SCIENCE NOTES

Evening Star, Issue 14512, 2 November 1910, Page 10

SCIENCE NOTES

—Automatic Fire Curtain.—

A curious kind of automatic fire curtain was’ described at thq late Dusaeldorf mining congress as a French engineer's device for stopping the spread of mine explosions. Planks thickly covered with powdered schist are placed in the upper part of the gallery, and when an explosion occurs the displaced dust forms a neutral zone that checks tho fire damp and protects the part of the mine beyond. Buckets of water so arranged on the planks as te be easily upset are found to have a similar effect. * —Measuring Mountains.— Heights of mountains or of airships can bo measured by means of an ordinary thermometer. The greater the pressure of tho atmosphere on tho surface of water, tho greater temperature it takes to boil it. As wo rise in the air, less and less pressure of the air occurs, and water will boil at a lower temperature than lOOdeg Centigrade (212deg Fahrenheit). It has been figured out that for a few miles up for every thousand feet of ascent water will boil one degree lower. Thus, if at the bottom of a mountain water boils at 99dog Centigrade (210.2deg Fahrenheit) and at tho top at 98deg Centigrade (208.4d0g Fahrenheit), the mountain is a thousand feet high. In Government and other scientific work extremely delicate thermometers are used. They are long, so that tho scales may bo divided into fractions of a degree. The entire instrument for the work is termed a. thormobarometer. or hypsometer. It consists of a small metallic vessel for boiling water, on the inside of which are placed these delicate thermometers. Ganot says that the accuracy of the height of mountains can bi obtained within ten feet by means of thosi instruments. It is probably not quite so accurate, as the pressure of air docs not decrease uniformly as we ascend. Never theless, it is a good adjunct to tho surveyor taking largely variable profiles. 01 course, the ordinary instrument for taking heights without actually measuring their is the barometer. This isopen te the same objection as the thermometer; for its height depends on the pressure of air. which does not decrease uniformly. How ever, it can be graduated to an empirical scale to tell the heights, and in that case shows accuracy. —Radium and Cancer.— Dr Louis Wickham, of Paris, gave an address te the British Medical Association on his work in radium therapeutics He said the chief interest of radium was in its power of selection. In this role ii acted as a caustic of special subtlety, seek ing out those elements which it wished to-destroy. All tissues were not ground for tho selective action of radium, bid cancer, angioma, cheloid,eczema, etc., presented a particularly favorable field. In the great majority of cases surgery shout be associated with radium, if the surgeon is in the presence of a case difficul' te operate he should have resource to ra dium to prepare the ground and diminisl the virulence, and again, after the opera tion, to consolidate the tissues. The sur goon can also, in his turn, prepare th< ground for radium, and his help should In utilised for making the perforations, in cisions, partial extirpations which permit tho diminution of the thickness of turnon which the rays have to traverse, and t< render the application of radium intro duced into the wounds more effective. It must be dearly understood that the term “euro” should bo but rarely used, am’ then should only bo attributed te the re greesion of the tumor itself. To say that radium “ cures ” patients suffering froir cancer is te risk deceiving the patient am' the doctor. Even in its thus limited rob radium is a. precious weapon. In on: struggle against cancer wo are so in adequately equipped that any supplementary arm, new and well proven, even were it weak—which radium is rotshould bo regarded as a precious belief! cent aid and taken in to serious considora tion.

—Eyeglasses for Fowls.— Tho ‘Eclair’ gives a list of some curious inventions for which patents hawjj been taken out in France. An American has taken out papers for eyeglasses for fowls and another invention is an automatically rising lint, which performs the customary act of salutation by clockwork machinery set in motion when the head is lightly inclined. An automatic whip and a phosphorescent cardboard cat, designed to scar, rats and mice, are other items named. A Frenchman had also an idea for the estab Lishment along the coasts of large ah pumps intended to draw into captivity warships of 25,000 tons displacement, even when they steam at twenty knots. —A Negro’s Good Fortune. — James Leach, a negro, who used to work in the Clendenning Handkerchief Hills at Baesaic, New Jersey, has just made £13,000 by' his invention for improving the phonograph. He was considered to lie an ex pert mechanic, and used to tell his friends that he was sure ho could improve the tony of the talking machine. He perfected his ideas during his spare evenings, and the Edison Company, having heard of his invention, sent for him to New York, where he demonstrated its potentialities, with the result that tho company purchased his rights for the sum named above. —A Great Bridge.— Tho Board of Control in the city of Winnipeg have just placed a contract with the Cleveland Bridge and Engineering Company, of Darlington, for the const met ion of a new bridge to connect Brown and Brant streets, Winnipeg, and to span no fewer than forty-eight trackil of the Can-adian-Pacific Railway. In addition to several small approach spans carried on steel trestles on both sides, there will be ono 3401b span, two 240 ft spans, and five 81ft spans. The girders will he of the ordinary lattice typo, and their undersides will be 22ft 6in above, the rail level. The total length of tho bridge will be 2,168 ft, and, in addition to accommodating a roadway 26£b wide, there will be two footpaths, each 6it, on either side of the bridge. —Collection of Voices. — Somewhere you may find a collection of anything you may happen to be interested hi, whether it bo apple seed, false tecta, or old china; but it has been only recently that ono had an opportunity to “ inspect ” a collection of voices The British Museum has an extensive collection, to which it is constantly adding, of the voices of celebrated persons, it being tho idea that phonographic records may be preserved lor the benefit of future generations. The Vienna. Academy of Sciences has gone into it more elaborately, and seeks phonograms for tho comparative study of languages and dialects. Its collection includes songs of gipsies' Arabs, American Indians, the idioms of Malays and strange peoples of Central Africa, "and soon. Each year it s; nils out a voice-collecting expedition to little-known places of the world, and thousands of records are made. The latest plan is to phonograph the voices of animals for scientific study. —Tho Rest Cure.— Count Bertrand, who died lately, was one of tho most eccentric ot Frenchmen. Every year he made it a practice to go to bed for three months at a stretch. He had just retired for one of his prolonged rest-cures when tho Germans laid siege to Baris. As ho would see no one except his man-servant, on whom, moreover, ho enjoined silence, the count knew nothing o' outside events. One day, however, the bread was so bad that he demanded an explanation. Then he was informed that Baris was in a state of siege. He sprang out of bed, and began to pace the lloor, asking himself repeatedly ; " What should a Bertrand do m such circumstances?” Suddenly he stopped in his walk. He had found the answer. "Ho should go to bed!” he exclaimed, and tumbled in again forthwith, and stayed there until the end of the siege.