SCIENCE NOTES AND NEWS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 104, 15 April 1911, Page 2 (Supplement)

SCIENCE NOTES AND NEWS

INK PLANT! The ink of evr-i vday lii e may perhaps In* des> riln-d .i* of mixed animal, vegetable, and mineral origin. Sometimes. however, the juice of a plant can b«* used directly for wi iting. This is the o ; i«o with the ink plant which ocenr* in <o*'th America. 1 ’he juice of the plant is re-1, hut it beer nies rapidly I! lek on exposure ’-y oxid isation. It gives a permanent stain on paper, and can be use-1 as ink without birther preparation A note iii "Kno vledge” recalls the fa-t the early docurr.cnts in Snanish. South Ai oerica were wikt -n with the juice of th< • ink plant. CVRIOUS ‘WIRELESS FACT.” A coro-ii • fai t with r.g iil to tlie t ran -mi'sion of wireless 1 tc-s-iges is t’:at the distance to which they can be sent from a given station ’ aries from time to time. _ Tims a stnti >n with an cyi’ipmei.t which normally ;ends readable waves to a distance o! 100 miles can nc< asion:d!y semi them 1 miles. An investigation of the mn tter shows that these long ranges ah rays occur after dark when the air is normally less ionised than in the davtime. Hence i . is 'n’e-red that the L*ss cnised the air. the Io s. that i< to say. that it is a condncto.- of e’e triiitv, the greater ti c facilities for the propagation of the waves of the wireless apparatus. MOTOR MACHINE Si TOP. A sclf-propelhsl machine shop hax been constructed for use on |an American r.iilwav It contains a jl2-h.p. oil c-gino. which can Im* utiiiseci for driving the mnchfncrv or propjelling the <nr a’ .•> rate of ten miles lp?r hour. Trc hop contains a 12in. latlic, a Ifiin. s’.a Mt cutter, a tTJik drilling rrachmc. pi)>c-screwing macltines. and rmcrv wheels. The car is J.39tt Win long. Oft r ir- wide, and 9ft high inside. EAIERGFNCY LIGHTS. To add tn the horrors of | a stearnsh;p collision at night, it Sometimes happens that the water reaches the dynamos thus putting the lighting system out of commission, and naking it impox-it-le for the terrified passengers to find th*ir >i.*y alwint. In order to prevent such an occurrence, cno of the lake steamers has recently ins talled an emergency storage b ittery wliicli is pl.-cod on one of the upper «l *cks. Th:* batteries arc charged during the dav. wh.*n the re-.'tilar lighting s vstem is not in T:i this connect ion it is interesting to not' that snm s o f t] lc theatres in Eurone are iisinp storage battei tt*s to furnish the *nowei • for the lights nt tin- exits, and that r Chicago theatre has just installed a sir nhir svstem. Tn this way a more relia >le lighting svstem is assured, the ner essity of vh’>h was very forcibly show a in the I*oqnois disaster.