Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1912-09-26

several hundred miniature lighting
hashes leap between the bends In the
copper tubes each sconi They appear
as an arc, n steady flame. That flame
ID az responsive to magnetism as
piece OF iron. The magnet attracts IL
and spreads II out into disc six feet
In diameter!-that roars, as countless
flashes pass each second from tube T.,
tube, and has temperature OF 1000.
Water circulates constantly through
tho tubes. lest they melt in that fierce
heat Even then they last only aop
hours. To view II, windows Of colored
glass are provided in the drum.
To that roaring iisc air Is fei. II
passes out of the furnace; Q per cent
IL converted into nitro oxide. It Is
carefully collected. cooled-so that IL
may not decompose into oxygen and
nitrogen--brought into contact with
water, and thus changed into nitrt,
acid. In turn the nitric acid is sprayed
into granite watts filled with limestone
Here, with much effervescence, cat
cium nitrate 10 produced-man's arti.
ficiai competitor with the soda nitrate
of Chile. Seven chemical changes
must the gaseous nitric oxide pass
through before the solid calcium NIT
trate is obtained. Norwegian salt
peter" as the ultimate product ia
called. Is sold in Europe for about
S3s.7b ton. Chilean nitrate is sold
for s45.s2.
| Aother form Of lightning flash has been
invented by two German scientists. Schon.
| herr and Hessberger. for one Of the Ger
man chemical companies. The apparatus
! Is even simpler than that OF Birkeland and
Eyde. for there are no magnets. no cop
per tubes through which water flows Ir
an iron tube an arc flame in length from
16 TO % feet Is produced. Air Is blown
through not In n straight line. but tan.
centrally through many holes. so that II
whirls cork-screw fashion, from one end
Of the tube to the other. In the larger
tubes 10000 cubic feet of air an hour Is
burned.
Schonherr and Hessberger wanted &c
Use the nitrogen OF the air not for fertil,
izer. but obtaining sodium nitrjte in a
cheap way. The company needed sodium
nitric in manufacture Of "aze'' dyes
Formerly the nitrite had been obtained by
chemically treating the expensive Chilean
nitrite in manufacture Of 'azo" dyes
ply Of the world. valued at about 81. 900, OU
annually, is obtained from the air by the
Schonherr- Hessberger process. Latterly
nitrate fertilizer has also been produced
II would be financially hopeless to gener.
ate the current with fuel engine and q
dynamo; and so the Schonherr- Hess ber-
ger process is likewise dependent upor
Norwegian water power.
CULTIvATING BACTERIA.
For thousands OF years wise farmers
have practiced crop rotation" Away:
a leguminous or pod bearing crop-peas
beans, clover and the like-fnds place
After the leguminous crop the soil wa.
more fertile. Not until lssS. and then aftel
a discussion begun 30 years before. wa.
the practice conceded to be more thar
superstitution. a German bacteriologist
Hellriegel. demonstrated that the property
! Of ennchng the soil with nitrogen
possessed by every legume was to b,
attributed to bacteria. Around the roots
are Jumps or nodules. He found that eaci
nodule was a whole colony Of bacteria.
Two Germans. Noble and Hiltner, IL
1895 placed on the market a culture o
bacteria known as ''nitragin." 1t provet
a failure, because the bacteria starved
.before they had an opportunity Of fixinl
the atmospheric nitrogen. 1t was
. wearisome task TO discover what food tn
, bacteria liked. Mr.. George Moore, Will
| on the staff Of our department OF agri
culture, hit upon the right kind of food
aud. what Is more, a method Of packinl
, the bacteria so that they could be KEEP
t on hand for weeks. Thus was created tn
! new and curious industry Of supplying
} microscopic organisms to farmers ant
thus every scientific farmer has becom
: a soil physician.