SCIENCE NOTES & NEWS

Waipa Post, Volume VII, Issue 321, 9 June 1914, Page 7

SCIENCE NOTES & NEWS

GAS. FOR MOTOR-CARS,

Natural gas as motor-car fuel is being experimented with in West Virginia, where the largest gas wells in America are located. Tire gas is oompressed in seamless tanks, holding" from three hundred to two thousand cubic feet, at a cost to the user of about sevenpenoohalfpenny per one thousand cubic feet. A well-known car using natural gas made a mileage of one hundred on a shilling's worth of fuel. The same car consumed tenponnyworth of gasoline in running twenty miles on the same track.

SYNTHETIC TANNIN. Synthetic tannin which gives satisfactory results is among the new discoveries, and has been produced by Doctor Edmund Stiasny, of the University at Leeds. The new tannin is made from tar distillation products in combination with other materials. It is stated that it has been already used on a fairly large scale in the German tanning industry. An advantage of the new tannin is that it can bo prepared in a uniform manner, and the material is not subject to chemical changes.

BRICK ROADS. For more than one hundred and fifty years bricks have been usod for paving in several of the principal towns in Holland, and since 1872 it has been extensively employed in America in country roads as well as in streets. In the United States, the life is stated to be from fifteen to twenty years under ordinary conditions. Brick paving in various American cities has furnished valuable experience, showing the importance of good material and workmanship. In places brick pavements have remained in perfect condition after twenty years of wear.

• A SPEAKING CLOCK. An official of a foreign telephone system has devised a "speaking clock." It comprises a phonograph attachment which repeats the hour and minuije every five seconds, changing exactly on the minute in the following manner:— "Five-two,'' "five-two," "fivetwo," five-three," "five-three," etc. All a telephone subscriber has to do is to call a, certain number in the same manner that he calls any other one in the system, and the phonograph-clock is immediately heard speaking the time. In its present form the "speak-ing-clock" requires constant attention, as the records, one of which runs ten minutes, are slipped on and off by, hand, but in a new machine now being perfected, the record cylinders, of which there will be but two, will bo connected with a master clock and will be entirely automatic, requiring no manual operation.

HOW NICOTINE POISONING MAY BE AVOIDED.

Bamberger, a German physician, classifies smokers as the "dry" m& ."wot." "Dry smokers are those who hold the cigar in the lips without wetting it with saliva. This is freo from the dangers of "wet" smoking; that is, allowing the cigar to soak in the saliva. Saliva- dissolves out oi tobacco many harmful substances which are swallowed, and help to duce tobacco poisoning.

Chewing tobacco contains so little nicotine that it can scarcely be regarded as directly harmful. Smokers should be warned to keep their cigars dry, and take them out oC the mouth between the whiffs. There has recently been patented a. method of preventing tobacco poisoning. Cotton impregnated with ferric chloride is an efficient filter for this purpose. A tampon of cotton dipped in ferric chloride applied to the tip of the cigar will' thus afford an efficient filter; against tobacco poisoning. It is even; affirmed that this process improves the> flavour of a cheap cigar, making the. flavor more like that" of a genuino Havana cigar.

METALS THAT NEED HOLIDAYS,

It will perhaps be a revelation to many to learn that metals suffer from, fatigue as much as man, and feel equally strengthened by a holiday. Repeated experiments have proved that steel and wrought iron deteriorate, under constant strain or vibration, and if they are denied the necessaryrest the time comes when, like the> human machine, they collapse alto* gether. Lord Kelvin has proved that irom wires kept in a state of oscillation; during the week act quite differently; after a Sunday's rest; and that art iron bar subjected to strain will rise: io per cent, in elasticity after a three weeks' holiday.

A Bessemer steel rail, which had 'done good servica for twenty-two-years without a day's holiday, not long} ago collapsed altogether under the weight of a train and broke into half-a-dozen pieces. Singularly enough, cast-iron, which! most people would imagine less dur-< able than steel, improves greatly in. strength under constant shocks.. While guns tried a month after cast-< ing burst at the seventieth and eightieth discharge, other guns whichl have been in use for six years failed to burst after 2,000 and 3,000 discharges, and cast-iron bars after being subjected to shocks frequently gain, 100 per cent, in strength.