SCIENCE NOTES

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1610, 7 January 1903, Page 14

SCIENCE NOTES

THE PENDULUM EXPERIMENT.

The great pendulum which had been hung from the top of the dome of the Pantheon by the Astronomical Society of France to give ocular demonstration by its oscillations of the rotation of the globe was recently set in movement at a ceremony presided over by M. Chaumie, Minister of Public Instruction. The pendulum consisted of a ball weighing about 601 b, attached to a wire about 70 yards long. The president was received by M. Poincare, member of tin Institute and of the Bureau of Longitudes, and M. Camille Flammarion, president of the Astronomical Society. M. Flammarion, after reminding Ins hearers that it was in 1661 that the demonstration was first made in Florence by Galileo, referred at considerable length to the memorable experiment made in France by Foucault hall a century ago, and of ivhich the present was a .repetition. M. Chaumie commented on the technical explanations given by the astronomer, and then, by burning with a match the string which held it, freed the pendulum, which commenced its majestic oscillations. Sand was placed on the floor, and each time the pendulum passed over it a new track was marked by the stylet in regular deviation, though the plane of the swing of the pendulum remained unchanged. The experiment was completely successful.

PROPOSAL TO UTILISE THE INTERNAL HEAT OF THE EARTH.

A proposition to tap the earth’s internal fires is seriously put forward in the last issue to hand of the “Boston News Bureau” by the official geologist for Pennsylvania of the United States Geological Survey, and Professor Hallock, of Columbia University, New York. Starting on the basis that tin average increase of heat in the earth j about one degree in every.soft west of the Rocky Mountains, it is argued that, the temperature at the bottom of a well 9720 ft deep at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, would be 212 deg. Fa.hr. . Thus, if cold Avater was poured into this Avell it would at once he turned into steam. As. hoAvever, the steam Avould partly cool before reaching the surface, no matter how rapid the speed, it is considered that it would he necessary to sink the Avell to a depth of about 10,000 ft. In confirmation of the theory it is pointed out that water left overnight in the deepest wells in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, becomes hot, an 4 if there were some method to force it np rdpidiy it eculd be utilised.

AN AUTOMOBILE HIGHWAY.

Mr B. H. Thwaite, C.E., projects an automobile higliAvay from London through the centre of England to Carlisle, and thence to GlasgOAV, Edinburgh and Inverness. The road avouki have a foundation of concrete and a surface of specially hard creosoted blocks- with, asphalt joints, the surface curvature being sufficient for thorough and rapid drainage. Its central portion Avould be used exclusively by motor cars and there would also he side paths for bicyclists. Mr W. K. Vanderbilt, jun., is authority for the statement that a similar road is soon to do built in America from Long Island to Roslyn, a of tAventy miles. This road will be entirely on private ground, and Avill be designed for speeding purposes mainly. THE COLOURS OF STARS.

“The wide difference which there as between star and star as to brightness/'’ says Mr E. Walter Maunder, F.R.A.S., in “Knowledge,” “is apparent in the very first glance towards the heavens; it requires a more careful scrutiny to realise that they differ also in their colour and in the character of tjieir shining.. The ancients carried their discrimination of the difference of the brightness of stars so far as to recognise six magnitudes, but when it came to the question of colour they hardly noted any difference at all. The stars in general were described as yellow, six only being recorded as ‘fiery.’ Of these six we should class five as being distinctly orange or red— An tares, Betelgeuse, Aldebaran, Arcturus and Pollux. The sixth, Sirius, is to N us an intensely white star, and there

have been many discussions as to who* ther it has changed its colour in th® last 2000 years, or whether the description given of it—‘fiery red’—is due to some mistake in the record, or whether the extensive scintillation of the star may account for it. For, as we seo it now Avhen near the horizon, a momentary flash of vivid flame shoots out from time to time, due to the irregular dispersion of its light in passing through the tremulous atmosphere. It is from this that Tennyson, most exact of all the poets in his scientific references, calls Sirius ‘fiery’ in the well-known passage from the ‘Princess’: — .ejp v ‘The fiery Sirius alters hue And bickers into red and emerald.’ ” -a • -- ... SEA SERPENTS. It is generally believed (says the “Scientific American”) that the bite of sea serpents, or hydrophids, is not dangerous, but this is not so, and cases of death from this cause have been observed by Com tor in Japan, Fayrer in India, and Forne in New Caledonia. The geographical distribution of the sea serpents is very extensive, embracing a marine zone which is bounded on one side by the coasts of Asia and Africa and on the other hv the west coast of Central America: Australia is included in this region. The species are numerous, and they are all dangerous. If tiie effects of their bite haA’e not been more often pointed out it is because they are not mortal in a great number ot cases. In fact, they bite but rarely and with difficulty, oAving to the smallness of their mouth, and the dangerous effects are not frequent, as they have only very small venom glands and, minute fangs. The bead % which is small, is scarcely to be distinguished from the body, Avliile the tail is flattened *n the form of an oar. The length often exceeds three feet. A rat v when bitten by one of these serpents, dies in four or five minutes. LONG LIFE AND SLEEP. . i Professor Tesla thinks that a man has just so many hours to he awake, and the fewer of these he uses of each nay the more days will they last. He says: “I believe that a man might live 200 years if he would sleep most of his time. That is why negroes live to such an advanced age, because they sleep so much.” It seems doubtful, hoAvever, if life lengthened by such means Avould be of much value. WOOD FOR PAPER. The forests of Norway and SAveden, which for many years have burnished pulp for the paper-makers of Europe, are almost denuded. The forests in the United States are rapidly thinning out. and noAV the paper-makers are looking to Canada. South Africa and Russia for their supply. NILE COTTON. The experiments now concluded on the banks of the Nile show the quality of the cotton groAvn there to be the equal of any in the world. There are available 15,000,000 acres of irrigated land, and the only difficulty is the labour supply, the Dervishes having depopulated the Soudan, but the completion of the Sruakim-Berber railroad is expected to solve the problem, besides furnishing an outlet for the anticipated crop. A SUSPENDED RAILWAY FOR ENGLAND. According to a Reuter’s telegram from Nurenburg, the “Fraenkische. Kurier” understands that a Bill for the construction hv an English .syndicate of a suspended railway, ten miles. long, pn the Langen system, will be laid before the British Parliament during the present session. The cost of the railAA r ay is estimated at £2,000,000 sterling. THE LEAF BUD. Botanists assert that there is abundant evidence that leaf buds and floiver buds are not distinct. Every bud on the apple tree is formed as a leaf hud; and it is also true that every bud on the apple tree has power to become a flower bud. Leaf and flower buds are, in a measure, interchangeable. By proper pruning a floAver bud may be converted into a leaf bud, and a leaf bud may become a flower bud. Flo Aver buds may be one or more years old before they form flowers. Factors which tend to the formation of flower buds are any restriction to the movement of prepared food in the branches, such as is caused uy “ringing” or a wrinkling of the hark formed by the union of the fruit spur with the branch which supports it.