A MARVELLOUS ARTICLE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18446, 6 January 1922, Page 6

A MARVELLOUS ARTICLE

WHICH SHOWS US HOW PLANTS BEAT US IN EVERY FORM OP MECHANICAL CONSTRUCTION—WE CANNOT DO BETTER THAN COPY NATURE’S MODELS TO SOLVE OUR MECHANICAL AND SCIENTIFIC PROBLEMS. Plants as Inventors. One of the most fascinating and wonderful scientific articles published recently is to be found in the Cornhill Magazine, edited by Leonard Huxley (October, Is 6d). It is of equal interest to the lover of nature, the scientist, the engineer, and the religious mind. It is by Clara Boyle, and is called “Plants as Inventors.” With charming' lucidity Miss Boyle opens to us some fresh chapters in the marvellous mechanism of plant life, and a great silence fills the mind as one reads them. She shows us engineering in everything and wonderful design implicit in all. A Man and His Book. "A few mqnths ago,” says Miss Boyle, “a Stuttgart firm of publishers brought out a small book, which is bound to attract attention in this country as well as in Germany. Under the title of ‘Biotechnik,’ it deals with the wonderful mechanical achievements of tho plant. The author. Dr R. France, of Munich, is an eminent scientist who has devoted his life to the study of vegetable and animal organisms. Many fascinating books on these subjects have emanated from his pen, and tho present little volume is only an extract from a more extensive and detailed work published in 1919. “In these pages Dr France reduces all organic phenomena—with which he classifies humanity' itself—to the comprehensive law of Adaptation to Necessity—in other words, that ' necessity alone creates the perfectly adapted functional formation of any organism. Further, he strikes a new note by displaying the plant’s' absolute superiority oyer us in our invention in every form of mechanical construction, so that we can do no better than copy, in our industrial activities, the models with which Nature has provided us. ■—Nature’s Perfect State “Dr France reasons thus: By the law of Nature, every organism has only one perfect shape, its optimum, which alone corresponds to its essential character, and when changing conditions cast it: out of this perfect state there follows not a state of rest but processes of evolution. This evolution continues by force of the fundamental law until, through constant scrapping of inefficient forms, the optimum, the perfect state of quiescence, is again reached, in which form and being are one. Thus we have a constant selection, and all imperfect forms undergo modification until they reach their optimum—that is, become perfect. Seven Eternal Forms., — “Crystal, sphere, plane, staff, band, screw, and cone—these are the fundamental forms of the whole world. These suffice for. every process of evolution towards the construction of every perfectly' adapted shape, of every individual optimum. All existing substances must be based on these seven fundamental shapes, as Nature has not produced any others; let the human mind create what it will, it can only achieve variations of these seven forms; it cannot get beyond them. “We take a bluebell, and on analysing it we see that leaves and petals are planes ; jthe roundness of the sphere, the shape of the cone, are joined with planes in its corolla; screw-lines and spiral planes are repeated in ornamental coils; the stalk is a staff. Again we find the seven fundamental forms ? very much modified and complicated, it is true, but still they remain as the seven constructive parts of the world. “Wo try to refute the above definition, but are baffled on every side. As a last resource, we consider a masterpiece of human intelligence, a modem steam engine. Here are wedges, screws, bolts, rivets, pins, axle-shafts, axle-pearings, couplings, cog-wheels, chains, pistons, piston-rods, piston rod heads,; piston-rod collars, cranks, eccentrics, connecting-rods, cylinders, tubes, and valves. We measure each' contrivance by our seven fundamental shapes and each one resolves itself into either plane, staff, screw, crystal form, cone, or spherical surface. “Mechanical science is not acquainted with a ‘single model which cannot be traced back to Nature Here is a law so great that it reduces engineering, industry and architecture, art and science, even minerals, stones, mountains, and celestial bodies—in short, all existing substances —to one uniform definition. The same mechanical law governs identically all forms of life. The laws of least resistance and of ,the. minimum of effort require that the same activities lead always to the same forms, aijd that all evolution must proceed within the scope of the seven fundamental shapes.” —Go to the Flagellates: Be Wise. Miss Boyle then describes the marvellous moving and swimming capacity of those minute pirates of the deep, the animal Flagellates, and advises naval architects to study them and be wise. “Many Flagellates, especially those belonging to the Monad group, are the swiftest and most ravenous robbers amongst the animalculse. “One representative of this ; group is Tctramitus costatus. Its shape is not known in naval architecture; when, however, its proportions were enlarged to the scale of the under-water part of a ship’s hull, and shown to an expert, the latter declared that on the basis of such a model a faster type of ship could indeed be constructed, or, if the speed were to remain tho same, a considerable economy in coal could be effected. “Whilst we havfe to construct engines of 40,000 to 70,000 horse-power, and consume an enormous amount of coal, in order to propel a ship, say, 600 feet long, at a speed of 23 knots —i.e., some 36 feet, about one-seventeenth of its length, a second—a tiny .Monad, l-100mm long, is able to cover 20mm a second, or 2000 times its own length; whereas, on the basis of the powers at our disposal, and allowing for the proportionate resistance against the motion, it would only be able to coyer 4.2 mm an hour. By means of its ‘flagellum screw’ this little creature is thus enabled to attain proportionately a swiftness several thousand times in excess of that of our ships, although it only uses the upper part of its flagella, thus bringing into play only a small portion of its full powers.” Tile Wonders of Colloid.

