FOR THE LITTLE ONES

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 287, 3 December 1932, Page 3 (Supplement)

FOR THE LITTLE ONES

ASKING SENSIBLE QUESTIONS.

THE STEAM THAT MAKES THE KETTLE SING

laj- Deal' Little Friends, — I think that the wisest little boys and girls are those who ask the Bios' sensible questions. For instance one small friend of mine wanted lo know why it was that the kettle lid kept bobbing up and down when the water was boiling, and for the first time he learnt that water when made very 2iot turns into steam. It is this steam trying to force its way out of the kettle that makes the lid dance so merrily when the watei- boils. Steam is used to drive round the wheels of the engine that ir. turn pulls the carriages that will soon be taking people to distant placer, for the Christmas holidays. I suppose that many of my readers have visited Rotorua, where there are boiling mud pools that go "plop, plop,, plop" just like porridge in a pot, and geysers that shoot streams of boiling water high into the air. Here again steam plays an important part in providing the wonders that tourists come from all over the world to see. So it was by noticing that the lid of the kettle bobbed up and down, and asking the reason why, that my little friend learnt quite a number of interesting things. Time and time again small people have used sponges. The big yellow ones are very common in bathrooms, whilst tiny pieces of sponge are eiven to children in schools where slates are used. Although the sponge is such a common thing, many people do not know fi-om where it comes. A chance question by another small boy gained for him the interesting story of the sponge, which comes from the bed of the ocean. Long ago wise men wondered just hew the sponge was made, some believing that' it was formed from sea foam, whilst others thought it was the home of a sea worm and was built up in just the same way as bees build up their honeycomb. Both guesses were far from correct, for the sponge is really an animal itself, living at the bottom of the sea, breathing oxygen as the fishes do, and eating food that the water contains. Divers, in their clumsy looking suits, go down to the bottom of the tea and collect sponges, which are brought to the surface and prepared for gje. When they are first obtained, sponges, if cut into pieces and kept in the water, will grow quite large, and many of the sponges we purchase are grown in this way. Tiny pieces are threaded on to wires stretched between posts in shallow water, and these grow into large sponges that »re of useful size. Some of the men who go down to the bottom of the for sponges do not wear diving suits, but swim down, collect as many sponges as possible, then return to the surface for air. The bathroom sponge, you will agree, has quite an interesting story behind it. It is by wondering about things and finding out the answers that clever men have been able to discover such things as wireless and all the wonderful things we know to-day. _ Little ones will learn much by asking IT "' questions, and if there is nobody else /[[/ f N •who can help you out on something that puzzles you, drop me a line and I will see what I can do.