SCIENCE and INVENTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16561, 9 June 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

SCIENCE and INVENTIONS.

WASTED ENERGY IN, NOISE, A. noist factory is an inefficient factory, says an authority. The clatter of worn and poorly-adjusted gearings as they engage anil disengage is unnecessary, is misdirected, and often wasted energy, In a very exact sense, absence of noise in a factory is an index of efficiency. When there are noisy gearing, bumping, squeaking, or grinding contacts, energy is being wasted. Noise annoys and distracts. It breeds mental confusion. Of two factories of the same typo, the quieter, busy one is apt to be the more efficient. Noise-pre-vention, therefore, is generally wasteprevention, and is of particular importance at the present time. MISUSE OF COMPRESSED AIR. Owing to the fact that at least six workers in Pennsylvania have met their death through the misuse of compressed air hose during the present year, the Industrial Board of the Department of Labour and Industry of that State, has passed a.ruling that an employoe may not even direct tie air blast from such a hose on a fellow employee. This ruling makes it a misdemeanour, punishable by fine or imprisonment, for any such violation even though the results may not be serious or fatal. For one reason or another the practical joker about the shop is always bound to make use of a compressed air hose, and as often as not the results of his escapades are fatal.

USE OF PEAT FIBRE. A process is stated to have been perfected in Sweden for the manufacture of a strong textile material from peat fibre The inventor, an engineer named Jegeaus, began to study this process 20 years ago, but was hampered by the fact that the manufacture was much too costly, so that he was unable to turn his ideas to any practical use. Induced by war conditions, howover, he resumed his experiments, and has now succeeded in making dress materials from peat on a large scale. The prices of these fabrics are said to be

somewhat lower than those for artificial wool, and the durability great. The inventor himself and several other persons are already wearing "peat" clothing, and a factory for the working of the process is about to be erected.

A NEW WifTERPSOOr CLOTH. A new waterproof fabric has been introduced in France, and is proving verw satisfactory for hospital sheetings, etc., as well as for waterproof garments. Very thin slices of cork are cut from the block by special' machinery, according to the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, which describes the special process. These slices are placed in chemical baths to remove the resinous parts which make the cork more or less brittle. After- this treatment the cork sheets may be folded or bent without breaking. They are then attached on both sides to layers of cloth, and the resultant material is not only very light, but porous, thus providing for ventilation. It is said to bo desirable in every way as waterproof fabric.

ROMANCES OF SOAP AND TAR. There is nothing more remarkable in the fairy tales of industry'than the manner in which the Cindrellas have been taken from the kitchens, so to speak, and given precedence over their step-sisters. In soapmaking, for instance, at one time the soap was the only thing that mattered, and the glycerine which was produced at the same time from the fats and oils was run down

the drain. Now the coapworks are busy night and day primarily making glycerine for munitions, and the soap is almost a waste product. It has been very similar in gas-making. At one time the gas liquor with its evil smell was merely a nuisance; now nearly all our ammonia for fertilising the fields, a large part of our sulphur, and tho cyanides for the extraction of gold are obtained from it. Not long ago the recovery of tar from tho bottoms of pits and canals, where it had been tun to get rid of it, was quite a business; but tar now gives us the basis of our aniline colours, many of our most valuable medicines, and even perfumes; whilst' the tar oil becomes at the touch of the chemist's wand lyddite, trinitrotoluol, and similar substances for the terrible high explosives of our shells, mines, and torpedoes. So valuable have the benzol ana toluol become that the tar, however carefully it be treated, does not supply enough, and processes have been at work for some time to recover the comparatively small quantities that exist in coal gas itself. So far these methods have been only partially successful, but at the last meeting of the Society of Chemical Industry Dr. R. Leasing described a new process by means of which we shall be able to secure the whole of it—that is to say, about two gallons of benzol and a tenth of that quantity of toluol, from every 10.000 cubic feet of gas. The method is simplicity itself. The gas passes through a tower filled with Tumps of porous material saturated with oil, which absorbs the whole Of the benzol and toluol, and then by the simple application of steam separates them; they float on the top of the condensed water and can be drawn off ready for use, requiring only to be separated from one another by distillation. This discovery will add very greatly to our resources not only for making high explosives during the war, but ' also for our rapidly-growing aniline dye industry in both war and peace; and later, when our big guns are at rest, it will provide a .source of fuel for our motor vehicles,