SCIENCE AND INVENTION.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 3311, 18 December 1897, Page 1 (Supplement)

SCIENCE AND INVENTION.

A MISPLA’CED ORGAN. A: .post-mortem examination at the Hotel Dieu, Douai, has revealed another esse st the heart being not in the right place but on the right side. The subject was a man named Hiiret, aged twentysix, who for several years showed inexplicable symptoms of cardiac disorder. He was exempted from military service, but no correct diagnosis of his abnormal condition ■::= was made until after his death. * r ; A VERY RARE VISITOR. A German professor has been devoting a good deal of presumably precious time to recalculating the period of a comet which was observed to be paying a visit to the Solar System in the year 1822. A number of observations, extending only over a few wests, made at the time by Encke, formed the basis of calculation.The German professor comes to a conclusion not very different' from that of Encke, to the effect that, should no disaster happen to it, we may /expect another visit from “1822 IV." about 5400 years hence, this is about a d. 7300. It may be a thousand years less or a couple of thousand years more—the extreme elipticity of the orbit renders exactness impossible—but that is neither here nor there. ; BICYCLE GEAR AND LOCO- ; MOTIVES, f In a recent issue the editor of the Arnerica,n .Machinist says; “I keep thinking about how much the “ bicycle folks have taught us all around bn t the general subject ; of, locomotion,) and I would not be surprised any day to see the locomotive people taking radical lessons from them ,about building locomotives. There is mueh that might belearned* and adopted, about, the use of tubing, and, why not also about the use of the .chain ? ,We have all of us vastly more respect for ohe chain as a power transmitter than we had/ten .years or twenty years ago.; It is entirely practicable today to build;a locomotive with high speed, perfectly balanced, smooth running and economical engines, and chain transmission to all the axles, and I expect, to see it." CONTINUOUS RAILS. -Travellers in railway ‘carriages do/riot always realise that the rhythmicthumpety. thump of the train is due to the wheels 1 passing over the joints between successive rails. According to scientific text-books,, in small interval must be left between each: rail and the next to allow for expansion in the heat of the sun. If this itulo is not obeyed, the rails, .we;have {been taught, will buckle up' cr arrange themselves zigzag fashion;;? In spite of ■this awkward ‘/law,of motion,", American ’engineers have been of late disregarding! .the danger and making continuous rails;SNot only is the'cbulk'-ofoithe-'vibration’ ! thereby, got. rid of,-but tho rails pan be bohdiiotbrs for the/ electric current dyivipgyFthe. electric railways. ■lt is found that if (he rails are welded and/yery bolted to the sleepers, their elasticity is sufficient to resist the expansion without crushing and the contraction without tearing asqnder. The welding: ia do.ne by.means of a strong electric current, which raises the ends of the - rails. to white heat. Qn being pressed together, a joint is formed which' is hV rae V than the'vail itself. Another method is to enrroqnH the two ends with a fireproof Hex, and to pour in melted iron.* This'makes a good joint, and, when: the superfluous iron is removed, the two rails are fo bp welded into one.

ARTIFICIAL DIAMONDS. Diamonds' of a -very, praqll aii;e have boon prodiicpd aftiqoially heretofore, but qoqne has as yet sueoeedediniproduoing* large ones. Mr E. Moyat claims to have discovered a.'new proooas by which <to produce diamonds of largo dimensions, In principle, his process is about the'saifie as the .one,, already invqntpd by pthers, and that is to qfitqin. crystallised carbon out *of J.rnu and/deal by means "Of high pressure and high temperature. Yet there is some Improvement in the Moyat pro--cess as regards the technical operation. Pulvented' coal, irop gfiips, and liquid oirbonio acid nya placed in a steel tube qnd hermetically sealed. ** The contents are then subjected . to-the action of an electric arc light by means" of two electrodes introduced into the tube. The iron liquefies, is then saturated by part of the pulverised coal; at the same time the liquid oarbonio acid evaporates, thereby creating an' enormous pressure on the mixture of iron and coafi ’Phis pressure again considerably increases the dissolution, of the, coal in the liquid iron.,,- While the’ mixture, is cooling,- the carhop crystallise? partly in - the form of real diamonds and partly in the. form of similar stories. .;. Those crystals are then , segregated by dissolving the iron in diluted muriatic acid. The mixture, by i the above method, remains under high pressure during the operation, of the electric current, while by other.,methods ‘the pressure is obtained later on only by means of the rapid cooling prooeg.9 pi- tfie crucible,’ :