SCIENCE AND INVENTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13722, 11 April 1908, Page 4 (Supplement)

SCIENCE AND INVENTIONS.

• ' " —i — A NEW RUBBER-TREE. The continually increasing use ;of india rubber in I its various forms gives ;, import ance to every discovery of new rubber-bear ing trees. ; Such a discovery has recently been made in Tonkin, and is the first of th kind made in Indo-China. The tree is de scribed as a new species of the genus Blee rodea. x It is found in abundance, and th rubber produced from it is said to be of th highest quality. ■ A NEW MAIL-BAG SEAL. & Postal mail bags have for years beei sealed with the familiar sealing wax, bear ing : the impress of the office of origin. Thii method is now being superseded by the lis of ; a seal which is a flat square of lead through which are four 'cylindrical hole; for the string to pass. After the runninj nooses are placed over the neck of the bag they are drawn tight, and 'with c pair o tweezers the lead seal is bent. At the sam< time; these tweezers impress the soft meta with the words " post office" on one side and the office of origin "on the other. This effectually seals and secures the bag, whicl cannot again be opened without cutting th* string. : , . ' : METEORS AND STEEL. A study of the great collection of meteor ites in the > Natural History Museum oi Vienna leads Dr. F. Bevwerth_ to the in foresting conclusion that meteoritic iron, a; it falls from the sky and the various steel* produced in our modern steelworks are th< results of essentially similar chemical ant physical causes. One of the .most striking characteristics noted in metebritic iron i: the presence of a considerable- quantity o: nickel. But the mechanism, by means oi which nature, operating in celestial space, has produced what is virtually nickel-steel remains to be explained. IMPORTANT WEAVING INVENTION. A Burnley correspondent states that a man named Clegg has made an important weaving invention, the object being to dispense with what are known as change wheels in the loom, wheels which it is necessary to change for every went texture of cloth. With Mr. Clegg's invention any number of threads can be woven in one inch of the cloth by the simple operation of moving an index'pointer to the number required, these numbers being on a dial similar to that of a clock. It"is necessary for a manufacturer to have about 30 change wheels per loom, and the invention will thereby effect a great saving. A SELFrPLAYING CORNET. ! The increasing popularity of the selfplaying piano has induced inventors to extend this style of music to other instruments. The most recent is an " automatic j street music cornet." Like the piano-play-er, the music is on a perforated roll, the latter operating in a casing surrounding the cornet. All that is necessary is to blow i continually on the mouthpiece, and a tune is the result.; All complicated fingering is done awav with. In a few years every member of the brass band will have his in- ! strument equipped with, one of these autoI matic music rolls, and the cornet lover will be able to enjoy his favourite music at home | as does the lover of piano music. ! INVENTOR OF REAPING MACHINE, One of the most important inventions in modern agriculture is that of the reaping machine. . And attention is now being called to its inventor by the recent placing of two stained-glass windows in the parish church of Carmyllie, near Arbroath, to the memory of the Rev. Patrick Bell, LL.D. Brought up on his father's farm, Bell's attention was early called to the severe toil undergone by the reaper,, and he was possessed with the idea of inventing a machine to lighten it. While still a student at St. Andrews the idea came to him through seeing a pair of gardener's shears in a hedge. < He made a model in wood, and got a blacksmith to cany out the idea in iron. A machine was made and worked on the farm in 1828. '■/;., . - . PEARL FISHING AND X-RAYS. , A note in Nature calls attention to an interesting practical application of the Xrays. In 1901 Professor Dubois showed that radiographs of the pearl-bearing shells oould be taken showing the pearls in situ. He suggested that this method might be of use in the pearl fisheries of Ceylon. The usual method of pearl fishing is a wasteful one- Only one pearl .'is found in 100 oysters, and one in every 100 pearls is of commercial value. Hence every pearl costs 10,000 oysters. "Mr. J. Solomon, electrical engineer, ' New York, has : endeavoured to work the method from a commercial point of view. ( Some hundreds of shells, are exposed at a time. Those which show no signs of pearl formation are put back into their beds, while those containing good pearls are opened. - Those containing small pearls are placed in conditions suitable for their further growth. A USEFUL BLOWPIPE. A blowpipe attachment is of great value for all delicate work which demands a small intense flame of' constant character for a considerable period of time. The de< vice is adapted to be applied to a Bunsen burner, and does away with the inconvenient method of supplying air from the lungs. It comprises a carrier which is attached to" the burner by means of- a spring clamp. Normally, the blast nozzle is set to rest iu a notch in the Bunsen burner. When not in use, the blast tube may be lowered out of the way of the ' flame*, permitting the latter to be used for other purposes. At the rear end of the blast tube a cap is provided, in the end wall of which is a minute opening lo admit the air. Fitted to the cap is a tube, which communicates with a flexible storage bulb, and beyond this with a feed bulb. By pressing the feed bulb the storage bulb is filled with air, and a fine stream of air is caused to issue from the blast nozzle. ; LIVE SALMON ACROSS ATLANTIC. A scheme will soon be put into operation for the conveyance of live salmon from Labrador to England. The steam yacht Cornelia, at one time owned by the Marquis of Londonderry, and lying in Dundee Harbour, is to be the carrier. The vessel is said to be fast enough to make the passage from North Canada to .the West Coast of Scotland--where a depot for the reception of the fish is to be established— a wek. With the co-operation of the Canadian Government the Labrador fishery will be at Hamilton Inlet, a distance of 1860 miles from the west coast of Scotland, and 2200 miles from London. Although this will he the first occasion on which live fish has been conveyed across the Atlantic, several London restaurants daily receive consignments from Northumberland and Gloucestershire. At one place trout " caught on the premises" is served at 2s 3d a portion, and "truite au bleu" at 3s a portion is a favourite item on another menu. : " MOTOR PINNACES. : A large motor using heavy oil with a flash point of 300 Fahr. has just been successfully tested by the Admiralty in one of their 40ft pinnaces. The motor was designed for a horse-power of 80-85, but on a six horn's':continuous trial it indicated 140 horse-power at 368 revolutions. The motor ran without the slightest hitch for six hours at full speed, arid half an hour at varying speeds.' On the Admiralty knot the speed was just over knots." Considering the high flash point of the oil, the makers, Messrs. Vosper and Co., Ltd., of Portsmouth, are to be congratulated on the results of this motor. : Not only did they obtain more horse-power, but also more speed than was guaranteed to the Admiralty. The motor was under close observa- j tion of the Admiralty officials during the whole time, the quantity of water and oil being; carefully measured. . The consump- j tion of oil fame out at .9 a pint a horse- j power an hour. The motor is started by a j small auxiliary motor driving m air compressor, ' ' ~ ~. , J