WORLD-WIDE NOTES.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 29, Issue 46, 15 June 1917, Page 2

WORLD-WIDE NOTES.

... <£ ELECTHICITY ON THE FARM

A recent issue of the “Electrical World" describes a handy electric installation on a farm in Massachusetts. Resides lighting the house, barn.*, and various' sheds, a power line is laid out with junction box connections at various points where power may be required. A 7.5 horsepower motor is mounted on skids, on which it can easily he hauled by a horse to any place where its services are required, and it is used for sawing wood cutting ensilage and other farm work. Another piece of apparatus is a 2 h.p. milker, by which four cows can be milked in fifteen minutes, and as there are forty cows on the farm, this means a saving of four men. A small motor pump completes the equipment which, while apparently small, takes care of a lot of hard work. AVALANCHE WARNINGS. In the Cascade Range and the Rocky Mountains of the north-wes-tern United States, more or less destruction of life and property is occasioned every winter by avalanches. During the winter of 1909-10 the deaths from this cause amounted to more than a hundred, and several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of property was destroyed. During the past winter the district forecaster of the Weather Bureau at Portland, Oregon, Mr. B. A. Beals, inaugurated the practice of issuing special warnings whenever the approach of warm and windy weather, with rain, favours the occurrence of these disasters. The warnings thus far issued have been fully verified. CRICKET-BALL RAISED £548. A sum of £548 for the wounded has been raised in an interesting way recently. In 1882, in the happy days when Australia and England used to meet j at cricket, the Australians defeated: the English team at the Oval. It ] was a wonderful match. England, I under the great Grace, “W.G.”(now dead), wanted only eighty-five to win in the second innings, and had scored fifty-one for the first wicket. And then came Spofforth’s chance, and that demon bowler took it, and the Australians, under Murdoch (now dead), won by seven runs. Probably greater excitement was never felt on a cricket ground. The ball used in that match raised £548 r in pound bids, and is to be kept in the Melbourne National Gallery for evermore.

POWER FROM TIDAL CURRENTS

Plans for the utilisation of tidal currents in the Bay of Fundy are now being studied. This hay is about 150, miles long and for a large portion of this length it is about forty miles wide. The tide rises 50ft. at the head of the bay, and the main body from 28 to 30 feet. In the middle of the bay the current flow is from one to two knots, and in the Digby Gut, on the Nova Scotia coast it rises to four knots ; but in the Minas Channel a rate of from eight to ten knots exists, and it is here that it is proposed to establish a power station. This location is also desirable, as the possibilities of disposing of power in this neighbourhood are especially good. Special motors will have to be devised for this use of the tidal current ; and probably some system of storage reservoirs will also have to be provided to cover . periods of the day when there is no tidal flow. TRENCH PLOUGHS.

Whenever and wherever it has been possible to do so, gigantic trenchdigging machines have been used for entrenchments instead of the spade of the soldier. Many hundreds of trench-ploughs, as they are called, were used by the Germans in the early days of the war, and that gave I’ise to the common belief that the Germans were the first to use them. But so long ago as the Boer War our Army authorities experimented with these ploughs, and found them so successful that they became part of the equipment of the army. The smaller ploughs cut a trench 20in. wide and 20in deep, turning the earth over so as to form a parapet. The larger ones will cut trenches from 3ft. to 4ft. ,deep, doing the work of fifty soldiers, and in half the time. These ploughs have proved extremely useful in digging trenches in front of towns and other prejjared positions in the path of the enemy. FIRST MILITARY BAND. Military bands first came into tence about 1685—in the reign of Charles 11. That monarch had a partiality for Anyhow, it was he who, by a Royal Warrant which he issued in that year, authorised j the employment of twelve musicians! in “the company of the King’s Regi-; merit of Foot Guards in London.”! Furthermore, in order to secure higher pay for the musicians than j was granted to the other Tommies of j that day, the merry monarch very: honestly directed “that a fictitious: name should be borne on the strength i of each of the other companies of'the); regiment quartered in the country.” j The money received for the payment of these Tommies who did not exist was then divided amongst the bandsmen —a simple, if not very straightforward, arrangement, certainly !