FORGING AHEAD

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVIII, Issue 47, 7 February 1928, Page 6

FORGING AHEAD

New Scientific Research

APPLIED TO MANY INDUSTRIES

Far-Reaching Effects

Investigation of new research work being carried on in the United States bv the Government, universities, private laboratories and by numerous companies and corporations, at an estimated annual cost of £40,000,000, tends more and more to become co-operative, according to a recent survey by the National Research Council.

PERMALLOY. A recent example of the ram'ifica- . tions of a new discovery is in connection with permalloy, a magnetic alloy, discovered in the Bell Telephone laboratories. This laboratory has spent more than £2,500,000 in 10 years. Permalloy, found in search for a magnetic wrapping around cable wires between New York and tbe Azores, increases speed five times, or one cable can do the work five did formerly. It has made possibly trans-oceanic telephony. STEEL WELDING NEXT. While the laboratories of the United States Steel Corporation have been but recently opened, the research work there is opening up wide possibilities. The newest work in this field, which has' not yet had time to receive full practical application, relates to steel welding. Tests of welding processes are expected to lead to a reorganisation of current building and construction operations. Welding is a substitute for riveting, eliminating noise on city construction work. The hull parts of new ships are being welded, as are big machinery parts used in electrical power plants. Ambitious research is being made in high strength and noncorrosive steel. The work in these two fields, it is believed, will be equally as revolutionary as welding. All of these researches, in welding, high strength and noncorrosive steels, are likewise being conducted by airplane nianufactuters, who are also striving for lighter aluminium alloys. NEW USES FOR X-RAY. The exact qualities of metals are being more dearly determined through the X-ray photographs of their atomic and crystalline structure. Present researches in the General Electric laboraties involve the transformation of the whole X-ray art. The work began in connection with experiments of Dr. Irving Langmuir’s discovery oi the "space charge” effect relating to the influence of a hot filament in a poor vacuum. This new idea found practical application in the Coolidge X-ray tube which has made radiocasting possible, and is leading in

other directions. Through a series ot experiments which resulted in Dr. W. D. Coolidge reducing the brittleness of the tungsten filament and thereby tripling the efficiency of incandescent lamps, other new uses are being found for this ductile tungstein, in new targets for X-ray tubes, phonograph needles of higher efficiency and better ignition contacts for automobiles. HIGHWAY RESEARCH. Co-ordinated highway research work began seven years ago and has resulted in the general co-operation of tbe Government, states, counties and municipalities. Approximately £200,000,000 is involved in highway construction. The basis of new construction has been research In the best kind of road to build. One investigation has shown that, contrary to all current belief and practice, the centre ot the mad should be the thinnest and the edges the thickest. There are more than a thousand companies maintaining research laboratories, double the number oi six years ago. Part of the research work of these great organisations just now includes studies in lighting, heating and ventilation. A recent investigation of factory lighting covering 18 industries showed better light increased efficiency in production from 8.8 to 35 per cent. CHANGES IN GLASS-MAKING. Recent research may revolutionise the ancient art of glass-making, not only in devising machines as substitutes for glass-blowing, turning out receptacles to-day at the rate of 300 a minute, but making glass that will resist heat, shock and breakage. In connection with the conservation movement and the increased cost ot wood, as well as the advance in steel and concrete structure, substitutes of sand, stone, clay and fibres are being made By means of a soda process, a motor company has succeeded in producing a binder board from wood pulp scraps in the body-building plant. The East ni in Kodak research laboratories, in a research for another purpose, has just found metals may be rubber-plated by electro deposit methods. This means a new industry.