Science & Invention.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 695, 29 September 1909, Page 7

Science & Invention.

THE BEST POSITION TO SLEEP IN. Two French inventors, MM. Duchatel and Warcollier, have presented to the Academy of Sciences a memorandum in which they advance the entirely new theory that muscular and nervous energy is increased or decreased according - as action, whether physical or mental, is being performed at certain points of the compass. The new law — as its inventor calls it —applies to the condition of rest or repose just as much as it does to action. M. Duchatel declares it to be a scientific fact that the most favourable position in which to sleep is with the head to the north or the south ; the most unfavourable with the head to the east or the west. The scientific sponsor of this discovery, in Jgo6, was one Reichembach, who called it the law of repose. The inventors just mentioned proceeded then to investigate the possibilities of a "law of activity."

BLEACHED BREAD. There is reason, says the "Lancet," for believing that the practice of bleaching flour to suit the eye of the uninstructed public is largely on the increase. It may be at once stated that the whiteness of bread is not symbolical of its purity, and that when t this whiteness is almost spotless a suspicion that bleaching chemicals _ have been used with the flour may fairly be entertained

It would be well if this false criterion disappeared and a return made to the old and sensible preference for a bread retaining- the natural slightly brown colour of the ground wheat berry, a colour which is probably significant of a palatable, nutritious .and digestible loaf. It cannot surely be advanced that the treatment of flow with chemicals improves its quality as regards its suitability for human needs. " The chemical itself may be innocuous, but that it has a powerful action upon certain constituents of the bread is evident from the fact that the colouring matters of the flour are bleached.

NO MORE WAR. A Scientist's Joyful Prophecy. The joyous prospect that science may yet make war impossible is held out bv a French scientist, Dr. Gustave Le Bon. He says this consummation may be arrived at within fifty years. I made a scries of experiments with M. Branly (says Dr. Le Bon) for the purpose of finding out the degree of permeability of various bodies with regard to Hertzian waves. We found that those waves were able to traverse stone walls more than three feet thick, whereas they were stopped bv a sheet of tin no thicker than a cigarette paper. A fissure no bigger than the hundredth part of a millimetre (1-2500 of an inch) was sufficient, however, for the waves to pierce the sheet. In space these waves are propagated spherically in all directions. Given these facts, it is conceivable that physicists will succeed in directing these waves, in making them travel on the same plane, and in the same direction. It has already been found that polarised waves move along the same plane. It would be sufficient to direct a sheath of parallel waves. There would be thus no loss of electric energy. Meeting an obstacle, such as a ship, or a powder magazine, these electric radiators would "charge" the whole metallic portion of the object thus met wMi The metallic framework would splutter with the elecric sparks discharged. The network of metallic wires on ships, torpedo boats, &c. would provoke an atmosphere of spark's which would cause the magazines or the shells to explode. The Hertzian waves directed in parallel waves would penetrate the arsenals, casemates, fortresses, or powder magazines, destroying everything on their passage. This application of Hertzian waves is as vet impossible for in order to reflect these radiations, the length of whose waves varies from 500 to 2000 yards, it would be necessary to employ parabolic mirrors 10,000 yds". .or more high. If Hertzian waves of less length were utilised the problem might be resolved more quickly, but these waves would be transmitted only a few score yards.

But the discovery of an apparatus for transmitting parallel waves can be made, and war would thus be rendered impossible. The physicist, who finds out how to direct parallel Hertzian waves will make his discovery known by directing methodically his waves on the vessels of fleet gathered together, let us says, like the American fleet at Villefranche, the English fleet at Spithead, or the German fleet at Kiel. Many millions wou'ld be engulfed, some lives sacrificed, but what a formidable power would be revealed to the eyes of the whole world! What an immense sendee would be rendered to peace ! "I am convinced this is not mere fancy. Our grandchildren will see its realisation," Dr. Le Bon concludes.