Science Siftings

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9, 1 March 1906, Page 29

Science Siftings

By 'Volt'

The Prosperity of Japan

The prosperity of Japan depends very largely upon the sea. A thousand varieties of fish, including • the shark, are eaten by the inhabitants, the annual yield of the fisheries being 3, 000,000 • tons, or three times the consumption in the United States. The value of this product is £(?,00i0,<KM). The coasts also supply an. ible alga known as layer, and other sea-weeds from which food gelatine is extracted, together with large quantities of salt. From Japan, moreover, comes a large part of the world's coral and pearls.

Hats and Localities

It is astonishing to what an extent the sizes of heads vary in difterent localities. It is a well known fact in the hat trade (says an English, paper) that there is a diflerence of two sizes between the average hats worn in Birmingham and Ulas'gow, and it is generally conceded that the average size in Birmingham is smaller; than in any other town in the kingdom. Taking the whole of England, the average size of hat required by men is 7, or nearly 22 inches in circumference; in Wales 6£ is the average ; the Irishman averages a J full ; while the cannie Scot's average is 7. King Edward for many years wore a size* 7 hat, but his size at present is 7|.

Sense of Time

One of our commonest mental operations is estimating periods of time. Attempts have been made te determine, the quality of our ' time sense,' and in the latest experiments at Harvard University 251 males and, 274 females, irom 17, to 3,i years old, were required to judge the length of each of lour intervals— lß, 36, 72, and 108 seconds— under four ditterent conditions. Comparing the sexes the females proved to be much less accurate than the males. The male judgments ranged from 1 to 300 seconds, with an almost invariable tendency to under-estimate'; and the range of the female was from 1 to 100 seconds, a considerable over-estimate being the rule. The second itself is much shorter to the iemale than the male.

The Future of Electric Traction

The next ten years, in the view of a prophetic British engineer, will bring enormous development of electric traction, especially in supplanting steam on suburban branch railroads and short main lines. The incandescent lamp will be improved, cheapening electric lighting, possibly to the extent of driving out all other illuminants. Long-distance telephony will be greatly developed, and wireless telegraphy will become established on ships, chiefly for safety. The generation and transmission of electric power promise little advance unless some new source of electricity is discovered. Direct production of current from coal remains only a dream, and Tesla's transmission of power without wires is no better. The universal adoption of the steam turbine will be the only advance in power stations.

>Balloon Expedition to ; the (North Pole

The new dirigible balloon in which Mr. Walter Welli man and M. Santos . Dumont 'are to attempt to reach the North Pole, is to be built on the plan of that' in which the Brazilian aeronaut circumnavigated the Eiffel Tower. A Paris message states that, undismayed by Andre's fate, M. Dumont is confident of success. The balloon will be 196 ft long, with a maximum .diameter of 40ft, and a cubic capacity of 22,G00ft. It will carry three motors capable of developing a force eqiual to 70 horse-power. The expedition will proceed early next summer to Spitzbergen, where a base camp Avill be established. Thence the aerial voyage to the Pole will be taken. The distance is about 500 geographical miles and allowing] for contrary winds and adverse atmospheric conditions, ,it is estimated that on the, journey to the Pole and back to Spitzbergen the aeronauts would have to traverse about 1200 miles. An average speed of 12 miles an hour would consequently "enable them to do the double journey in 100 hours, but as M,. Dumont in his aerial trips has attained! <a speed as high as 23 miles an hour, it is calculated that it should be practicable to accomplish it in considerably less time.