SCIENCE NOTES.

Lake County Press, Issue 2789, 12 June 1919, Page 7

SCIENCE NOTES.

INVENTOR OF THE "TANKB." The honour of knighthood which was recently conferred on Sir William Tritton, managing director of Messrs. Foster and Company, the well-known agricultural machinists of Lincoln, for the success of his creative faculty in producing the famous "Tanks," has been : well earned. 1 It will be remembered that when the i "Tanks" first came out so many distinguished men claimed to have invented them that the public became quite bei wildered at the multitude of these would-be^gdisons! I Sir William Tritton's career has boon : highly successful. Some years ago he was sent by Sir George Gibbs to Madgeburg, in Central Germany, to bring up to date works producing agricultural machinery. Afterwards ho was appointed managing director of Fosters, Lincoln, and invented the endless chain track as a means of overcoming the difficulty of devising machinery for the water-logged rice-fields of the Dutch East Indies. PATChMC-UP SOLDIERS. In one of tne limb-shops of the Queen Mary Hospital at Roehampton, London. where artificial limbs for wounded heroes are made, disabled soldiers find their feet with the aid of parallel bars. In order that the legs may suit them as nearly perfectly as possible, it is usual for the men to take their first steps in the practising-room before the limbs are finished. Less than five months ago Sergeant Kent, of the sth Wilts, lost his legs in his country's service at the Dardanelles. Recently, consciously proud of his facility, he took an afternoon stroll round the grounds of the hospital with only two walking-sticks to help him. For six days he had been relearning how to walk—a joyous experience for a man who had contemplated a life with crutches. , A one-armed man strode along a corridor swinging the one arm—his left —as he walked. His hand was gloved, and the fingers gripped, but they were unnaturally hard. The lower part of the one arm was artificial, and the opening and shutting of the hand and the deceiving swing of the limb were operated by shoulder movements. Private Chaplin, of the Welsh Fusiliers, is the owner of this wonderful hand, with which, among other accomplishments, he can write remarkably well. "It was a bit of a job at first," he admitted. "You see, it's a left arm." HORSELESS ARTILLERY. An American Innovation. Following upon reports of the won-, derful achievements of the British "tanks" in France, plans are announced by the United States army for the formation of a horseless regiment of heavy artillery. The guns will be hauled from point to point, and then put into the firing line by means of "caterpillar tractors." described as similar in construction to the giant motor-cars used by the British. The new regiment is to have many distinctive features. Its colonel and other regimental officers will ride in an automobile instead of on horseback. Its heavy field-guns and other ammunition caissons will be hauled by powerful tractors, which, unlike the "land Dreadnoughts" on the British front, will, not be armed, and will be armoured only for protection of their machinery. The battery and store-wag-gons of the regiment will also bo hauled by tractors, so as to be able to follow the tractor-drawn field-howit-zers into action over rough country. The artillerymen, who heretofore have ridden horses, will hereafter ride on motor-cycles with "bath-tub" attachments, each cycle carrying three men. BYGONE SUBMARINES. According to researches which havv been made by a French professor, it would appear that submarines have almost as hoary a past as aeroplanes, which, as is well known, involved ideas which are centuries old. It appears that submarines were built as early as the beginning of the seventeen!?, century. The origin of the invention is older still. Aristotle tells how Alexander the Great made use of submarines during the siege of Tyre more than 300 years before Christ. A Dutchman named Cornelius Van Drebbel astounded London in 1620 with a submarino that held twelve oarsmen ami some passengers, among whom was King James I. - Previous to this, in 1534, a monk suggested the idea tint a ship be constructed of metal so as to bo watertight and able to resist the pressure of water. A submarine was constructed according to the monk's idea, and was shown to bo practicable to a certain degree. In 1537 a ship with twenty cannon, eighty sailors, and many bags of money on board ble.v up and sank in the port of Dieppe. Three years later a trenchman, Jean Barrie, called Pradine built, according to the old monk s ideas, a submarine with which he promised to rescue the bags of gold and silver from the wreck, and possibly some pieces of artillery. I The great Pascal, then a little boy, was an oye-witness to the experiments 1 of Pradine, which wore carried on till 1650 with ultimate success.