SCIENCE AND INVENTIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15482, 13 December 1913, Page 4 (Supplement)

SCIENCE AND INVENTIONS

LIMIT OF UNAIDED VISION. The ability to discern the star Alcol at tho tail of the Groat Bear, has been held to be the test of the limit of human vision unaided' by any glass. Very rarely is the eye of such power as to see the satellite of Jupiter,' though thero are on record two or threo instances, the third satellite being the most distinct of those seen. •It is said that Peruvians aro the " longest-sighted" race of all. There is recorded by Humboldt the case of Indians in that country who perceived. a human figure 18 miles away, being able to recognise it as a human being and clad in white.

INLAND WATER STEAMER. The Secandbec, a new side-wheel passenger steamer, recently placed in service between Cleveland and Buffalo, is the largest side-wheel steamer in existence. Five hundred feet in length overall, she has an extreme beam over the guards of 93.6 and a depth of hull at the stern of 50ft 4in. The Seeandbeo" has six decks, and provides over 500 staterooms. Sho is driven by engines of 12,000-h.p. at a speed of 22 miles an hour. The crank shaft of her inclined reciprocating engine weighs .120 tons. Sho has stateroom accommodations for 1500 people, and carries a permit for 6000 people. "Her freight capacity is 1500 tons. i; FURS PRESERVED BY COLD. When tho "life" of a fur garment is considered in relation to its cost, the economical quality is a high one, particularly to-day. when science lias effected so perfect a preserver as cold storage. This development of preservation, winery actually arrests natural deterioration caused by evaporation of the natural. oils in the leather and hair of furs in temperate and hot atmospheres, ..apart from the immunity it provides against ravages by moth, prolongs the life" of the commodity in a wonderful degree. This advantage alone compensates for a great deal of the recent rise in values. Further, the depth of colour and gloss in the fur is more enduring by many years than it was under the warehousing conditions of bygone days. NEW DESERT BEAN. Professor R. W. Clothier, of the University of Arizona, has discovered a new variety of bean, well adapted for cultivation in dry climates. During a 1300-mile journey over the deserts and mountains of Arizona, he visited the Papago Indians, and got from them several hundred browish-yellow beans of an unknown variety. These he planted on experimental plots at the Arizona Experimental Station for four years before tho discovery was announced. It appears that the new bean, which had been named the " tepary" bean, is more prolific under dry conditions i than any other known variety. It yields between 7001b and 8001b to the acre, with \ no more water than the scanty rainfall of Arizona gives. . Under the same conditions, ordinary beans yield only from 661b to 1401b to the acre.

AUTOMATIC SHUT-OFF MEASURE. A combination measure and funnel, designed primarily for the automobile owner or the garage man, but useful also in many other ways, has been placed upon the market. The device is an ordinary metal measure with a funnel attached to the top. The most important feature, however, is the shut-off arrangement, consisting of a ball-valve and push-rod located in the lower end of the funnel. Oil or any other liquid can be very easily directed into a small-necked bottle or other vessel and, by means of the ball-valve, the flow can be stopped instantaneously by releasing the pressure on the thumb plate on the upper end of the valve rod. the valve is heid tightly on its seat by means of a spring. With this measure, a ta. or other receptacle may be filled to any desired height and shut off without danger of overflowingi On placing the measure in an upright position after the filling, any liquid' remaining in the funnel will run back into the measure Wnuout dripping on the outside. PSEUDO-LANGUAGE OF MONKEYS. Concerning the supposed language of anthropoid apes, Proiessor Bom an has recently taken up the question and arrives at a negative result. It will bo remembered that Dr. Gamier came to the conclusion that monkeys have a language analogous to human language and express themselves by signs as well as by sounds which they emit. According to Professor Boutan, there is only a difference of degree between this and human speech and not one of kind. He observed tlie tounds made by a gibbon which he had captured when young § and his experiments cover more than five years. He finds that the animal can produce only spontaneous and instinctive sounds corresponding to a state of satisfaction or the like, or again to a stato of uneasiness or fear, also groat excitement, and the sounds do not appear to correspond to a real language, but rather to what he calls " pseudo-language." While sounds of real language are acquired by education, those of pjeudo-lan-guage are purely spontaneous, and he thus differs from Dr. Garnier's conclusions.

LARGE ELECTRIC MINE HOIST. The largest electric mine hoist is being j installed m a South African mine. A shaft is being equipped with a 4000 horsepower hoist to be operated on the mains of the Victoria Falls Power Company, j without any attempt at equalisation of the maximum and minimum power demand, I which means that the motors will require something like 7000 horse-power during acceleration,-resulting in a load 9000 horse-power on the transmission lino. The equipment will consist of two 2000 horsepower continuous-current motors, ono at each end of the drum shaft of the hoist. The motors will receive current at suoo volts from a motor generator converting the 50-cyclo 3-phaEO current to continuous current." The motor generator will com prise a 5000 horse-power 3-phaso induction motor, operating on a 2000-volt circuit, directly coupled to two separately excited continuous-current generators, each of 1650 kilowats capacity.

SOLAR HEAT AS POWER. Several appliances operated by power developed by solar heat have been designed and found successful, and one of the largest of these solar motors is located on an. ostrich farm near Pasadena, in California. I Ostriches must have a dry sand surface to live on, but a water supply has to be I obtained for drinking, purposes, so the owners drove a pipe line below the surface to a point where underground springs were known to exist, and to this piping was attached the sun-driven motor. The motor looks like a. huge glass disc, which is really a reflector 33Jft in diameter on the top, and 15ft on the bottom. Tho inner surface is made up 1788 small mirrors, so arranged that tiiev concentrate the sun's rays upon a focal' point. They transmit the heat to a, boiler holding water, and tho temperature produced is sufficient to generate steam power for pumping. The motor is supported by shafts seemingly delicate, though in reality they arc strong enough to withstand a wind'pressure of 100-m.p.h. The reflector must face the sun exactly, and although weighing several tons, it can bo easily moved. It follows the sun, and is regulated by a deck, the operation being automatic. The true focus is shown by an indicator, and in about an hour after it is adjusted the steam gauge registers about 1501b. The amount of heat concentrated in the boiler cannot be realised, but should a man climb upon tho reflector and attempt to cross it be would literally bo burned to a. cinder. ' Copper is smelted by it in a short time, and a pole of wood thrust into the radius of the reflector bursts into a flame like a match. That the motor is a success is seen by the fact that it pumps water from a well at the rate of 1400 gallons jkr minute. More recently a new type.of apparatus lias been devised, by,which the maximum quantity of steam produced in ai.y one hour was more than 8001b at atmospheric pressure. This was at Philadelphia, . but still better results would, of course, be obtained under the almost continuous rays of . a tropical sun. The first' motor described is claimed to produce results equal to about 15-h.p..