SCIENCE and INVENTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16169, 4 March 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

SCIENCE and INVENTIONS.

WIRE ROPE IN RUSSIA. It is reported by the American ConsulGeneral at Moscow, that tho petroleum producers of tho Baku district aro experiencing considerable inconvenience from the scarcity of steel-wiro rope. Previous to the war wire rope and wire to bo made into ropo by Russian manufacturers were imported principally from England. At present, in consequence of tho limited exports of steel goods from England, steelwiro ropo of British manufacture has almost disappeared from the local markets and its price has arisen from 300 to 400 per cent. At a conferenco held in Baku to discuss this subject, it was proposed temporarily to substitute for steel-wire xo\ks, hemp ropes, which it may be possible to obtain from India. It was stated that Swedish wire rope has been found satisfactory for the ■ local requirements of tho petroleum industry. . ] USE OF PULVERISED COAL. The combustion of a "spray" of coal dust blown into the fire box by a blast of air 'is very nearly perfect, eliminating smoke, cinders, and firing tools. A very high temperature is obtained, actually melting tho ash which runs down tho walls of tho lire box, and is easily disposed of. Tho use of this device, so similar to oil burners where a jet of oil is blown in the boiler with a stream of air or steam, is past the experimental stage. However, it has not yet been applied to marine boilers, so shipping interests aro watching the experiments planned by tho Pacific Coast Steamship Company. This company will charter a tug on Puget Sound and thoroughly test pulvorised-coal burners. More heat is obtained from a ton of coal in this way and rather poor coal can be used. It is possible that if the tests succeed coal dust burners may displace oil burners on many steamships. A HANDY MILITARY ' TOOL. . The great amount of constructional work involved in modern warfare, in the form of trenches, barbed-wire entanglements,, and miscellaneous obstructions, bomb-proof shelters, block houses and" other forms, of defences, causes no.little interest^to be centred on a recently invented combination tool that may be employed for a number of diversified tasks. The new tool consists of a top piece that can be used as an axe on one side and' a mattock on the other, ~ln the shaft is a saw, which, when not required, can be folded out of the way into a slot. At the other, end of the shaft is a shovel, which may bo detached when using the saw or top piece. Tho tool is provided with a sling for holding it to the belt of tho soldier. The combination possesses a number of striking advantages, the weight of the equipment being reduced to a marked degree and extreme compactness obtained, while the fact that all tools are combined together tends to lessen the possibilities of, misplacing or losing them. SOLIDIFIED NAPHTHA. The hydro-carbon oils have been solidified in the laboratory many times by many experimenters,- but, heretofore, process has not been exploited commorcia.?y. Now, however, a New England chemist has succeeded in solidifying naphtha 011. a'commercial scale, and is putting it on' the market in compression-top cans, as a household commodity. The . naphtha, which is solidified by a process analogous to saponification, hag much tho same .appearance as vaseline, and is of about the same consistency. It is claimed that it has many virtues which are' foreign to the liquid hydro-carbon, chief among them being its solubility in water, which, combined with the fact that has 'all of the grease-removing, qualities /of • liquid > naphtha, renders it a highly efficacious article when used ~in .-the laundry. » Used undiluted, it-is said to 'be. ideal for taking; spots out of clothes, cleaning and polishing furniture, automobile ;bodies, etc.' It burns readily, but, not being highly tile, will not explode under ordinary conditions. I '■'/■ V \.''/: , '•'•'. /'; PACKING i NAILS BY ELECTRICITY. A rather startling innovation has been made in the packing and handling of nails in bulk. Heretoiore ; they have been dropped loosely into a keg, and/the pieces locking and interlocking as they do ; form a mass which is almost impenetrable to the scoop generally provided.in the. hardware store for the purpose of removing them from the keg. The scoop is almost superfluous, for the 'clerk' is invariably compelled to remove the nails by hand' and place them, in the scoop in which they are conveyed to the scales. But now things are different. The nails are nicely and accurately arranged in a'box/parallel to each other, so that their removal by hand ,is/a simple matter. The greatest advantage of the now method, however, is that the nails systematically laid in a box will occupy a little more than half, the space required when they are dropped in the keg. The operation of the machino is based upon the principle that linear iron articles • when brought into a magnetic field will ; automatically take a position parallel to the lines of force. The machine consists essentially of the electric paralleling mechanism, a feeding trough and a shaking ■ device. By means of the latter^ tho nails glide gradually, into the paralleling mechanism and while still falling are drawn in the direction of" the lines of force. The nails are passed into a tray! fixed between the two magnetic poles ana at intervals the tray is pressed downward and the contents emptied into boxes. With but little adjustment the machine may be made to handle any size of nail. The paralleling mechanism uses direct current at 110 or 220 volts pressure. VOLCANOES AND WEATHER. That tho peculiarities of tho past summer were due to the presence in the higher atmosphere of vast quantities of volcanic dust, absorbing the short heat waves from the sun and allowing the longer ones from the earth to escape- outward, says the Literary Digest, is the theory put forward by Willis L. Moore, former chief of tho United States weather bureau and now professor of meteorology in George Watshington University. Professor Moore says that violent volcanic eruptions throw into the upper air vast quantities of dust- \ particles, which, by swiftly moving easterly currents in the middlo latitudes and westerly winds in the tropic, are soon so distributed around the earth as not only to affect the colours of the sky for two or threo years after, but to modify tho weather. " During tho past two or three years all of those who have enjoyed the privilege of living much in the open have viewed the marvellous beauty of tho eastern and western sky at sunrise and at sunset. It is -safe to say that these phenomena arc duo to the eruption of Katmai, in the Alaska Peninsula, in 1912, augmented by volcanic explosions in Japan in, 1913. Since these times the temperature of the earth has been below tlio normal, and we may expect tho dust to exercise a waning but an appreciable influence for at least another year." Professor Moore, of course, does not mean that there will bo no temporary heat spells. An. area of high pressure in the south always forces warm winds to flow northward, but no matter what the area tff cold or warm snells, their temperature and continuity, they will be colder than they would be if the air were freo of volcanic dust. .That! we may understand the philosophy, of this interesting phenomenon, Professor Moore ♦ells us that the atmosphere is divided into the' troposphere and stratosphere. lii the first, which is about : seven miles in dentb. all storms and rold waves operate, and the air is frequently washed clean of volcanic and other dust by condensation. In tho .second and higher region there are no clouds, and condensation, and.' the wind blows ceaselessly toward the east at tlio rate of about 100 miles per hour. Obviously, then, any dust that enters this region, where there is no rain or snow to wash it out, must be whirled about the earth until gravity, overcoming the viscosity of -tho atmosphere, by slow degrees mills it down to the storm stratum below. This may require two or three years, and some of the minutest Particles must ascend to altitudes of '50 miles or more and remain aloft several years longer,