CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 15968, 29 June 1912, Page 10

CURRENT TOPICS.

THE FT>f KXGINE.

The first section of a huge sun-power pumping plant was shipped from Philadelphia re-

cently to Egypt, where it will be used to pump water from the Nile for irrigation purposes. There seems to be no doubt that tho inventor, Mr Frank Schuman, has solved the problem of how to use tho rays of the sun as a direct source of power. An arrangement of mirrors concentrates the sunshine, and the heat that is produced is sufficient to drive a powerful engine. The plant that is being shipped to Egypt is rated by its inventor at 10.000 horse-power, and in the brilliant sunshine of the desert his expectations may be more than realised. A trial was given at Tacony, a suburb of Philadelphia, and the engine proved itself able to pump 3200 gallons of water a minute to a height of thirtyfive feet. It was inspected at work by representatives of tho Egyptian Government and accepted without hesitation. Mr Schuman says that his sun engine is capable of reclaiming half the deserts of tho world. It will pump water from wells or rivers whenever die sun is shining, and when it has been put into operation it requires very little attention, the mirrors adjusting themselves to the position of the sun in the sky during the day. In most deserts the sunshine is particularly brilliant, and clouds are rarely seen, so that the conditions favour Mr ; Schuman's machine. The inventor forsees a day when tens of thousands ol hugo sun-motors will be at work in Africa, Asia and Australia, and millions of ueoole will bo enabled to bvo I

in comfort on what are now tho waste place* of the world. The conditions in Northern Europe and probably also in New Zealand are not suited to the purposes of tho American inventor, owing to the high percentage of moisture in tho air and the frequent presence of clouds, but there is a vast field of usefulness for the sun-motor.

TILE VAN DKVEXTKR. Tintiirxr:.

The attention of American engineers has recently been very largelv devoted to the im-

provement of the steam turbine. The Parsons turbine, as everybody knows nowadays, is actuated by tho pressure of steam blowing upon tiny vanes arranged on tho periphery of a drum longitudinally to its axis. Nicola Tesla's new turbine is actuated by the viscosity of steam exerting a dragging power on a number of discs strung side by side on a single shaftThe Tesla turbine is very much smaller than a Parsons turbine in proportion to the power it develops, and the " her-ring-bone special" turbine patented last month by Mr J. H. Van Deventer, of New York, eclipses the Tesla motor in compactness. A one horse-power motor on the now principle could be held easily in tho hand, and tho two rotors, which form the only moving parts, could be held in the closed hand. The rotors are practically two broad cog-wheels, of equal diameter, in mesh. The cogs are not straight, but Vshaped, at angles to their axes. Steam is admitted to the closed chamber in which they lie, and impinges on the point where the gears mesh. Tho V formation of the vanes or cogs ensures that the steam shall exercise its expansive pushing power on the whole breadth of each cog, while the simple expedient of placing the exhaust outlet on the opposite side of the gear chamber to the steam inlet, secures a practically straight run through for, the steam, while allowing 666 expansions per second at 2000 revolutions per minute. No packing whatever is used. The casing of the motor is set a tiny fraction of an inch outside the rotors, and tho steam forms a cushion at almost constant pressure, as tho drop in pressure from one steam channel to another is very slight. The rotors, though in mesh, never touch each other, steam forming a film or cushion between the meshing teeth. The motor is, therefore, almost relent in its operation.' The great power developed in so small a compass is explained by the fact that there are 80,000 impacts against the gear teeth a minute, and tho same number of expansions in the grooves. As compared with electric motors the new turbine is smaller for the same horse-power, and it is 20 to 50 per cent more economical to operate than turbines of tho same type, as it obviates all leakage, and utilises the whole expansive power of the steam. •

There is one country

WHEBU COLOTj-RS abe BANNED.

in the world where tho wearing of a red and white necktie is an of-

fence punishable by law. The German province of SchleswigHolstein was once a part of Denmark, and its native citizens have never forgotten their allegiance or forgiven the Prussians for compelling them by force of arms to accept a foreign flag. They are Danes at heart, despite the lapso of very many years since a Prussian army moved the boundary lino northward. The Prussian Government is well aware of the existence of "disloyalty "in Schleswig-Holstein, and it suppresses firmly all open manifestations of the public sentiment. The people of the province are very fond of wearing the Danish colours, which are red and white, and a law 'is in operation providing that tho practice is to be regarded as seditious. Red and white may be worn in combination with black, thus producing the colours of the German flag, but the omission of the black is an offence of a serious character. A month or two ago a young man of Schleswig-Holstein was arrested and punished on a charge of having appeared in the street with a tie striped in tli9 offending colours. But the strangest story told in connection with this remarkable law relates to a dog-kennel. A farmer of Danish blood had a black dog, and ho kept it in a kennel which he h».d painted an aggressive red. In the fulness of time the dog died and tho owner bought a successor, which happened to be white. The new dog was tied to the old kennel and presently a passing policeman was startled by what he regarded as a bold defiance of the law. He rushed to headquarters with his news and within a few hours the farmer received ,a curt order to " shoot the dog or paint tho kennel another colour." Tho real result of tho absurd Prussian regulation is, naturally, to keep alive the Danish sentiment in Schleswig-Holstein.

now AUTHORS ADVERTISE.

The " Manchester Guardian" has been Raying some rather unhind things about the

! novel writing fraternity lately, and has i taken the trouble to "expose" the unobtrusive and gentle manner in which these gentlemen, or their publishers, take advantage of the sweet uses of advertisement. In America, we are told, it was long ago recognised that the best way pf "booming" a writer was to supply the public with interesting littlo tit-bits of biographical or autobiographical information concerning him. This kind of advertising at first took tho form of tasteful littlo pamphlets, issued by the publishing firms themselves. Then the advertising matter began to creep insidiously into tho literary reviews of the magazines- Thus one who takes up a copy of the "Forum" rinds, prefixed to the usual assortment of excellent article;--, a page or two of summaries of the lives of the writers of them, furnished often by the writers themselves. Tho practice has latterly spread to some of the English magazines, and in Australia the "Bulletin" Publishing Company loses no opportunity of advertising tho leading contributors to its periodical publications. In a recent issue of the " English Review" we are informed that the writer of the short story " The Mask." which appeared in the January number, is a grandchild of that sister of Tennyson who was to have married Arthur Hallam; and this is a fair sample of the way in which it is sought to arouse public interest in certain writers. From the magazines to the newspapers is a short step, and in tho American daily journals there is no lack of paragraphs that give trivial information about inconspicuous men of j letters, paraghaphs that tell us, for example, that " Mr So-and-So, the author l of the famous novel ' Si'.ch-and-Such,,' is I on the eve of departure lor California, wlmre he will collect local colour for his '

next work,", or that "Mr This-and-That, the gifted author of '-.The Other Thing,' having always had a fancy fo* the cultivation of carrots And bee** roots, has resolved to leave nil city residence and pursue the simple Ufe in a suburban villa." A writer in the New York " Bookman" tells ns that most of the publishing houses keep a " bright young man " whose mission it to collect such information and distribute it amongst tho newspapers^