SCIENCE NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2861, 13 January 1909, Page 76

SCIENCE NOTES.

—At Notodden, in Norway, works are now being erected on the falls of the Sraehgfos for the separation of nitrogen from the atmosphere. — Calcium is about as hard as aluminium, but at 400deg Centigrade it becomes as soft as lead. —M. de Casparis, of Paris, has discovered a new kind of microscope, by means of which the smallest insect can be put under observation at the distance of a yard and largely magnified. The apparatus is called the vitascope. — For a number of years the oscillation of the earth's axis has been watched at half a dozen places along the parallel of 39deg omin north latitude. A report made by Mr Th. Albrecht shows that since 1900 the greatest shifting of the pole has been about 40ft, the vibration having been very slight in 1900, but increasing considerably by 1903-4, reaching a. second minimum about 1905-7, and being- now near anothei maximum. — The centre of musical perception in the brair hps b^en found by Professor Auerbach. of Berlin, in the left side of the forehead m the eecond convolution. The discovery, due to post-mortem inspection of the brains of two eminent musicians, was confirmed by the case of a singer who suddenly lest ability to sing, and after death showed a cyst in this very convolution. — A new shell of immense power has recentiv Lee'n tried during the naval gunnery experiment at Toulon. The trials '.says the Central News Paris correspondent) were made with the armoured hulk of the Admiral Duperre as a target, end the effect of the pew shell was extraordinary, the armour being pierced at a range of 6000 metres, and the shell penetrated into the etokehokL The shells, which are charged with 40 kilogrammes of cresyte, a new explosive derived from phenol, are the invention of General Perruchon. — The recent development of aeronautics has given importance to the production of hydrogen, illuminating gas having gone out of fashion as completely ac Montgolfier's hot air, and for the same reason — because it is too heavy. In a new American method of producing hydrogen, water gas is first made in the usual way, by passing steam over live coal. The resulting water gas, which is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, ie then passed over hot pulverised calcium carbide. * The carbon monoxide is decomposed, the carbon remaining behind in the form of graphite and the oxygen combining with the carbide to form calcium carbonate, leaving the hyrdog-cn almost pure (97 per cent.). It is claimed that hydrogen can be produced very cheaply by this process. — Germans, supposed to be the- greatest beer drinkers in the world, are becoming great lea and coffee drinkers. Statistics show that in Munich, the great beer city of Germany, the people drank in 1907 eight litres (a litre is 1.76 pints) per head less beer than in 1906, and 12 litres less than in 1905. Since 1906 the consumption of beer at railway stations has steadily fallen. In the Berlin railway district, statistics just published show that the decrease last year was 4,000,000 litres. The brewing of Berlin white beer is a dying industry. — The strange new industry of weaving concrete poles and tubes suggests revolutionary possibilities, and not least of the advantages it offers is an important lessening of the demands upon our forests. Both hollow tapering poles and straight tubes. or are made automatically by a ■wonderful new machine. In manufacture, ti. metal core has strengthening ftteei wires or reds attached to it, and as it is Rotated and gradually passed out of the fjichine a small comeyer belt wraps tsrpirally round it, under great pressure, a Jerar of concrete and a bandage of cloth. the concrete is given a little time to Oflden, the core is withdrawn and the Windage removed. Poles 40ft long are extremely light — the shell being lin to 2in fchiok — yet as strong a« nor poles, and fojjr carrying telegraph and other oleifi'j ,^j>es tlwy arc cheaper than iron and even ■roli, whiJ« they are superior in appearance Cad durability. " *- A michino which may re\olniloni~e loofic And newspaper printing has ju^t bsen invented in Vienna (says the Daily Chroolcle). It is manipulated \cry much in the aune way as a typewriting machine, fcut instead of a tjpewnuen sheet of paper it produces a matrix r^ftdy for the etereoiyper, thus dispensing with the necessity of an ordinary compobing machine. Many tJiiTcrent kinds of sype are at the disposal nf the operator, and a change of type can h*> secured by a single touch. Outwardly the machine represents a typewriter. There Ltro arrangements for advancing the matrix t-ud fcr equalising the lir.ea. Syllables that oi*e in frequent use can be stamped with one fccuch, and from 70 to 80 words can be easily printed in a minuto. The number ot >>pf! wheels is co arranged that r.o extra na-iiyulat'on is necessary for small or ca-r-iuil letters. It i« claimed for thife lv • -re that the cost of printing Mill be r r \ m >' 0 by 90 per cent., and that the uiip' 1 ! «. ' -<j produced wi.h such rapidity tli lU ~,c ; work can be begun much JuU- . j;ri ' :resh news be inserted upon the matrix itj a few minutes a_fter the paper has gone to press. Corrections on the matrix are «nade by smearing over the part with matrix material and stamping fresh letters upon it. The machine occupies but little room — about the space of an ordinary writing table. It produces a xna-trix from 2in iip to 2yds in width. The typo is of steel. The inventor ie a Viennese journalist, who has already taken, out a German patent for his iiiaehine. 1 — - tt is a- somewhat regrettable circumstance- that the pea, which is Dbe of the most nutritious articles of footi, does not meet with a greater measxtre of popularity. Fronj the proteid standpoint it is touch superior to oatmeaj, being some 80 per cent. richef in this substance than i«h4 latter, with a high percentage of carbohydrate e-.d a small proportion of w"atefrv In fact, the pea. is an ideal edible, since it po"e?«c = pis~tiea.Uy the whole of tli-e i»tistttuen;~ in correct proportions for the building up of ,-nipial tissue. Kb doubi during the en'i'iner season peas are extensively cut-c-n, t' li T!gh it is to be feafed they are regarded more £5 a tasty pseudo-epicurean dis], t'u-n as a- staple article of food. But it 1= during the -winter that their advantages can be more strikingly secured. During the past few yeara inventive effort ha= niee.-^ecJ-od in <3evisinpr satisfactory meais o£ preserving the results of summer cultivation in an appetising form without any

