SCIENTIFIC AND USEFUL

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VIII, Issue 47, 21 November 1891, Page 606

SCIENTIFIC AND USEFUL

THE HUMAN JAW. A scientific observer publishes a pamphlet to show that the European jaw is narrowing through the lesser severity of its labours that accompanies civilized food. The lower jaws of the English are smaller than those of the ancient Briton. A VALUABLE NEW MINERAL. The report seems to be well attested that the new mineral just discovered in Texas, U.S.A., has properties that may make it invaluable in electrical science. A dispatch from Austin describes it as a substance resembling asphalt. It is said to be unaffected by water, heat, acid or alkalies, and to be the most perfect insulator yet discovered. Should these claims be verified, and they are said to rest on numerous tests, the new discovery would not only add to the enrichment of the Lone Star State, but would prove of great utility in the practical development of the electrical interests of the country. PAPER HORSESHOES. The horses of the German artillery and cavalry regiments are now shod with paper. The shoes are made by cementing forms of parchment paper together and hardening them by hydraulic pressure, then rasping them to fit the hoof. As the iron shoe is notoriously defective, especially on slippery roads or streets, this news will be welcome to all who wish for a more humane horse-shoe. Recent experience points to the conclusion that shoes are not absolutely necessary for horses if the hoof is allowed fair play ; but at all events, the paper shoe may be regarded as a kind of artificial hoof. DO DIAMONDS GIVE LIGHT’ That diamonds emit light in the dark is one of the most generally maintained of popular beliefs. In folklore there are endless tales which tell how the hero was guided through the mazes of underground realms by ‘ the light of a diamond.’ It is therefore interesting to find from a note by Mr Kunz, an expert in precious stones, that this property is actually possessed by the gem in question. He finds that if certain diamonds—for everyone does not exhibit the phenomenon—are exposed to the sunlight or to an arc of electric light they glow in the dark. What is more, all diamonds emit light by rubbing them on wood, cloth, or metal, a property which will probably prove of great value in distinguishing the true gem from the many imitations of it, barely to be distinguished by any test short of analysis. The property is not electric, or it would not be visible on the gem being rubbed on metal. AN ANIMAL’S ECCENTRICITIES. Mr Lockhart, a mighty hunter but a naturalist withal, has been recording his notes on the ways of the moose, that old-world-looking deer which, under the name of elk, is——and this is almost unique in zoology—found in Europe as well as in America. The moose—and it is especially on the Canadian one that Mr Lockhart’s observations have been made—generally lies with its tail to windward, trusting to its remarkably acute senses of hearing and smelling to warn it of approaching danger from that quarter. The animal can employ its eyes to warn it of peril from leeward, where hearing, and especially smelling, would be of little use. While the moose is sleeping and chewing the cud its ears are in perpetual motion, one backwards and the other forwards alternately. It has also the remarkable insight to make a short turn and sleep behind the wind of its fresh track, so that anyone falling thereon and following it up is sure to be heard or smelt before he can get within shootinndistance. THE NEW METAL. Aluminium promises to work some wonders in the use and application of metals. Formerly aluminium was considered one of the precious metals, worth as much as silver. That was fifteen years ago. It is now worth less than oneseventeenth as much as pure silver, and about one-sixteenth as much as fine silver. Shortly before the manufacture of aluminium was begun on any considerable scale, the metal was worth £lO a pound. It soon fell to £6. then to £3 5s about fifteen years ago ; six years ago it was sold at £1 a pound and is now advertised at two shillings per pound for the commeicial metal above 90 per cent pure. This being the most abundant metal in the world, found in all common clays, it is reasonable to assume that its cost will soon fall to 7|d or 10J a pound, or even lower. It is less than onequarter the weight of iron, with great tensile strength. Steel has fallen in price in twenty years from £3B a ton to an average of £5 12s. Aluminium has declined much more markedly and rapidly. There is a great deal of interest about this metal and the uses to which it may be put. A MACHINE INTENDED TO REVOLUTIONIZE THE WORLD. Felix Starhenberg, a Swedish inventor, has undertaken to harness New York Bay to a motor, which will move all the machinery in New York. His motor is set in motion by the rise of the tide. He says that he has learned a mode of applying one of the greatest forces in the world, the rise of the tide in all the oceans. He says that it will produce limitless power at one tenth the cost of steam or electricity. A few days ago Starhenberg took a model of his machine down to Pier -A, and experimented with it in the presence of a large crowd. He placed the model on the water. The action of the waves caused a balance wheel, ten inches in diameter, to revolve at the rate of two or three hundred revolutions a minute. The machine ran about twenty minutes before the inventor took it out of the water. He said that a small motor operated by the power of the tide alone, could run a dynamo that would light a pier. The water motor weighed only twenty pounds. It was kept in a box about ten feet long and about six inches wide. Two weights descended from the machine into the water. It was the action of the water on the weights which made the motor go. Inventor Starhenberg thinks his machine will revolutionize the world.