HEROES UNKNOWN

Taranaki Daily News, 1 December 1934, Page 22 (Supplement)

HEROES UNKNOWN

MEN WHO GIVE THEIR LIVES. ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. c ' 7 The world has been hearing, at a humdrum conference of sanitary in- [ spectors. of one or two heroes worth many film stars. The use of hydro-cyanic gas to kid vermin in houses was being discussed at Southport, England, and the dangerous nature of the gas led Sir Leonard Hill to tell some stories about men of science who risked their lives to test such things. ■ A great scientist, whose name he did not give, went into a sealed chamber with a dog, and breathed hydro-cyanic gas. The dog died in one minute, but the man survived. Two other meh were engaged, in research to discover how long men could breathe oxygen at a certain concentration before escaping from a sunken, submarine. ' ' It was known that oxygen becomes poison under certain concentration, but these two breathed oxygen until one got convulsions, and the other had a severe epileptic fit and was unconscious before the oxygen could be turned off. Then Sir Leonard told how a great friend of his lost his life while investigating typhus fever. He wanted to trace the part played by the body louse in carrying the disease, and he fastened some of these disgusting creatures upon his own body. So he died, a horrible death, with none of the pathos and romance surrounding those who die for a pause on the scaffold. or at the stake or on the battlefield, yet a death which is surely like the sacrifice of. One who died. that others might live. ' : , ■ We do not hear much of these heroes of research who risk their lives for us behind the closed doors of the laboratory. It is the film stars who amuse us at a huge salary who get cheers and bouquets and gratitude; but they are nobodies to be forgotten, while these heroes are among the immortals.

QUEER ATLANTIC CRAFT

HOW IT MAKES ICE IN TROPICS.

SUDDEN TEMPERATURE CHANGE.

It seems something of a paradox to go out into tropical seas to .make ice; but this is what the . French ■ scientist Georges Claude has set out to do on his ship the Tunisie. A curious craft she looks,, her funnel and nasts almost hidden by the great pipes, cylinders and reservoirs piled on her deck. This apparatus weighs 259 tons, but the Tunisie will not be topheavy, as in her holds she carries 5000 tons of coal.

Accompanying her is a cargo boat carrying 2200 feet of thick piping in sections. When the Tunisie reaches a point 12 miles of Rio de Janerio she will anchor, the piping will be lowered to the bottom of the sea, and cold water will be pumped up into the complicated mechanism which is to produce the artificial ice.

It is well known that half a mile below the surface of the sea the temperature of the water is only, a few degrees above freezing-point. Professor Beebe suffered terribly from this cold when he first descended to a great depth.

The reason why ice can be made even in such a hot temperature is due to the sudden change from heat to cold producing energy which can be economically made use of. Extreme cold is produced by the expansion of gases; when a gas is compressed its temperature rises, and when the reverse takes place, and it is rarefied, it rapidly becomes cold. . . / This principle is used in refrigeration. Air in a cylinder is first compressed and thus becomes hot. A current of cold water is then poured on the cylinder to reduce the temperature of the air within to that of the air outside. The condensed air is nekt allowed to <“■ pand, and in the course of this expansion its temperature fptlLs to many degrees below freezing-point. Heat and cold brought together will always mingle until a mean temperature is reached, with the result that any warmer body like a tank of water, which is placed in the ice-cold air will drop in temperature until it freezes.

DOES AN ELEPHANT KNOW TIME?

An interesting story come from Moulmein, the centre of the timber industry in Burma. It suggests that an elephant has some idea of time.

The elephant is used a great deal in transporting logs of wood from place io place. Usually it is one log at a timetb.« animal carries in his trunk; sometime* he might manage two. The hours of work are fixed.: and in the rase of one particular elephant worked ceased at 5 p.m. The otvner, thinking he would make extra money by staying on a little later, took the elephant to a log of wood, but to his astonishment the elephant refused to touch it, pushing it aside and beginning to groan. At last he was led away to his rest, but the next morning he , went straight to the same log and lifted it cheerfully. He had made his protest and was ready to work again. y