NEWS AND NOTES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1686, 22 June 1904, Page 16

NEWS AND NOTES.

v It is ii&w related that the reason why Disraeli spoke in English at the Berlin Congress of 1875 was that he was bluffed - into doing so by Lord Odo ''Russell, the British ambassador at Berlin, who feared that a speech by him in French would . produce a fiasco. Lord Odo learned of the intention from one of his secretaries, whc said: —“The old chief has prepared the devil's own long speech in French, learn* ed it by heart, and is going to fire it off at the Oohgress to-morrow." . His French from long disuse, had become rusty. So •the' ambassador repaired to the Prime Minister, and protested, “A dreadful tumour has reached us. We have heard that yoii intend to open the proceedings to-morrow in French." Disraeli did not see why he should not. Russell assured him that there* was no one more com-

petent, but there would be at least half- ! a-dozen men at . the Congress who were i hoping to hear an English speech deliver. . ‘ ed by‘its greatest living master. Would he disappoint them? me statesman pro bably saw through the innocent trick. His speech was delivered in English. • * »

Canada is certainly making a fairly generous grant in connection with the Grand Trunk-Pacific line. The Government propose ;to build, at the public expense, the section of the road between Moncton, New Brunswick, and Winnipeg, about 2000 miles in and’ to rent it to the Grand; Trunk-Pacific Company at 3 per cent, per annum on cost. The section from f Winnipeg to the Pacific Ocean, 1300 miles long, is to be built by the company, the Government guaranteeingr bonds at 3 per cent, to the extent of .£2600 per mile on the prairie division, from Winnipeg to the Rocky Mounta us, and to the extent of 75 per cent, of cost of construction from the mountains to the Pacific Ocean. The section of the main line between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific need not be completed until 1911 p- the rest of the road must bo finished within five years. It is expected that the construction of the Government portion, from Moncton to Winnipeg, will be handed over ro the Grand TrnikPacific Company, subject to the control, of a Government commission. The Grand Trunk Company will guarantee the second mortgage bonds of the Pacific Company, and in addition proposes to construct branch lines to the north of Ottawa and Winnipeg, the provinces giving the land % find cash subsidies.

If a man were built on the same lines as a caterpillar, the whole round earth would shortly become a desert waste. The small creature will, in the course of four or five weeks, eat more than 6060 times its weight in food. An adult human being must have a most excellent appetite to consume within three months' time an amount of food that will equal his own weight. A few Iversons eat more than this, but by far the greater number take less-.

Those who are-looking forward with trepidation to the tinxe when the world's coal* supply will be exhausted will find solace in some rough calculations by Mr J. C. Hawkshaw, a prominent civil engineer', concerning the water-power now going to waste. He says:—“Assume a depth of 10 inches of-rainfall to flow off each sqxxare inch of ■ land surface, the mean’. height of which may be. taken as 2250 feet above sea-level. Then the water from the whole sui’face falling through the mean height would give 10,340,0u0,000 horse-power in perpetuity. Our present yearly output of 225,000,000 tons of coal would give tliah horse-power for only a little over half a day."

Thei'e is not an operation that takes place in the mine that is not associated with the operations of natural law. The ventilating current is no exception to this statement, says Q. M. in “The Science and Art.of Mining”; air has weight, and, as the result of tliat, develops inertia. To make the matter cleax*, let ns view for a moment air in the light of ordinary matter. ~ A fly-wheel, say, is made to rapidly revolve by a falling weight and : rope. Now, after the motive power has ceased, the wheel will continue to involve until the friction aue to the axle and theresistance due, to the air uses up the whole of the energy stored xxp in the moving mass." Now,-a ventilating current, moving through the galleries of an extensively worked mine, weighs many tons, and in motion becomes the store of a great amount of mechanical energy. Let us. suppose the mine is ventilated by a fan, if the fan be stopped the ventilation of the mine will be continued for some hours until the energy of the moving mass is not only consumed by friction, but by setting fresh air in motion into the mine.

“Electric sunstroke" is an effect produced by electric light in certain respects resembling; sunburn and sunstroke, although tne results are nothing like so serious. The electric arc employed in the reducing furnace is of such intensely concentrated heat that, Avhile steel will melt in it like tallow, a tliei’mdmeter a dozen yards away from it is hardly affected. But people standing at this distance become affected with a sense of burning nam on the head, xace, and neck resembling some of the effects of actual sunstroke. Their skin becomes bronzed to a coppery tint, temporary blindness in natural light supervenes, with pain in the eyes, followed by headache and insomnia. Afterwards the skin peels off just as in the case of sunburn. The explanation of these effects is still to' seek but they would certainly seem to show that in ordinai’y sunstroke light plays a part as great, if not greater, .than heat. * • / * The freight conflict at Calcutta has had a disturbing effect upon the forward market, but several hundred bales of coimsackg have been placed on c.f.i terms. The British India and Currie lines do cided recently to carry cornsacks from Calcuttat to f. Australian parts at 100 less 10 pen cent, per ton, and to inarco a substantial induction (the extra amount

mot having yet been settled).on tea. < They also resolved to protect all loyal shippers if further changes should be found necesu sary. At Calcutta apprehension exist: with regard to the supply of labour at the jute mills, one journal writing as follows:—“The jxite mills both up and flown the river continue to suffer more or 1« f'S from scarcity of labour, arising in some cases, from sickness amongst the hands, in others, from the usual migration? at this season of a certain percentage of Tie : workers to their various mulluckg. Others again, having plenty of money, are simply' taking a rest in, their own huts during the very hot days, and some mills are feeling the pinch owing to recent extensions at neighbouring mills drawing away a goodly number of -.heir hands ; under the inducement, of better wages. This wages question threatens to be rather a serious one if it is not wisely dealt with. The workers, if not yet federated into a trades union, have at least a very complete intelligence department amongst them, which almost serves the same ends. The managers of the vario-13 mills may try to hide from one another the rates of wages they are paying, but the workers know to a fraction of a pice the rates that are being paid everywhere."

