THE WORLD OF SCIENCE.

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14601, 26 February 1921, Page 9 (Supplement)

THE WORLD OF SCIENCE.

RADIUM ROD. French scientists are experimenting with a new process of locating mineral and petroleum deposits, which, 'according to those who have investigated closely, has proved fairly successful in more than 'JO per cent of its trials. Details are not yet available, but it is understood that the basis of the idea is the use of the known radio-activity of certain metals. By employing certain electrical apparatus, veins of iron and copper ore have been verified at depths of 500 yards below the surface, and it is now proposed to seek for oil in the Puy-de-Dome and Morocco. One of the experts working on the development of radio-active registers is M. Molineaux, a physician who has already written several booklets and even invented an apparatus which has produced .startling results. M. Molineaux conducted extensive experiments in Australia, and has been sent as chief of a research mission to .Morocco, where large areas are believed to contain petroleum. If his method proves successful there, France's future supplies of oil will be assured, and the Government will not with-hold its support. However, there is considerable scepticism, as only about % i per cent of the wells driven in France by prospectors who have deferred to traditional methods rather than modern scientific systems of "divining by electricity" have proved unproductive.

IRRIGATION FOR SMALL ORCHARD. The owner of a small orchard found a method of irrigation which greatly increases the profits from his vegetable garden and orchard. He lias installed a 7 h.p. gasoline engine, which pumps water from a nearby creek, supplying "2100 lineal feet of portable pipe with a water pressure of 501 b to the square inch. The pipes, supported on small posts 4ft. high, are placed parallel and at right angles to the main water line, wliifih runs through the centre of the held. On the top of each support is a socket, in which the pipe can be turned by means of a lever at the end of the line to direct the spray at any angle. This spray covers a space of 12ft on either side of the line. At the end of each pipe line there is a strained valve, which eliminates all dirt picked up with the creek water. The pipes, being portable, can be placed where they are most needed for the growing crops. From approximately two acres of strawberries so Irrigated, this farmer had a return of over £2OO in one year, and the raspberries have yielded in still better proportion. The yield of tomatoes, beans, melons, in fact, all products are greatly increased by this artificial rainfall, while Hie cost or installation and operation is very small.

A HELICOPTER. What is claimed to have been final successful tests have just been made in Chicago on an improved helicopter, the fruit of sixteen years' work by the Leinvveber family. It is described as a screw-propelled Hying device in which the lifting is accomplished by two pairs of horizontal blades revolving in opposite directions. The machine is snid to rise vertically in the air, and is devoid of wings. The machine may be brought to a stop while in the air. It is claimed that it will land on any platform the size of the base of the car. It Is equipped with an automatic stabilizer operated by compressed air. Plans have been made by the inventors to construct a large machine with twelve motors that will carry sixty tons, including fifty passengers.

FIREPROOF 'PLANE. After a spectacular demonstration by Faul Collins, a civilian flyer, recently in a flaming, oil-soaked, llreproofcd airplane, and, its midnight landing device, experts of the army and navy aviation service began preparing re. ports for the Government's interest. Collins' machine was treated thoroughly with the fireproof "dope" and then completely saturated with gasoline. Collins donned a costume similarly treated and made his ascent to an altitude of 5,000 feet. At this altitude he set fire to the gasoline and thrilled the countryside by his flaming, cometlike course. On his descent, at 1000 feet, he touched off two largo flares of magnesium on the tips of the wintrs. and, by manipulating two large mirrors underneath the fuselage, he illuminated the whole landinc- field, enabling him - 'o make a perfect "daylight" landing, PLANES MEASURE OCEANS. Aerial photography is used now to determine the depth of the ocean. A French scientist has a series of photographs taken from a seaplane; in these, the lints of the water vary according to the known depths. By comparing- photographs of unsounded depths with them, fairly accurate knowledge can be obtained..

The nature of the ocean bed, whether sandy, muddy or rocky,.is revealed in the same way.

A BLIND BOTANIST. Simply by the delicate touch of his tongue, Mr .1. (i. Wilkinson, the blind botanist, of Yorkshire, on whom the University of Leeds recently conferred the high degree of "Master of Science," can distinguish more thali 4000 plants. Mr Wilkinson has been blind since he was twenty-two. Instead of bemoaning his fate, he pot a friend to take him near an oak tree which he used to love. He asked for a leaf from the tree, and. placing it on his tongue, quickly began to note its characteristics by his delicate sense of touch. He .studied other leaves in the same way. and so acquired the extraordinary knowledge which has led lo the honour referred to.

DEPTH OF THE OCEAN. Dr. W. A. Herdmnn, President of the British Association, said: "Some few tilings we know approximately—nothing completely. We know that, the greatest depths of. tin 1 ocean, about, six miles, are a little greater than tin' highest mountains on land, and Sir John Murray has calculated that if all the land were washed flown into the sea the whole globe would be covered by an ocean averaging about two miles in depth."