SCIENCE and INVENTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16497, 24 March 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

SCIENCE and INVENTIONS.

/-: ■' + . 1 . SAFE FLY POISONS. Messrs. Phelps and Stevenson, 'of the U.S. public health .service', have-been seeking substitutes for ordinary poisonous ] flypaper and other fly poisons, which, on account of. containing arsenic, are more or less dangerous \to human life and .'■ health. The best substitutes found were i formaldehyde •/; and'■'•■ sodium salicylate, which -may/be applied in a variety of : wflys.-.,:./.,./,"-'*:',. ; - ~ '.■ I •-'■': ■.-, ALUMINIUM IN GERMANY. i 'It is .'learned' from the Electrician that , one result of the war. in Germany has been the greatly :7 extended use of aluminium for-, many purposes. Its use is one of. the outstanding features of captured German motor construction, being used for crank cases, gear-boxes, and even [ cylinder heads, jackets, and shafts. The Germans are said to be able to produce 1 .aluminium very cheaply, largely owing to the mining of coal in occupied French ter- . ritorj' by forced labour. The cheap pro- ' duction of electricity has also stimulated ' the ' : development of ' electric ' motor , vehicles, which are now being run with ; nickel-iron batteries, owing to the shortage of lead. 1 , ____ ' , ELECTRIC SCRUBBING. , The latest recruit to . the ranks of , electric labour-saving devices is a scrub- • bing machine. It weighs about 1001b ! and is entirely self-contained with the , Single exception that it takes its current , from any convenient socket. The machine wets, sweeps, scrubs, and dries the floor at a single operation. It requires only a single ' attendant, who merely pushes the machine forward and guides it. He controls/ the amount of water distributed on 1 the floor by means of tho handle. This ' water is immediately, swept up by a cylin- ' drical brush, which is 16in wide and has 1 a circumference of 20in. This brush is driven by a one-fourth horse-power motor at a speed of '600 revolutions per minute. ' The brush does the actual scrubbing and carries all the dirt and soiled water over an apron into a separate receiving-pan, so the scrubbing is always done with clean water from the upper tank. The machine is said to have a capacity of nearly 7000 square feet of surface per hour. A HUGE SKYSCRAPER. Engineer says that the newest New York skyscraper, the £2,400,000 Woolworth Building, is 55 stories high and occupies 152 ft by 196 ft area on the west side of Broadway. It is U-shape in plan, 1 with two wings 60ft wide and 110 ft long', separated by a 35ft by 96ft interior court {

commencing at the fourth floor, below which the building occupies the entire area of the lot and, has two additional stories extending 2ft below ground water line to a depth of about 37ft below the curb. The 30-storey wings are surmounted by a tower 84ft by 86ft at the base on the 31st floor, which has vertical walls up to the 40th floor, where the dimensions are reduced to 69ft by 71ft. At the 47th floor they are reduced to 69ft by 61ft J? e S e S is 270 . ffc hi «* from its bas ° to the 50th floor, where it is mounted by a pyramid 105 ft high and 64ft square at ,u ci 8 ?' „ Wlth m observation gallerv above the 65th floor at a height of" 730 ft above the curb. The height from the curb to the base o the 22ft flag pole is 760ft6in, and from the lowest part of the foundam { ? S?.*°P of the Gilding i 5 916 ft 7in. ihe building is provided with 24 InVhspeed passenger elevators and two freight elevators - besides ona special passenger elevator in the tower. 6 COPPER AND THE WAR. Authorities on the copper trade estimate that approximately 75 per cent, of the worlds present production is being used for war purposes, the remaining 25 per cent, going into commercial consumptive channels as before the war began. At the outbreak of hostilities, it is estimated,, no more than 10 per cent, of the copper produced by all the countries with deposits of the metal went into the manufacture of war material. The peaceful trades used up 90. per cent., and this proportion existed for several years before the upheaval in Europe.'- These are significant figures, particularly as regards the market for copper after the . war ends. J he ; United States produced copper in the 9 U dteinZ Ai A th6 «l rate of AWU.OUO.OOO /pounds,' compared with about 1 900,000,000 turned out in all of 1916. l n July, 1914, the mines and refineries of the country were turning out the metal at the rate of 1,700,000,000 pounds yearly. ;From'the beginning of the war to. the present time, then, production has been increased 700,000,000 pounds. This increase «lone is greater than the entire production of thofrest of the world at the r. present estimated rate of output. With talk of peace in the air, it is natural that copper . producers and consumers alike should devote a groat deal of thought to what;.; may come when' the .treaty of peace is signed. With .three-quarters' of the metal of .the world going into "munitions, it is \ plain enough that a tremendous alteration of market and consumption plans; will come with peace/ ■;■■ It '- is only natural to assume that prices will reflect substantially ■;: tho change : of conditions, ' but copper - men are - not: persuaded that there, will bo anything like a slump. There will i also be need -' for a, drastic ' curtailment of production unless peace demands : should -suddenly expand ; to a level offsetting the war demand, which expertsin the trade hardly expect^ -;: ; ;;;.;5-;! : -;-;";'■:■ ■'^■ : '^}-'-: < .'- v:. '-;■;.-; tfbK* ■&■*;; ■;:: ■ -;::.; : ::-;- -.'. -..-,■•'-; ;■: