The Baltimore County union, the Towson news. (Towson, Md.) 1909-1912, 1909-11-13
so1ENT1FIc M1scErLANY.

Hunger and Cbaracter-Strong Glass
Making Fishing Nets Invisible-A Peat
er-Plant-Malingering Exposed by
Electricity-Cutting Out Old Age.
Correspondence of The Union-News.)
The temperature of the fire of moving loco
motive has been at last determined to be u $500
Fair. at speed of 81 miles en- hour, and 12,sO00
tahr at 10 miles, The draft and the tempera-
ture are greater than when the engine is at rest.
but it was found that the measurements-which
were made in Germany-could be effected while
running by using a LIE Ohatelier pyrometer,
with special galvanometer. having a compen-
sator and made to retain sensitiveness and accu-
racy in severe jolting. The chief difficulty was
to expose the pyrometer to the greatest heat
and yet shield it from the direct flame. There
was risk of fusing the plAtinum-iridium wires.
and this was only avoided by plscing the pyro-
meter high in the fre-box, enclosed in a tube of
chrome steel encased in a protective coating of
fire-clay.
The electric rat trap at the municipal station
of Charlottenburg, Germany, is the invention
of Herr Won Biederheim, and consists of a set
of wires SO placed in the three-phase 120-volt
circuit that the rats must come in contact with
them. Death results instantly, with practically
no combustion of the bodies. Any desired
number of these destroyers can be mounted to-
gether in a large box. and it is recommended
that an electric bell or lamp be arranged to
signal an electrocution, so that the trap may be
promptly reset. A direct current of 22O volts
can be used.
The curious instrument of DIR. A. Basler con-
sists of a lever with bit of paper at the short
arm and fine measuring scale at the end of the
long arm. Looked at from distance of a foot
persons with normal vision detect movement
of the paper as small as 1850 of an inch, and
some could see displacement of 1-1200 of an
inch. Objects of these dimensions are much too
small for the naked eye. An illuminated slit
was shown in the dark. and the smallest move
ment perceptible was four times as great as
that of the paper.
Only the well-fed man is normal and a new
French work by N. Lassignardie shows the ex-
traordinary influence of deficient nourshment
upon the mind, character and general behaviorl
Starvation may result in various ways. 1t may
be voluntary, as in the prolonged endurance
fasts of Succi and others, in attempts to COM
NIT suicide, and in religious fasts; or involun-
tary, as in fevers and other di leases, as result
of poverty, or as a consequence of shipwreck
or imprisonment by accident in mines or
NIcChcQ DululuBcs NOluubdFy duu udDlludl
fasting for moderate period has an extraordi
nary effect in stimulating mental activity. es-
pecially arousing the imagination. Prolonged
deprivation brings a remarkable change in the
character of the individual as shown by a
peculiar excitablity, great selfshness and even
cruelty, together with signs of mental derange-
ment, such as partial loss of memory and self
control, and an inclination to irresistible i'm
pulses Extreme cases develop acute mental
arrangement with sleeplessness, nightmare
and maniacal visions at night, and halucina-
tons and dangerous impulses by day. Similar
effects are seen in drunkenness and certain dis
eases, and seem to be associated with similar
imperfect nourishment.
80
Drawn glass an inch and a-third in thickness
has been found to support 10000 pounds per
square inch when in sheets measuring 9 by 10
inches, and $1,000 pounds in sheets of ID by IA
inches. Its great strength, with its resistance
to temperature changes, has been bringing it
into favor in the construction of machinery.
In official tests at Breslau the glass is heated 81
minutes. then sprinkled one minute, and finally
deluged with strong jet of water for two min
utes and is expected to endure this severe
treatment without cracking. The glass passes
much light and is readily cleaned.
IS
The nets of Scottish fishermen are now being
dyed blue with sulphate of "copper" as result
of the recent discovery that sea-colored nets
catch more fish than the brown nets so long
used. test of the value of this new departure
was made not long ago by fleet of s. fishing
boats, of which one carried nets dyed blue, and
the catch by this boat was so much larger than
that by any other that the influence of color
was decided to be real.
~
The peat electric station at Skabersjo, Sweden,
which has been quietly worked more than five
years, is supplied by small bog of 80 acres,
with peat averaging five feet in depth. and in
this source is estimated to have fuel for about
30 years. The electric current is yielded by two
generators of $50 horsepower each, which are
coupled direct to two gas engines, receiving the
peat gas from two Korting suction gas-pro-
ducers. The current is conducted two or three
miles to Svedala, and is there used for lighting
the Streets and for power for several small in
dustries. The price to consumers is only about
one-half cent per horse power. Tar is the only
by-product saved, but the experiments now in
progress at different places indicate that the
sulphate of ammonia and other by products re-
covered in a somewhat larger station-one of a
few thousand horse power-will be so profitable
that they will pay all expenses. leaving the
entire power-production as clear gain, or pro-
duct costing nothing,
-
Victims of accident sometimes feign local
paralysis long after recovery-as in broken
limb that has healed and an electrical means of
detecting the fraud has been devised. The test
is based on the fact that faradic current causes
a muscle to contract when applied to the proper
nerve. An apparatus of Dr. Larat is designed
to give graphic record of the degree of con-
traction, and comparison of the records for cor
responding muscles on both sides of the body is
expected to prove convincing court evidence in
damage suits. The variations have a simple in
depreciation. If the injured muscle and its OPP
posite contract alike there is paralysis; if the
injured muscle shows weaker reaction, the
pretended nerve disease is real but if the reac-
ton is stronger than on the other side, the par
alysis has its seat in the brain or spinal cord.
50
Now the surgeon proposes to use the knife to
remove the cause of old age Metchnikoff long
ago advanced the theory that the lower intes-
tine, serving as breeding place for harmful
germs, is responsible for most diseases and early
death and, agreeing with him, DR.. Distase of
Paris proposes to remove the large intestine