NOTES AND QUERIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2954, 26 October 1910, Page 51

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Questions for reply in coming issue to be received not later than SATURDAY night. Scotty.—AVe received another batch of letter* last week offering employment in the country to " Scotty," the writer of . the letter which we published, who complained that he was unable to find work in Otago. We have been unable to find " Scotty," and presume he has been suited elsewhere. A Header.—(ll The ordinary or statute mile is equal to eight furlongs, or 1760 yards. The ancient Scottish mile was equal to 1976 yards; the Irish mile, 2240 yards; and the Welsh mile was nearly four miles English. «(2) The distance between New Zealand and Cape Horn is 4530 nautical miles. - ' W. E. S., Seacliff.—lf you will forward a stamped envelope with your address the working out of the sum by Mr H. M. "Davey will bo posted to you. The linotype machines do not lend themselves to setting out the method of working sums with numerous fractions. The work involved is all about the difference of less than a farthing. One Who Wants To Know.—The children of the brothers or sisters of a person are cousin-german (german being the Latin germanus, " brother "). The children of cousins-german are second cousins. If A 'and B are cousins, A is a first cousin once removed to the children of B, as B is to the children of A. J. C, Seddon, writes: —(1) What year did the Franchise Bill become law in Great Britain? (2) In what respect did the people benefit through the passing of the Franchise Bill?. (3) Bow does the law stand in Scotland in the case of a man acquitted in a court of justice on the " not proven " verdict ? Can he be tried again . on the same, charge? (1) Our correspondent does not- explain what, he • means by the Franchise Bill. Presumably he refers to the Reform Act of 1832. (2) ',To realise the benefits conferred by thaj. Reform Act it is necessary to have a knowledge of .the state of affairs before it was passed, and is not possible to give an adequate idea -in a sherf note. Take the matter of rotten boroughs,- for instance. These were boroughs that had fallen into '. decay after the first Parliament, of Henry VIII, but still continued to return rneinhera of Parliament. Old Sarum consisted merely of the ruins of an old castle, and returned two members. These two seats were thus at the disposal of one family. Several large cities and towns had no representation. In several others the right of suffrage belonged only to freeholders or to certain burgage tenures. These voters were mostly under the influence of some great family, and in thi* way about 12 families alone commanded more than 100 seats. By the Reform Act 56 rotten boroughs were disfranchised. Besides taking away the right of election from a stone wall in one case, from a. green mound in another, and 'a ruined house in a third, there was a redistribution of seats. Five hundred thousand were given the franchise, and something like uniformity was established in the qualification of voters. Although many attempts were made to still further widen the franchise, it was not until 1567 that Disraeli's Bill was nassed. in 1884-85 Gladstone brought the qualification in the country to the same basis as in borough!*. and there was a redistribution of seats. (3) The verdict " not proven " is legally equivalent to the English verdict oi t " not guilty." A person's life cannot he twice olaced in jeopardy for the same crime. In other words, a person could not be tried a second time when the jury returned a, verdict of "not proven" at the first trial. EP3ILON writes:—(l) I have a telescope with a 3in object-glass, and tried to look at the sun to 6ee a remarkable group of soots. I interposed between the eye-piece of the telescope and my own eye a dark green glass—solar eye-piece,—but could not Bee the spots, owing to the light and

heat being too great to look at the sun. This dark green glass—solar eye-piece—l got with a lin telescope (diameter of object-glass), and it suits it splendidly, being able to see the spots without any trouble. Before I put this solar eye-piece on the 3in telescope I smoked it a little, but it isn't any better, whether smoked very dark or not. Well, can you tell me if there is any other way of seeing the sun-spots, direct or otherwise? (2) If a 2in object-glass has a focus of 40m, and has two eve-pieces of lin focus, and the other" of 2in focus, that is sa-id to give a, magnifying power of 40 .and 20 times respectively. Well, if a 3in object-glass is the same focus, and the eye-pieces the same, where is the difference? Is it just that the 3in gives a larger field of view? Mr J. Blair Mason has furnished the following reply:—(l) The magnifying power of a telescope object-glass varies directly as its focal length; the lightgrasping power varies as the square of its diameter. Such being the case, all that is necessary is to moderate the amount of light reaching the eye by reducing the effective diameter of the object-glass. Tim can easilv be done by the use of a tube or hood," say, of cardboard, slipped over the telescope tube and projecting beyond the object-glass a few inches. A diaphragm of thin' wood or paper, with a round suitable aperture can then be placed in the tube. In the present case, an aperture l£in in diameter would approximately reduce the light and heat at the focus of the object-glass four times, and would probably be found at the same time to improve the definition of the object. (2) The difference between 2in and Sin object-glasses of equal focal length is that the Sin glas3 will pass two and a-quarter times more light than the 2in. This becomes of great importance when viewing faint and dietant objects.

