SCIENCE, MECHANICAL INVENTIONS ETC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12698, 29 October 1904, Page 6 (Supplement)

SCIENCE, MECHANICAL INVENTIONS ETC.

NEW SUBMARINES. , ; ; The submarine flotilla at Portsmouth has been strengthened by the addition of three new. boats of the A class. These are deK'Tibed as distinct improvements upon the unfortunate Al, the "terrible loss of which is still so fresh in the memory. They were employed for the first time in the recent manomvrcs, and „ gave every action, naval men being convinced that in the new boats we have the safest, weediest, and,most manageable submarines yet invented. a _____—— ARTIFICIAL COTTON. j Lancashire may perhaps not have to trouble about the* cotton crop long. After artificial silk we have now artificial cotton. The wood pulp from which paper is made is but cellulose, and a German chemist has just discovered a combination, by which it can be forced in fine threads, then dried and spun. This artificial cotton, it is said,, is extremely;, difficult to distinguish from ordinary cotton. It possesses like properties, arid can bo put to the same usages. It can also be dyed and finished. One little point has been kept in the back-j-round so far—it is the matter of price. If the pulp can be-turned into cotton at the, price of paper there is a glorious future before it. f A MODEL ILLUMINANT. The incandescent mantles have enormously reduced tho mischiefs of gas; but the most complete combustion possible will produce carbonic acid, water, and some smoke. The most favourable estimate, it is slated, makes the presence of one gas burner in a room equal to that of three adulti in the giving out of carbonic acid, to neutralise which over 6000 cubic teet of fresh air per hour must be supplied. When gas is burned in a flue so as to ] ad- the -fumes and products of combustion directly., away, so that they do not diffuse themselves into the air, it is a model illuminant-; when, on tho other haul, they mix with the atmosphere, the practice is,' as Parkes said fifty years ago, bai.'barous. -

IMITATIVE BIRDS. There seems to have been a combination (says tho St. James' Gazette) against the combative, magpie at the London Zoo, with the result that that magpie is no more. There is a distinct follow-my-leader instinct in. bird::, and animals and insects. A swarm of bees follows its queen; a flight at wild ducks its leader; a Laplander speeds on . his team by whipping up one dog, v which bites the' next, and sends the punishment right through the pack. Let one pigeon peck another, and the victim will have to run the gauntlet of the whole cote. The imitative faculty was shown in. the remarkable manner by ,the- act of a cockatoo of which one has read. A slippery tennis lawn caused innumerable falls among the Players, and each tumble evoked roars of laughter among the onlookers. At the end of the game a pet cockatoo which had been watching gravely descended to the court, laboriously tumbled and rolled about on the grass, then getting up laughed as if his feathered sides would split. In tfhe same way the 'initiative of the pioneer •which aims a blow at an enemy as in the ■ east* of the Zoo magpie, will be emulated by the whole crowd in the aviary ; and a tyrant- is deposed as speedily as the terror of a single horse will convey itself to and stampede a whole drove.

WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL LOCO- ' ;■; ■.-..;.,.. MOTIVE. rV -:-■---V ,'"<,-;

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's latest design heads the list of locomotives j owned by the company, for it is not only j the/biggest locomotive yet built,;but. it is also the most ; powerful in existence, and it is, besides/ of a, type unique in America. The engine alone, without tender, weighs 1491 tons, all of . which is utilised for adhesion, as all the wheels are, drivers. This, engine, which ;is ' how '■!' at the St. Louis. Exhibition, is intended for service on the mountain section of the ''railroad,-' to obviate, -as far as possible, the use of "pushing" and I 'banking" : engines for heavy freight trains in the steep gradients. Apart from its dimensions the engine is -the first in the United States to be .compounded ion the "Mallet" system, though there are hundreds of engines of that type, large laud small, now in use- on various European railways. Essentially the Mallet •system of compounding, ail applied to. articulated locomotives, consists in the employment of two high-pressure cylinders driving one net of coupled wheels, and. carried by the main frames, and in the use of two; low-pressure cylinders for driving another set- of coupled wheels, these cylinder's! and wheels being mounted in a pivoted "bogie frame. i In the American engine there are two sets of six-coupled wheels, milking twelve driving wheels in all. The engine is, moreover, nearly twice as large as any "Mallet" engine previously built. The cylinders have the following diame-ters:—High-pressure, 20 inches; low-pres-sure, 32 inches; stroke, 32 inches. The wheels are 56 inches in diameter, and the coupled wheel base—the actual right wheel base of the engine— only 10 feet, though the total wheel base is 30 feet 8 inches. The boiler pressure is 235 pounds to the square inch.-;,- ;,: - ■■ ■ -'' • '

BOOT CLEANING BY ELECTRICITY. Tie bootblacks of big cities, says an American paper, - are aroused over the introduction of electric shoe-shining machines ? in the shoe department and other stores. The machines can shine a pair of shoes in two minutes, and five minutes is the . record for the best shines among the Italian experts in New York. Besides, the machines arc cheaper to operate. The bootblacks are afraid that the general intro- ': duction of tho machines will ruin their business. It has already caused the discharge of teams of bootblacks in a number of: stores. : The electrics shoe-shiner can * do-as 1 much work as twenty of the most Industrious sons of sunny Italy that ever plied a,brush. The new-comer,is an automatic bootblack; that treats, six. pairs of shoes at a lick, and keeps going all day on six pairs at a time, turning them out on perfect' schedule time. The tireless, uncommunicative bootblack consists of a ' turntable, with a platform ' giving room, for six stools, all enclosed within a neat brass rail. At the front is a flight of steps. The patron ascends and takes his •eat with the other five, who are in various stages of polished evolution. A boy rolls up the customer's trousers as he places his feet on the two brass ■ rests upon the edge of the platform. In just 'twenty seconds the patron is twisted, stool and all, two feet further along the arc, where two pairs of brashes, whirling rapidly, eliminate dust and mud from the soles and sides of each shoe, while another revolving brush attends to the tops of each ; in similar manner. Twenty seconds more, and the patron is in front of another boy, who carefully applies the blacking to the cleaned footgear. Another like interval, and Ins. shoes are again in the clutch of two seta of apparatus similar to the first pur, and the Hacking paste is being turned into gloss.- Again twenty seconds, 'and a finer set of brushes apply /the' finishing touches of smooth shining, the same that the human bootblack manages to achieve] with a long flannel or woollen rag. An- ! other whirl of the turntable, and the' sitter is in front of the last boy, who turns t down the bottom of the trousers, whisks • them with a broom, and it is all over. l -V The mechanical details of tho automatic bootblack are simple. The same force that drives the brushes revolves the platform, and a two-horse power electric motor does the whole. ; Each of the sets of brushes is run by a motor about the size of those that drive small ventilating fans. The brashes are 'set in'.frames ■with flexible joints, so adjusted that there never is too much pressure upon ,the shoes. '.The touch is lighter and daintier % than that of the average skilful human polisher.' The brushes are-of fine bristles and hair, and are much longer than those of the common blacking brush. They are curved so as to fit the foot,, two of them working at the side of '■■{. a shot., while the third," placed", above, is V attending to the upper surface; '."."■' j