SCIENCE NOTES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1678, 27 April 1904, Page 78 (Supplement)

SCIENCE NOTES.

WHAT IS A "SIPHON?" A mining engineer, or rather an -examiner, who once flourished in South Kensington—and his type is not yet ex-tinct—-once asked how a siphon could be used for raising water. A siphon is an appliance used not for raising water, but for lowering it. In its simplest form it is a bent tube with two legs of different length, and with open enda. Water will flow from a vessel up the immersed short leg. and flow out of the not immersed long leg, provided that the end of the long leg is -lower than the water level, and that the highest po-int of the siphon is not more tlia-n an atmospheric water column above the water level. The action is by atmospheric pressure, which, when once the siphon is charged, by aofc'ing upon the water surface, keeps up a flow, because the short leg offers less resisting force than the long leg, and the water makes its outflow where the resistance is least.—“ The Science and Art of Mining.” ON RADIUM. Sir W. Ramsay lectured a.t the Alhambra Theatre lately on Radium. After a recapitulation of the circumstances of the discovery of radium, Sir W. Ramsay remarked- that it was continually decomposing into a luminous gas, and this gas was decomposing into helium, so that radium was always in process of transformation into helium. The atoms of radium. thorium,, and uranium were very heavy. They were constantly throwing off electrons, and during this decomposition they were The question arose: Could this process bo reversed, as most chemical processes could? He and others were engaged at the present moment in trying to- find an answer to this question. It would be an enormous stride in our knowledge of matter-if it was found that the elements which up to now were considered unchangeable were themselves subject to constant change. ELECTRICITY FROM WIND-DRIVEN MOTORS. Cost of power being of such importance, it is of interest to note the progress that has been made in generating electricity from wind-driven motors. Variation in the speed of the wind, entailing a corresponding variation in the speed . of the generator, has hitherto proved the principal drawback. Professor La Cour, on behalf of the Danish Government, lias succeeded in -overcoming this by means of an intermediate shaft in connection with a balance, and oounlerweighted in such a manner that the belt slips as soon as the 10-ald exceeds a certain maximum. A plant on this principle, feeding 450 ine-andesoent lamps, has been running for nearly a year, the reserve in case of a calm being petroleum motors. The plant has proved a success technically and financially. UNDER THE FORUM. Com mandator a Boni lias made further discoveries in the Forum at Rome, among them the site of the ancient temple ’of Janus, a small structure compared with later temples. In a gallery of about twenty feat under ground he thinks, he has discovered the substructure of the theatre built bv Julius Caesar. Short galleries ending in a square chamber run at right angles from the long- gallery, four on the left and three on- the right. All these chambers are connected 1 by a narrow terra-cotta tube. liis explanation is this: —The gladiators entered these chambers, and at a, signal given by way of the terra-cotta tube they rose up through trap doo-rs, as if out of the earth, and appeared in the arena before the public. The tubes liave been cleared, and are found to work perfectly, while objects discovered in the galleries give further indications of their use. THE SQUIRREL PUZZLE. . The following questions and answers are from the "Scientific American’s” "Notes and Queries” —Q. You no doubt have been asked the question regarding the man and the squirrel—-the- squirrel keeping on the. opposite side of the tree from the man as he walks around the tree. Does the man walk around the squirrel ? It seems to- me a foolish question. but I would like vour answer tosettle a dispute. A. We have answered the man-an'd-thei-squirrel question so many times in our columns that vr supposed everyone had seen it. If a man walks around a tree he also walks around everything .upon filiaiti tree whether it is i-n motion or at rest upon the tree. This seems so plain that there need be no ouasti-csn of its correctness.. Any other conclusion seems to- us entirely absurd -and, illogical. A GOOD WORD FOR SOME SONG- - STERS. - It has just been pointed out that while the predilection of the blackbird, the lark, the goldfinch, the siskin, and the pigeon for the agriculturist’s grain and fruit cannot be denied, yet; the same birds do a great work in keeping in cheek the multiplication of weeds. Even the sparrow lias a most useful taste for pests that otherwise might be hard to keep in check. Some field-sparrows begin their vegetable diet with the seeds of crab-grass; and the tree-sparrows have a passion for wild amaranth and pigeongrass. The blackbird makes In’s most satisfactory meal from the bindweed, which botanists declare to"' be the most irrepressible and aggressive of weeds; and, as a writer in the /'Morning Post” points out; even the obnoxious pigweed is kept in check by the goldfinch. LEFT AND RIGHT LIMBS. The physiologists and scientists in general have been making some curious experiments with a view to determine the relative length and strength of "right”

