Science and Industry.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXI, Issue 12583, 21 January 1905, Page 1 (Supplement)

Science and Industry.

The mutilated remains of an enormous cuttlefish washed up. the other day on the Lyell Bay beach, Wellington. The body was about 6ft long and 3ft broad. Of tihe tentacles, which must have been very long, only the stumps remained. Tlie number of furnaces in blast m Great Britain during the quarter ending the 30th September,- 1904, was 322. The estimated output .of pig iron for the quarter was 3,016,000 tons. According to recently published sta,tis~ tic 3 of the United Kingdom's output of coal in 1903, there was an increase over 1902 exceeding 3,000,000 tons, or about 1£ per cent. The' gross. output reached the record figure "of 230,323,391 tons. The greatest increase;.-was ,in the"* Yorkshire district. The number of mine employees was 842,066, an increase of 2 per cent, over 1902.Probably the greatfest weights carried on the backs ofvmen for .any distance are the loads of ore brought up from the mines of the Andes -by ■tlie' miners of Chili. In a copper-mine in a ravine leading from the main range of the Cordilleras, all the ore is- carried. a vertical distance of 450 ft, and the average weight per man is 2501b. This load is carried up ladders mad»of notched trunks of trees, set almostupright, one - touching' the other. The proper lubrication of a wire lope is of tlie greatest importance, serving, as it does, the double purpopse of preventing i wear and a protection, from rust. In selecting the lubricating material, any pomj. pound should be avoided that will tend | to dry or cake on the surface of the rope, orr that is loaded with solid ingredients that- tend to separate fiom.the more fluid portions. - Tlie iise of dsying oil is never satisfactory, as in time it becomes hard, cracks, and allows water to get beliind it- and prevents any) ready inspection of the rope. A heavy petroleum oil, : prepared with special reference to - resisting tie action of water and having ho 'acid in its composition, gives the best satisfaction. .. . ' I" Asbestos is found as veins m serpen- ! tine. - Over 90 : per dent, 'of the world's supply comes from Canada (Quebec), and the balance from . Russia, the United States, Italy and Gape Colony. Tho ; mineral is classed into; three grades. No. 1 has the longest and finest fibre, v from -f-incb upwards, and is used for-spinning purposes. No. 2 is 'harsher /and_ less flexible, and varies' in leigth from £-inch; it is sometimes discoloured, and is chiefly used for engine-packing. No. 3 has still shorter fibre, -with impurities such as serpentine and iron; oxides. .When cleaned, it is used, in tlie manufacture of -fireproof paper, cardboard; / etc. The relative value of the three classes is 4 :1. It is the hope ,of some folk (says the Qreymoutli •" Star'") that; the West Coast \iill some day "dry up." In .1903 the rainfall was modestly lout 83.91 incites; last year it poured down upon tho%tliirsty Coast no less than 124.5.3 inches, or 40.62 inches more than, in 1903. March was by far the wettest month, with 21.42 | inches, while the most sunshine was in February, when 3.5 inches of rain fell, the dryest month being immediately followed by the wettest.. May 24—Empire Day— easily topped tie list as the day ; on "which the heaviest fall was recorded—viz., 4.85 inches. Everybody knows that trees 'are felled to make the Wood- puip out of which the paper used in the printing office is manufactured. A German paper, manufacturer at Esenthal lias just'.'mqde an experiment to see how rapidly it is possible to transform a tree into a newspaper. Three trees in the neighbourhood of his, factory were cut down at-7-35 in the morning. They were instantly barked and pulped, and the first roll of paper was ready at 9.34. It was lifted, into an automobile that stood waiting, and conveyed to the machine-room of the nearest daily paper. The paper being already set, the print-, ing began at once, and by ten o'clock precisely the journal was on sale in the streets. The entire process of transformation had taken exactly two hours and twenty-five minutes. . The deepest gold mine in the 'world is said to be at Bendigo, Australia. It I is called the New Chum Mine, and its 1 main shaft is sunk to a depth of three thousand nine hundred feet, or only sixty feet short of three-quarters of a mile. The most, difficult problem of . working a mine of such a depth is how to keep the ' tunnels and general workings cool enough for the miners to work.- The temperature. is usually about 108 degrees, and this is, of course, terribly enervating. To make it possible for the men to work at all a spray of cold water is let down from above and kept Continually playing on their bodies. They were marked from the -waist up. . \ Remarkable scenes' were witnessed' at Plymouth (England) on November 17th, resulting from a leakage'of electric current/ in Cornwall a central thoroughfare. One of tiise cables crosses the , dts&uica—Kalojc_tte — 2ll33 — and .just after, midday it was noticed that as horses -passed over this spot they suddenly" sprang forward, as if struck sharply with the whip. It. was soon discovered that they were victims of an electric shock. A*, large crowd watched with interest and amusement tlie strange antics of the horses as .they came in contact wit!) the electric, zone, aiid in some instances it was with some difficulty that the drivers kept their animals from bolting. Meanwhile people' walked freely 1 over the ground, their .boots apparently acting as - non-conductors: Dogs. were, however, affected equally with horses, aud cut some queer capers. Eventually the bdrougli electrical wbrkmen commenced digging up the pavement to locate the leakage. . . ' With reference to the suggestion advanced by the, Hon. C. A. i'arsens at the recent British Association meeting, that deep borings should! be made into the earth's crust for the purpose of investigation'of the earth's interior, an,d that a shaft such as this might be sunk to a depth of 12 miles, another scientist tyas pointed out that the pressure of the rock at such a depth represents some 40 tons per .square inch, and would render the task impossible, owing to the inward viscous. flow of. the rock material. In reply tlie -Hon. C. A. Parsons suggests an experiment to solve the problem. He points out "that the crushing stress required to make hardened steel flow lies between 120 and 300 toiis to the square inch, while for tough brass or cartridge metal the flow is .at . about 80, tons per square inch pressure. His experiment wouuj be to take a column-of granite or quartz rock and carefully fit it into a steel mould. A small hole would tliep be bored through the centre, and a pressure of 100 tons per square inch applied, to observe wlitf shrinkage would result,- "" Such a. pressure as this would correspond to that encountered at a depth of 38 miles. ....

