Science and Invention

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 503, 10 January 1906, Page 7

Science and Invention

UHAWARDED PRIZES. AMONG the prizes offered by the Paris Aoademy of Soienoe to investors is one of £4.000, founded by Pierre Guzmann, whioh is to go to the person who find a way of communication with the inhabitants of another planet. Another prize—theßreant —awaits any one who discovers an infallible remedy against Asiatio cholera. AN ENORMOUS METEORITE. The meteorite whioh fell in Ireland lately is insignificant in size when compared with one disoovered by Professor Ward, of Rochester, New York, who has devoted much time to the oolleotion of these metallio bodies. The mass was found in Mexico, and it is of suoh a size that twenty-eight men were engaged for a whole day in partly uncovering it from the soil whioh had accumulated upon and around it. Its weight is computed to be fifty tons; and analysis shows it to consist of nearly 90 per oent. iron, 7 per cent, niokel, with a small proportion of cobalt and phosphorus, and a traoe of sulphur and silicon. A small pieoe of the meteorite, weighing eleven pounds, was detaohed for examination and exhibition, bat the bulk of the mass will likely be allowed to rest on the spot on whioh it now lies, where it fell probably countless ages ago. SEA FOGS. There are indications that the problem of navigation during fog is likely to be solved —to a large extent at any rate. During the experimental tests recently carried out at the mouth of the river Weser, in the presence of numerous experts, a submarine signalling wa3 distinctly heard by the .observers on a ship under full steam at a distance of 7& miles. Btill more important was the faot that it was possibla to -locate the spot from whioh the signal proceeded, so it seems as if there is certainly good reason to, hope that as this form of signalling is unaffected by the state of the sea or the weather, it may be possible in days to come to prevent tho danger and delay whioh attend navigation when the thiokness of enveloping mist either retards or completely stops the progress of ships. Fog is the mariner's most dangerous enemy, and for that reason alone the future submarine signalling will be watohed with the most intense interest. LOSS OF HEAT IN STEAM. M. Mareohal, engineer of the Association Normande des Proprietaires d'Appareiis a Vapeur, who has carried on interesting investigations on the steam-engine and the proportion of calories actually utilised, has arrived at the conclusion that, even with the most perfeot systems, as muoh as 59 per oent, of the total heat developed goes to the oondenser. When the motor is of free escapement, 63 6 per cent, of the heat is dissipated in the atmosphere. RADIUM TONERMr. D. Ireland, becoming dissatisfied with the existing formulae, worked oat the bath for himself. Prints toned with it are, he claims, absolutely permanent, and the operation is very simple, no preliminary or hardening bath being required. Badium toner should be mixed with soft or rain water, and in the oase of suoh papers as Ilford, toning is completed in from two to three and a half minutes. A new dish should be used for toning, and on no aooount one that has been employed for sulphooyanide, COLOURED SILK. A curious experiment in silk-oulture is described in a German paper. Bilk, whioh is a seoretion of two glands situated close to the digestive canal of the silkworm, is oolourless when it first issues, and hardens into a thread by exposure to the air. Sometimes, however, it is straw-yellow or greenish in tone, and this colouration has been attributed to the tint of the mul-berry-leaves upon whioh the worms feel. This opinion would seem to be oorreot, for it has been found that when the leaves are saturated with a non-poisonous red or blue aniline dye the worms assume the same oolour and secrete silk to matoh, BRICKLAYING-MACHINE. '_ Machinery has been applied to most processes whioh were formerly carried out by hand-labour; but the art of brioklaying has hitherto'remained one of those handicrafts with whioh inventors have not meddled. The trowel and mortar-board are used as they have been for thousands of years in the laying of brioks; but now a great ohange is indioated in the production of a brioklaying-maohine, which is the outoome of many years' experimental work. This machine will, with the help of two men and a boy to feed it, lay from four to six hundred brioks per hour ; in other words, it will do the work of six or seven skilled bricklayers. The machine as at present made is suited for all straightforward brioklaying, suoh as the building of faotories, cottages, and walls generally ; and, as considerable pressure is applied to each brick, the mortar is oompressed, and foroed into the interstices of the baked olay in a more thorough way than is possible by hand. A GLOBULAR BOAT, The captain of a tug-boat whioh was oruising in the English Channel reoently, observing a curious objeot in the sea, steamed up to it, and found it to be a large globe, from a window in whioh a man's head projected. Two men eventually orept out of this queer-looking oraffc,and one of them proved-to be Captain Doenvig, a Norwegian, who had invented it as a means of saving life. His story was that he and hie companion had been drop-

ped overboard from a Havre steamer twenty-four hoars previously in order that they might make an experimental voyage. The globe (eight feet in diameter) is made of sheet-iron, rather flattened at the bottom, and of thioker metal below so that it shall sail upright. Under the 'deck,' whioh is one foot below the water-line, are four galvanised tanks holding one hundred and forty gallons of freshwater; and under the benoh whioh is ranged along the sides of the globe is a store of tinned provisions. There is a funnel whioh can be thrust through one of the three openings or win dows for the purpose of getting fresh air, and whioh oan also be used as a mast to carry a sail; and there is a rudder, a movable keel, and the means of working a pair of oars. Oaptain Doenvig has proved to demonstration that this oarefully devised vessel will preserve life; but it is rather too cumbersome to carry on board ship, either as part of the vessel's gear or as an item cf personal luggage.