and "left” limbs. Fifty and nine-tenths, per cent, of the men measured had the right arm stronger than the left; 16.4 per cent, had the two arms of equal length and strength, and 32.7 per cent, had the left arm stronger than the right. Of women, 46.9 per cent, had the right arm stronger than the left. 24.5 per cent, had the left stronger than the right. In order to arrive at the average of length of limbs 50 skeletons were measured, 25 of each sex. Of these 23 had the right arm and left leg longer, six the left arm and right leg, while in 17 cases all the members were more or less -equal in length, SHORTHAND 2000 YEARS AGO. It will, no doubt, come as a surprise to most people (says "Science Siftings”) that shorthand was known and practised two thousand 1 years ago. Manilius, a contemporairy of Caesar and Cicero, Virgil and Horace, asserts that some system of reporting very similar to our shorthand was in vogue in his days. Writing these words under the influence of Virgo and Mercury, he says they, are: In shorthand skilled, where little marks oomprisa Whole words—-a sentence in a single letter lies; And while the willing hand its add affords, Prevents the tongue tc fix the- falling words. It is certainly a novel conception that Cicero’s grand orations were committed to paper with as much skill as our modern stenographers boast. TEMPERATURE AND MILK. An interesting paper on a familiar subject, the relation of temperature to the kee-ping property of milk, lias reached. us from Storrs, Connecticut. The view of the writer, Mr W. 11. Conn, the well known dairy bacteriologist, is that the keeping of milk is moro a matter of temperature than -of cleaiuliness. He points out that at 50 degrees F. milk may rot curdle for two weeks, whereas at 70 degrees F. it may keep but 48 hours, and ati £>s degrees F. but 18 hours. This curdling is due to the action of bacteria, and the effect of temperature -on their multiplication is surprising. Thus at 50 degrees the ordinary milk organisms increase about 5-fold in 24 hours, but at 70 degrees they may multiply 750-fold in the same time. A NEW TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION. Dr. Bulling, a Zurich practitioner, has recently been carrying out a series of experiments with his inhaling machine for the treatment of consumption. By means of this liquid medicine is reduced into fine powder, which by the aid of compressed air is blown into every small ramification of the lungs. Many parts in the interior of the lungs have up to now been inaccessible to treatment, and Dr Bulling claims to have done away with this difficulty. The experiments which have been carried out at Zurich on animals have, according to the ‘"Chronicle” correspondent, given astonishing results. THE "DEAD SEA.” In the quarterly statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund Mr W. Ackroyd discusses the cause of the saltn-ess of the Dead Sea. Facts are brought forward which seem to indicate that the saltnes-s cannot be entirely due to accumulation of chlorides derived from the Palestine rocks by solvent denudation or the cutting off of an arm of the Red S-eai by the rising of Palestine in past ages followed by evaporaton of the solution. The author brings -evidence forward in favour of a third cause, which is perhaps more important than either, viz., the atmospheric transportation of salt from the Med i t errane a n. TG SEE YOUR "CALLER,” Mr Thomas A. Edison, at a banquet in honour of Professor Langley at New York, announced that lie hoped so-on toperfect a camera, obscura attachment to ordinary telephones which would permit users to see one another as they conversed-. He hais been at _ work on this instrument for years, during which time several announcements have been made that its practicability had been demonstrated, but they have always been followed by further announcements of unexpected difficulties encountered. QUARTZ GLASS. Quartz glass is a new mineral made by melting pure quartz crystal before the -oxyliydrogen flame. The melting point of quartz is about 1700 deg. Con,, o,r o-nly 80 deg. below that of platinum, so that its manipulation in a molten condition is extremely difficult and laborious. By reason of its superior hardness, transparency, and lew index of expansion,, the glass (says the "Engineering and Mining Journal”) is admirably suited for the manufacture of scientific instruments.