Science Siftings

New Zealand Tablet, 10 March 1910, Page 395

Science Siftings

BY * VOLT'

Ants at Work. In Burmah and the Far East they have a curious fashion of setting _ the ants to work. The sandalwood -s worth its weight in silver, but it is only the hard heart of the wood that is fragrant and valuable. This precious portion is overlaid by a soft and worthless layer, which forms two-thirds of the trunk. When a tree is felled and cut into suitable lengths, the loggers just let it alone, and the ants attack it, attracted by its sweetness, and no doubt fancying that they are doing mischief instead of rendering assistance, as they really are. In a few weeks the little insects have finished their work, and the valuable heart of the wood is freed of its worthless covering and ready to be made an article of commerce. Wireless Telegraphy. A Sydney cable message says: On Friday night, February 27,. the first wireless message from New Zealand was received by a young experimentalist living at Arncliffe. Using a 50ft aerial station, and with a detector of his own invention, he picked up H.M.S. Powerful’s signals plainly all the way across to Australia, and when the flagship rounded North Cape the signals became fainter, probably due to land coming between. He expects to hold her all through her cruise. On February 15 he picked up the Encounter, with Lord Kitchener aboard, when about 1000 miles distant. The experimenter also thought he could detect the Powerful speaking to the Challenger, and that he could hear the latter replying, although he could not make out the message. He got several long messages from the Powerful. The Amber Harvest. The poor people who earn a precarious livelihood by gathering amber on the shores of the Baltic Sea work only in the roughest weather. When the wind blows in from the sea, as it often does with terrific violence, the boulders are tossed and tumbled at the bottom, and great quantities of sea wrack are washed up on the beach. This is the harvest of the waders, for hidden in the roots and branches of the seaweed lumps of the precious gum may be found. In other parts of the coast divers go crawling on the bottom of the sea for the lumps of amber hidden in seaweed and under rocks. It is believed that once a great pine forest flourished here, where the great billows roll, and that amber is the gum exuded from the trees, of which not a vestige remains. The finds are very variable. The largest piece known, weighing 181 b, is in the Royal Museum in Berlin. The usual finds range from lumps as big as a man’s head to particles like grains of sand. The larger pieces are found jammed in rocks or in tangles of marine vegetation. Divers work from four to five hours a day in all seasons, except when the sea is blocked with ice. The work is so arduous that they are bathed in perspiration even in the • coldest weather. For all their grinding toil the natives are happy in their way, and increase and multiply as in more favored regions of the earth. Brennan’s Mono-rail. A cable message from London under date February 27 says:—Louis Brennan’s mono-rail car carried 60 passengers at Gillingham, in Dorset, at a speed of 22 miles an hour round sharp curves with great steadiness. The Hon. A. A. Kirkpatrick, Agent-General for South Australia, and the Hon, Hall-Jones, -High Commissioner for New Zealand, were present. Mr. Brennan expects a service for passengers to be in operation in 18 months. The owners of the German rights hope to establish a 125 miles an hour service between the capital and the big provincial towns. Mr. Brennan (says an exchange) has been engaged working out the details for ten years past. The essential difference between his scheme and other systems is that the single rail is on the ground, instead of being overhead. The balance of the carriages is maintained by an application of the gyroscope, which contains two revolving discs, spinning at the extraordinary speed of 7000 revolutions a minute. This invention is practically an adaptation of the principle of the Japanese top, with spinning rings set at right angles to each other. . . A gyroscope is placed in each carriage, and when set spinning keeps the carriage upright and perfectly rigid. The value -of the gyroscope has already been demonstrated in preventing ships from rolling in a heavy sea. The speed at which a train could travel Mr. Brennan reckons' at 200 miles an hour. The train can be stopped going up or down hill, and is under perfect control. When at a station loading, and it is desired to stop the machinery, rests are pushed down on each side at both ends of the carriage or truck. When a train pulls up at a station these supports are not necessary. Mr. .Brennan claims that the great advantage of the invention is that it can be used for rough country. Twenty miles of rail can be made in a day, and. the cost of construction is about one-third that of the ordinary tworail track.