reeowrse to pernicious colouring or preservative mediums. Formerly, out-of-season peas were either stored in bottles or tins in conjunction with deleterious conserving fluids, the dangerous character of which was i betrayed by the vivid verdant hue of the 1 contents; or they were sold in a dry form, packed in sacks, which certainly presented an uninvitirfg appearance. Such antiquated methods have, however, now given way to hygienic and more attractive means of supplying the market. The peas, carefully selected, grad«d, and dried, are now packed in airtight card boxes, in which they will retain their qualities for a considerable time, and when properly cooked yield a, dish in every way as alluring to the palate a-s those freshly garnered from the field or garden in the height of the season. — During October European scientists | celebrated the tercentenary of the birth cf ! Toi'ricelli, the illustrious mathematician and philosopher of Florence, who between { the years 1641 and 1647 discovered the | method of ascertaining the weight of the atmosphere by a proportionate column of quicksilver. The mercurial barometer was for long called after its inventor the "Torricellian tube," and the vacuum it includes is still designated the '"Torricellian vacuum." The invention of the thermometer anticipated that of the barometer. There are many claimants to the honour, but (says a writer in the Pall Mall Gazette) it now seems clear that it belongs to another I distinguished Florentine — namely, Galileo. I The instrument which he deti-=cd between I the years 1592 and 1597 was an inverted air i thermoscope, containing either coloured ' water or alcohol, and provided with an j arbitrary scale of degrees. The variations of volume of enclosed air caused the fluid j to fall or rise in the tube, and by its use | Galileo determined relative temperatures ! of different places and of the same place 'at different reasons. Torricelli became a I pupil of Galileo in 1641. The latter had ' failed to perceive why water refuses to rise , above 33ft in a closed tube. Tt occurred j to Torricelli to try the experiment in a : more compendious form. The anticipated result ensued that* the suspended column ! of mercury was shorter than that of water j in the proportion of its greater specific gravity. He immediately concluded both to be sustained by atmospheric pressure, and constructed the siphon-barometer for the purpose of measuring its fluctuations. Both barometers and thermometers were introduced to England within a short period of one another. In North's "Life" it is stated that barometers were first made and I sold by one Jones, a noted 1 clo-ckmaker in | the Inner Temple Gate, at the Instance of I the Lord-Keeper Guildford. The Florentine thermometer reached Britain in 1663, the first being conveyed by the French traveller | Monconys to the Hon. Robert Boj-le on the ! occasion of his visit. i •>■ ' — ■