NOTES AND QUERIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3034, 8 May 1912, Page 47

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Questions fox reply In coming issue to be received not later than BATUROAI" Might.

6am —For soldering aluminium with the com- — mon soldering iron use: Tin 95 parts, and bismuth 5, or 97 and 3. The flux to be used in all oases is either paraffin, stearin, or vaseline. Cleanse well the parts from dirt and grease, and heat just enough to make the solder adhere. Yours Truly asks: —(1) Can a person buy en annuity from Government? (2) If so, at ■what age, and what per cent, is given? (3) Can it be drawn outside New Zealand? tile Government Life Insurance Department. (2) You can obtain it at any age. The percentage you may ascertain by procuring a table from any branch office of the department. (3) A person must be resident in New Zealand when the annuity Is arranged, but afterwards he can travel where ho likes and arrangements can be made by which he can dTaw the annuity, he, of course, paying the charges. Reader of the Witness. —Tho swallowing of swords is usually quite genuine. Of course, the feat could not be performed by the average person. Inquirer.—ln Canada the harvest season is said to begin with tho Ist September, but in the greater part of tho Dominion October and November are the harvest months. We have no definite information as to the wages paid for harvest work in Canada. The Canadian High Commissioner in London could supply what you want. Kai Iwi. —(1) To polish horns just scrape with glass to take off any roughness, then grind soma pumice to powder, and with a piece of cloth wetted and dipped in the powder rub well until a smooth surfaoe ia obtained. Next polish with rotten stone and linseed oil, and finish with dry flour and a piece of clean linen rag. The more rubbing with the stone and oil the better the polish. (2) The paper is sent away on Wednesday morning. Employees, Wilden Station, ask whether tho sun is nearer the earth in the winter time or the summer time? While the shape of the earth's orbit and the position of its centre undergo continual alteration, her mean distance from the sun remains appreciably constant. This we know from the length of the year, which has not changed 10 seconds in length since the time of the Chaldean determination of that clement. But, owing to the varying rate at which the earth moves : owing to the eccentricity of her orbit, the perihelion of the orbit lies near the place of the winter solstice, so that, in fact, about 10 days after tho midwinter of tho Northern Hemisphere the earth is at her neaiest to the sun. There is thus an important difference between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. In the north, the sun is furthest from the earth a few days after midsummer, and.nearest a few days after midwinter. In the Southern Hemisphere I ho sun is nearest the earth a few days after midsummer and furthest away a few days after midwinter. The mean distance of the earth from the sun in miles is 91,430,000; greatest distance, 92,9<53.000; least. 89.897,000. Tuturau. —The scale of fee 3 under the Servants' Registry Offices Act provides that for every engagement actually made, where the weekly rate of wages exceeds 5s but does not exceed 10s the servant shall pay Is Gd and the employer 4s. In the case of country engagements (those which are for places situate more than three miles from tho registry office) on additional fee, where the wages does not exceed 10s weekly, is charged of 6d in tho ens** of the servant and 13 in tho case of the employer. If the weekly wages exceeds 103 per week the authorised charges for a country engagement are: Servant, 3s 6d; employer, 7s. New Reader. —A letter addressed to the Registrar of Births, Deaths, and iEarriagee, Timaru, would reach its destination. Mr Alex. Montgomery, Arcade, held the position last year. JL S. Evans Flat.—Dr Truby King is still

medical superintendent at Seacliff Mental Hospital. Constant Subscriber— The following is a recipe for a china cement which may Buit you:—lt consists of four parts of alabaster plaster and <me part of finely-pulverised gum arabic, mixed with a cold-saturated borax solution to a thick paste. Iceberg.—Mr H. M. Davey, consulting engineer, Princes street, replies: —One 12-inch pioe carries rather more than 5J times the quantity of water that a 6-inch one does. Not that it is 5J times the area, for it is only 4 times the axes, but, the friction of water in several small pipes is so much more than in one big one. lo test the area, that it is 4 times, you can get a piece of cardboard any convenient size and mark a circle as big as you can on it with a compass, then mark two circles each touching the circumference in opposite directions and meeting in the centre. Aow cut out the big one and then the two that ere each half the diameter and you get (if you do this correctly) two sorts of triangular pieces with curved sides, and each of these four should be the same weignt, which shows that a circle like a square when you double the diameter you nave four times the area. In Trouble.—Mt H. M. Davey replies: There is not much trouble in answering* questions, only one wants to do so with no loss or mistake, and that is why I have often to ask for more particulars. I regret that you did not eerid a sample, but, ms that is impossible, I will see what can be done. I think, however, Messrs Chambers and Co. have the material, and will send you a sample to try. You did not mention the thickness, but you might put in more or less pieces to fill the box, I suppose. J. S. V. —We have no authentic record of the depth of some of the deep mines in Germany and elsewhere. The phrase "deepest mine" should be given a definite meaning in any discussion. A shaft might, for instanoe, be 4000 ft deep, and the "bottom be still above sea level. Probably the deepest mines on any one field in the world are in the Bendigo district On the 31st December, 1909, the two deepest shafts were 4355 ft and 4318 ft. The winze of the Victoria Beef quartz was 4558 from »he surface. There were at the date named 52 shafts in the district which had reached a depth of over 2000 ft. Katiki asks: "What '? a holosteric barometer?"——Messrs G. and T. Young inform Us that oneroid barometers are frequently termed holosteric barometers. This is merely a fancy name which distinguishes the present form of flat spring in the aneroid barometer from tlie older and less perfect spiral spring form.