Science and Invention

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 504, 17 January 1906, Page 7

Science and Invention

FOSSIL JfIARJHOT BURROWS. Borne years ago American geologists dosoribed certain large spirals of hard stone met with in rooks of soft structure under the name of ' devil's oorksorews.-' How these strange and gigantic spirals were formed had long been a mystery, although some naturalists suggested that they wero of vegetable origin. Dr. Holland has explained that they are really the solidified burrows of a marmot allied to the existing 'prairie-dog.' A SIBERIAN MAMMOTH, Oooasionally we hear of the body of a mammoth being discovered in Arctic regions, the flesh being preserved by a kind of natural system of oold storage. Such a disoovery took place about eighteen months baok in Siberia, and news of the find made its way to St. Petersburg, with the result that with great labour the body of the vast animal, divided into parts, was taken to the Russian capital, where it is now set up for exhibition. It is the mosi perfect specimen of the extinct mammal which has yet been found, and it is computed to be more than eight thousand years old. The legs and feet of the animal are like those of the elephant, except that the former has five toes and the latter only three. Unlike the elephant, the body of the mammoth is oovered with a thiok ooat of brownißh yellow hair, which must have kept the animal warm under all conditions. The skin was found to bo about an inoh in thiokness, and underneath it was a layer of fat. In Bpite of great difficulties, ths various portions of tha huge oaroass were oonveyed, in a frozen state, over hundreds of miles of country where roads were nonexistent. REYIYAL OF THE T>EAD. Dr Robert C> Kemp, a physioian of repute, haa lately brought before the New York Academy of Soienoe an aooount of some interesting experiments whioh ho has been conducting on lines whioh were suggested some time ago by Dr. Pruss, He aßserts that he .believeß it possible, in many oases, to bring baok persons to life and to permanent reoovery who are apparently dead. His method, whioh he hes already successfully practised on dogs, is to make a small incision between two of tha ribs, and to thrust two fingers into the wound until they touoh tha heart. That organ is then pressed against the ribs, and its natural motion is imitated by akind of massage, At the same time a saline solution is infused into the patient, and respiration ia induoed by a speoial form of pump, a tube from whioh is thrust into the windpipe. Under this treatment dogs whioh have been ohloroformed to suoh an extent that no pulsation ia peroeptible have been brought baok to life—in eleven instances

out of twenty-three. It is true that when Dr Kemp [same procedure in the oase of a human being, about a year ago, he failed to resuscitate the patient: but he believes, with the] added experience whioh he has since had, that the method would now prove suooessfuloin his hands.

RADIUM. The rare element radium shares with a few other substanoes the ourious property of being radio-aotive—that is to say, it oontinually emits radiations whioh act upon photographio plates, and have penetrative properties like the X-rayß. More than this, the radiations are aooompanied by a sensible amount of heat, and scientific men are now endeavouring to solve the problem of the source of this heat. One well-known physicist suggests that radium itself -is not hot, but that it emits partioles whioh are arrested by the surrounding air, and.thus a rise in temperature ooours, just as in the oase of those larger partioles, the meteorites, which are heated by friction with the earth's atmosphere. Unfortunately radium is so rare that at present it costs £250,000 per pound. Pure radium, a? a metal, does not exist, only its salts being known; and it is said that an impure specimen of one of these, weighing about half a gramme, oan be purohased from a manufacturing chemist in Paris ior the trifling sum of one thousand pounds sterling. The only specimen of radium which is chemically pure is owned by Professor Curie; it is the size of a buck-shot, and of very great value. Radium is found in pitch-blende, and many tons of that material contributed to the tiny specimen ownsd by Professor Curie. He is the discoverer of radium, and from his researches into its phyßiologioal aoticn, he has been led to express the opinion that he would not venture into a room containing one kilogramme of the material, as it would probably destroy his sight, shrivel up his skin, and even kill him.

AN ARIEL TORPEDO. A test was recently made at Rookaway Point, Long Island, of a novel projeo*ile invented by Mr Joseph J. Molntyre, of Brooklyn, N.Y. As the title implies, the new projeotile is of the explosive type, similar to a torpedo, but arranged to be driven through air instead of water. The torpedo, whioh resembles a huge rocket, carries a load of stell shrapnel and a high explosive whioh may be detonated by a time fuse or a percussion.oap, scattering the shrapnel over a wide area. A brass ojlinder contains at the lower end tha lifting charge by whioh the projeotile is fired into the air. At the upper end is the shrapnol and the high explosives. Several hundred steel shrapnel bullets are used. They are oast in strips and arranged about the inside of the casting, while in the centre are three sticks of dynamite. The bullets and dynamite are all inoased in plaster of Paris. A percussion oap at the upper end of tbe oyolinder explodes the charge when the projeotile strikes an objeot. The time fuse passes up through the centre of the oylinder between the sticks of the dynamite. The projeotile is arranged to be fired like a rocket from a tripod whioh may be raised or lowered to different angles, and thus regulate the distance the torpedo will oover. This may also be governed by varying the quantity of lifting charge in the oyolinder. In the Rookaway Point test a small oharge was used, so that the action of the projeotile oould more easily be followed. The-rookets in this oase covered only a quarter of a mile, while with full obarges they would have oovered a mile or more. The tests were very successful, the rookets exploding when striking the ground, tearing large holes in the Band, and scattering bullets over a large area. Several rookets were also fired out to sea, and exploded on striking the water. The tbird test, that of exploding a rocket in mid-air with a time fuse, was also successful. Mr Molntyre has equipped his invention with a safety device whioh prevents premature explosion. This permits large quantities ofbue rookets to be transported in perfeot safety,