SCIENCE NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 April 1925, Page 3

SCIENCE NOTES.

AUTOMATIC Hi STRESS SIGNALS. A device Viliieil sends out distress signals [roni shins autoic.aiieaiiy has lie,■!! invented l.y M. Piissnquin, a young French imentor. I lie instrument ((insists oS wheels with projections around the edges corresponding l:i the signal. SOS. icriain numbers which will give the latitude and longitude of the i esse! and the radio call of the ship. A.a ordinary eieel rio Heitor operates the machine, which is mounted on a table. Each wneel is set at a proper angL. end the it .otor started. The signal hashes three times, and then stops. Alter a short, pause the signal i.-, Hashed again and again until :he motor is i.inoi to stop running. Shins or lifeboats equipped with this new invention do not have to have radio operators m order t>» send out messages ol distress. A special dial on the transmitter may be set every day with the exact l.iestieu el the ship, and the motor turned on to operate the set ivi.eneior an omergt u>-y arises. RECORD DINOSAUR REAI.AINS. Word has just keen received in Hondo,i of the ili: cm cry of the largest fossil dinosaur bones on rceoi'd. i»> c.i ‘expedition under W. E. Fuller, ol the British Museum, which has lor the past vear been working in the dinosaur beds in Tanganyika, formerly German ..as! Africa. The prize l'::id so Inr covered is a shoulder-blade six leet two inches across. 'I he dinosaur beds ol Tanganyika were discovered and partly worked before the war. and many interesting remains ha. ■ been iound there. There is a close resemblance between the'dinosaur l'attn:i of Africa, and that of western North America, especially in the case of the Stegosaurs or armoured dinosaurs. Even the newly discovered giant has America kin. though this particular dinosaur is represented in America linds only by two j'lni!, lamt's. ’1 be finding ol similar forms of dinosaurs in such widely separated regions is a strong indication that climate in the age when these great beasts lived was fairly uniform throughout the world, and that connections existed at one time on another between the various coiitiueiils. EGYPTIAN BARLEY IN CAI.FURNIA A SUCCESS. A barley from old Egypt is proving a precious gift to the western pact of the United States, according to the GHice of Cereal Investigations. Fnited "States Department of Agriculture. In the past season in Caliiornia ( hah Alnriont’barloy successfully survived an exceptionally dry year that did damage lo main- other barleys and other cereals Club Mariov.t barley was brought from the Nile Delta by Dr Harry Y. Harlan, in his Atman agriculu.ial explorations. It has just been we!! established. and has now proved its splendid resistance to severe drought in the west. At all times n is preferred on the market. .