Scientific and Useful

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIX, Issue 8, 24 August 1907, Page 41

Scientific and Useful

AIRSHIPS AND WAR. Colonel J. E. Capper, who is in command of the balloon section at Aidershot, England, is quoted as saying that the British Government for many months past has been making experiments with a view to a possible aerial war, and arrangements are already in progress for the formation of a home and attacking fleet of airships. Between 400 and 500 men are being trained for service in Britain’s future aerial fleet. This aerial force will consist of balloons, kites, and aeroplanes. He adds: “An aerial section to our army is not the mere hobby of ambitious inventors, but it is an absolute necessity if we are to continue to hold the same position in the world which we do now. If once the British people really wake up and take an intelligent and business-like interest in Hying machines we shall make great strides toward solving the aerial problem and towards the construction of an aerial branch to our flying forces. I do not wish to prophesy, but in the future—perhaps some twenty years hence—airships will be so common that there will be legislation for them in the same way as there is now for the motor cars and other road traffic.’’ MILES THE HAND TRAVELS IN WRITING. The average person has no idea how much muscular effort is expended in writing a letter. A rapid penman can write thirty words a minute. To do this, he must draw his pen through the space of sixteen and a-half feet. In forty minutes his pen travels a furlong, and in five hours a third of a mile. In writing an average word the penman makes in the neighbourhood of sixteen curves of the pen. Thus in writing thirty words to the minute, his pen would make four hundred and eighty curves; twenty-eight thousand eight hundred curves in an hour, and eighty-six million four hundred thousand in a year of three hundred days of ten hours each. The man who succeeded in making one million marks with a pen in a month was not at all remarkable. Many men make four million while merely writing. ♦ ♦ ♦ DANGER OF UNCOOKED PORK. A serious disease is sometimes communicated to human beings through eating raw pork or pork which lias been only partially cured. A certain per cent of the pork is infected with trichina, a minute insect, which is also able to live in the human body, where It causes a disease having the symptoms of typhoid fever, and also of rheumatism, and which sometimes proves fatal. Although pork meats are required to pass Government inspections, it is very difficult, in fact, impossible, to sort out all of this kind of pork. The only safe and sure way is never to use pork meat that has not been thoroughly cooked. ♦ ♦ V PREHISTORIC CONSUMPTIVE FOUND From the examination of a skeleton recently discovered at Hcidelburg, in Germany, which experts inform us belongs to the stone age. Professor Barteis has been able to discover that consumption was in existence at that distant period. He found characteristic signs of the disease, among them the decay of the fourth and fifth dorsal vertebrae (lames of the spinal column) and their conjunction in an eseeous (bony) formation with the sixth, a sure sign of the disease. Then he discovered a deviation of the spinal column, caused by the illness, another sign, which left the professor no doubt about the truth of his discovery.

LIMIT OF HUMAN STRENGTH. Experiments upon a number of men have shown that a man five feet high and weighing 126 pounds will lift on an average 156 pounds through a vertical distance of 8 inches or 217 pounds through a height of 1.2 inches. Others 6.1 feet high and weighing 183 pounds could lift the 156 pounds to a height of thirteen inches. Other men 6 feet 3 inches high and weighing 188 pounds could lift 156 pounds to a height of 16 inches, or 217 pounds to a height of 9 inches. By a great variety of experiments it was shown taat the average human strength ,is equivalent to raising 39 pounds through a distance of 2J feet in one second. CULTIVATE A HEALTHY SKIN. Tn order to provide against the effects of cold winds, and to secure for one's self a constant protection against changes in the weather, it is necessary to cultivate a healthy skin. One must keep one’s self physically strong by obeying the laws of health. When people die from pneumonia in winter it is because their lungs have lost the power to resist disease; their general vital resistance is gone; their lungs become congested from a little exposure because the skin is inactive, germs find a foothold and develop in the lungs, the lungs fill up with exudate, and they no longer- have lung capacity enough to keep them breathing. Pneumonia and all these winter diseases may best be avoided by maintaining perfect activity of the skin. The man accustomed to taking a cold bath every day of his life need not fear pneumonia. + + ft HOW TO LIVE LONG. An exponent of the simple life is a man, ninety years old. who has these rules for longevity and contentment, evolved from his own experience, written out for the guidance of friends. Sleep seven hours. Arise early, as the birds do. Go to bed at the same hour every night. For relaxation, smoke a pipe after each meal. Indulge yourself moderately. In the evening, a quiet game. A glass of wine occasionally. Cultivate strawberries and flowers. The outdoor exercise tends to prolong life. Do not worry. Do not get excited. Know when you have had enough. Retire at middle age, though even on a modest income, and live quietly. Keep your mind occupied by reading history. ♦ + DON’T SMOKE WHILE MOTORING. Experimenting with tobacco in various forms, a London specialist finds that the general effect, when motoring, of tobacco in an appreciable quantity is to accelerate the action of the heart. One cigar was smoked by the specialist after dinner in a drawing-room when the heart was beating at 82 per minute. The cigar lasted forty minutes, after which the pulse was again tested, and the rate per minute was 120, an increase- of 38 beats in the minute. Next evening, when the heart was beating normally again, a run was taken on a fast open motor car, and the experimenter sat on the front scat, by the driver. He smoked again for forty minutes, in which time lie had consumed two cigars and a third part of another. On the heart being tested a further acceleration of 15 beats per minute was noticed, while there was apparent a slight irregularity as well, and in addition the state of mind was not nearly so restful nor the sense of enjoyment so strong. Another ease which occupied four weeks in the experiment showed. after continuous smoking while motoring for this period, such a l>ad effect as to necessitate com plete abstention from this practice for a |»eriod of three months. The doctor thinks it always advisable, therefore, to smoke as little as possible in these circumstances: otherwise the Imneflts derived from motoring will be nullified.