MODERN INVENTION

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 105, 3 April 1929, Page 2

MODERN INVENTION

FOR MANKIND'S BENEFIT. LATEST DEVELOPMENTS. Some of the glamour surrounding ihe work of those who labour m the fields of invention, seeking means to develop and improve the numerous devices which mankind has made for his use and benefit, was explained yesterday by Mr W. A. Waters, who addressed members of the Citizens’ Luncheon Club. . . ~ , . Mr D. Morrison was in the chair. Centuries ago. stated Mr Waters m opening, *fche height of man s art had been centred around thro erection of very fine buildings. To-day, we still built fine structures, but our energies were also directed to making life more comfortable by the use of scientific inventions. One of the most striking of 'these was the invention of the telephone by Dr. Graham Bell. The principle was very simple—once it had been discovered. Like every other inventor, Dr. Bell had had to combat the apathy of the populace. Ho had to educate the community to the use of the telephone, have factories built, etc. An inventio'n also improving our means of communication was the deepsea cable. Hundreds of thousands of pounds had been spent on the early cables, some of which worked for only twenty-four hours and were then loot for all time. Some of the difficulties to bs faced were obtaining proper insulation for the electric current and the provision of armour to keep out the boring toredo. Much of tire pioneer work with cables was between England and the United States. ENGLISH RAILWAYS. In railway work also England had done the pioneering and to-day Great Britain still held the fastest pointrtopoint runs. For the heaviest engine, the palm at the present time had to go to Canada, where their giant engines weighed 320 tons. The heaviest engine in New Zealand was about 95 tons. These heavy Canadian engines were specially built for hauling loads such as were no* met with in New Zealand. , . A railway engine was recognised as a masterpiece of engineering skill. The designer was limited in length, height,. width and weight and, above all, in boiler pressure. The greatest invention, outside the .actual engine, relating to trams ' was the Weskinghouse brake. Before this time the guard had to go all through the tram before it came to a hill and put the brakes on in each carriage. When the Westinghouse brake was fitted to tr.ains in tho South Island, it clipped an hour off the running time between Dunedin and Christchurch as the train could go faster with safety. WONDERS OF WIRELESS. When wireless was first invented it was hailed as the knell of the ordinary cable. But on calmer thought it was found that each invention had a definite sphere of usefulness. At one time merchants in certain parts of the world liad commonly “tapped” commercial messages meant for other people and obtained advance information. However, Marconi had perfected the beam system and a local listenerin could now hear Marconi’s beam stations talking to Canada, the United States and Australia. The rate was 200 to 300 words per minute and no ear could read the message, elaborate machinery being necessary. This made “tapping” almost impossible. During the week-end the speaker had listened to KDKA, Pittsburgh, the pioneer broadcasting station of the world. They had put on a special Easter service for members of the Byrd Expedition, and every word could be heard clearly by the speaker listening-in in Palmerston North. Later the Byrd Expedition had sent out an Easter greeting to the several million listeners-in of KDKA, and Commander Byrd’s operator reported that the Easter service was heard well down there; , DEVELOPMENT OF AVIATION. “Aviation cannot be called an invention,” continued the speaker. “It is a process of evolution, a development resulting from the application over a considerable number of years of well known principles.” It was recognised by engineers that the motorcycle engine helped more than anything else to develop aero engines. A high-speed motor-cycle engine gave such a test to steel that it became possible to study internal combustion engines working under stress. The Southern Cross was a very fine aeroplane, holding the world’s record in respect of, the weight lifted per foot of wing surface. The Southern Cross had lifted, on her greatest test, 49Jlbs per square foot, compared with the ordinary plane’s lift of about lllbs. , Other wonderful inventions were the linotype machine, to be seen in every newspaper office, and the latest developments of the Morse telegraph. Television, the dream of inventors, was now an accomplished fact and in actual operation in certain parts of America and England. It was yet in a fairly elementary stage, however. Mr R. M. Maunder, in tendering the club’s thanks to the speaker, expressed pleasure at the practical -way in which he had dealt witih the subject of invention, which was always interesting. There was no doubt that the whole world revolved on the wheels of invention. An institute had been formed in England, to watch the interests of those who sought to discover new principles or new applications of old principles. The speaker had hopes that this might help to place Great Britain in a leading position with regard to the application of science to industry, a sphere in which Germany and the Tjnited States had previously been prominent.