SHAFT-SINKING BY FREEZING.

The system of freezing wet ground as an aid to sinking mine shafts appears to have been perfected on the. Continent. The December number.'of the "New Zealand Mines Record contains descriptions of the sinking of six deep shafts in France and Germany ljy-.'this process. In cai'rj - ■ iurr out this' plan "a number of large pipes are sunk by boring., in, a circle some ionfeet outside the limits of the proposed shaft-; for instance, for a shaft loit in diameter, twenty-four pipes wereput down in a circle 24£ ft in diameter; in another case, fora shaft 16ift_ in_«lOmeter, aring of 24 . pipes was made ?IAU in diameter. These' pipes are six, eight or twelve inches in diameter, according to the depths they have to be sunk, larger pipes being necessary for tb« greater depths, as small ones cannot with certainty be put down- perpendicular. The depths in - the cases referred to were oUU, | 789, 159, 270, 413, and : 305 ft. Within each of the large pipes a "U" tube is put - down: these are all connected with a delivery and an exhaust main at the top, and brine chilled by & refrigerating machine (as is the b™ e circulation m freezing works), is pumped through the. tubes, until the ground about them and within the circle is thoroughly frozen. The shaft is then sunk through the frozeji ground, the icy wall effectually keeping the working dry. In the case of the deepest shaft, 787 ft ,; the freeing operation Tequired 100 days. • . In . this instance a leak was met jvi.th,S the water flowed in, faster thanji„cpt>M be frozen by putting an extra freezfegfi tyb? ( ' down on the leak. Water was then pumped, into the shaft until tibo inflow ceased, and the whole was frozen up and afterwards excavated. Iti another case, to overcome a leak, the shaft was filled with sand and clay, and frozen up again. The iron or stoue linings are put in as the excavation proceeds, i mthe usual manner. (It was' suggested 1 some, years ago that this. system might, be usefully employed in prospecting and working tli§ ricjx wet leads at Boss, Westlaud-)