The Baltimore County union, the Towson news. (Towson, Md.) 1909-1912, 1909-10-23

Metals New to the Arte-The Warm Bath
for Plants Medicines Tropical Tri-
umps-As the Moon Sees Us-Ubiqui-
tous Pulp-New Rubber from Old
Uniform Time by Wireless-When Eros
Comee-Steel-Plated Iron.
Correspondence Of The Union News.)
Quite number of rare metals have been put
to use in recent years. Geissen, German metal
lurgist mentions that thorium, employed for
incandescent gas burners, chiefly comes from
Brazil, little being obtained in the United
States. The tantalum minerals. tantalite and
columbite, supplying filaments for electric
lamps, are obtained in the United States and
Australia. Chromium, in zirconia and gadolinite,
is also used in the Nernst and wedding lamps.
Vanadium, from the United States and Mexico.
enters into the steel frames of motor cars. IRA
mum ores, yielding radium, are derived from
Joachimsthal in Bohemia. Molybdenum, from
Queensland and Canada, is used in a fine steel
for tools or arms and for alleging with nickel.
Tungsten. of Importance in certain steels, is
furnished by Queensland in wolframite, q
mineral found also in Cornwall. the United
States, Canada and Bolivia.
80
In the warm bath method of forcing plants, as
proposed by Professor H. Molisch. the stems of
hours in water at 150 to 30O c. 1892 to $50 Fahr.)
and the plant is then placed in a warm, moist
chamber. and eventually transferred to green
house. The stimulation of some plants seems
to be much like that produced by ether vapor.
Forsythia, Spiraeas Syringas and other plants
that are usually forced gave very favorable re-
suits; Azalea mollis and Camellia japonica were
but little affected, and no practical benefit was
I'D No hill
The stamping out Of tropical diseases ranks
among the most remarkable of recent achieve
ments. At the firstannual dinner of the Society
Of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. held in Lon
don, it was stated that sleeping sickness alone
has caused half million deaths in Uganda, but
since the discovery of the way it is spread the
ravages have been reduced 90 per cent. Yellow
fever has disappeared from the West Indies. In
the Isthmian zone 4S 900 employees of NJ. de Les
seps died. but no case of yellow fever has oc-
CURED on the canal in the last three years.
sas
Since the days of Leonardo da vinci, four cen
turtles ago, it has been recognized that the light
seen on the portion of the moon turned away
from the sun is "earth- shine, but it is only re-
Gently that observers have begun to take notice
Of the image reflected in this most gigantic
mirror known to man. From this reflection it
is now being seen that the earth as viewed from
the moon must be gorgeously colored object
of marvellous and ever-changing beauty. A
study Of the earth-shine has convinced Wilhelm
Krebs. a German astronomer. that variations of
its brightness at different seasons are due to
changes in the cloudiness and snowfall on the
rejecting surface of the EARTH and this suggests
an explanation of the various pale tints some
times seen in the earth light. The blue, green
and yellow are evidently due to reflections of
the SUMS light from oceans, foliage and deserts
respectively. In the early part of last year
Herr Krebs detected another color-that seemed
to him reddish but to others was violet or lilac
and at the same time an unusual prevalence of
cirrus clouds and brilliant red sunsets was
noticed on the earth. 1t was concluded that the
red reflections came from the red zone of
twilight encircling the full earth" II the full
moon we see the cold brilliant glare of a dead,
changeless globe but to the lunarians-real or
imaginary-is presented the contrasting picture
of great living world, of four times the diane
ter shown by the moon to us, with slowly alter
ing land and moving water and an necessarily
changing panorama of cloud and snowfield and
vegetation, flooded in an atmosphere of con-
stantly varying refraCtion Of the suns rays.
IS
Paper is now used for roofs, clothing. water
bottles, grain bags and other odd purposes. A
new paper horseshoe is recommended for its
great durability and Iightness and for its safety
for the hoof, as it is attached with cement in
stead of nails. The reinforced paper of two
German engineers is claimed to be superior
material for warships, automobiles, railways
and street pavements. 1t is made of paper pulp,
canvas, linen and raw silk, reinforced with steel
wire, and is light. waterproof and fireproof.
-
A new German process of retaining rubber
recommended for its small use of solvent--con-
ssts in heating fragments of old vulcanized
rubber goods with one-fifth of their weight of
aniline. The recovered rubber can be vulcanized.
One of the next developments is likely to be
the establishing of wireless-telegraph clocks in
cities. At Vienna, where the Reithofer Mora
wetz system has been under test several years
the time signals are sent each minute from the
regulating clock at the central station to three
receiving stations in the city and suburbs, and
the service seems to have continued satisfac-
torily and without interruption. At the sending
station wheel having 60 teeth is moved forward
one tooth each second under the control of q
seconds pendulum. Once in each revolution
that is, once a minute-the wheel closes the
wireless transmitter circuit, and the aerial wave,
sent out affect the circuits of the electric clocks
at the receiving station, advancing the minute
hands one division. Each clock circuit is auto
matically closed about one-quarter second be-
fore each minute signal is received and opened
one quarter second after the minute. In this
way other wireless waves are prevented from
interfering, as if an outside impulse should
happen to be received while the local clock cir
cult is closed, the only effect would be to cause
the minute hand to make a single advance q
fraction Of second too soon.
-
An astronomical event of greater interest than
even the return of Halley's comet is being
eagerly anticipated already, although still more
than a score of years in the future; and the
Astrographic Congress just held in Paris re-
solved to begin observing preparations at once
The little planet Eros, discovered as a sixth
magnitude star in 1898, has an orbit so eccentric
that at times 1t may come nearer the earth than
Mars-or any other heavenly body except the
mo0n-can approach. In 1900 Eros was within
about 81 100000 miles of us, but in 1881 it will be
only l5,5OO,OOO miles away. The chief import
ance Of this near coming is the unique oppor-
tunity it will give for a more accurate determin-
alton of the solar parallax and of the mass of
the earth and the moon.
80
The steel-coated iron lately brought out in
Europe is made by first rolling the iron to the
required shapes and then applying the steel in
any desired thickness. The combination of the
wearing qualities Of steel with the fiexibility of
iron is claimed to be of special advantage for
such purposes as car wheels and structural iron,
and the process is said to give great strength and
a great saving in cost.