Few people will know what “Colloid” is, but Miss Boyle points out that it has had a mighty past, helps the world along to-day, and has a mighty future when man knows how to apply ite secrets. “itubber is a colloidal solution; the rubber solution which the bicyclist knows so well is neither a liquid nor a gas, nor yet a solid body. We might say that the colloid is the fourth state of matter attainable on our planet; and its universality is quite a possible supposition. .Already we are able to convert all metals, as well as silicic acid and albumen into colloids, end very probably wo shill one day be able to convert every substance into the colloidal condition. It has been proved that all colloids are of a cellular, or honeycomb, construction. We can easily explain this fact by recalling to mind that the cell is the structural shape of colloid—that is, of plasm. In fact, all plant life is a colloidal problem. Plants Stronger than Iron. "On the basis of this knowledge scientists are now trying to solve a mystery which, under our eyes, is beiilg constantly solved by the plant—namely, the colloidal boiler. “Our big ship-boilers have been tested to from 18 to 25 atmospheres—that is to say, each square centimetre is tested to bear a pressure of from 18 to 25 kilos, and in order to attain this object the thickness of the boiler walls must generally measure l-200th part of the boiler’s diameter. ‘‘When we consider living plant cells through a microscope it must surprise us again and again to find how tensely they fill their container. If, however, we add even a tiny quantity of sugar solution to the water in which we examine the cells, we observe that the tightly stretched walls shrink immediately. Scientists call

this experiment a decrease of osmotic pressure, and by measuring this osmotic pressure they ascertained that in a normal plant cell it amounts to from five to 10 atmospheres, or -just as much as the pressure in a .small boiler, without taking into consideration the heat to which the latter is exposed. “The fine skin which bears this pressure is, of course, of plasmatic nature—that is, of colloidal structure. From the above it follows that colloidal membrane must be of enormous strength, even stronger than iron sheets. “In the cells of sugar beet the colloidal membrane, l-1000mm thick, withstands a pressure of 21 atmospheres;' the thickness of the boiler’s walls measures in this instance hardlv l-5000th part of the boiler’s diameter. The osmotic pressure in mildew fungi is supposed to amount to as much as 160 atmospheres. We must use iron sheets two fingers thick, where a thin membrane suffices for Nature’s needs. In this respect, as in so many others, the mechanical powers of the plant are much superior to ours. “A new problem, a new aim, now lies before the scientist. How can we construct a ‘colloidal boiler’? The task has been indicated, the goal is attainable, and the human mind is sure not to rest until the present day steam boiler can be thrown upon the scrap-heap,’’ concludes Miss Boyle.