SIDELIGHTS ON SCIENCES

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 26, 7 March 1914, Page 4

SIDELIGHTS ON SCIENCES

Miss Kathleen Schlcsiuger, who recently delivered a scries of lectures at the British Museum in London on the music of the ancients, explained as follows the apparent lack- of harmony in the Egyptian and Babylonian, concerts. They had a. harmony of their own, she said", which our dulled ears arc incapable of appreciating. To their acute hearing the harmonic, <. overtones and undertones accompanying the fundamental note "were actually the source of exquisite pleasure." These ""tonepictures"" which we discern"'but dimly constituted their music* i '.• - ••■ ■'•• -• A commenter-. in ; the. London "Times" .takes exception to Miss Schlesingcr's theory ; for several reasons, the best of which is}'perhaps,' that music for its own sake, music as 1 an art, that is, is a relatively -modern thing. In ancient times the. so-colled music was anannex to many things : —religion, magic, dancing,- it never "travelled alone" until the dawn of Greek civilisation. ; , . ; •:■'

Apparently the first musical instrument of which representation' exists is a sort of castanet. "Predynastic vasepaintings dating from about 3500: B. C. show us groups of dancers -.accompanying themselves with something, resembling castanets, and evidently using their arms in the manlier now made familiar; to us by Spanish dancers." After the percussion style of instrument came the flute. Several .of these from Egypt are still in existence, and have been played upon by miflefh lips. Still' later came the stringed instruments." ALTITUDE A&D SLEEP/

In the course of recent lecture before the Royal Geographical Society Dr W. H; Workman said that 1 he l\ad been misquoted regarding the impossibility of sleeping at altitudes above 20,000 feet. The fact was, he explained, that in attempts to scale thje highest peaks Europeans were often seriously bothered by insomnia, but this; was a. very different thing from the 1 broad Statement that sleep was impossible at high altitudes. Possibly the- natives; were not so afflicted, and some. " p " ' suffered' far - '..'' *""*&£* Others, but his uwn experience left little;.doubt in his inind that not. a few ; white _ climbers, would' find' the lack' of, sleep in the cloud regions a ; serious obstacle to Jkbeir *- -Mrs Bullock Workman offered work. ... 7, -«iT»port of; this cosher testimony m "~--7. / elusion. •.•■•■• ' ' "'*"" -«(*»r INOCULATED FEAT7 V This humble variety of fuel —with the famous f reek' '-< has 'been raised to a position of new importance by the work of Professor Bottomley, The latter told the British Association sometjhriig about his inoculated "peat at its recent annual meeting, but later gave fuJler: particulars in an<address beforetjhe, .Boyal; Horticultural Club. . The xlifficuity of securing dependable., Ik "the field by inoculating soils with the nitrogen-fixing ! bacteria" • th'at came into prominence, a few years ago, as a '

result of their wonderful effects in laboratory tests, started the professor on a hunt for a hotter culture medium. Among others peat was tried, and with most surprising results. By first treating it with certain soil bacteria — to change its harmful humic acid into Soluble salts—and thon inoculating it with the nitrogen-fixing organisms, a fertiliser containing more than fifty times as much ''available [plant] food material as ordinary farm-yard manure" was obtained. That is, says Professor' Bottomley (and his claims are fully supported, it is said, by those, who Jiave.had opportunity to test the new peat themselves) "one ton of the prepared p?at" is superior to fifty" tons of farm-yard'manure." By way of concrete example, similar plots at Eton School .Gardens dressed in one case with inoculated peat at the rate of 1 1-5 tons per acre, and in the other with farm-yard manure at the rate -of 80 tons per acrey'showed most strikingly the superior value of the peat. The ground receiving the latter produced 41 per cent, more "potatoes, 27 per cent. more lettuce, "and 23 per cent, more turnips than its manured counterpart. Apparently, despite these claims, the new substance is still in an experimental state. Nothing is said as to its cost —obviously a factor of very considerable importance.

, GAS FROM WOOD. It appears that in the smaller gas works in many parts of Australia the use of wood for gas-making is-quite common. It is riot-used alone as a rule, but in combination with coal, about 25 per cent, of the charge put into the retort consisting of. woqii. The two woods commonly '"used' are box and redgum; "The wood is used, apparently, first because it is'cheap.:(l4/6 a cord), and secondly because it makes a much cleaner gas than coal alone. There is no deposition, of. naphthalene,. m> condensation ! im the m'ains, and no ?"-' carbon deposits on * v P ;..^-ineti«n%V er - The charcoal ricft m'the retorts after the distillation of the wood-coal mixture is burned with\ a v pprtio^„pf ,t|ie, coke .for heating the'retorts. , UNUSUAL STBAM 'ECONOMY. The largest • turbogenerator ever built was. recently shipped, from.jEngland. , to. the, Edison QOfflpany 'in Chicago. It is ( designed to iiifnf§]i 25,000 kildwattsTas a cdntinu'"^nntk But the most remarkable ous.. pu» r .,; economy thing about it is wo n * .. a , - of steam. For each 8.1 steanr per hour it is guaranteed to fur horse-power. It 'has been dajculated that in a marine boiler burning oil as a fuel, and running an engine of similar pattern to that above described, .6 of a pound of -fuel-per hour would, furnish a horse-power for that hour. This "would bring the • marine ste>m engine very near to the internal combustion 'engine in' the matter of- efficiency.' ';