which is connected to link hold
ing pencil against a paper-covered revolving
drum. Jolts displace vertically the point of
suspension of the bell-crank lever, giving an
klok.
zontal motion of the pencil on the paper of the
drum. The record gives an indication of the
movements of the car-body by obstacles or de-
pressions in the road.
-
Two classes of snake poisons are recognized
by DR.. Calmette, Director of the Pasteur Insti-
tute at Lille. The venoms of the cobra, bum
garus and other serpents of the East have a
powerful action upon the nervous system but
the poisons of such snakes as the cerastes, rat
tlesnake and adder have more strictly localized
effects. An old error is the idea that the poison
is only fatal when it is taken into the veins.
When taken into the stomach in sufficient doses,
its action is very powerful, and sucking poison
from a bite is not without serious danger.
Another common mistake is the belief that
snakes are immune to the poison of other
snakes. DR.. Calmette's experiments have shown
that rattlesnake poison will kill cobras, and that
1t is only bites from their own species that
snakes can bear without injury. If injected
promptly, certain chemcals-such as perman-
ganate of potassium, chloride of gold, chloride
of lime and chronic acid-have considerable
value as antidotes. The only really effective
remedy, however. has proven to be serum pro-
duced by successive inoculations of rabbits,
guinea pigs. or, preferably, horses, and the eff
cheney of this is almost certain if used within
two hours after the bite.
-
A new geological time indicator has been
brought to notice by Baron G. de Geer of Stock
holm. Deposits of Illuminated clay have been
found in fowlands bordering the Baltic, and it is
supposed that the alternating bands of dark and
light have had an origin comparable to that of
the rings of trees which they resemble The
clays seem to have been laid down by sub
glacial streams during the retreat of the ice
sheet at the close of the glacial period. 1t is
concluded that the dark clay with its greater
vegetable matter was deposited in autumn and
winter, that the light clay was washed down by
the melting ice and snow in spring. and that the
brown clay was the summer deposit. As the ice
border receded the clay record extended farther
inland and north.
A permanently self-luminous watch-dial and
military night compass was late exhibit in
London by G. E. s. Phillips. The glass dials
have figures on the upper surface and
backed with a radium bromide compound. The
figures stand out very clearly at night.