NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15061, 2 August 1912, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

MAKING CLOTHES OUT OF WOOD. From Germany we fan learn how to make the most out of a tree in an industrial way ; for in Germany a tree which as a cord of wood is worth little more than three-fourths of a cent to a cent a pound, is converted into artificial silk worth 8a a pound, and into artificial bristles of cellulose acetate worth 16s a, pound. Thanks to the German chemist, trees may now servo to clothe a man. A whole industry has sprung up in the last decade for the express purpose of scientifically converting wood into cloth— moreover, which would otherwise be wasted in fashioning round tree trunks into rectangular boards and beams. In "Saxony, for example, a yarn called " xylolin" is made from paper as well as directly from wood pulp. Irom that paper, yarn, twine, cord, carpet, imitation canvas, and even whole suits of clothes have been madeall of them proof against the action of both hot and cold water. A large corporation has built a factory not far from Berlin for the purpose of making "silvalin" yam from spruce, of* which there are fairly large tracts in Germany. Like its cousin "xylolin," "silvalin" can bo woven in the loom to produce whole pieces of cloth which in their essence are nothing but transformed trees. The whole German cellulose and. nitro-ccllulosc industry is a brilliant example of what efficiency means in the utilisation of wood. The production of artificial silk from wood is alone a triumph of the application of science to industry. The credit for the original discovery belongs to Chardonriet. The process that. he devised has not been very radically changed to this day. An etheralcohol solution of nitro-oelluloee is employed.. . At first the liquid was squirted through a fine opening, the resulting thread congealing in cold water. Each thread was composed of a tube with a liquid interior. As it emerged from the fine opening, it was rather coarse, but it was spun into a thin filament later. Nowadays very fine openings are used, as small as 8/800 of a millimetre. In the- last twenty years Germany has built up a huge industry on cellulose derivatives. All of them cannot even bo mentioned here. In the manufacture of incandescent mantles, both for coating the mantle to enable it to withstand the shock of handling and in the production of mantles. themselves by the ejection of filaments containing the thoria and ceria, to bo afterward woven into mantles ; in the production of pyroxylin for imitation leathers and the manufacture of continuous film (an improvement, which has undoubtedly contributed more than any other discovery to the popularity of photography and especially of the moving picture) — all these wo find that cellulose is nowadays employed as a vital . necessity. Little did Schoenbein dream that the gun cotton (nitro-cellulose) which he had invented would find far greater application in the arts of peace than in the art of war. Thanks to his discovery many articles hitherto made from expensive natural products are now made chiefly from wood waste..

MINING INDUSTRY IN JAPAN. Tho great development in Japan of industries carried on in Western stylo has led | to a largo increase in the output of minerals. During the last threo decades the mining industry of Japan has taken giant strides. In the beginning of the present era (Meiji) the Government worked all the mines in the country, adopting the mining J system of the West, with a view to giving an example to private mineowners. Later, the Government sold its mines. Since then the country's mining industry has progressed steadily, and attained its present development within a comparatively ehort

period, that development being especially remarkable since 1887. The total value of the various mineral products hardly exceeded £1,020,000 before 1887, but during the following decade or so the production gradually increased, together with the development of business enterprise among the general public. The total yield reached about £6,124,000 in 1901, six times the figure of ten years before. After the wax with Russia the production increased in an astonishing degree, the total value of the yield in 1907 reaching £11,229,000. A slight decrcaso in value has taken place during the past few years, owing to a. fall in the market price of the principal minerals. Still, the total yield in 1910 was £10,718,000 in value, showing an increase of over ten times the figures of two decades ago. Of the various principal minerals, coal and copper, which give about 80 per cent., of the total production, show a most remarkable increase, the former having increased by seventeen times and the latter by about: nine times in thirty years. .In other words, coal increased from 920,000 tons in 1881 to 15,530,000 tons in 1911, and copper increased to 83,490.000 catties, against 9,360,000 catties in 1881 (a catty is the Chinese, pound, and is about Hlb avoirdupois). The annual production of gold, silver, iron, and petroleum | oil, ranges between £400.000 and £500,000 i in value. I THE DAY OF GREAT NAVIES. This is assuredly the day of great navies. Russia, has now decided to enter the race. The Duma has just voted the enormous sum of £129,000,000 for the Russian navy during the next five years. This sum will allow for annual naval estimates of about twenty-six millions, and will place Russia next to the United Kingdom in order of naval expenditure, and before the United States, Germany, and France. The effect of this vast outlay upon tho balance of power in Europe will be appreciable. At the present moment Russia has four Dreadnoughts completing in the Baltic and three ion the stocks- in the Black Sea, all build-

ing from British designs. The first four are to be ready in mid-1914 ;'* the second three in mid-1915. Four more large battle-cruisers are apparently to be laid down in the near future, which will bring the Russian total of Dreadnoughts to eleven. A clear idea of the stupendous effort which Russia is making may bo obtained by comparing her new programme with that laid down by the German Navy Act of 1908, which has since been expanded. The German Act provided for a total expenditure of 207 millions spread over ten years, giving an annual expenditure of 203 millions. The Russian Act provides, as has been shown, for an annual expenditure of 26 millions in the next five years. The action of the Duma will in all probability be followed by a further in crease in the. German naval proposals and an acceleration of the German ships now under construction. The Russian Admiralty and Naval Staff have already been drastically reformed, but it has yet to be seen whether the Tsar's empire can pro- ; vide officers and seamen for so large a , fleet,