SCIENCE NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3040, 19 June 1912, Page 76

SCIENCE NOTES.

—Power From the Tides. — Study lias been made of a proposition for generating power for Schleswig-Holstein by utilising the ebb and flow of the tides, and work is under construction. The island of Nordstrand is being connected with the mainland by a high-water reservoir of 1500 acres and a low-water reservoir of 1250 acres. There will always be a head of water in one or other of th© reservoirs, which will be available for operating turbines connected to continuous-current dynamos. —Another Venus Discovered 20,000 Years OldProfessor Camiio Julian has read a paper at the last meetingr of the French Academy of Inscription describing the discovery in the Dordogne of the oldest-known representation of the human form. The find was due to Dr Lalanne, who has, spent some time in excavating in the grottoes of Laussel. It consists of a piece of stone some 18in higih showing a bas relief of a woman, and is estimated to be at least 20,000 years old. The figure has been named the "Laussel Venus." Scientists believe the work is of the Aurignaoian epoch between the ages of the mammoth and the reindeer, when the artist would have used sharpened flints as tools. —Danger of "Saccharin.— Saccharin is largely employed as a sweetening agent in place of sugar, but the U.S A. authorities controlling food adulteration have just stated that while the use in foods of saccharin in small quantities (up to 0.3 gram daily) is not injurious to health, if used in quantities over 0.3 gram per day for a considerable period it is liable to disturb digestion. The Bureau of Chemistry reports that saccharin has been found in more than 50 kinds' of foods in common use. It is argued, therefore, that if the use of saccharin in foods be allowed, the consumer may - very easily ingest, day by day, over 0.3 gram, the quantity which is liaole to produce disturbance of digestion. In any case saccharin, wo are assured, when substituted for sugar, lowers the quality of the food. The only use of 6aocharin in foods is as a sweetener, and when it is so used it inevitably displaces the sugar of an equivalent sweetening power. Sugar (as- Science Sittings points out) has a food value and sa-jcharin has none

—Loud-speaking Telephones—

A special application of the telephone lias come into use in tho announcing of the departure and arrival of trains in American railway stations. The official who announces tho outgoing trains speaks into a special water-cooled telephone transmitter installed in a booth conveniently placed and from which his voice is telephonically transmitted and reproduced in no less than 16 loud-speaking receivers with amplifying horns connected in multiple and distributed throughout tho waiting rooms. Incoming trains are announced from the same transmitter by throwing a. switch to connect a separate "circuit of 10 of the loud-speaking receivers installed on the track levels be-low the waiting room floor. By this indirect telephone method a single announcement serves for all the waiting rooms. The articulation is simultaneously reproduced, with equal volume of sound, in all the receivers, and by installing several receivers at equal distances in each of the large inclosed spaces which make up the waiting rooms, the enunciation in exact unison not only fills the space, but obviates the confusion of echoes.

—Why the Deaf Lose Their Voices.—

Dr Norman Porritt has pointed out that deaf people lose their voices mainly because they are sensitive and afraid to draw attention to themselves. Hence they get into the habit of modulating the voice, and unconsciously adopt a too subdued tone in speaking. The fact is, as the British Medioal Journal points out. that all human being's tend to attune their voices by the amount of sound in their vicinity, and v in the absence of any external sound gauge the desirable pitch by the sound of their own voices. In the case of deaf people all external vibrations produce more or less muffled sounds, while since thoso of their

own voices reach their hearing organs practically unimpaired they cause a relatively great noise. The result is that the deaf man is handicapped in gauging the tone of his voice, and tends to think that he is speakinsr much more loudly than is really the case. Hence he often gives his friends and others who have to converse : with him an unnecessary amount of trouble ! by making it difficult to bear what he has 'to say, as well as to make him hear. Similarly, the deaf man sometimes puts himself at an unnecessary disadvantage by commencing a conversation with a stranger in. what is really a very low tone, and thus inducing his auditor to drop his voice likewise.

