SCIENCE NOTES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1523, 28 February 1901, Page 18

SCIENCE NOTES.

THE LIGHT CURE. At,.the last meeting of the Paris Academy*%l. Garnault presented a memoir on some therapeutic applications of light, in which he stated that light might Ibe employed with much advantage in a number of diseases, such as rheumatisms, ulcers, catarrh of nose and ear. The results obtained are stated to be certainly due to the specific action of light. A SUBMARINE VOYAGE. We have been hearing a good deal about submarine vessels recently, and now we are told that a voyage is shortly to be made by Mr John P. Holland, inventor of the boat which bears his name, in the new submarine vessel now being constructed. Mr Holland proposes to sail to Bermuda, then to Fayal, and so on to Lisbon. The trip is expected to occupy 16 days, and the boat will proceed at an average rate of 9.5 knots, mostly at ithe surface. Occasionally she will dive some 30ft. to 60ft., and remain at that depth for 30 or 40 miles. Including the inventor there will be eight men on board, and a tender, which will accompany the vessel, will keep her convoy in view as far as possible. GREEN LIGHT FOR THE EYES. In the new switch tower in the Grand Central yard, New York city, the windows are of green glass. It is a great protection to the ej’es of the employees, and enables them to keep their vision at its normal strength at all times'. The switch tower contains 176 levers, which operate the switches and signals !by compressed air. A HANGING CAR. A transporter bridge is about to be erected over the Manchester Ship Canal and the River Mersey, so as to connect the towns of Widnes and Runcorn. It is proposed to have a single span of 1000 ft. of the suspension type, haying JL 1 4-tTTA lAn 1 +.ll

girders braced horizontally to withstand the win depressure. A frame on rollers will run on four lines of rails attached to the underside of the girders, and from this frame will be suspended a transporter car, to be moved to and fro by mechanical power. The car, in which covered accommodation will be provided for passengers, will be about 55ft. long by 24ft. wide, and will be available for passengers, carriages, and wheel traffic of every description. THE CLIMBING FISH. A second consignment of climbing perch (Anabas scandens) has been received at the London Zoo from India. The epithet "‘climbing” is scarcely appropriate, though there is no reason to doubt Dahldorf’s- statement that he took oue on a palm at a height of sft. from the ground. Evidence has been obtained from these specimens that even m confinement they will leave the water. They are kept in. a large shallow tub, across which the keeper has fixed some small pieces of wood just above the surface of the water. On these, when all is quiet, the fish raise themselves by means cf the spines on their gill covers ; but as soon as anyone approaches the tub the vibration Or the noise alarms them, and they iMfnediately drop off. ELEVATED RAILWAY S . The 1 ong-lc oked-f or trial of the thirdrail system on the New York elevated roads was recently carried out on the Second Avenue branch, when six trips were made between 54th Street and 92nd Street. The trial train, says the “Scientific American,” consisted of six cars, the twm end cars being each equipped with four motors. The two motor cars were arranged so that the cabs were respectively at the front and rear ends cf ‘he train. The trip from 92nd Street to 54th Street, a distance of thirty-eight blocks, was run in four minutes, at a speed of thirty miles an hour. The"superiority of the motors over the old steam locomotives was shown in the rapid acceleration, and the substitution of the air-brake for the old vacuum brake was noticeable in the greater rapidity. with which the stops were made. Judging from the results achieved .oh the rails, it is expected that trains will run from the Battery to 155th Street on the Sixth Avenue line in forty minutes, instead of forty-nine minutes, which was the time taken under in© old system. The new and the old cars are similar in appearance, the former being somewhat wider. In place of the old steam heating and oil lighting, they will, of course, be lighted and heatPd bv electricity. A CUNNING DEVICE. A college student visited a Philadelpnia photographer and sat for his_ picture. When the plate was developed the astonished photographer saw plainly on the young man’s forehead a clearly defined death’s head with crossbones beneath it. Thinkingrit was some imperfection in the plate, the photographer arranged another sitting. Again the skull and crossbones appeared in the picture, and the mystified photographer was fairly struck dumb with, amazement. Then he noticed the smiling sitter, and finally induced him to tell the joke. Ine trick~&imply consisted of painting on the forehead the grim design with a solution of bisulphate of quinine. This is invisible to the eye, but shows pure white on the camera.