Science and Invention

Lake County Press, Issue 2166, 25 April 1907, Page 7

Science and Invention

B'AINS BIGGER THAN MAN'S. jT is said that the only animals which sur- | pass man in the absolute weight of their brains are elephants and whale ; but Micro arc several that range ahead of him in the ratio of the brain weight to the total weight of the body. Among these arc many monkeys and certain members of the squirrel and mouse families. A'o animal of greater bodily size than man has a brain which is relatively as large as his. Upon the whole, it seems that man's mental superiority is due rather to the quality and organisation than to the size of his brain. USES OF A&BESTOS. The peculiar substance, known as asbestos, which was regarded as valueless a century ago, is now in demand for many purposes. It is made into roofing felt, cement, theatre curtains, and various heat-resisting articles, and has been recently spun into a light and fairly strong thread. Even ropes, with or without steel cores, arc made from it for firemen. A new and rather surprising application is for army stockings, which have been shown to be less irritating to the feet of soldiers on the march than other stockings, and the War Department of Austria is considering their general adoption. BURGLAR AND FIRE ALARM. A firm in London are introducing an electric automatic metropolitan police whistle, slightly penetrating through the wall protected by an air-brick, with wire connections from windows, doors, stairs, mats, counters, victuallers' bars, which can be switched on at bedside or at any point. Once tho contact is made from one or more of the connections it is impossible to put the instrument out of action by cutting wires or closing doors, etc. Therefore the whistle is continually sounding until switch lever is disconnected. The main switch can be fixed On instrument or any other convenient place, and can be switched off for the use of doors, etc., without causing the alarm. JilX? MOST VITAL DISCOYF.RY Edison, the inventor, has been asked what he considers will be the next most vital discovery in the scientific field. 'Woll,' he replied, ' the control of energy stored in coal, directly and without waste. 'Ninety per cent, of the energy stored in coal is now lost. It goes off in heat from the chimneys, and is especially wasted in the process of converting water into steam. If, therefore, means can be devised by which this great waste can be obviated, it will naturally revolutionise and vastly cheapen the production of power. ' The result,'adds Mr Edison, 'will have an incalculable influence upon the material progress of civilisation. It will enable an ocean liner of, say, 20,000 horse-power to cross the Atlantic in unprecedented time and with an expenditure of about one-tenth of the amount of fuel now required—2so tons instead of 3,000 tons. Coal will be put in a receptacle, agencies applied for developing it 3 energies with an inappreciable wastage, and through these agencies electric power of any necessary degree will be forthcoming, It can and will be done ; some of the details are already mastered, practically.' A MOTOR DEVICE FOR PROPELLING SMALL BOATS. An interesting device in the way of applying a motor to a small craft has been brought out by G. Trouchc and Company and constructed at their Buchct works near Paris. The apparatus has been designed to afford a very simple as well as inexpensive method of applying a small gasoline motor to boats, and it differs considerable from anything else which lias been seen heretofore. It consists of a motor-driven propeller which is adapted to be placed on the boat; but contrary to other apparatus an' motors which require to be specially built and installed in the boat so as to form part of the lattel, it forms an entirely separate mechanism that is fitted to the stern of the craft in a few minutes, and that allows of instantly transforming any ordinary bo;it into a' motordriven craft without any change whatever in the boat itself. By applying a simple socket-piece to the stern with four screws or bolts, the propelling apparatus, which fits in the socket by means of a pin in about the same way as a steering oar, can be immediately installed. The new propeller device, which is known as the ' Motogodillc,' is of extra light, simple, and strong construction, and forms a single rigid piece having but. a single combat with the boat. It serves to propel and steer the craft at the same time and also to change tho speed. The socket and the support of the apparatus form a kind of universal joint, which allows the pilot to raise the propeller or to plunge it lo the required depth so as to vary the speed of the bout, or else to displace it to the rigid Or left for steering. These movements are all carried out with one hand and without any more fatigue than is felt when using a rudder. As the propeller i* mounted on a

long shaft and works at a distance of 4 ieet 0 inches from the stern, it runs in comparatively still water and gives a much better propelling effect than usual. Tbe variable immersion of the propeller allows it to work with a flat-bottomed boat in very shallow j water. A speed varying from five to ten j miles an hour is obtained (according to the size of motor which is used) with an ordinary I boat containing live or six persons, with a ; consumption of 0.:! gallons of gasoline. At present two sizes are made, one of H liorso- ! power weighing 35 pounds, and a second giving 2& horse-power and weighing 90 pounds. A very practical application of the , device is upon sailboats, as it will bring the boat into port in case of a calm, and it can easily be stowed in the hold. The motor is mounted upright just over the main pivot which works in the boat. Back of the motor and fixed on the steering bar is a box with sliding cover for the battery and spark coil. Above it is a cylindrical gasoline tank.

FOR T)<E PREVENTION OF SEA SICK*iES£| The cures or preventives for sea sickness which have bccirproposcd are almost without number. The majority of them, however, attempt to counteract the unhappy effect of the ship's movement by the use of drugs or chemicals, while the methods employing mechanical means are not so numerous. A novel device has recently been added to the latter category; and while its promoters do not claim to cure sea sickness by means of the apparatus, they do claim that they arc able to prevent that unpleasant malady during the time that the traveller makes use of fho mechanism. The apparatus is the invention of Dr. Carl H'-ondel, of Tsehudackowka, Russia, and is being experimented by a prominent German electrical linn. The invention consists essentially in making the movements of the ship when pitching, rolling, hearing, and settling less felt by the passengers, by providing special chairs, couches, or a whole platform forming part of the deck, and giving to these, cither by machinery or by hand, short up and clown movements. Consequently, as the long movements of the vessel are thus changed into a great number of short emotions, which are constantly interrupted by brief movements in an opposite direction, the causes producing sea sickness are counteracted. The form of device consists of a chair with the scat movably arranged with respect to the legs, arms, and back. The short up and down movements arc given by a small electric me tor located between the legs of the chair, and connected by means of a belt with an eccentric actuating the scat. The speed and intensity of the movements can be regulated between considerable limits by means of suitable devices incorporated in the mechanism. The chair has been tried on the English Channel steamer Peregrine between Hamburg and Harwich, and on the HamburgAmerican mail steamer Patricia. A DRIFTING WINE, Owing to the use of mines in modern naval warfare, there is great danger to neutral shipping, as the mines aro apt to break loose from their moorings and drift long distances from their original positions. Mines arc usually held several feet below the surface of the water by heavy anchors, but on account of their buoyancy and the action of the tides and storms they frequently break their cables. Each of the lead spines on the outside of the mine encloses a thin glass bottle containing acids, and when a spino is bent by collision with a ship or other floating body, the bottle is broken and the acids emptied into a receptacle containing zinco-carbon elements. The combination instantly produces an electrical current, and the spark ignites a fulminate detonator, which in turn explodes tho main charge of about 250 pounds of wet guncotton.