SCIENCE and INVENTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17483, 29 May 1920, Page 6 (Supplement)

SCIENCE and INVENTIONS.

1 ' s»*i 9 ■ ' - LIFE OF A'WKEAT GRAIN. .: The Unitei States Department of Agri- ; .- culture • gives; ; a hard knock to the' stories - , about the germination of wheat and other cereals found ; wrapped with ancient Egyp- '_ tian mummied:; It says that close investigation ; proves all such reports to, he, fie" titious. French tests show that grain . more than a few years old will not, flerinirvixte. ..Gerniait tests' indicate ; that > when : seeds ' are • kept < under ideal. conditions, wheat, barlev und oats may germinate up, to eight or ten:? years, but few,, if any. grairs are alive after twenty years. ; v A GREAT CLOCK. , ; ; ':. Big Ben,' as. the 'great"clock #of the House's of Parliament in Westminster is called, 'is- one of the largest and most accurate in the world. Hie weights hanji down 'a! shaft' : 160 ft deep, and rewound once a week. The pendulum is 15ft long, and weighs 6801b, and.is so delicate In its action that a small ..weight of only one tunce placed on a particular part- of the apparatus will filler tharate of the clock one second per wed. .On the four sides "of the clock tower are' dial rooms,' each a large apartment traversed by mechanism which communicates .motion'from the machinery of the clock to t the hands. Each of the four clock dials = is 22ift in diami.'tcr ond the cast-iron framework of eaeii - dial weighs no less than four tons. The hour'figures are two feet high and six feet apart, and.the minute marks Win. apart. The outer point of ''the minute-hand makes a sudden leap of! 7in every half mimityj/ The hands weigh more than 2001b for the pair. , The minute-hand is 161t long, ; and the hour hand 9ft .'iong.■ *' v ' !- NEW LIFE-XAPT FOB SHIPS. ' J; The. drawback to most of the existing ■forms of lifeboats or life-saving rafts is that the occupants are exposed to wnri and sea,, being crouched with spray in bad .weather, and having no means of vanning 'or drying'/thernseivts. The invention, of a '\Hull* man-bids fair to overcome this dan ger, as in his life-raft the shipwrecked ar* completely v "protected from the elements. are plentifully supplied with air, and, if necessary, with .artificial heat. Hitherto ; Sthe'chief difficulty hai.' been to admit air N into chambers-while keep- . ing out; a trough sea. ".but this i proble!nY»liaife.&ieji. solved !by>an) jng&iouslv I contrived j)riip-d6or iu.the,top of each 'chainlv, full-sized* raft it, is pro " : -plsed to §ia3ke.each tank eight feet square • tsiyjftgyl^^^ljlion'foi;>2s persons, and provisirn"!or-a tireless ihstallatioh is to tbemaoe£\^ this is.thought advisable ■ Ample rawa'-vroild be available for Beating 5 appai-aius and for stores of food and drink". ; MASSIOKS OF MUD. ~' On the southern edge 1 of Los Angeles, I California,, a! contractor is putting up two ' . hundred", attractive houses of • adobes-just ' l . mnd—and demonstrating clearly . its' practicability. Adobe was • used in the dim ; 1 past, > when.first .' history was written on" .papyrus. Of it Nineveh was built. It Las stood the- test, of ages and ever ! \ served* its.purpose well,' and prevails to- . day S iii Spain,.. Algieits, South America, Mexico, and' other; lands. It is merely wet soil mixed stj.'awi&it.iri moulds - of required H size, and left In*the sun to . dry. The .mixing* is best done, by Mexicans with the. bare feet, in /a- sort of . ; kneading up-ani-down manner ;' hence■ tho word ; "adobe," the substantive of '" adobar"—to knead. The blocks are 16 by 10 by<4finchei, and each goes as far as . eight -common bricks. !! Their extensive manufacture by machinery is a prospect : J, of • the near: future, inosmnaa a3 the eontractor is ' about, to take up ; a patented .device with a daily capacity of • 7000, he straw in the mud serves a purpose .'.mmilar, though in greater degree, to that • .:..of steel reinforcement in concrete. It is, moreover, established by temperature tests -that adobe actually is.-the most non-con-ductive, ; building, "rqaterial known, A brick has registered ho" more than six de- ;;:: grees difference between extreme Februr ary cold and extreme. September heat (in Southern. California). C To' render . them ■ waterproof^ the 1920 'builder covers them with hard cement plaster to thoroughly . anchor j into the walls — generally k three waterproof throughout witla an . •-. pll-mineral compound conceded by chem- ;; ists to be virtually everlasting.