Radium is now believed in some quarters to be the substance of which sun is largely composed. Light travels at the rate of 186,000 miles a second. Considering that the brain can scarcely grasp the speed of a bullet, a mere 650 yards a second, it is readily seen how far beyond human comprehension in such a as. this. Nor is it any easier to grapple intelligently with the speed of the,emanations of radium some of which fly off at a velocity of 120,000 miles a second, and will penetrate steel and various other substances a 3 easily as smoke will pass through muslin. So powerful are these rays that it would be as dangerous to approach radium in any quantity as it is to go near gunpowder with a* lighted match.

The crashing strength of rocks indicates that there must be a limit to the possible height of mountains. Mr Et. H. L. Schwartz calculates that the lower layer woula he crashed in a column of wet sandstone, from two-thirds of a mile to five miles high; one of granite from four to seven and a half miles; and one of felsite from seven to nine miles.

No. 5, vol. xlviii., of the Harvard College Observatory “Annals” contains a discussion on the distribution of the stars throughout the whole sky. 'A special point of the discussion was to determine the relative numbers of the stars situated in the Milky Way and those outside its limits. The number of stars in a given area of the Milky o'ay i; about twice as great as in an equaj area of any other region, and this ratio does not increase for faint stars down to the twelfth magnitude; the proportion of stars of any given magnitude is the same in the Milky Way as in the other regions. The Milky Way covers about one-third of the sky, and contains about half of the stars. There is no evidence of any limit to the faintness of the stars, although the proportionate increase becomes less for each successive magnitude. There are about 10,060 stars- of magnitude 6'6 or brighter, 100,000 of magnitude 87. 1,000,000 of magnitude 11 { 0, and 2,000,000 of magnitude 11‘9. Although uncertain, it is suggested that there are about 18 millions of stars visible in a telescope of 15 inches aperture—i.e., down to about the fifteenth magnitude.—“ Nature."

For the benefit of those to whom the name 'Turbine" does not convey any clear idea, it may be explained that the mode of producing rotary motion in a ship's shafting and its attached propellers is, in pi’inciple, the same as that of the old-fashioned windmill. The force in the turbine, however, is steam instead of wind, and The angled arms "'and sails of the windmill are repi’esented in the turbine by metallic vanes set on the surface of a conical casting, which forms by attachment the forward end of the propeller shafting. These vanes work into counterpart fhxtings on a fixed, surrounding, hollow casting, and thus complete the device. The steam, entering at the forward end of this combined arrangement of blades, can only find passage by forcing the parts attached to the shafts into rapid revolution. Rushing along with the momentxxm due to its volume and boiler pressure at one end, supplemented by the withdrawal of atmospheric pressui’e by means of powei’ful air pumps operating at the other end. the steam imparts a steady, unceasing rotary moveu ment to the propellers*, utilising to the best advantage the whole boiler power of the ship.

The rules which are to govern the airship competition at the St. Louis Exposition for £30,000 in prizes attach conditions (reiriarks the “English Mechanic") to somewhat discourage inventors. No applicant who does not present satisfactory evidence of having made a flight over at least ,a mile course and return with a machine similar in principle to that which he intends to use in the contest is to be allowed to compete. The aeronautical jury reserves its right to rule out any machine deemed too hazardous to life. No vehicle which is not absolutely free from the earth in its flight after the start is made shall be admitted. A prize of £20,000 is offered in open competition, without limitation as to the power used or the mechanical principles involved. In addition there will be minor subsidiary prizes, aggregating £IO,OOO. Each machine entering the contest must cari’y at least one person. The course is to be shaped like the letter L, mai-ked by three captive balloons, and the total distance is to be not less than 10 or more than 15 miles, l’eckoned in a straight line. The aeronaut will have the choice of the dii’ection in which to start, hut will be obliged to round the captive balloons in opposite directions. The award of- £20,000 together with a medal, will be made to the competitor who-shows the best average speed, prou vided he covers the entire course thi’ee times," at a speed averaging each, time not less than 20 miles an hour. Four prizes

of <£1250 each will be offered to aeronauts who win the following contests: —The greatest height attained, the longest time in the air, landing nearest to the Washington Monument at Washington, and the longest distance travelled in one flight in any direction. '

It Js said that the patterns on the fin-ger-tips are not only unchangeable through life, but the chance of the finger-prints of two persons being alike is less than one chance in 61,000,000,000. This is why the “finger-print" system has been adopted for the identification of criminals. The test is believed to bo almost infallible."-