Science & Invention

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 652, 2 December 1908, Page 7

Science & Invention

C. C."Trowbridge says that meteor trains are the luminous clouds formed by meteors which persist long after the incandescent body has disappeared. The average, of the heights above the earth's .surface of the middle portion of the trains is 54 miles, the minimum being about 45 miles, and the maximum 65 miles. It would thus appear that in the zone between 50 and 6U miles' altitude there exist the special atmospheric conditions necessary for the production of these phenomena. '- •

. WIRELESS MESSAGES TO A BALLOON.; Several officers of the United States bignal Corps made an ascent in one of the army balloons from Washington. During the course of the flight messages were received on beard the balloon from the Government's wireless station at Annapolis. A special antenna was suspended from the basket, and the latter was also enveloped in a wire netting. So successful was the experiment-that it is believed that balloons will soon be equipped with wireless apparatus, which will enable them not only to receive messages, but also to send them. With this improvement, the use of the balloons will be greatly increased ir time of war. A NEW USE FOR WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY. A new use for wireless telegraphy has been suggested by Professor Bouquet de.la Brye. that the wireless system should be utilised for enabling vessels at sea to find their longitude. The Eiffel Tower in Paris can at present send radio-telegrams to points within a radius of 1,200 miles, which comprises the Mediterranean and a portion of the Atlantic. If a standard time were signalled from th; tower, all vessels fitted with Marconi apparatus within the radius could fix their longitude by comparing Paris time with their own chronometers, and thus avoid the complicated calculations which are now necessary. The Professor also suggested that if a Marconi station were established on the Peak of Teneriffe, in the Canary Islands, which is about 12,000 feet high, all points of the globe might be reached by the wireless time signals and navigation be thus much simplified. THE ACE OF GREATEST MENTAL STRENGTH. Professor Wv A. Newman Borland has just gone deeply into the records of achievements of the world's chief workers and thinkers, and finds that the average age for the performance of the master work is 50. For th( workers the average is 47, and for thf thinkers 52. \ Chemists and physicists average the youngest, at 41; poets and inventors at 44; novelists at 46; explorers and warriors, 47; compos? ers and actors, 48; artists and clergy l men, 50; essayists and reformers, 51; physicians and statesmen, 52; philosophers, 54; mathematicians and humourists, 56; historians, 57; >natu« ralists and land concludes that if health and optimism remain "the man of 50 can command success as readily as the man of 30." He adds that "health plus optimism are the secret of success ; the one God-given, the other 1 inborn, but capable of cultivation to the point of enthusiasm."

CONCRETE ARMOUR MAY LE USED FOR WARSHIPS. An Italian engineer, Signor d'Adda, has submitted proposals to. the Italian Government for the use of concrete armour on Italy's new warships. A series of trials will be made/to test the resisting power of reinforced concrete. The Italian Government already owns several concrete ships, as we reported a little while back. Ten. years ago an engineer named Gabellini, constructed six concrete steamers, which are still in use on Italian rivers. He built for Government a concrete boat of 120 tons, and tested it by making it collide with a much larger iron vessel armed with a ram. The concrete ship came off victorious. The concrete ships owned by Italy cost nothing- for maintenance, they are entirely fireproof, and cost about half as much as iron Vessels. The'frames and longitudinal beams are made of concrete reinforced with round bars of iron, and the skin consists ©f concrete stiffened with wire netting-, and made smooth and watertight/by an external coat of pure cement.