SCIENCE AND ART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7650, 29 May 1886, Page 4 (Supplement)

SCIENCE AND ART.

, .> The Electric Light.—lt is contemplated to use the electric light in Algiers for night work during the harvest time, in order to escape the heat, which is almost murderous for Europeans, and is an c.b.tacle to their carrying on agricultural work. A L'i.c i.i.u: Punt.—According to the Medical Abstract, the discovery lias been made iu Columbia of a shrub which exudes a juice hnv'ini! so powerful an ifleot in arresting the flow of blood that largo veins may be cut by a knife and smeared with it without causing hemorrhage. Tiie plant 13 called "aiiz-.' - by the natives. A Sr.<;'jL-r: Set or Studs.— A wate'.i----ninLc-r in Newcastle, England, ha 3 made a set of three Miirt studs, in one of which is a watch that keeps correct time. The three 3tu.13 r.r<2 connected by a strip of silver inside lisp shirt bosom, ami the watch iu the middle one is wound up by turning the stud »bovc, and the hauda are set by turning the one below. Use ok Wood Abhks —Wood ashe3 are tho beat fertilisers for lha orchard. They contain all the required elements of plant nutrition, except nitrogen. One hundred pounds of wood ashes contain sixteen pounds of potash, three and a-half pounds of soda, fcixty-eeven pounds of lime and magnesia, and five and a-quartcr pounds 0; phosphoric acid. No other fertiliser keepa fruit trees in so healthy a state as do wood ashes. Mallkablk Cast Iro:,-.—Many cast-iron objects when leaving the mould arc too hard for being worked, This happens feven with tho softest; grey pitj-iron, whoa the objects arfl of alight thickness. Jn this cane moulding with rich sand produces as great hardness as chill moulding. To remedy this dis advantage, the Bulletin de la Ceramique recommends the subjection of the object!) to a process of annealing, which softens the surface. When the objects treated are in grey pig-iron, they are put in cases surrounded with coarse sand, and heated for twenty-four hours with sal-ammoniac and for;;e scales in the proportion of one part of the former to twelve of the latter. It will be remarked that this last process is the same which is employed in the manufacture of malleable cast iron. Only, as in this case, there is only a very superficial decarburation to be produced, the heating only lasts twenty-four hours, while in the preparation 3f maleabln cast iron the operation lasts from seven to nine days. A or, at ing Machine.— ingenuity of the American inventor is truly remarkable. < Thus, an educated gentleman of French descent, residing at Oallipolii, 0., who has been an invalid for several years, is credited with the following curious invention, which he has patented. It ih a calculating machine in the form of a pair of scalc3 which announces with unerring accuracy the value of any number of tons, pound* or ounces at any price. For instance, a ham in placed on the (jcalis. It weighs 12Jlb, and the price is 6Jd per pound. A sliding weight is moved along the Bcale-neatn until the ham is balanced. In the notch where this weight stops will be found the worth of the meat in shillings and pence to a fraction. Again, suppose a grocer is asked for 50'bofteo. Tea is poured into the scoop until the Bcale is balanced, when the quantity of tea is found to be correct ss if several minutes' time had been consumed in making the calculation, It is not stated how these extraordinary results are achieved. A Torpedo Improvement. — What appears to be an invention of some importance haa just been patented by Mr. VV. E. Welsh, of Portsf;a, who, by the way, has already been most succr.sful as the inventor of the corkfaCfcd cement now generally used in thu service for decks and other iron surfaces. The description cf the new invention states that ia for improvements in torpedoes and submarine vessels and apparatus therefor, and the object seems to be to so construct torpedoes and submarine machines of all kinds as to enable them, to dive below the o'ostruc* purposes, and to rise again automatically tions placed round ships for protective in such a manner aa to atrike the vessel it is intended to destroy. The result; is obtained by attaching to the hulls of torpedoes or submarine vesaeln certain forme of apparatus for obtaining diving or ricochet action for avoiding and clearing torpodoe nets or other obstacles placed in their path. It is stated that the experiments already conducted have proved highly succesful; and if this be so, the invention cannot fail to be of the utmost importance to the navy, •