SCIENCE, MECHANICAL INVENTIONS, ETC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13307, 13 October 1906, Page 4 (Supplement)

SCIENCE, MECHANICAL INVENTIONS, ETC.

v ' ; " " WIRELESS" AIRSHIP. e Prof. Ai.kxanukr Graham Belt's wireless aeroplane was tested recently, says i the New York Herald. Captain Anglemire, aeronaut, rose to two hundred feet, described a circle, and alighted safely within a few feet of the starting point. The 1 motors, which are driven by wireless c energy supplied from the earth, woiked „ perfectly. Scientists are deeply impressed . by the experiment, and a long flight will ' soon be attempted. C NEW INVENTION IN TELEPHONING. A Mexican publication says that the invention of an apparatus to make use simula taneously of the telegraph and telephone over the same wire is receiving a practical test in Mexico by the Mexican Central Railway. It means also that long-distance telephoning will be possible over the regular telegraph wires without interfering with their use for telegraphic purposes, and thus lenders available thousands of miles of s . telegraph wire already placed for telephone * purposes. ■ STRANGE EVENT. ' The Lower Colorado River, in Southern. 5 California, has. suddenly deserted its old channel, broken through its banks, and 1 flowing into a low adjoining country has ' formed a large lake. The low country re--1 ferrcd to i« known as the Sal ton Sink, s which forms a huge depression on the bor- ' tiers of the United States and Mexico. ' This area is considerably below sea-level, and has hitherto l>eeii a desert. Of late ' years successful irrigation schemes have ' rendered much of it fertile, and it is partly ' in consequence of these irrigation opera--1 tions that the Salton Sink has been con* 1 verted into the Salton Sea. A dam is now • being constructed that will eventually di- ' vert the river, but in the meantime a deep 1 lake will have been formed of some two -■ thousand square miles area. ► , AN UMBRELLA SAIL. [ Of all the strange rigs ever invented that of the umbrella sail is the strangest. k To a short, stout mast is attached a pivot on which swing arms which carry a pair 1 of lateen sails shaped like fa.us and which can be closed like fans, 'these sails can be set in any plane and at any angle. Going straight before the wind they would ' be slewed round at right angles to the length of the boat and to the mast. As ' the wind stiffened they would be lowered towards the stern and elevated towards the ' bow, until they lay almost horizontal. In this position a hurricane would exert upon 1 them such' a lifting power that the boat would remain perfectly dry. A yachting expert states he can see no advantage in this rig over the ordinary rigs, except that 1 it will keep the boat dry in a gale and a 1 high sea. RUBBER DOORS. The police of New York have great trouble in entering gambling-houses, " poolrooms." and the like, through having to break down heavy doors of wood inid iron, but their work has been rendered harder through the addition to such doors of a four-inch thickness of solid rubber, so that when the police axes and sledge hammers, strike the door they rebound. "1 was clean knocked off my feet the first time I struck one of the rubber doors," said a detective. , The force o'. my blow striking the sheet iron, wood, and rubber drove ' mo back at least, five feet." These peculiar doors cost sometimes as high as £20, but the pool-room owners say that they save money even if they hold back the police raiders for five minutes. It gives time to destroy racing-sheets and other dangerous evidence. The sheet iron and wood doors are strong enough to keep the police sledgehammers at work for five or eight minutes, and the rubber doors are counted upon to m: ke a delay of twelve or fifteen minutes. A NOVEL PIPE. - " There have been many attempts to invent a pipe that would prevent the nicotine from being drawn up through the stem into the mouth. The latest invention on these lines is a radical departure from all previous designs. The pipe has the appearance of a pear, the bowl being entirely enclosed with the exception of a ventilation opening in the .bottom. The body of the pipe is made up of three members, which are threaded together. The central member contains the bowl proper, or holder. This consists of a sleeve with wire netting over each end. The net-ting . at: the lower end, is carried in a cap hinged to the tobacco holder. A suitable lining is interposed between the holder and the body of tho pipe. In use the bottom section of the pipe body is removed, and the holder is filled with tobacco. The latter is , now lighted in the usual manner, and the section screwed on again. The top section of the p.pe Ikkl.v is provided with a lining, which will absorb any tainted saliva or nicotine that passes up into the upper section. This lining can be removed at any time and replaced by a new one. As tlie tobacco is almost completely en- ' closed no sparks can pas; out," and ' the pipe is thus rendered perfectly safe in almost any place. WHAT IS THE NORTH POLE? The North Pole is the precise centre of the northern hemisphere, the hemisphere of land, of population, of civilisati v.. It is the point where the axis of th: a c.irtli cuts its surface. It is the spot where there is no longitude, no time, no north, no east, no west—only south. It is the place where every wind that blows is a south wind. It is* the place where there is but one night and one day in every year; whew two steps only separate astronomical noon from astronomical midnight. It is the spot from which all the heavenly bodies appear to move in horizontal courses, and a star just visible above the horizon never sets, but circles for ever, just grazing the horizon. More than this, the North Pole is the last great geographical prize which ' the world has to offer to adventurous man; the prize for which the best men of the strongest, most enlightened, most adventurous nations of the earth have been struggling unsuccessfully for nearly four reittu ies. Perhaps I should say a word or two. in explanation of my statement that ' there is no time at the North Pole. What is the point from which we estimate time here? It is noon, that- ie, the moment when the sun crosses the meridian where wo are, or some fixed meridian that has been selected. At the pole there are no . meridians, or, rather, all the meridians of the globe are gathered in one point, so there is no starting-point for time as we estimate it here. Another point which .•should be made clear is one on which a great many people have an incorrect idea. .That is, that the North Pole—the geographical pole—is an entirely different spot 1 from the magnetic pole—the centre of magnetic attraction, where the compass is .use- | less. The later is some sixteen hundred 1 miles south of tho true North Pole, being ; located on or near the peninsula of Boothia : a elix, the most northerly mainland of North 1 America, aoout on the meridian of Gal--1 veston. At the North Pole the compass with the proper corrections for variation is as trustworthy as in other portions of the earth's surface. —Commander Peary, 1 U.S.N. ! ! MISCELLANEOUS. Molybdenum steel is steel hardened by > the addition of a minute quantity of the I very rare metal called molybdenum, which * is found in Cornwall, Cumberland, and Leii cestershire, and in various places abroad. i Oxygen is a colourless, tasteless, odour- ! less gas, forming eight-ninths of the weight i of water, and more than one-fifth of the ► volume of air. It has been liquefied and frozen by Sir James Dewar. Nailless horseshoes are badly needed-, owing to the injury done, by nails to the hoof , of a hor.se. A horseshoe-carrier fitting the hoof, and to which the shoe can be easily ! affixed, is the latest invention to solve the difficulty. i . Most volcanoes consist o! not one, but many cones, each of whi.jh has at times j been a centre of eruption. Mount Etna I has. over two hundred such cones.