—Wireless in the Sahara. —

One of the chief difficulties in flying over the desert, that of guidance, bids fair to be greatly lessened, if not'entirely obviated, by a recent discovery by Signor Marconi. The inventor, upon his return from a professional visit of observation to Tripoli, announced that in sending wireless messages across the desert no poles or masts are needed. It is only- necessary to lay the wirea. along the sand for a short distance in the direction in" which the message is to be sent, and the apparatus performs its functions as perfectly as usual, if not better than before. This is due to the complete dryness and non-conductivity of the sand. It is said, moreover, that under these circumstances messages cannot be intercepted. The advantages are obvious, especially for military use. The discarding of the masts means an immediate saving in bulk and weight, since the rest of the apparatus can be packed in a tively small case; consequently transportation is tremendously facilitated. Furthermore, the chief difficulty of installation consists in the erection of the masts, while they also constitute at one© a target and means of -betrayal to the enemy. From these considerations it is clear that the luoky discovery that they may be dispensed with will greatly facilitate, the application of wireless telegraphy to aeroplane service in desert countries, and the direction of the movement of flying machines.

—A Household Butter-making Machine. —

The high price of butter in England for some time past has led to the invention of a machine by which the housewife will bo able to convert lib of butter into 21b. The invention is * small device which a child can work and there is nothing to get out of order. The process is very simple. One pound of pure butter is required. This is cut into small pieces, so as to fit in between dashers within the machine. To this- is added three-quarters of a pint of milk, with a small teaspoonful of salt. The annular space surrounding the inner vessel is now three-parts filled with hot—not boiling—water, the lid is attached end fixed, and the projecting handle is moved forward and backward slowly until the butter softens; then it is turned to the right freely for about two minues, when the butter is formed. The contents, consisting of about 21b of milk-blended butter, are then poured out and permitted to cool. It is an excellent device, and the milkblended product which is obtained is particularly appetising. The machine certainly solves a critical problem in the home by enabling a costly commodity to go farther than is otherwise possible, and this, where families are concerned, is no mean achievement.

—A Link With th© Past.—

Professor T. T. Waterman, of the University of California, has at present under observation the sol© survivor of the Southern Yana tribe, who has hitherto lived under conditions corresponding exactly to those of the men of the stone age. Ishi, as he is Called, dwelt in the inaccessbile fastnesses of Deer Creek, a rocky and precipitous canon in Tehama County, California, till a forest fire made him flee lot his life, and h© was treed by dogs three miles from Oroville. His discovery there is regarded as one of the most important anthropological finds of the age. All his utensils were of stone. Ho made fire by rubbing between his palms a small, round stick fitted into a groove in a cedar block, and in this way he can generate a flame in 50 seconds. He used a bow and arrow tipped with stone, and lured wild animals to him by imitating their call. When captured he wore thongs through his nose and oare and a bearskin around his loins. In fishing he puts four sacred sticks or bits of wood into the water near the four corners of the net. and then calls the fish with a peculiar chant that ensures success. In hunting bears he lies in wait along their trail, and when a bear comes within 50ft of him he calls to it in a language which it understands. The animal turns and faces him on the trail, and he sends an arrow through its heart. The skins of his prey he uses as raiment. Ishi, however, does not correspond to what th© stone-age man is presumed to have been, either mentally or physically. The Indian is remarkably bright, and in seven or eight years, Professor Waterman says, he could probably abso r b the knowledge possessed by the ordinary individual. He will not speak of his dead, but he has related some of his superstitions, which are closely connected with — are. perhaps, a part of—his religion. He believes that originally the fire was stolen from a foolish god by the coyote, who is always a thief, and that man stole the fir© from the coyote. When a member of his tribe dies ho singes his blaok hair short with a live coal, and pulls the whiskers from his face one by one. Ishi speaks a dialect unlike that spoken by any other American Indian, and it is peculiar in that nearly every word differs in its termination, or in some other way, according as it is uttered by males or females. This unwieldy dualism of languages also occurs amoncr the Caribs, who were discovered in the West Indies by the successors of Columbus, but-in that instance the women of the tribe were mostly captives from other islands, and the difference was perpetuated bv the mothers teaching the language to their daughters, while the sons spoke the speech of their fathers. The Department of Anthropology is gradually acquiring a knowledge of many of Ishi's words, the source of knowledge being to let him point to objects in the Museum of Anthropology and give their names.