SCIENCE, MECHANICAL INVENTIONS, ETC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12740, 17 December 1904, Page 4 (Supplement)

SCIENCE, MECHANICAL INVENTIONS, ETC.

ANIMAL NEW TO SCIENCE.

'Among a collection of some twenty living animals received some time since by the New York Zoological Society was a small, white creature that proved to be a puzzle to all natural history experts who saw it. It is 21 inches long little more than 27, counting in the tail— stands rather more than lOin high at the shoulders. It rather resembles a small Snitz clog, but it is not a ; dog any more than it is a raccoon, although the shape of the head and the face marking that. seem to belong.so peculiarly to the family of Procyonidae are marvellously imitated in this little beast. Perhaps it resembles fa:. white Arctic 'fox more thai; it does any , other creature. It had been '.ailed a white ! fox in the country. Northern-Japan, from I which it was' obtained. It lias now been J admitted to the" great assembly of classified animals under the name of Nyctereules albus or the white raccoon dog. "THE GULF STREAM FALLACY." Professoi Gregory, in the November Leisure Hours, once mure points out how persistent is the error as to the influence of the Gulf Stream upon the climate of the British Isles and North-Western Europe generally. Scientific geographers have shown over and over again that the belief lias no foundation ; in fact. The Gulf Stream (we are told) cannot be .'distinguished from the rest of the Atlantic anywhere east of Newfoundland, so that it disappears long before it readies our shores. The stream is. in fact, only an .Incidental part of a great system of circulation of the surface waters of the North Atlantic, and the drift of water from North America to Europe is caused entirely In pre.- ; ..vailing winds. These moist south-westerly winds possibly derive some heat from the great mass of Atlantic water which- they keep in circulation, but in the main the warmth is due to the fact that the wind it- : self comes from warmer regions." If the .Gulf Stream were diverted at the Straits of Florida we should not experience the slightest change of. climate, for the warm wet. south-west winds would still ameliorate the temperature of our islands. . FIG WINE. Professor Papasogli has found by experiments that tigs yield a pleasant wine, recalling chablis and vermouth de Turin. Fig wine is rich in phosphates, = poor in tannin. and acidity, hence may be useful for nourishing invalids or children. The residues may be utilised in feeding milch tows and fowls. .Figs contain a large percentage of sugar, especially when dried in the sun. The alcohol made from them can, it is said, be used without rectification.

/COMPASS DISTURBANCES AND MAGNETIC STORMS.

The Daily Telegraph's scientific writer. in. a recent note on the loss of the Norge on Rockall Island, called attention to an inquiry - started by Professor Krogh. of Copenhagen; whether the compass of the Danish steamer. ■£ had been disturbed In some mysterious magnetic influence. It was shown that in two other instances the compasses of steamers in the neighbourhood of Rockall bad 0P& been j deflected as much as 10 to 20 degrees. On this subject Mr. Arthur Harvey, F.R.S., ' "writes from Toronto to say that he investigated the question some time ago. and in a paper on " Terrestrial Magnetism" he quoted a statement -tuat " the influence on the compass of a great mass of basaltic rocks can be traced at a distance of fifty miles." This dictum, he says, rested on high authority, and there are besides "authenticated instances in many cases of the influence being felt for- twenty miles." Mr. Harvey was led to ask whether masses of rock which ordinarily have, a slight effect on the compass could set it all wrong during a magnetic storm, and whether at such times submerged. reefs damaged the needle. He was assisted fffp&w the officers of the Allan Line steamers. who reported cases of extraordinary compass deflections near, shores, one of the worst regions being the south coasts of Devonshire ; and Cornwall. This peculiarity, if confirmed, might explain the otherwise unaccountole stranding of one of the American liners on the Manacles: .A great number of wrecks have been piled up on certain parts of the gllipislajid of Newfoundland, especially-near" ff.Upe Race, also in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. ■and on the Atlantic coast of South-west iniFS° Til Scotia. The navigators usually ascribe the losses to erratic currents, but Mr. HarPftW thinks they may be due to compass disturbances, as the rocks and headlands are . mostly primitive basalts. It seems to be certain that there exist rocks and shoals where there is a constant deflection of the needle. One such is the region of the Niagara Falls. "around which the'magnetic lines curve H||* S'P€CtMly, and in several places: north of ISSSiWia .Great Lakes the compass will scarcely work at all." Rockall (adds the Telegraph! r may be a similar spot, the influence.'.of which ■; ' is possibly, much increased during magnetic storms.

ENEMY OF THE COTTON SEED.. The cotton seeds of ' the United States jpkat3tions, for example, in Texas, are attacked by an insect called the Anthonomus grandis, which spoils the cotton, but Mr. Cook, an American entomologist, '.found in Guatemala an ant which kills the anthonomuse and acclimatised colonies of it in Texas It remains, however, to be seen whether the ant will destroy the cotton pest as well in Texas as in Guatemala. • The subject is treated" in Bulletin 39 of the United Spates Bureau of Entomology. ____________________ A LOBSTER PARK. In order to prevent the diminution of lobsters on the coasts of Canada, t lobster park, or nursery, has been established at Fourchu, Cape Breton, where a sea pond of 60,000 square feet in area has been stocked with females and eggs. The sides of the park, or pond, are of logs, with iron grills, by which the sea water can enter. The lobsters are fed on herrings cut into pieces about an inch ■ thick, and thrown into the - ponds every three days,' alom? with sea weeds. The system is to foe 'extended to Nova Scotia, and perhaps to Newfoundland. , , ~' ; —. —__ :'"''■'/:,'''. LIGHTING BY PETROL. ,*•/ A demonstration was given in London a "{" day or two since of a new lamp designed to burn petrol in conjunction with ah incan- •- descent mantle. The petrol is contained in a metal receptacle placed above the lamp, as far away from the burner as possible, and : - flows by gravitation to a chamber below the mantle,, the sunoly being regulated by a stop-cock. There it is vaporised, a portion oi the vapour being burned in a small jet to provide the heat ne'-essary for vaporisa- «-*•• tion, while the remainder, mixed with air, .... ascends to the burner proper. For starting . the lamp there is under the vaporising chamber a little cup containing some asbestos, and a small quantity of methylated spirit placed in this, and "ignited with a match affords the necessary initial heat to warm the chamber to the temperature at which the petrol becomes vaporised. After this lias ' been done the lamp is automatic in its action. It is claimed that one quart of petrol at 3_d will maintain a 150-eandle power burner in >„_.■ action for about sixteen hours.—Page's ly.- Weekly. •'• ; -A PORTABLE PNEUMATIC DUSTER. The use of suction apparatus for household .cleaning is now so general that it no ';,-:' longer arouses comment. A form of apparag, tus in which the same principle is involved ,1 ' ' lias recently been brought out in Paris and : will doubtless prove of interest, although the principle is not new. The contrivance i -- . .in question is a portable pneumatic duster, j consistuig of a bellows constructed some- j g|||what after the fashion ot an accordion. From ! the bellows a tube leads, 'bv which an oidi- | ;- nary dustei is carried. Within the bellows i packing material is contained which retains j the dust gathered. The duster is passed! over the obiect to be cleaned in the ordinary way, _ and the dust which is displaced is] -drawn into the tube by operating the bel- j lows. As soon as the dust is caught by the : packing material, it cannot be discharged bv compressing the bellows. When the packing is quite full of dust, it is taken out and thrown away and new. packing is in-serted.—Scientific-American'! ' ,