NOTES ON SCIENCE, MECHANICAL INVENTIONS, ETC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10037, 25 January 1896, Page 4 (Supplement)

NOTES ON SCIENCE, MECHANICAL INVENTIONS, ETC.

MEASURING STARLIGHT. . An English astronomer named Minohin has invented an instrument which accurately measures the quantity of light given out by a star. Stars are designated as being of the first down to the twentieth magnitude, according to the intensity of the light given out. The magnitude of a star has hitherto been judged by the eye, and anything like exactitude oould not be I obtained. By the new invention the rough I designation of magnitude is represented by numbers which givo the exact ratio of one star to another in the light-giving powers, The star Arcturus, for examplo, is estimated by the new process to give seventy-five and ! three-quarter times the light of Regulus. This instrument will be of great use nob only in astronomy, but in meteorology also. The amount of light which reaches the earth from the stars varies according to the state of the atmosphere, and the inventor claims that forecasts of weather can be obtained in this way which will be far more accurate than those obtained at presont. MEM OF STONE. Among the natural wonders of the Southwestern States of America, says the Pendleton East Oregonian, are the Superstitious Mountains, which loom up from the arid desert to the east of the Salt River valley. These mountains are so curious that, as long a* Arizona has been settled, the Indians would have nothing bo do with thorn. In consequence they are full of deer, ibex,' bear, and other big game. Tho Superstitious Mountains rise out of tho level surface of the desert liko the pyramids of Egypt. On the crest of this unique range, and in full view of the rarefied atmosphere for an immense distance from tho plain, are hundreds of queer figures, representing mon in all attitudes. Whon you look first you are sure thoy are men, and when you turn your gaze again to them you are as absolutely certain of it as you can be of anything, They represent ball throwers, outlooks, mere viewers of the country roundabout, men recumbent and contemplato, others starting on a foot race, and in every conceivable posture and position. They are not real flesh and blood men, however—nothing but stone sienite— yet, nothing can convince the Indians and some white men that they aro nob genuine. They say they are real mortals turned to stone, petrified by tho peculiar condition of the air on the mountains. This belief has grown out of an Apaclio logend handed down for hundreds of years. They have it that an ancient chief, who had learned of tho curious character of the Superstitious Mountains, forbade any of his people to go there. A largo band, however, one day discovered a way to get in by a precipitous route, and finally reached the top. It resulted as the chief had said—they never got down alive. WOOD-PF.HSKRVING IN SWITZERLAND. A simple, effective, and choap way of preserving wood from decay is praotisod in Switzerland in tho preparation of posts for the telegraph sorvico. A square tank, having a capacity of soma 200 gallons, is supportod at a height of 'JO foot or 25 feet above tho ground by means of a light skeleton tower built of wood. A pipe drops from tho bottom of the tank to within 30 inchos of tho ground, where it is connected with a cluster of flexible branches, each ending with a cap having an orifice in the centre, Bach cap is clamped on to tho larger end of a polo in such a manner that no liquid can escapo from the pipe except by passing into tho wood. The poles are arranged parallel with one another, sloping downwards, and troughs run under both ends to catch drippings. When all ie ready, a solution of sulphate of copper, which has been prepared in the tank, is allowed to descend the pi po. Tho pressure produced by the fall is sufficient to drive the solution gradually, of course, right through the poles from end to end. When tho operation is ended, and the posts dried, tho whole of tho fibre of the wood remains permeated with tho preserving chemical.—Work. ELECTRIC SIGNALLING. A recent development of electric signalling is that of theCriindall system. Crandall is already famous as the inventor of a successful typewriter. The signal referred to partakes so far of tho nature of tho typewriter that by tho pressure of a key on a keyboard, precisely like that of tho typewriter, .a huge reflection of the letter denoted by the koy is thrown on any given point. A messago is transmitted letter by letter. The lighted reflection of tho letter is of such size that whon thrown upon a surface sufficiently high, they may be read by the naked eye at a distance of one to three miles. With a glass thoy may bo read ten miles away, The dovice has been approvod by tho United States Army and Navy departments. A MECHANICAL HORROR. Machinery, a monthly journal published at Johannesborg, South Africa, gives an account of a most remarkable clock belonging to a Hindu prince, which tho editor thinks tho strangest piece of machinery in India. Near tho dial of an ordinary-looking clock is a largo gong hung on poles, whilo underneath, scattered on the ground, is a piio of artificial human skulls, ribs, legs, and arms, the whole number of bones in the pile being equal to the number of bones in twelve human skeletons. Whon tho hands of the clock indicate the hour of one, tho number of bones needed to form a completo human skeleton come together with a snail ; by some mechanical contrivance the skeleton springs up, seizes a mallet, and walking up to tho gong, strikes one blow. This finished, it returns to the pile audi again tails to piecos. Whon two o'clock, two skeletons get up, and strike, while at the hours of noon and midnight bhe entire heap springs up in tho shape of twelvo skeletons, and strikes, each one after the other, a blow on the gong, and then fall to pie:3S, as before. i

ENERGY IS TIIK UNIVKR3I!. Gradually it was discovered that heat always did some sorb of work, Then it was found that whenever motion was stopped, or apparently stopped, heat was produced; as when a blacksmith makes a rod of cold iron rod hot by the suddenly arrested blows of a hammer, or a leaden bullet is melted by its blow upon an iron target. Thon it was found that whenever mechanical work was done, heat was absorbed, or disappeared, or becamo latent, or was usod up in some way; as whon heat is absorbed by a mass of melting ice, wibhoub raising the temperature at all till all the ice is melted. And finally, Joule proved by the most rigid experiments that a given tnoaauro of heat produced an exact and invariable amount of work—neither more nor less. Thus there gradually grew up ; tho clear idoa that heat and meohanical work wore correlatives, and that either of. them could be transformed into tho other on certain invariable terms. Both were, therefore, found to be different forms of a subtle and mystorious energy, or power of doing work. Kapidly it was discovered that tho same was true of all the rest of Nature's mystorious forces. The light falling on a body, if at all absorbed, warmed it, or was converted into heat; the current of a galvanic battery could produce motion in an engine, or hoat and light, or chemical action in the electroplater's trough. Any one form of enorgy could be transformed into any obher form, by proper moans. And finally ib was seon that all the work going on iin the universe, all tho changes and phenomena around us, were simply due to constant transformation of one or the other form of energy into some other.form. Ages ago tho energy of tho sun separated carbon from the carbonic acid of the atmosphere, and stored it up in bed of coal. The enorgy of chemical action between this carbon and atmospheric air, under the gasretort, produced heat, and this heat again did work in separating gas and other products from other coal in the retort, Chomicul union of this gas with air once more transforms the energy into heat again, which is onco more transformed into mechanical motion, in a steam or gas engine. That motion is transformed into electric current; and that may be converted into motion again ; or may perform chemical work in electro-plating; or be utilisod once more as intense heat and light, This is a more specimen of what is going on everywhere around us; and our vory life itself, in its physical aspects, is an example of the same ! transformation of energy. There i? much in our lives that is not physical; we know no physical equivalents for consciousness or genius. But as regards the objective phenomena of lifo, we are true machines. For us. also the sun stored, up food in plants, and through them in animals; and tho food is by vital processos converted into heat, and muscular work, and monfcal energy or effort.—The World of Wonders. . • . . . '•) ■■