SCIENCE NOTES

Lake County Press, Issue 2697, 30 August 1917, Page 7

SCIENCE NOTES

JAPANESE MOTOR.

Japan is now successfully building automobiles which are claimed to be well made and are produced at a low price. The output is not large, but is steadily growing, although the opportunities for using cars in Japan are extremely limited.

STEAM-DRIVEN AEROPLANES.

Not only is the Navy Department engaged in experiments having for their object the application of steam power to aeroplanes, says an American paper, but from reports from various parts of the country it would appear that many private investigators are hard at work on the same problem. Thus far the equipment most favoured is some form of nu»sh boiler and a compact steam turbine. Because of the simplicity and high order of dependability of the steam power plants, it is not unlikely that in the near future steam will supplant gasolino on heavier-than-air machines.

THE WORLD'S HARVESTS.

All through the year wheat is being harvested. In January it is being cut' in the great fields of the Argentine and in New Zealand. In February and March it is cut in the East Indies and Egypt. The wheat-fields are harvested in April in Cyprus, Asia Minor, Persia, and Cuba, and in May in China and Japan. June is the busiest harvest month of the whole year, for then Turkey, Greece, Spain, and Southern France, as well as most of the Southern States of America, are all cutting wheat. The more northerly States of America, as well as Austria, Germany, and parts of Russia, do their harvest gathering in July. August sees the wheat crop gathered in Great Britain, i and September and October for Sweden and Norway. Peru and South Africa are busy harvesting in November and December.

AMERICAN INVENTOR'S CLAIM

An American mining engineer recently arrived in England with an invention for using nitrogen as an energyproducer in place of coal, at a fraction of the cost. He'is offering it, in the first place, to the British Government. In an interview with a representative of the "Observer." he pointed out that there are in the atmosphere nearly four thousand billion tons of nitrogen available for use in the new power, and unlike the use of hydro-carbon fuels, which are destroyed, his method of using nitro-power converts the fuel back into its elemental state.

"It can bo used," ho said, "for every purpose for which coal and crudo oil are now used, even to smelting. With the apparatus I. have invented one ton of nitro-energy is equivalent to thirteen hundred tons of coal, and it is safer than petrol. From it electricity can bo made for a fiftieth of the present cost, and five or six generating stations, with trunk lines radiating to all parts of the country, will turn every wheel in the kingdom, light and heat the homes, and do the cooking.

THE USE OF LOCKNUTS.

Britishers are proverbially suspicious of new things until they have proved their value beyond dispute. Take one example only. For years designers have preferred the use of a washer and splitpin as a means of ensuring the safety of nuts and bolts. From this it can only be deduced that all types of selflocking nuts have proved unsatisfactory in service or else that a prejudice (not justified by experience) exists against the use of any type of locknut. A new typo of nut possessing many advantages and which seems to be a perfect locknut in many respects has recently been introduced, and designers of heavy motor vehicles could, with advantage, specify their use more generally. Briefly, the nut in question has its thread composed of a diamond section spring which tightens the nut on the bolt under vibration. Its use calls for no special tools or spanners, and unintentional attempts to remove it from the bolt tightens its grip owing to the binding of the spring on every thread with which it is in contact. On the other hand, when it really is desired to remove the nut, the projecting end of tho spring thread is depressed and the nut becomes, to all intents and purposes, an ordinary threaded nut which can bo removed in the ordinary I way by spanner or band.

CHINESE TYPEWRITER

Many have been the jokes about the Chinese typesetter and his wonderful accomplishment as a pedestrian, but a typewriter capable of handling the Chinese language, while considered a possibility, has, on account of its complexity, always been dismissed with a smile as an impractical machine. However, a Japanese has invented a type-, j writer that handles the thousands of characters used in writing Chinese and ! Japanese with a speed that approximj ates the work of the machines used in writing the European languages. The I machine consists of a platen roller i mounted upon a carriage which can be ' readily moved about in any direction, above a case which contains the type, each in a separate compartment. The type is practically identical with the type used in printing. The registered character is selected., by a type-bar, which swings up and strikes the type against the platen roller. The machine is operated by the turning of a handle. The main ease contains about 2400 characters, and there are two auxiliary cases which hold about 850 more. ! While it may seem that this machine is rather slow as compared with our . standard typewriters, yet when the fact is taken into consideration that each character usually stands for a word, it is readily seen that a very creditable speed can be developed. As there is a standard system for the classification of Chinese characters, the seeming difficulty of locating the desired character is readily overcome. Only tho.'-*-' who are acquainted! with th(> Chinese characters can appreciate what a saving in time and labour can bo accomplished with this machine.