SCIENCE NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19215, 2 January 1926, Page 7 (Supplement)

SCIENCE NOTES.

MINING FOR WOO D. TIMBER IN THE EARTH. Mining is generally associated with minerals and tho getting of these substances out: of fho earth, but there are some places beside New Zealand where mining for timber is an important and lucrative industry.

In a wide swamp near Chicago quantities of white oak logs are being recovered, the remains of a great forest that was submerged .seven or eight thousand years ago. Although the outer layers of wood have decayed, some chemical agent in the soil has made tho rerruilncpr hard and durable and given it a del: jate colour, for which it is much prized.

Gold prospectors on tho Charlotte Pkiins in Australia recently discovered ill tb" bed f ' ;■ riv. " long since dried up a vaiiiabio deposit of Limber known as the she-oak. Many of th logs unearthed had the appearance of having been cut and trimmed by human agency. This wood is also noted for its toughness, and is employed in the manufacture of ornaments and toilet articles. In the peat bogs in Ireland deposits of I tog-oak are frequently encountered. This substance is jet black and exceptionally hard, and provides a profitable industry for the inhabitants, who fashion it into ornaments, pipes, crosses, and no ou. The fossilized vegetable resin known as amber is also dug out of the earth, and in some parts of Germany and in Jutland there are pits made specially for finding Tie substance. In British Columbia there is a peculiar min* jt-wii ■which a kind of soap is obtnin<M». The origin of the substance is a piystery, but it consists of horaz and some fatty ingredient blended by Nature into the semblance and consistency of soap. RUBBER PLATING DISCOVERY. A new process has been discovered by which articles can be be electrically coated with rubber. It, is due to tho work of a young English chemist, Dr. S. E. Sheppard, who has been working for some years in America. Rubber is not only waterproof, but in many cases acid-resisting, and, no matter how thin tho coating of rubber may be, its effect is the same. At present only an actual thin sheet of rubber can be placed over anything to make it waterproof, bur., it is claimed that Dr. Sheppard's process is like electro-plating. An excessively thin coating of rubber can be given anything by means of electricity. CARPENTER'S CONCRETE. Some very interesting things are going on in the concrete world, for it has been found that by mixing concrete with wood it can bo made handier and lighter. One big firm is already producing an excellent building material by mixing sawdust with its concrete, and now a new material which is composed of shredded wood impregnated with chemicals has been tried. This is mixed with cement and compressed into blocks by special machines,, each block being equal in sizo to 60 bricks, but only 1421b. in weight. One block can be handled easily by two men. Another interesting thing about the new material is that it can be sawn into pieces with a carpenter's saw, and nails can bo driven into it quite easily. THE ATOM ENGINE. What may be described as the first practical patent for running an engine on power obtained from the atom has just been granted to a Dutchman. He has discovered that if mineral sands containing titanium aro heated to a temperature of 1700 degs. Centigrade the atoms disintegrate, and an enormous amount of heat is generated. The sand is heated in a small electric furnace, and the heat caused by the sudden break;ing-up of the atom - is forced by a pump through tubes that heat the water in a boiler, and supply the power to drive an engine or turbine. This patent has passed through the Patent Office almost unnoticed, but it is actually the first stepping-stone to the realisation of the power from tho atom which all the world is waiting for. It, may easily develop into the most dramatic achievement of the century. 5000 SNAPSHOTS A SECOND. The British Government possesses a cinematograph camera, tho only qjie of its kind in tho world, capable of taking 5000 separate, pictures a second. This marvel of cinematography has taken four years to manufacture and cost over £15,000. It weighs four tons, and photographs, on ordinary cinematograph fi'm, pictures that make the present so-calleci slow-motion film look rapid. The Government are using the camera to study the effects of armour-piercing shells on various kinds of armour plates. Every detail of the bursting of shrapnel, the action of a quick-firing gun, or the recoil oi a gun, can be studied with the aid of this wonderful invention. The film runs on a drum that revolves 1000 times a minute, 38,000 ft. of film passing behind the leas in a second. To counteract tho effects of centrifugal forco and to keep the film in contact with tho drum, the air is exhausted from the underside of the film by means of a vacuum pump. The strongest daylight is not strong enough for exposures as rapid as 1-65,000 th of a second or less. Powerful searchlights have enabled 3000 exposures a second to be made, but greater speed will not be possible until a more intense light is available. SEAWEED FOR SPEED. Motor-cars are running in many partr of the world without real petrol in their tanks. They rely for their power on vegetable alcohol, prepared by modern chemists from fruits, roots, seeds, and even flowers. In France, alcohol is extracted from sugar-beet, and ten gallons of -spirit has been extracted from a ton oi this vegetable. Potatoes have been used for the same, purpose in Germany. From 15 to 60 gallons of alcohol can be obtained from a ton of acorns, horse chestnuts or figs. In Australia over 20 million acres arc infested by a certain kind of prickly pear, but recently this pest, has become a source of profit, for it is said that 14 gallons of spirit are yielded from a ton of tho prickly stem. Although alcohol is also extracted from artichokes, maize and rice are tho richest sources of supply. \ou can get about a dessertspoon fill of spirit from every ounce of rice. Seaweed is probably the strangest source from which alcohol for power purposes is obtained. Tons are gathered every year, and after treatment by industrial chemists yield a very high propovtion of useful spirit. SILBiWORM SECRETS. The secrets of rearing silkworms have been handed do\v<i among Chinese farmers from father to son for hundreds of generations. Th-a Chinese farmers buy silkworm eggs in the spring. These are very minute and are sold in sheets of stiff paper each containing 200,000 to 240,000 eggs. The egg sheets are placed in a clean basket in a small rearing room, and charcoal fires in earthenware braziers arc used to keep the temperature at 80deg. dny and night for nine days. Then the eggs turn green. A day or two after this the worms hatch. For the first two or three days the young worms must be fed every two hours day and night. Fresh, soft mulberry leaves are shredded very tine and sprinkled over tho newly-hatched worms; their jaws are too weak to chew much of the leaf, but they can suck out the juices. The worms reach their full growth in eighteen days. Some idea of their ravenous appetite can be gained from the. fact that a group of 200,000, the number hatched from one egg sheet about one foot square, eat a ton and a-half of mvlberrv leaves in a little over a fortnight. Or- the eighteenth day the farmers transfer the worms to a barjboo rack, and almost immediately they begin to spin their cocoons-