UNDER THE WATER

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1928, 30 October 1926, Page 7

UNDER THE WATER

(DETECTION BY SOUND WAVES. Duffing the war Professor Langovin, otf Paris, invented a method of detecting the presence of submarines by the reflection of sound whfc-tn a narrow bteiam of sound waves was. projected tinder the water. Experiments conducted by Dr R. W. Wood, Professor of Experimental Physics at John Hopkins University, New York, tend to show that Sthie 1 device may have important medical and biological applications (says the Central News). The possibility of applying the discovery to medicine is -described as 'being found in the fadt thajt circulation is stimulated in any part of the body which is thrust into water in which the sound waves have been Introduced. The stimulation is said to be powerful enough to go to the bone without injuring any part of -the -body immersed. Dr Wood said that while the /experiments had not gone far enough for him to claim that.cures might be accomplished, it had been found that circulation could be tremendously stimulalted and that any method for stimulating circulation without injury was valuable to medicinle. The discovery, it is said, may We used in the treatment of arthrifi*. That disease has been baffling physicians for years. It is maintained by seme physicians that it is caused by organisms which leave chalky deposits in the joints. The sound waves might, i't is thought, be u)s(ad to stimulate circulaltlion and carry off these deposits. Dr Wood was asked about this application of the discovery. He admitted that, while it might be found useful, he was unwilling to make any definite claims until 'the work had progressed further. It is said. that the possibilities for the- science of biology? and physiology are considerable. The late 'Dr Jacques Loob, of New York, alteredl jth. shapes of low forms of animal life by changing their environment. This discovery by Dr Wood may be used along similar lines. Experiments are to be made on flsh, eggs, and oither organismls to learn wha't effect on (th'e;i|r development is produced by subjecting (them to the sound waves. The (instrument fl'sed for producing the sound waves resembles a radio set, but is much more powerful than th'a familiar form of the machine. Eour hundtred thousand vibrations a second at 60,000 volts arc applied/ to a quartz plate, which is thrown into a powerful vibration, emitting sound waves of the same frequency as the electrical vibration.