SCIENCE AND INVENTIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15521, 31 January 1914, Page 4 (Supplement)

SCIENCE AND INVENTIONS

BURNING; SEAWEED.

Seaweed-burning;in! Norway, is.one of the interesting out-of-the-way industries recently described in -the /United. States ; consular, reports. An enormous amount of ■ seaweed .deposited on the coast .bv the I waves in spring, and in some, places .'the ' weed is • cut by • boatmen. . Two'wheeled ' waggons are loaded "with tlie wet,'slimv weed, which is. taken tip; the ' beach 'and ' spread out like hay to dry. It' is; then raked up in.; heaps arid burned. The - ashes are exported to Scotland,'where they ' are used in the manufacture of iodine. For the past 45 years seaweed ashes have been } exported regularly from . Stavanger to Scotland to the extent of .1500 tons and upwards per annum. This industry.is an important source of revenue to the peasants who are fortunate enough* to possess riparian rights, and attempts ; to' purchase such rights from their hereditary owners rarely succeed; For a' time the I burning of seaweed was prohibited through i the influence, of the fishermen, who'■_declared that this practice , drove' the l fish away from the coast. .. - UTILISING AN EXERCISER 7 A Paris 'nventor-has combined a bicycle with a small dynamo and storage battery so that the energy which the human motor produces when working, exerciser,', in- . stead of going to waste," is stored! up-in the ' accumulator. ,The idea iB a simple one, and. in case, the .premises are. not wired up for current the r device, may, prove I a useful one for many purpose's/ In-this way it is possible to 'use one or, several small, lamps for domestic lighting, so that the work done with the, exerciser' during the daytime can be taken advantage'"of iu the. evening. One point to be noticed 'Is that the fact of using -electric lanips "gives a stimulus to the use 1 of the machine 1 for the purpose of exercise, arid is apt to..prevent the. daily exercise from being neglected, ' now that . it'becomes necessary. The present machine- is designed, to .work several lamps with an hour's pedaling, arid when there are .several members of , the family to . use. it, 'the -number;of '■ lamps arid the amount of light to be ,'had from the device of course-increases accordingly. Two' sizes ,of- machine .are used/' one to 1 work with a storage.. battery of 12" volts and 12 amperes,' this /being intended ; for the use of not'over strong persons, while, the-second size is intended, for. use.-with a' 12-yolt arid . 25-ampare battery, arid serve"3 for* persons .witri* strong! muscles.' MOTOR-DRIVEN ■ [ ROAD ?- BUILDFR ■ A self-propelled road-building machine has, been ,tested in Los Angeles, with. results that are -said/to be;highly,-satisfac-tory,from the standpoints,of efficiency,and economy., , . The { engine .' which - does all , the wort is a, six-cylinder, distillate. .burn-1 ing gas engine of /80-horse, power, which] operates a series of .bucket chains ith?t i dig • the soil to •; any .depth, to , eighteen inches, arid, the. tooth-armed - buckets' are so powerful that. they,.will'cut through a finished pavement if *it. be desired, to. re- 1 build old streets. The earth is picked-up I by these'buckets, carried to.si mixer in I the body of the machine and thoroughly ' combined with any ' desired "bfnder, hot asphaltum 01 crude oil, and is 'then spread evenly and-rolled,.all in one. operation.' A trailer containing the' binder follows, the machine,-and: it is, necessary ;to have, a ■string" of them in jeadiness 'as the device' operates -with great" speed. Trie earth is ■ dug. up, ' mixed/relaid.,. and "rolled at the . rate of square feet "a minute'for- an j eight-inch depth of asphalt pavement "..A very advantageous feature of this method of mixing is-that it is uniform , from base to surface, so that there is no danger of the surface's buckling. Of course where I the mixture includes; crushed rock,: it *is } necessary to spread - this .material .before ' the machine. The chains of buckets are , independent of. each other, and -each has a width of six inches', .it is possible :to form-various combinations for. roads-of , different, widths. The maximum number' is .eleven. Thus,, for a twentyrfodt roadway, .the proper combination would be ten chains of six-inch buckets, ;so that four operations oyer the. road would combine to make the required twenty feet of width. The Machine ■ was • designed by. an inventor arid road builder, and cost about £6000. ■ It is a. huge'machine virith' a length of twenty-five feet, hut;, smaller aria/less expensive' model is/projected'.'