Subscriber, West Coast —M'. H. M. Davey, consulting engineer, Princ.s street, replies:—A* 13-inch pipes in a straight line, o; nearly so. deliver about as under —1 in 150, 4 heads; 1 in. 100. 5 heads; 1 ill 75. 6 heads; 1 in 10, 8 heads; and 1 in £5, 10 heads—you see you have now only just to multiply by the length, and seeing that the syphon is usually by no means straight, I think you would be safer to calculate the length as if the line were 600 feet long, though you can alter th» calculation to 5 1-3 or 5A if you think fit. Now, taking the first, you should get a 4 head delivery with a 4 feet fall, or a 10 head delivery with" a 24 feet fall. You wjill he able' to find out the different falls b3t\veen, for they are all worked out the same way; thus, take the' second—l in 100 makes 6 feet in the 600 feet, or 5s if you took it at about the neat length, of your pipe-line. W. S. D. T., Hillgrove.—Mr H. M. Davey, consulting engineer, 91a Princes street, replies:—l understand that you ask if you have a tank partly full of water, and the rest air, which you' now exhaust, would a suction pump draw water out of the said tank? No, because the pull of the exhausted air would be quite as much (if indeed not more) than any. suction pump. We owe the power of the suction pump to the_fact that the atmospheric air presses down' upon the surface of water, and when this pressure is removed from the in the suction pipe of the pump, by the said pump's action, the said air .pushes the wjiier up the pump pipe or barrel, and only does so to the extent of its weight, at the time or place where the said pump happens to be, for it is. or should be, well known that in bad weathex a pump will not draw as high as in fine weather. The barometer, as it changes, for each inch of change makes somewhere ribout a foot of difference in the height tfcat a given pump would draw. So we now find that the least draw can be obtained in bad weather on the highest mountain jag, whilst the greatest draw* can be obtained from the lowest mine below the sea level, in the finest weather, seeing that it is the air that does the work,°the pump merely withdrawing more or less of the air from the portion of the water in the barrel or suction pipe of the pump, according to the air-tightness of its valves, which allows the air. to push the liquid up as the piston withdraws the air in working. But you need 1 not go to the length of exhausting the air from a tank to obtain this result, for if you have a tank nearly full of water and a pump barrel inserted, making the tank air-tight everywhere, you could pump a little, and the water would soon exhaust the air sufficiently to prevent the tank being emptied; yet if the tank were, say, seven-eighths full of water to start with, there would still be a little air in it when most of the wa'er was out. If, however, the tank was quite full, you would very soon find you could get no more unless some air leaked in. In ordinary pumping you withdraw the air pressure from that water in the barrel or suction pump, trusting to the pressure bein« continued on the rest of the water in the tank or well? but if either from the tank being sealed or from you already; having exhausted the air pressure fromi it. there is no air pressure, both the water in the tank or well and the water in the pump are in a similar condition, and there can be no effect from the pump's action. To try the experiment you should have a vacuum gauge, as air might leak in even through the pump valves and you might not know it. Is the above sufficiently clear to you and your friends? If not. ask on any doubtful point, and it will be replied to. Another fact is that the liquids lighter than water can bo drawn higher, and those heavier can only be drawn to 1e.«3 height. For instance, mercury could only be drawn about as many "inches as water could be drawn feet, because it is somewhere about 12 to 13 times heavier than water. Tussock.—Mr H. M. Davey, engineer, replies:—The great difficulty in giving a correct reply to so many questions is that oi:e does not know what the inquirer really want*. Yours is a ca.se in point. Where is the concrete going? Under foundations or in light partition walls, or where? Expanded metal is certainly good in «oms situations, and pretty useless in. others. Generally it is much used in cement or plaster work, instead of laths, when a special kind is made fcr that purpose. In some cases you might reduce the quantity of concrete by using expanding steel, but in other cases it might be different. Again, the special use or position of th-e material should bs known. It is certainly very strong in comparison to its weight, aiicL most useful in many cases, and has many uses. Whitewash.—Mr H. M. Davey replies:—l regret mislaying your paper, so have to head the- leply as above. Several substances are mixed with the lime for various uses, such, for instance, for old work or new work, or, again, fcr covering various materials. Brine as used by butchers

