Science Siftings

New Zealand Tablet, 15 July 1909, Page 1115

Science Siftings

BY * VOLT

Electric Hair-growing.

At a recent sitting of the Academy of Medicine in Paris Professor Hallopean introduced a young man of 27 with a splendid crop of hair. The professor explained that 18 months ago the young man had been completely bald, but Dr. Chicotot had tried experiments on him, with astonishing success. The treatment consisted solely of tho alternate use of X-rays and of electric high-frequency currents. Dr. Chicotot claimed no secrecy for his method, and had merely undertaken the experiment to show what wonders could be worked by electricity in cases of baldness. Silent Aerial Warship. Particulars of the new airship Zeppelin 11., which ;.s; .s nearing completion, are now published. The Zeppelin I T . ' will be polygonal in form, having 16 angles. It will be 446 ft in length, and 42£ ft in diameter, and will have a capacity of 530,000 cubic feet. It will be slightly larger and longer than the existing Zeppelin airship. There will be 17 compartments (balloonettes) instead of 16, one of them being covered, as an experiment, with gold-beater's skin, while the rest will be covered with lacquered cotton. Two,, instead of three, winged screws will be used, thus, it is hoped, doing away almost completely with the present whirring noise. Hydrogen will be used, and~ the cost of filling the airship is expected to be about £75. Something Interesting. Some 20 years ago a man attended at an office in London for the purpose of witnessing an experiment by a German student in something new in gas lighting. He then saw some small cambric caps, the first five or six of which at once fell to pieces; while four or five lasted a little longer. The latter burnt for a few minutes, and then, on a door being opened, they followed in the wake of their predecessors. Little did those who were present at the experiments imagine that they were assisting at the rise of a planet *which would flood with light the whole universe. The German student was Welsbach, and the caps were the precursors of the mantle which have been of such „ benefit to the gas industry. Power of the Tide. Proposals to' use the power of the tides are seldom taken seriously. That there is enormous power in them is admitted, but as no one has ever been able to run machinery with it save on a small scale the average man thinks # ">o one ever will be able to utilise the power on a large scale.' A similar view prevailed for a long time regarding the practicability of a rotary steam 'engine; but inventors kept at it, and now a turbine engine is driving steamships across the ocean at a greater speed than was ever before possible. In like manner someone will discover how to harness the tides and make them do his bidding. A group of men even now believe that they have the secret, for they are planning^to dam, the rivers which empty into the Bay of Fundy, and to place in the dams motors to be operated by the terrific rush of the waters that pour in and out of thesjß streams every day. As the difference between low tide and high tide is 50ft or more along the hay, it is evident that the power developed is enormous. The Panama Canal. President Taft, in an article in McClnre's Magazine, answers the critics of the Panama Canal. He declares that the lock type was the best type of canal to build, and h a dares hope that it will be finished before 1915, and that the cost will fall below Colonel Goethal's latest estimate of £59,400,000. 'The date of completion for the loci type of canal has been fixed as January 1, 1915,' says Mr. Taft. ' I hope that it may be considerably' before that. At the rate of excavation now going on in the Culebra cut, it could probably be completed in less than three years; but the difficulty is that as the cut grows deeper the number of shovels that can be worked mmusst s necessarily be decreased. Therefore, the excavation per day, per month, and per year must grow less. Hence it is not safe to base the time on a division of the total amount to be excavated by the yearly excavation at present. Then, too, the Gatun Dam and locks and the manufacture and adjustment of the gates may take a longer time than the excavation itself, so that it is wiser to count on the date set.'