A POWERFUL MAGNET.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 7741, 15 July 1903, Page 2

A POWERFUL MAGNET.

The equipment of the operating, hall of the Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital has been improved by thp acquirement by the management ,oi a powerful electro' magnet of a type and strength superior to the ha.nd magnets formerly' in use fo.r dete&irigi the position of steel and iron aplintere in the eye. A demonstration with the magnet was given by Dr J. W. Barrett r ihe other day (says tho :Mel« bourne Argjis). The magnet, wjbuch is over 30,000 ampere turns power, is an American adaptation of the Habjb, a Swiss invention, and it is so poised that it can be directed at the will of the operator towards any point of the compass. When " alive " the magnet's inffuencc iv tto operating .room is so great that watches are stopped, and the members .of tho party that witnessed the demiotistration delivered up their timepieces to a nurse who was iv attendance, so that their works should not suffer harm. Dr Barrett explained that under the ■ system- hitherto in vogwo at the hospital the point- of. ilie magnet in use had to be inserted foto the eye in which, a splinter of iron or . sleet had been embedded, with consequent great damage to ' Uie member, the sight of which very frequently was lost completely, but with the Haab in operation tho number of .such case?, it was hoped, would bo reduced by fully one-half, for with' ihe new instrument the necessity foi* : perforating the eye with the point of a magnet would be avoided, its power being so great that either ' tho foreign body conld be drawn into a position where it would be seen by the operator, or its position would bo indicated exactly to the patient. Current was ap ; plied to the magnet, which whisfeed up little heaps of iron filings that lay upon a sheet >of plate glass held a couple of feet from it ; caught to itself wiro nails thrown into tho air, and from the hands- of tho visitors snatched mclal objects with a "swiftness that was startling. Experiment- 7 ing with a number of sheep's eyes, Dr Barrett then demonstrated that tho, magnet conld draw needle points, etc., right through the eye" from the back to tho front, hence their removal would' be a comparative easy matter. , , '