SCIENCE NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19412, 21 August 1926, Page 4 (Supplement)

SCIENCE NOTES.

LIGHTING THE OCEAN. NOVEL PLAN SUGGESTED. LAMPS UNDER THE WATER. A novol suggestion was recently made that the main ocean routes should be equipped with under-water searchlights. These lights, laid in the form of a long string, would shino up through the water and provide an unfailing guide to liners and merchant ships at night. • It was suggested further that—on busy routes where the sea traffic is considerable —all risk of collision could be obviated by a "irule of the road " to the effect that ships going one way should keep to the one side of the lights and those coming in the opposite direction to the other side. Whereas this scheme is scarcely necessary on the straight-forward routes it would undoubtedly be valuable in places where rocks and sandbanks abound. Often in these places steering the ship is a very difficult matter—calling not only for skiil but also for an expert knowledge of the locality. With this scheme in operation the matter would resolve itself into solely a matter of keeping to the lights. Fog—the sailors' most formidible enemy —could, it is contended, be effectively overcome by this method and it is claimed that had the lights been in operation many wrecks, with their resulting loss of could haVo been obviated. Now that airliners are developing almost daily and the service is increasing week by week, this scheme, it is suggested, would be of assistance. At night the lights would act as an unfailing guide to the pilots. ELECTRICITY BY AIR. Another mysterious ray lias been uncovered. No sooner did Millikan come out with his announcement of the "lutra-x-rays " that will penetrate 6ft. of lead, than a young Welsh research worker made public his discovery of a new kind of ray that is claimed to transform air so that it can conduct electricity. It seems to lie in the mysterious region between the Xray and the Millikan ray, and, if so, may prove a great help in investigating the structure of levels in certain atoms of which very little is known at present.