/' '// •'/\ i FRENCH ARMOURED AEROPLANES; / It.appears that the German War Department took, the lead in protecting aeroplanes by- armour plating, and after this the idea was taken < up, in France, where several armoured fivers were to be seen at,the last Paris show. . Howtever,', the French Army did not go extensively-into the matter before attention was called; to It' by two events, one being the. experiments made at the Toulon arsenal in firing upon aeroplanes last year, and ; the second the results of the first war in the Balkans. It was then recognised that all aeroplanes were vulnerable when fly nig- below" 4000 ft, and with the" present system of observing, a machine needs to fly as low as 2000 to 2500 ft in order to see the* state' of affairs on the ground. It would thus be 'exposed to artillery'and infantry fire. Two' solutions were presented .'for. protecting' aeroplanes,, first -to armour plate -for ;the. men, motor arid devices,-or.only to protect, the ' aeroplane guns, arid in tins cars keep; the flight- very high, so as to .prevent being hit. Here the- observer would lie at'full length and observe by sets of lenses.- .-.The French Armv decided .to adopt the i first solution, that is,., good protection and low flight, and from now <on all ./the combat units will be armoured. As to the unprotected one these will serve for training of pilots. Tlie experiments .which-- are,to be .made with .new armoured aeroplanes will be ; kept quite secret. It is -surmised that the future aerial fleet will .made'up of '.'the following types of , aeroplane: First, anhoured sirigb-nljce , flyers! - for artillery and cavalry scouting and for short scouting trips at .the' speed of ! 70 miles an ' hour. Second, the - Etat-Ma'jdr will make-use of two-place scouting aeroplanes, also armoured,' and nsed. for 60 iriilesa'n hour speeds. ".- The third kind ,is :an armoured two-place with mitrailleuses and automatic guns, intended for pursuing the enemy's ' aeroplanes and * ■ airship's, : and working at the".speed of 70 miles'an, hour: Lastly, several-place' 'types of heavy weight - for a great range •of flight • and speed of 60 inues an hour, designed,for special work.' • NEW WIRELESS - WONDERS. The "wireless compass" or direction finder, marks almost as great a step.'for ward in the new era of. navigation as the discovery of the ordinary compass, did in the old. An official. at Marconi House stated recently that there • wore,two'' ways in which the new invention would be. of great'use. Supposing that, a cargo-ship had broken down and. was. adrift in 'midr ocean. If, owing to . cloudy or fp£gy weather, sun,- moon, and stars had not been visible for two -or three' days, the captain would not know exactly, where, he was. He could, not tell by wireless '"to any would-be rescuer precisely'in which direction to steam. But if a ship fitted''with a direction finder came'along' then, she would, be able to find out where the vessel in distress 'was in relation to 'herself, and so be able to race to the rescue, so long as she received signals. The second principal use for the finder was that of discovering a ship's position with regard to any coast station. When approaching the shore and j uncertain of his ship's exact position/ by I getting into wireless communication with lightship, or shore station fitted .with the direction finder a captain would be able to learn whether he was on -Ms right course or not. Major Squier, Military Attache at the United States Embassy-in London, has invented an interesting ap- ' paratus for combining wireless -with teleI graphic or telephonic signals. By- means I of this apparatus' it is possible to send I and receive-wireless and telephonic signals lat the same time. .The wireless waves travel along a narrow strip of the "ether" on either side of the- wire, and by this invention they are prevented..frohv spreading in all directions, and the message goes only, to the destination . for which'it/is . intended. Sound waves have a very low I frequency, whereas wireless waves have; a i frequency of about 500,000 per second. I Wireless waves are jot audible, arid' when I the telephone) is in use the fact that these I waves are passing over the wire doesnpt tffect the sounds. The wireless receiver is equally unaffected "by the "sound signals. Messages can be sent in this way. a distance of about thirty miles, but the system ' can J doubtless -be 'extended.- < l -'•-'- ;