SCIENCE SIFTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 152, 27 June 1914, Page 15

SCIENCE SIFTINGS.

PAINT FROM BEANS. From Manchuria comes the invention of a new paint that is both waterproof and fireproof in addition to bein" cheap and durable. "Solite" is the name of this new product, and three months after its introduction it found a readymarket in Shanghai, Harbin, and Tientsin. It is reported that the Japanese -Navy i 3 .testing it with a view to adoption. "Solite" is made from be*n oil which is produced in tremendous quantities iv Manchuria. APPLES: A CAUTION. A well known analytical chemist, Mr. At. S. Salamon, has uttered an earnest caution about apples that appear to be mildewed near the stalk. He examined some imported apples of excellent quality and flavour that were brought to him. Near the stalk was a green deposit that oroved to be not mildew but copper sulphate (blue vitroil), with some admixture of lime. It had evidently been left behind in spraying the fruit against parasites. Mr. Salamon considers the presence of such a rank poison in fruit largely eaten by children as a grave public danger.—"Science Sittings." TOMATO SEEDS AS FODDER. The Chamber of French Commerce at Milan announces successful attempts to produce a valuable cattle-fodder from the tomato seeds which are a by-product of the canneries. The seeds are desiccated in drying furnaces and then sifted to separate them from the woody fibre of the debris. They are then crushed by heated millstones and the oil which they contain in considerable quantities is separated by a hydrauline press. The residue is pressed into loaves, and, according to tests at the Agricultural Station at Portici, they contain an abundance of proteids and carbohydrates. TO REPLACE SEARCHLIGHTS. Some remarkable e-periments with a new method of illumination for the purposes of naval >work at nighttime have been carried out by a German battleship off one of the North Sea naval bases. The object was to find a substitute, in various contingencies, for the present searchlight, which has the drawback of disclosing its source of emission. Tubes filled with calcium carbide were tired from a special gun into the sea. On rising to the surface the carbide came into contact with water, and was ■transformed into acetylene gas. This was automatically lit, and gave a tremendous flare of several thousand candle-power. A few of these projectiles, thrown around an enemy, would place him at a great disadvantage for a considerable time. A NEW RAILWAY BRAKE. In recent experiments on the Pennsylvania Railroad, it is stared, a twelvecar steel train, nearly 1,000 tons in weight, running 60 miles an hour, was stopped within its own length of about 1,000 ft., by means of a development of the Westinghouse brake. Besides improvements in the brake mechanism, two shoes are employed for each wheel instead of one. The new apparatus, remarks the "Railway News," shortens the time of obtaining the maximum brake capacity from eight seconds in the present systetm to three and a half seconds. With electric control, the time is shortened by two and a quarter seconds. tl is also stated that a twelve-car steel train, running 80 miles an hour, could be stopped within 2,000 ft.