SCIENCE and INVENTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18089, 13 May 1922, Page 8 (Supplement)

SCIENCE and INVENTIONS.

ELECTRIC TEA-BALL. As modern invention turns out one ingenious device after another, the possibilities of combining two or move familiar inventions into a piece of apparatus of multiple utility are always increasing. The electric heating clement is one invention, and the tea-ball is another: and now wo have the two combined into a single unit. The tea-ball is filled and placed in the. water, as usual: only now it is on the end of a cord. The- switch is turned. and the heater, which is of the. immersion type, gets busy. In short order the water is boiling and the tea infusion is ready for. the table.

ELECTRIC SCORCHING PEHOIL. A new electric scorching pencil will find many uses in business and the various trades. It is of the stylolectrio design and as a check protector it is useful and safe. Gold and silver letters can bo transferred directly on many surfaces by tho use of this' electrically heated pen. Jlat band letters can bo rapidly written on the inside of your hat, and vcur correct address can bo added if you wish. Tho point especially shaped for the work carries heat but no current. Electricity cannot come in contact with I lie user." Phvsiciaus and surgeons use the pen with a'different point for cauterising.

SPEEDY CARGO BOAT. Something a little bit different, in the speed-boat ' line, from tho conventional gliders and scooters is a recent French creation. The craft is of such very light draft us almost, 'to justify the statement that it " sits on top of the water." In this respect it is, of course, little diffeient from most, other speed boats; but the manner of its propulsion is more that ot the true hydroplane. It is, in fact, provided with two airplane engines which drivo air propellers rather than water propellers, just as in a regular plane. The little speeder will make 45 knots when loaded to its designed capacity of five tons; when light it has been coaxed up to 60 knots. At such speeds it probably really does rise out of the slight submergence 'which it normally possesses, and rides tho surface much after the fashion of a true piano.

LANDING AID. Tho British Air Ministry is conducting tests with a new typo of indicator for emergency aircraft landing grounds. The. indicator takes the -form of a largo Tshaped steel frame over which is stretched white canvas. The frame will also be fitted with a vertical fin. This device will be mounted on a prominence; for instance, the roof of a small building, and will operate in the same manner as an ordinarv weather-vane. The white canvas will make the device visible to airmen and they will be able to descend, gliding down head to wind. Acetylene will be housed in the building on which the device is mounted and will illuminate the T at night. The wind strength will be registered and will operate a series of coloured lights, so tkat- itirmen, by noting 'the colour of tho Tight, can determine the wind forte along the ground.

WASHING WITH PLANTS. Several thousandi years ago people washed themselves with a plant culled the Soapwort. This plant, which is found in\ several European countries, grows about eighteen inches high near hedges and thickets. Its leaves and stem are very smooth, while the flowers art- of a. pale blush colour, possess a heavy soent, and bloom in August and September. The soap will form a. lather when mixed with Water.; the leaves also serve as soap, and will remove greaso stains from clothes. Another form of vegetable soap is the fnr'.t of the Sapindus, a tree that grows in the East and West Indies. The fruit is pulpy and about the size of a. cherry, bet on account of its caustic nature it requires to be mixed with a plentiful supply -of water. The pulp of this peculiar tree, if thrown into ponds, will intoxicate the fishes, while the seeds or nuts were at) one time nsed for the manufacture of waistcoat buttons. It was not until th* beginning of the sixteenth century that soap in it.s present form w-as first manufactured in England. LONG EANGE ENGINEERING. In planning the mixing and chating plant for the constrution of the Barrage do Barberine, a hydro-electric development in Switzerland, it was found that many of the engineering difficulties would Ik; solved through building an exact model of the site and then erecting the plant to scale. A contour map had fortunately been furnished the American firm, and with this as a guide the contour oi: the ground was reproduced in clay. Then t ho, towors, guy lines, cables and chutes were all built to scale and placed in 'the exact positiops that they were destined to occupy. When this model was finished it helped wonderfully in solving the problems that had puzzled the draftsmen. The clearance required by a cableway, the location of the guy lines, the use of single or double guy lines, the bracing of the towers —these and many other points were made clear through the use of the accurate model. There was also the satis/action of knowing that when the plant was finally installed tho layout would be eorree" and thp plant would function properly.

LAST GLACIAL EPOCH. A writer in a scientific paper assigns the date 30..000 to 18,000 8.0., for the last great glaciation in northwest Europe (Iro-l.-uid, Scotland, Scandinavia, and the Baltic. Somo remains of glaciation continued until 6000 8.C.; after some intermediate phases the date 1800 8.0. to A.D. 200 is assigned to tho Peat-bog Phase, when the climate was cooler and rcmro moist than at present. These changes are attributed chiefly to alterations of elevation; increased elevation has the double effect of producing glaciation on land and of closing the Straits of Dover and other channels_ for tho warm currents from th.j Atlantic. Tho author also assigns considerable weight to the 1800-year cycle in the tide-generating force announced by another scientist. But it is very doubtful whether this cycle will explain any appreciable climatic changes. Tt does not mean that all the tides ;ire higher at one of these 1800-year maxima, but merely implies that there aro a fewer tides in tho year very- slightly in excess of those at other

epochs, just as there are 'total solar eclipses of maximum duration at something liko the same interval. Evidence of an approach to simultaneity in climatic changes in Europe and America indicatesome- cosmical cause; hut tho suggestion of a long-period variation in solar output, seems, to a commentator in nature, more e hopeful than the tidal cycle theory so long in vogue, MAGIC BEANS. The world's most wonderful plant is probably the Soya bean. It grows -with extraordinary rapidity, taking only one hundred days to mature from seed to plant and aeed again, and is of a bright scarlet colour, which afterwards fades to green, it needs very little attention, will lII JH DM, * a s one hundred bushels to it ,™ "4 m PWe3 the land on whicb n"- f reS^ nK ' ? fe ri«»tmg and il!urifiSSf , r R,yC - Pr , ino ' r>™s, varnish. 32l P "" t,n S nik, soap, waterproofs 3 "'°« Um ' a ? d substitutee for The jj. & sUfSI th r y t- ° *' U bo grown "* 1«B« Hi