A Boon to the Sea-Sick.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14983, 2 June 1914, Page 6

A Boon to the Sea-Sick.

Dr. P. Schilowsky has turned his attention to tho problem of stabilising ships by means of the gyroscope, and, in illustration of his system, has constructed a model which is ultimated to find v place in the Science Museum at South Kensington _e-Me His monorail model. The model _mp is about -i*c feet long, and is so mounted that it can be rolled from side to side. The gyroscope with which it is fitted ia about eight inches in diameter. The system of precessionat regulation is based on the same principles as are employed in the monorail, and differs from tho Schlick method of preventing the roiling of ships oy means of tho gyroscope "in using tho processional cor-rect-on of the swinging gyroscope, whereas Herr uses a damping device which gradually decreases <ho swing of the gyroscope and the ship. Tho Schilowsky system, as applied in

tho model, annihilates the - swings in ono seconu, with oalr'^^-taj movement of the ship's body ! st-atod that the weight of the j will do only 0.0 to 0.1 per cent of t|_a -' I weight of the ship in which it is fitted =■ 1

The Origin of Seven Dial.. One of thc most interesting portioij. of the fifth volume of the County Coiin •'" oil Survey of London is that ' with beve-n Daa-i. which not so \e£ "" ' long ago was a modern Alsatia. Th* m IG9.L Evelyn. m his diary for IS ' .tober -th. 1694. writes:--"! wen t to ' see tho building r.eere St. Gilts'? where .seven streets make a star from a " Done pillar nac d m the middle of _ - circular area. On the summit of thi* ' column were dials, each facing o n. of ' : the streets, and from this w as derived the name cf the district What beSS . oi the column.- In Ju] v . 1773 it* taken to Saves Court, Aadlesto_e Sur* rey. where it lay nested .'until Fivdenca. Duchess of Yor_ • 1820. Then the inhabitant o f' $,£ bridge bought the n.l.__r anrl r«x A • ontW f g r uialA! tar T {fta , iS ' replaced by a coronet, and it still stands as memorial of the duchess's thirty years residence at. Oatlands and her good works in tho dutrict.*

Shunting. Mr A. W. Gattie, of tho Now Trans- ■ port Company, Limited, proposes to set "P in London tho largest building in tho world, an immense clearinghouse for tho goods traffic. Instead of * 74 isolated goods stations, with their 700 trains a day, thero would bo this ono huge centre for the goous traHic ot the whole metropoas, occupying some 15 acres of land, surrounded by another 15 acres of trco yard .pace, conuected with all the great raii-.vays' aud equipped with tho most ingenious contrivances thai electrical science caa invent for the loading and unloading of a modern truck. What is the lata* weakness iv the present system? It is shunting. Mr battle has* watched th. shunting of railway waggons to as good a result as James "Watt is .aid to havo studied the boiling kettle. Ho has .' seen, what lew men have observed, that shunting is a scientific absurdity. "Wo are all, ' he says, "so accustomed t. shunting that we have got to believe it is absolutely necessary, whereas it is only actually necessary under existing conditions."' Mr Gattie estimates that the railway companies aro losing a sxaa of £20,000.000 a year by this practiceof shunting.