HUMAN INGENUITY

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 13092, 13 February 1937, Page 9

HUMAN INGENUITY

WHAT WAS GAINED IN 1936. STANDARDS OF WALKING,

HEATING AND EATING RAISED

f j l HE work and home life of Die new year will lie brightened by a number of discoveries by natural scientists in 1930 (wrote a, London correspondent on December 31). Anyone who has rejoiced in a pair of new shoes within the store and regretted having bought them when outside will regard the work of the British Boot and Shoo Research Association ,ns benevolent. It has been conducting an investigation into walking, into the peculiarities of gaitwhich are prof,ably responsible for the behaviour of note. In order to find out how walkers meet the ground the researchers proem ed a. treadmill—a moving platform on which tho subject of the investigation remains in the same, place although performing Die morions of walking.

Gait Recorded by Films

Cinemntogiaph films recorded the, gait of a large number of person.-,, while at the same time, instruments attached to the pedestrian recorded bin reactions. Eleetrieal thermometers, for instance, registered the skin temperatures accompanying different kinds of material and typer of shoo-.

Experiments in Heating

An all-wcwther laboratory has ju-t been opened at the. Building Research Station to help to solve’heating problems in homes. This laboratory is really one room within a larger room, and between the two. any kind of weather is provided.

It has enabled the natural scientists to discover that the wall surface of the room has an effect upon heating. A breakfast room having plastered and papered walls, heated by a gas fire, does not become comfortably warm for several hours, but it docs so in half to one hour if the walls consist of wooden panels.

Eggs, it has been discovered during last year, are very susceptible to climate. Li fact, eggs produced in the west of England aro best marketed in the vest. Cornish eggs, for in-

stance. transported with great care, arc inferior after a few days mnined tho same number of days in Cornwall. Cornish eggs taken to Birmingham, where, conditions are more similar to Cornwall, do not deteriorate so quickly ns in London. Tho conclusion drawn Tv Dr. R. Coles of tho Ministry of Agriculture is that the more humid west produces an egg with a. much more open structure than that of an egg from East, Anglia, which is a much drier region. The very porous eggshell is only fitted to withstand the evaporation from the egg which takes place in its own humid area. The.' low relative humidity of London induces a much more rapid evaporation and the egg deteriorates more rapidly.

Tho scarcity of Gorgonzola cheese during the Italinn-Etliiopia war led somo makers to start trying to produce; this cheese. They wore assisted by tho research workers, who have discovered not only that any cheese can he produced if its particular mold is obtained, hut that the peculiar flavour of a, cheese can lie imparted with the point of a needle. Tt is said only to he. necessary for the bacteriologist to moke a culture of tho fungus required and it can then bo injected into the cheese. Tlie injection would not be needed for any succeeding cheeses, for the atmosphere would be impregnated by the mold. Tho trouble; these eliemist-ehcese-inakers have is in the danger r.f the molds mixing. Tt would be difficult, ’for instance, to make Gorgonzola. and Stilton cheeses in the. same dairy.

A now industry has been made possible by the discovery at- Long Ashton Research Station. It was shown how to convert fruit which is blemished and unsuitable for the fresh fruit market into fruit syrup. In order that none of the fresh fruit flavours shall be lost by beating, a cold process is employed. The fruit juice is obtained by. intense pressure of the pulp of sound fresh fruit. This juice is clarified and mixed with pure sugar and then filtered.

It is i seel with mlik puddings or to flavour milk shakes, and Have is a good dim a neb for it. at mi,-: Oar.-,. Already 100.000 gallons of ' sy iups nav boeu produced. Eight, research associations of different industries, in co-Jtiavsitioi with tba department of scientific and industrial research, have cacn made some contribution to tho smooth'T running of industry or the- I 'UUC lor fcho new year.

The evidence accumulated is to help the manufacturers to produce the greatest variety of shoes to suit, tho largest number of groups.. This particular sort of data has hitherto been lacking in Britain. The noise made by footsteps . has been tho concern of the National Physical Laboratory in conjunction with building research. This concern has evolved a floating floor on which the walking is actually done, and this floor is separated from the structural floor bv means of rubber pads, halt an inch thick. , Tho noise made by footsteps is thus consideraoly reduced. Noise transmitted by means or ventilation ducts has also been lessened by lining the ducts with absorb- oi