SCIENCE OF THE DAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20602, 28 June 1930, Page 5 (Supplement)

SCIENCE OF THE DAY.

POTASH FROM DEAD SEA. The Dead Sea, in Palestine, long known _ to contain potash and other valuable salts, is now being exploited by a chemical company which will recover potash from its historic waters. Palestine Potash, Ltd., has been formed in Loudon with a capital of £400,000, to exploit the chemical resources of this brdy cf water. Actual work will be begun at tbe confluence of tha River Jordan and the Dead Sea, where elaborate drying plants have been erected and 400 workers engaged. The Earl of Lytton, former Viceroy of India, is chairman of the new company, which announces its intention to increase its capitalisation as business warrants. Shares already have been subscribed by the British and American directors, but additional shares will be offered to the public in accordance with the terms of the concession. Among the American directors are Messrs. Felix Warburg and Bernard F'exner, of New York. Although the start necessarily will be slow, the company is bound by its concession to prodafe at least 50.000 tons of potassium chloride annually after the tenth year. The work will be carried oat by means of huge drying tanks built on the hills on each side of the mouth of the Jordan. The water of the Dead Sea, which is 300 ft. below sea level, is said to be among tha world's richest repositories of valuable salts, and potash is expected to become one of Palestine's most important products. rasiGATioN nr oldes days. A despatch in a South American newspaper says that a group of farm labourers clearing land discovered a complete system of irrigation apparently installed centuries ago by natives. The discovery was made on the ranch ".La Granja." situated halt an hour from the town of P.ubio, near the Colombian frontier. The system of irrigation canaLs covered approximately 10 acres, and was built to distribute water equally over the land in much tbe same fashion as is in use today.

PUMFI2TG- DRY CEHEST, All the cement required for the recent construction of a 16-mile concrete highway along the Allegheny River, in moon Uinoui Warren Comity, Pennsylvania, was pumped across the river in dry bulk through a Sin. pipe.. Compressed air at lOOlbs. pressure carried the cement in powdered form from railway waggons a distance of 76£ ft., the length of the pipe, to the batching plant. This unusual method of handling cement proved thoroughly practical and economical The pipe was suspended across the river from a cable. BETEAYXJTG THE BOOTLEGGER. " Black " light, the invisible rays which are the longer wave-length part o£ ultraviolet, may be used to discover the Source of industrial alcohol diverted to the bootleg trade, according to Dr. Herman Goodman in a recent, paper presented in America before the Society of Medical Jurisprudence. By adding an invisible trace of certain "fluorescent dye (o their industrial alcohol, the manufutturerers can always identify their own product, no matter hew much it has been distilled or rectified, by turning on it the invisible rays of black light. COLOUR OP HUMAN SKTST. A Japanese biologist says he believes he has found the secret of altering the colour of people's skins. Parents of children with coloured shin will La able to have the pigment changed, so that tW negro or Indian will have as white a skin as an Englishman. Coloured skins can be bleached of their darkness, be_it black, brown, red, or yellow. Dr. Noguchi'a beliefs, he says, are based on experiments on the effects of electrical nutrition and glandular control. Besides being able to alter skin colour, he hopes to alter racial characteristics. His electrical nutrition theories include the beautiScation of children who show in infancy a tendency to grow up ugly. He also claims that mentally deficient ciiildieu can be made normal.