SCIENCE NOTES & NEW

Waipa Post, Volume VII, Issue 325, 23 June 1914, Page 7

SCIENCE NOTES & NEW

NEW USE FOR STEEL.

Steel has entered a new field aa an effective material for power belts in mills, factories, and other places. Its advantages lie in the reduction of width both of belts and of pulleys, the consequent reduction of weight and expense, and a reduction in the distance between axles necessitated heretofore to secure proper tension of leather belts. ELECTROLYTIC BATH USED IN "*'• LEAD POISONING. An interesting case was related to the Royal Institute of Public Health in London recently where a workman suffering from lead poisoning was placed in an electrolytic bath for treatment. After three or four baths the morbid symptoms disappeared, while lead was found in the water on the electrode. If the method is found successful in general application, lead poisoning will lose its terrors.

NEW CLOTHES WRINGER HAS PNEUMATIC ROLLERS

A clothes wringer with pneumatic rollers has been put on the German market. The advantages of the inflated rollers over those of solid rubber lies mainly in the fact that pressure is exerted on all parts of the fabrics passed between the rollers even when the garments are not especially arranged. Buttons, hooks and eyes are not crushed by the roller. A bicycle pump is used to inflate this novel wringer. A NEW MATERIAL FOR PAPER MAKING. It is stated that a plant called Hedychium coronarium and its allies form a new source of material for paper-making. The plant, a member of the natural order Zingiberaceoe, is a native of India, being distributed from the Hima’ayas to Ceylon and Malacca. It is also found in the West Indies, New Z 'aland, and elsewhere and it covers large tracts of swamps iu Brazil. Experiments have been made with specimens. sent from San Paulo, and papers of exceptional tensile strength exceeding thus of Manila paper, have been produced from the fibre.

THE VALUE OF MERCURY.

It is interesting to note how the introduction and development of new uses for certain comparatively scarce materials rapidly depletes the available world’s supply, and has the effect of enormously appreciating the market value. Platinum is a case in point, its largely increased use for electrical, chemical, and other modern scientific and engineering requirements having relegated it to the sphere of ultra-precious metals. Mercury looks like following suit. Hitherto the chief uses of quicksilver or mercury have been in connection with fulminate, for explosive caps, for drugs, for electric lighting and scientific apparatus, and for amalgation in the recovery of gold. A new and growing demand for the liquid metal is in connection with the lampgear of lighthouses. .

MUCH CARE NEEDED IN MAKING

ROPE,

The process of making rope Is a comparatively simple operation, but the manufacture of the best quality demands close attention to each of the little, but important operations involved in the process. The raw hemp is first fed into machines that form the “sliver” or strand. Steel pins attached to a moving, endless chain catch the mass while another set of pins pulls out the fibres, one by one, and combs them into the proper form for feeding into the other machines. One of the most important of the preparatory processes of rope making is the softening of the hard fibres with oil, which is usually applied immediately after the machines have combed out the snarls, loose tow, and dirt. The best hemp for rope comes from Manilla.

“THE SONG OF THE WIRES.” Every one has noticed the curious “singing” of the telegraph and telephone wipes often heard along quiet country roads. Professor Field, of the University of Ottawa, suggests that the noises are due to vibrations transmitted to the wires by the posts, which receive them from the earth, and that-they are the results of earth vibrations identical with those that the seismograph, or earthquake-de-tector, records. “The Song of the wires,” Professor Field adds, “is the song of the barometer; if it is low, a change in the weather may come in two days; if sharp, it may be immediate.