POST-WAR DEVELOPMENTS.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16848, 31 May 1920, Page 8

POST-WAR DEVELOPMENTS.

4 SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS. Ctrok oun ovtn correspondent.) LONDON, April 8. ■ From the Ministry of Munitions the Ministry of Health has acquired 4.8 grammes of radium, valued at about £,72/>GQ. During the war there was an enormous quantity of material like paint for gun-sights, dials, and other surfaces on instruments that had to be rendered luminous at night. All this was radio-active, and when the actual ■lenient of radium was extracted it produced sufficient to enable tho Research Department to carry out a series of experiments which have been going on at the Middlesex Hospital, principally connected with cancer cure. By taking over the radio-active stock from the Ministry of Munitions, th-3 Health Research Department has hail in its possession the largest amount of vhis rare substance of any one authority, for it is computed that half a milion pounds sterling per ounce is the market value of radium. It is fortunate for British hospitals that this is available, as the world stocks arc very «hort. though in America certain areas of untaoped radio-bromide are available F or working, but in actual element for research there is not an ounce in the world. The French Government has paid 1 00,000 francs for the patent of the long-rango pm. The inventor has also been authorised to dispose of his invention to either England or to Belgium, 'out the War Office have not purchased the gun. Experiments in long-range guns were begun by tho British War Office in 1916, and it is an open secret that we already possess a gun which is believed to 1)0 able to project a shell over 100 miles. Very important tests were made at Aldershot of ' specially-manufactured fire clothing for pilots and men in the Roval Air Force. The suits, which have a specially-devised cloth helmet, were placed on 4 dummies, subjected to petrol sprays, and fired. The flames ascended to a great height, but tho khaki fabric was scarcely scorched. Owing to the success of the new longdistance Marconi wireless sets on board the Cunarders Imperator, Mauritania, and Carinania. the White Star vessels Olympic, Adriatic, Baltic, Celtic, Cedric, and Megantic will be similarly equipped on their next sailings from England. All these sliips will in future have direct intercommunication with land.over a distance of 14C0 miles. Among the exhibits to bo seen at tho coming Aeronautical Exhibition at Olympia will be two types of wireless signalling apparatus for use on aeroplanes. "Both are the invention of Mr F. Wates. One of these, for use on commercial aeroplanes, consists of an aluminium case measuring about Gin square and enclosing a mechanism constructed so that it will hot readily get out of order under _ the sever© conditions in which it will be used. The front of the instrument has a series of messages engraved on plates in three rows. Alongside the messages are sockets into which a plug is inserted. On the right hand side of the caso a handle is fitted. A plug is also provided attached to a lead, and is inserted in the desired message. A handle is then depressed, and while it slowly returns to the normal position a signal in code is sent in Morse, defining the message and preceded by tho call sign of the machine and repeating. The advantage of the automatic transmitter is twofold. It enables signals to be sent in almost any circumstances, and it can be worked by the pilot himself, so that no operator need be carried. The second apparatus is to be used primarily by aeroplanes working in conjunction with artillery, and bv the use of an aeroplane photograph or a map attached to the instrument, messages relating to the observation of fire can be sent back to the guns as easily as the messages sent to aerodromes by the first apparatus. Storage of water, if long enough, kills or devitalises the microbes of water-borne disease, said Captain A. F. Girvnn in the course of a paper read before the Institution of Sanitary Engineers. On the other hand, 'there might be at certain Eeasons a development of algae. To guard against trouble of this kind in the case of the London supply, micro-photographs were taken at least once a week. Th„ese photographs showed not only tho sorts of algae present, but also" their number, and enabled the engineers to act in advance in many ways. Captain Girvan referred to the decision of the Metropolitan Water Board to chlorinate a considerable proportion of London's water supply in 1916, and menticnedi that the treatment saved about £100') a month on tho coal bill without deterioration of the water. Dealing with the recently-discovered method of adding permanganate to tho chlorinated water, he said the treatment was certain to be tried all over the world where chlorination was done on a large scale, and if the results were as good as seemed likely, the whole community would owe a deep debt of gratitude t.o Sir Alexander Houston for this discovery, j Experiments are shortly to bo con-1 ducted by tho Post Office in telephon- I ing between London and Rome. It is I considered by the experts that, with > tho recent development in underground j cable work, spoken communication be-' tireen London and Rome will be r>oseible on line instruments. If thiif is i successful the charge would be about 12s per call, double the present Paris rate" |