when salting meat is often used, and also mutton suet. If you care to state what the wash is to go on I would find the best mixture for that special use. J. K, Invercargili.—Mr H. M. Davey replies:—There was a fairly large house built over 30 years ago—two storeys, with a tower. It was lathed and plastered inside, and lathed and cemented outside. It is in Manor place, Dunedin. It stands well as far as I know. Probably steel sheet lathing would be better than wood, but as it was not in the market when the house mentioned was built, wood laths were used in it. Probably about 3 to 1, de- . pending on the» materials used. Your local plasterer would know the special materials looally used. The cast can be put on in two ways. First, it could be mixed with the cement, but pebbles can be put on clean, or be cleaned when not quite set, and if so they have a far better appearance, especially when nice, clean, rounded . flinty pebbles can be procured. N, Not Certain writes to ask whether the Southland oawmillers still have an association, and if so the name and address of the secretary? The association is still in existence. The secretary is Mr W. A. Brent, Box 179, Invercargili. SuBSCBiiBER.—(I) What particular kind of salt-water fish do you refer to? Information on that point is required before replying to your question as to the quantity of salt water which a fish would require to live in. (2) Salt-water fish, would not live long in fresh water to which salt had been added. Subscriber. Livingstone.—(l) The original " Coming thro" the rye" is a very old song. Burns's lines are merely an amended version of the old strain. The first lines and the chorus indicate that it was intended to refer to coming through the ryecorn. " She draiglet a' her petticoatie" is scarcely the term that would be used in the case of a lassie after having crossed a river or burn. A Scotch lassie would take care that her pelticcatie did not drag in the , water, whereas she could net well protect it going through a field of rye when the corn was wet after rain or a heavy dew. (2) Your gocseberry bushes may be suffering from the effects of prolonged dry weather or from mildew. Id would be necessary to examine specimens bc.'oro anyone could decide why no fruit had formed and the bushes were dying. J. C—Mr H. M. Davey, consulting engineer, replies: —I regret that you think I asked too many questions, but without more information than I had in your first letter I might have led you very wrong, for there's no knowing what might be done by soine persons, and then if they went all wrong they might say they were misled. However, you seem from the present letter to know what you are about. The steam pipe, should be as small as convenient; probably ljin to ljin internal diameter would be about the size you should have. Most use only an inch pipe, but your quantity seems larger than usual, so I think a somewhat larger pipe would do. Bo sure that there is no leakage in the pipe 3, and for that purpose have the • wrought iron pipes in as long lengths as possible, so that you have only a few joints. Let these bs very well screwed in, not a thread or twla only, as the pipe lengthens considerably when you put steam ' in it, though you do not seem to know the fact. You" should therefore have an expansion joint, or else a bend or a complete turn somewhere in the length of the pipe, for, according to Molesworth, the difference would be 2gin between hot and cold in the total length of the pipe. All mjatals and most other things expand with heat, but it is only observable in long lengths. I believe in your case a complete bend would be the cheapest, though, perhaps, the expansion joint would be the best. A complete bend would be such as would result if your line of pipes passed' a large barrel, and if you brought the pipe round the barrel and continued its direction as before. You would then have a complete bend or "Q" in. the pige line; which would give and take according to the teihperature of the pipe line. .You would need a cock to run the condensed water off till the pipe, etc., was hot. With such a line and such a boiler as you describe your loss should be small, and the longer the action is continued the smaller the< waste. I did not notice that you asked the difference in price between the cost of running with the boiler away or close. You will be annoyed if I were to ask the question of how many hours a day you were working;/so I will merely say that for three to four hours' working probably a bag of coal difference. If the pipes were under cover or in the open air would make another, set of differences, especially in colcl or wet weather, as you will readily

see. W N D Pump.—Mr H. M. Davey, consulting engineer, reolies:—Your Pelton with the ljin nozzle would pa3s about a bare half-head of water, and that would giv« vou cnlv&i'. b.li. power. Pumps lift from, say, 26fi--to 28ft at low levels above the but it is advisable not to make .it more than you can help, especii f if the pump has to force as well as Uft. Do you want the pump to force as well as lift? You aak only how much

will it lift? You get barely three-quarterrj of a gallon for on.e revolution of the pulley, which would appear to mean two strokes of two pumps, or 28in long by 3in in diameter, of water per revolution. If you want the pump to force to any particular height give particulars, including the quantity of water you get, for if you have plenty Vou might get mere power with a. bigger nozzle, and the reply will b? given. STAiir Collector, Dipton.—Sudan stamps with O.S.G.S. are Government official stamps, but not of much value. Consular service stamps are of no value whatever. They are used by British consuls abroad. Labuan 4 cents' stamp with monkey is worth 3d.