SCIENCE OF THE DAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20656, 30 August 1930, Page 5 (Supplement)

SCIENCE OF THE DAY.

GIANT ONE-PIECE CASTING.

Gaint locomotive beds cast in one piece 64ft. long, and weighing 80,0001b., over 35 tons, finished, says a message in the Christian Science Monitor, from Granite City, Illinois, resemble huge antediluvian dinosaurs as travelling cranes swing them across the shop here where they are being produced in quantities for use of railroads in the United States, and elsewhere.

Perfection of the one-piece casting, with integral cylinders, it was said at the plant of the General Steel Castings Corporation, where they are designed and cast, has made possible reduced railroad operating costs and increased the number of locomotive servico hours by avoiding delays formerly occasioned by adjustment and replacement of parts. All tho various parts formerly forged separately, ana bolted together in the frame assemblage are cast in one unit, which is considered a remarkable foundry feat. Combining in one casting the mam frames with cross ties and brackets, the pilot beam, cylinders, and cradle crossings, tho locomotive-long unit provides uniform resistance to stresses, and avoids the many problems involved in determining tho location of bolts, and rivets, and in giving requisite strength to tho smaller castings, it was said. In perfecting a onc-pioco casting there were many foundry problems to be solved.

" Tho feature of these locomotive beds," Mr. C. P. Whitehead, sales assistant to tho vice-president and general manager of tho corporation, said, " is not so much their weight, and length as it is that we are able to produce castings of this size with the avorage metal only one inch thick, spread over very complicated sections, because when they aro being finished they have to meet very exacting requirements. There have been produced in the past heavier castings for milling machinery and Diesel engine bases, but they are cast in very heavy sections.'" Because the locomotive castings are of such thinness, Mr. Whitehead said. " they are tho most remarkable castngs ever produced. All our larger castings are made in forms built in the floor of the foundry, and dry-sand cores are used throughout. It is quite a problem to take care of the shrinkage in this typo of casting, and this requires not only rare judgement, but many years of experience." WIRELESS IN THE MINES. The work of miners is likely to be brightened by wireless in the mines. Some tests havo been made in a pit in Somersetshire, which suggest that it would bo possible io have music in the coal mines. Tho effects of the mine were very curious, however, as while music was quite good before the cage began to descend, tho music stopped as soon as it had gone a few feet into the earth. In a shaft of 1000 feet below the surface the music was quite clear again, and at this great depth below the surface music from London was heard quite well.

RUBBER SHOES FOR HORSES. Scotland Yard authorities are experimenting with rubber shoes for the horses of the mounted police in an endeavour to discover some material to replace iron, which slips on modern metalled roads and endangers the equilibrium of the police mounts. A number of horses of varying characters have been shod with rubber, and a close watch is being kept on results. In addition to its non-slipping properties, rubber, the tests show, lias the advantage of wearing much longer than iron ; in some instances three months against 21 days. The period shoes will last varies, as with mankind, according to individual peculiarities of gait. One popular police horse wears out a set of iron shoes every week or ten days. SAFETY IN SUBMARINES. The British Admiralty has secured an apparatus which it is believed will reduce the toll of life in submarine disasters. It is a costume fitted with an oxygencharged breathing bag, which acts also as a float. The wearer breathes entirely from the bag, through a cartridge of sodalime, which absorbs his expirations. In case of emergency the men would pass singly through a hatch, and float to the surface. The authorities say they are satisfied, after tests, that the invention supplies a reliable means of life-saving. TWO PLANTS FROM ONE SEED. The possibility of producing two plants from one seed has recently obtained confirmation as a result of the work of Mrs. Tenia S. Clare, tutor at the botanical laboratory of the University of Southern California, when she observed two instances of twin seedlings sprouting from Torrey pine seeds and one pair of twins from the seed of a I'inon pine. A further research on seeds showed that this possibility exists in at least a small percentage of all pine seeds. Ono seed investigated showed the start of six tiny plants, of which four had far enough developed to indicate that they might have grown had the seed been planted. MACHINE TO DISPERSE FOG. Of special interest is a machine exhibited at tho fourteenth Swiss Industries Fair at Basle. It is catalogued as a FogRemoving Apparatus, and its immediate use is the dispersal of steam, dust-cloud, and local fogginess in factories, whether induced by the industry itself o;' by weather conditions. It is upon the future development of this device that interest is being focused. It may be possible to disperse mist and fog in places of special danger—around railway stations, aerodromes, bus stations, and tho spots in a big city where the presence of fog adds a real menace to life.