MODERN SCIENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18771, 26 July 1924, Page 7 (Supplement)

MODERN SCIENCE.

>; '■■ mm' OF INTEREST. r making sunbeams talk. '/-•' •''■ ■. ■ ■■■■'&'■ ~ : . -"■''■ ■ ■ '■ '■•■"': * ■'".' ■'] '.?. '■'-'' ■ "■•'■'■'■ •■■ ' "'. '': ..-;•:;;.-: "'..'.•' ''V ■■'' | WHAT SELENIUM WILL DO. j Because there is such a lot of it in the . moon, selenium is called the "moon olej A ment." The name selenium is riot new. 1; It has been jn th<i chemistry Ijbpks for at least a century, but chemists gave it little thovight. -. Fifty years ago a very significant thing happened in Valtintia, where the Transatlantic cable touches dry land for the first time after leaving America. The day •was hot and the cable apparatus worked badly. Selenium was part of it, and on examination it wras found that this element was playing tricks with the sunshine. It is aoing the same thing still, but, whereas, half a century ago .these manifestations were regarded merely as curious, they are now becoming an organised line of science which will,.within' a measureable time—some say one year, gome much longer—result in television. Selenium, in short, enables us to translate light into electricity, and thus to make a star ring a belli and a sunbeam talk! That is to say, wherever ■& beam of light can penetrate in the days when the secret of selenium ill fully revs&led, it will be able to carry human intelligence and be the instrument ol the human will. BAKER MAKES 2lff» OWS'GAS. A Copenhagen bakery, h<3R,l«d by coalgas from its own plant, uses a specially j designed gas generator, with pipes running to each end of the sixteen ovens. Uniform temperature is ensured by special valves regulating fuel consumption, and the results are not only better baking than by the old method, but a fnel saving of 85 per cent, and freedom from smoke and soot. MTJOH IEOK IS SUSSIA., The great mass of iron revealed in Russia by its effect on the compass has been estimated by M. Lazareff, in a note to the Paris Academy of-Sciences, to contain 16 timen the quantity of this metal existing in all other known deposits. It occurs in two bands 125 miles long and 50 miles apart. Exploration has shown ore at a depth of 500 feet containing 40 per cent, of iroiu At greater depths the ore removed has proved to have an increasing percentage of metaL 3TSW tf ATJTIOAI, KTSTEtrMEHT. A new bearing corrector is the latest ! nautical instrument to be added to the equipment of the White Star liner Homeric. This instrument assists in working from the relativ» to a true magnetic bearing, and—after to wireless bearings , have been received l!ro:tn the shore sta- j tidns and the ship's position taken—works ' oat mech»nically the direction for the steamer. The corrector is quite a small apparatus, being about 4in. in diameter, and calculations are made by adjusting a pointer and two revolving plates. SEW LUBRICATION IKVEKTIOIf. A saving of millions of quarts of lubricating oil and of millions of dollars in money is predicted as a result of the invention by the Westingbouse Electric and Manufacturing Co,, of what is said to be the first sealed sleeve bearing in the history of industry. The new device prevents waste by sealing the oil in and the dirt out of the bearing. The new bearing is said to be no more complicated ' thsn the conventional sleeve type motor bearing, but it is claimed to be immune from injury due to dirt present in the air surrounding the motor, since no air enters the bearing. , jnasrE snGEOPEomes is a cgrrjßCH. Calvary Baptist Church, " Pittsburgh* the first church to have its service broadcast by tadio, is now equipped "with nine microphones. Each microphone is cou- : trolled from a switchbox, so that as the varices sorvices require a change over it can bo done easily and efficiently. How necftssai*y a switchbox is may be noted from the positions of the microphones at Calvary Church. One microphone is near • the chimes, another in front o!f the minister, another in the leclnjra, another for the choir and also for the organ, The positions of all these microphones must be determined by experiments. WORK CI" IarVEMTCBS. At the annual meeting of the Institnie of Physics held iu London, recently, the president, Sir Charles Parsons said that the skilled inventor marshalled his ideas and, following the procedure of toature, i put them through a process of " natural selection," with the object of obtaining the fittest solution of bin problem. The testing out of any discovery or invention was probably the most difficult and most important part of the work, a work in i which a knowledge of physics was of in- ' estimable value. In most cases, it, was..a :■; matter of hard work and patience. Invention was, in almost fall cases, the resalt of the work of many persons, and very rarely that of one man. ATOMIC ESTEBOY. Speculating on the of deriving energy from the transmutation of the atom, Dr. F. W. Aston, speaking at the Institute of Metals, London, recently, remarked that it was now known with certaintv that four neutral hydrogen atoms weighed appreciably more than one neutral helium atom, though they contained the same units. "If," fee said, ''we could transmute hvdrogen into helium, matter would, therefore, be destroyed, and a prodigious quantity of energy would be liberated. The transmutation of the hydrogen contained in one pint of water into helium would set free sufficient energy to propel the Mauretania across the Atlantic and back at full spßed. VALTJE OT POTATO HATJSMS. : . Once considered a nuisance, the problem of what Jo do with the tens of thousands of tons of potato tops is believed to have been solved bv a Danish chemist's discovery that the waste .may be utilised ■'. as dye. In harvesting the dye, the tops aro cut when the plant is; in flower. After withering for a day or two, the vegetable j : is bruised and pressed' between huge rollars so as to extract the iuice. In using '■', "potato yellow." the articles to be dved i are steeoed in the jaice for several hours, : after which time a fine permanent yellow , colour is given to them. If desired, the yellow.may be changed to a .beautiful green by blunging the garments m a bsth of blue dve after thev are thoroughly impregnated with the yellow. A MmiATTJEE PLAVT SPBAYESi. Those with small gardens and conservatories will be interested in a plant Rnrayer which has been.specially difisigned for use with an ordinary bottle. In this device the mimp and the spraviiig nozzle ■ '■:. are inceniously combined. The pump barrel eT tenrl<» in the bottom of the bottle, and is orov»d»d at the,ton with a tapered cork that will fit the neck of. almost »nv brv»tv6. A tubular rod. connected with the name bucket, terminates in the sprav nozzle at its uoner end Outside 'th» / pomp barrel this rod ie bent into ajooo to take a fineer of tha operator. When the plnntrer is dravro upwards, the b«nid J. is racknd into the'mtmp barrel through a ball valve. On iro«h?nß down the plunger thft linnid is forcwl through a non-return j: valve in the bucket, and up the tnbnbjr rod to the niwile. whence it i«mes in In*. - form of spray. The parte of this soraver are made of'steel and are nickel-platpd It can be used for disinfectants as well as for insecticides. Bv attaching a mbher * tube to the lower end of the pump, a bucket full of liquid; can bo j, sprayed. Lastlv, rhe price is so low a«; jlo place ! this isprayer within the reach! «f ovary amateur gardener. ■