SCIENCE AND INVENTIONS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVIII, Issue XLVIII, 5 February 1913, Page 2

SCIENCE AND INVENTIONS

1013 WIRELESS SHIPS,

The annual report of Lloyd's Register of shipping shows that the total krops tonnage of shipping oil the Ve£is'tev was 20,060,070. Qt this, tnUnage amounted, £h ..13589-,84u - . During t.he~ .ye&rj.oul of 1,089,123 tons constructed, 718,127 tons, or 65§ per cent., were f built for the United Kingdom. No fewer : than 1013 vessels are fitted with wireless telegraphic installations 'and/ 566 with submarine signalling apparatus. RUBBER For paving streets. "We hope to see the streets of London paved with rubber," was the final remark of Dr. Tilden at the Royal Society of= Arts, -after explaining haw Isopreiic had given them the key to the making of synthetic rubber. Dr. F. Moller, of Berlin, gave an interesting address? en the chemistry of synthetic rubber, and said that when it had been perfected London would be the centre of rubber manufacture, and there would be no further use for plantation rubber.

OF NATURAL VISION. The limits of vision vary with elevation, condition of the Atmosphere* intensity of'illumination, and other modifying elements iri different cases. On a clear day an' object Ift above a level plain mav be seen at the distance of 1.31 one 10ft high 4.15 miles, one 20ft high 5.86 miles, one 100 ft high 12.1 miles; one a mile "high, as the top of a mountain, 95.23. This allows 7in, or, to be exact, 6.99 in for the curvature of the earth, and assumes that the sizes and illumination of the object are sufficient to produce an image.

[ ELECTRICITY FROM PEAT. European engineers are engaged at present iii the Investigation of methods- of utilising peat as a fuel in electric stations. Southern Bavaria, for instance, has vast rjeat fields which would serve to run electric plants of large size and this ,'would give a great reserve of power, The peat- lie mainly in the region of theDauube, and are estimated to cover an area- of 500 square miles. Supposing the peat layer to be only 3ft in thickness and the cubic foot of peat to afford but 31b of fuel, this will mean a supply of 50,000,000 tolls. With the operation of extracting the peat regularly carried on during the year for 300 days, this can afford 700,000 horsepower in V tbe space of 50 years. The fuel can be burned under boilers or it- can be used in special producers to secure a supply of gas for industrial purposes.

ROPE HORSE-SHOES. An industry which might, is eeems, be developed to' advantage in England' i& that of rope horseshoes. Those aiv largely used in 'Germany and some othei foreign countries, and should find favour because of the large mileage of | roads. The rope portion is inserted Ji> the metallic body or frame, and in most !. instances provision is made for withi drawing a worn rope section and re placing it with a new one. In some in stances the rope,, which is sometimestarred, has wire or other reinforcin..' material interwoven with it. Berlin i.the headquarters of a syndicate composed of eight manufacturers located at differ ent points of German. Possibly th<praetjcal development of the industry would necessitate the, modification of th* shoe either in it 6 -metallic or rope portions or both to adapt it to local conditions.

. WIRELESS TELEPHONY. A notable step forward has just been | made by the Germans in the efforts to transmit telephone messages without the use- of wires. Experiments have been made daily for the past few weeks between,the Nauem Central Wireless Telegraphy Station - and Berlin, and accordin<; to reports they have been crowned with success. Not only cau a whole newspaper article be telephoned without dim' culty between the abcJve-ruentioned stations, which are some 15 miles apart, but wireless telephone messages can be clearly understood at a distance of 25C miles, when the receiving apparatus .Harmonises with-that at the station from which the message is'despatched. This surprising -success- is- attributed- to thi excellence of the machine employed by the -telefunken system. • Most recent statistics "show that there 1 are at presen' about 3500 wireless telegraphy station* in the world, that one-third* of these ar* equipped with Marconi apparatus, onethird: with the Telefunken,' and-., onethird with the apparatus of various systems. It is. claimed here that these statistics are evidence of the triumphal progress .of -fche German Telefunken system, and prove that the latter has ousted the Marconi system from the dominant position it once held in the world.

ARGENT NEW WHITE METAL. A metal, or alloy, of very high-class qualities, has recently been evolved, after many years of research and experiments, by William A. McAdams. This new metal will be named "argental," because it is an alloy of silver and aluminium, the affinity of- which is produced by chemicals and rare minerals, and it is par excellence as a-substitute for silver, having all its qualities except weight. Argental has been produced to compete with silver, and for general manufacturing and industrial uses it is j in many ways far superior to silver for the reason that, being alloyed with aluminium and cast by means of a> patented compound and molds, or dies, it has many times greater strength than either silver or aluminium. It is white like silver and not leaden or blue like aluminium. The silver in its composition prevents the aluminium from being attacked by ordinary alkalies, and the aluminium prevents the silver from being attacked by ordinary acids. The alloy cannot be affected by nitric acid, and it will hot tarnish or by exposure the atmosphere or gases. Its 63ecific gravity is only one-third tVat of silver, and 'consequently three or four times the quantity of manufactured, articles can be produced from the same weight as that of silver, such, as watch cases and movements, forks, spoons, bells, tableware, ornaments, hardware specialties, typewriters and similar machines, not mentioning a number of other incidental articles Comparing argental in weight with other metals it is one fourth the weight of copper, one-fifth that of iron, one-fourth that of cold, and one-sixth that of platinum. The alloy can be cast, die-cast, rolled, spun, drawn into wire, milled, engine-turned, and turned in the best manner and the finest of threads cut on it. It takes a- fine polish. This metal is simply pure silver, alloyed' with aluminium by means of chemicals and rare minerals.