SCIENTIFIC AND USEFUL.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 29, 16 July 1892, Page 714

SCIENTIFIC AND USEFUL.

TO CURE A RUNAWAY HORSE. The Russian method for curing a runaway horse is said to be very effective, and is not particularly cruel. They place a cord with a running knot around the horse's neck near the neck straps. To this slip noose attach a pair of reins, which may be thrown over the dashboard ready to be seized at once. When the horse starts take up the extra reins, and tighten the cord aronnd the horse’s throat. The most furious horse thus choked stops instantly, and will not kick or fall. ELECTRIC LIFE BOATS. In connection with the lifeboat trials which have been carried on recently at Lowestoft, it is stated that the SimsEdison electrical motor is to be adapted to lifeboats. * The propeller will be placed in the bow to bite the water as soon as possible with 45 h. p. The cable coiled in the boat will be from three to four miles long.’ The current is to be generated at a station on shore, and the boat is to be provided with a search light. This indicates extensive changes as likely to take place in the lifeboat system, but changes are, even though improvements, difficult to adjust. AN IRRESISTIBLE BAIT FOR RATS. An interesting, not to say valuable, discovery has been made by Captain Weedin, in charge of the animals at the. Zoo. The building is infested by rats, and how to get rid of them has long been a perplexing question. Traps were used, but nothing would tempt the rodent to enter. In a store room drawer was placed a quantity of sunflower seeds, used as a food for some of the birds. Into this drawer the rats gnawed their way, a fact which led the captain to expel iment with them for the bait in the traps. The result was that the rats can’t be kept out. A trap which appears crowded with six or eight rats is found some mornings to hold fifteen. They are turned into cages containing weasels and minks. The latter will kill a rat absolutely almost before one can see it, so rapid are its movements. The weasels are a trifle slower, but none of the rats escape them. THE MYSTERIOUS MEDIUM. Speculative science is absorbed to-day in the study of ether. We seem to be on the verge of discovering something really great about this mysterious medium supposed to pervade all space. The day may even come when ether will form the basis of all electrical text books. The early experiments of Faraday, the marvellous mathematical researches of Maxwell, and the crowning experiments of Hertz, all show the intimate relations which exist between electricity and light. They have so entirely changed our views of science that it has been truly said that electricity has annexed the whole domain of optics. It is computed that the amount of energy contained in a cubic foot of space filled with ether amounts to 10,700 foot tons—that is to say, the energy required to raise a weight of a ton to a height of 10,700, or conversely that required to lift 10,700 tons to the height of one foot. According to this the energy stored in 2j cubic feet of ether is equivalent to that of a railway train weighing 300 tons, and running at a speed of 60 miles an hour. LARGE FIGURES. The population of London has grown from 150,000 in 1603 to 4,500,000 at the present time. Supposing that the recent rate of growth were maintained, London might easily, in the course of another half century, possess a population of over 7,000,000. The six principal railway lines of the metropolis carried annually over 200,000,000 people. The tramway companies carried unitedly some 150,000,000 more, and the two great ’bus companies, the General Omnibus and the Road Car Companies, carried from 120,000,000 to 130,000,000 per annum additional. The three agencies together, therefore, carried annually some 460,000,000 to 470,000,000 passengers, being neatly twelve times the piesent population of the United Kingdom. There were besides 11,300 cabs, which carried, roughly, some 30 000,000 passengers per annum. 100,000,000 to 120,000,000 more travelled daily to and from the suburbs by every railway that has a terminal station in London, bringing up the total numbers carried annually, into and out of London, to between 490,000,000 and 500,000,000. THE WONDERFUL GROWTH OF A HORSE’S MANE AND TAIL. The Scientific American publishes an illustration of a horse that has recently attracted much attention for the extraordinary development of the hair of his mane, foretop, and tail. The animal is very handsome, weighs 1,4351b5., and is of chestnut colour. The mane and tail are of the same hue. He is now eight years old, and was foaled in Marion county, Oregon. The mane is fourteen feet, the foretop nine feet, and the tail twelve feet long. When spread and drawn out to their full’extent, the display of the beautiful locks of hair is quite impressive. The greatest care is taken of the hair. It is washed out with cold water, no tonics being applied to it. Before the horse is placed in his stall the hair is drawn out and divided into several thick strands. From his mane four such strands are made. Each strand is then tied round once every six inches almost to the end. It is then rolled up and put into a bag. For his mane and foretop alone five bags are required. He is exercised in the same guise, a blanket or sheet, if necessary, being thrown over him to conceal the pendant bags. The greatest care is taken of his health. He is exercised every day, either in a ring or ont ot doors under the saddle. The owners will not permit him to be taken into the upper floor of any building for fear of some accident. During the last two years the mane and tail have grown about two feet.

The Empire Tea Company, Messrs W. and G. Turnbull and Company, Wellington, are evidently making enterprising movements towaids securing the tea trade not only in Wellington but all over the colony. Their tea-blends are prepared at considerable cost. No doubt a good tea pays best in the long run.