Science Sittings

New Zealand Tablet, 1 December 1910, Page 1991

Science Sittings

BY ‘VOLT’

A' New; Alloy.

To the rapidly growing list of alloys another, compounded by H. B. Weeks, an English ; chemist, has been recently added which will be known as Duralumin. This metal is described as being slightly heavier than pure aluminum, and equal to steel in strength. It can be rolled, drawn, stamped, extended, and. forged at corresponding temperatures and corrodes less readily than other aluminum alloys. Its specific gravity is about one-third that of brass, and the purposes for which it can be used are practically unlimited. .

The Spider as an Engineer.

Looked at.from the standpoint of a practical engineer, the spider's web, with its strong, elastic cables, is regarded as meeting all the requirements of the 20th century mechanical skill. And yet the spider, probably, has been spinning its web, spanning its lb ridges, and laying its traps, all in geometrical proportion, since the world began. Most talented engineers of the insect world, and, probably, of the animal world, with man excepted, is this busy little body. The spider knows nothing of geometry, and yet its work is. strictly along geometrical lines. Ignorant of the contraction and expansion of cold and heat, of the velocity of winds or of air currents, as understood from the standpoint of man, this insect engineer lays all its foundations and spins all its cables to meet every condition that may arise. Man himself can do no more.

The Locomotive Whistle.

The use of the steam whistle on locomotives was chiefly due to- an incident which took place on the old Leicester and Swannington Railway in the year 1833. An engine, which was named 'Samson,' had run into a horse and cart which was crossing the lines on its way to market, near Thornton, owing, it is said, to the driver of the cart not noticing the approach of the train. The manager of the railway, on hearing of this, reported it to George Stephenson, and asked him if it was not possible to have a kind of whistle fitted which the steam could blow. George thought this a very good suggestion, and designed an instrument, which was made to his order by a local musical instrument maker. It was fitted first of all to the engine " Samson' for a ten-days' trial, and was found satisfactory.

What is Radium

It is possible that many of us will not be able to answer this question, not. as the scientist expects an answer (for the element is still in some respects a scientific anomaly, as difficult to define in a few words as the natural order Orchidaceaj), but in simple commonplace language. Briefly put, as Dr. Wickham puts it, radium is a metal emitting radiations, which may be compared to a flow of electrified corpuscles, with a velocity equalling that of light. These corpuscles are so light that a speck of the metal may emit them for thousands of millions of years without appreciably diminishing in weight. When they come into contact with an electroscope they discharge it; when they strike certain bodies they illuminate them. The metal, gives out both light and heat, and the source of this heat is still an unsolved problem. Radium is an element, an alkaline earth metal, akin to barium and strontium, with a characteristic spectrum and' an atomic weight of 226.45, and the history of its discovery is a page in the romance of chemistry.

Gyroscopic Balancers for Workers.

A German inventor has devised individual gyroscopic balancers, which will prevent a man from falling when he is working under conditions of danger. According to press reports, an American version of the Brennan monorail system in which a gyroscopic flywheel keeps the car from, tipping will soon be in service. A European inventor has already demonstrated by a test on a fair-sized steamer that a similar plan can be used effectively to overcome the rolling of vessels. Now a third has reasoned that the balancing of cars or ships is' no more important than that of individuals working under unusual and dangerous conditions. For instance, a man washing the windows of any tall buildings can work to best advantage if free to lean back somewhat, just as he would do if standing on the ground. Safety-straps make this possible to a considerable extent, but themselves are hindrances to free working. Were the window-cleaner a bloodless machine, we might simply equip his interior with a gyroscopic bal-ance-wheel. Next to this is the external arrangement just patented by Hermann Zoern, an architect at New Brandenburg. He proposes to strap a light frame to the man, carrying a pair of hoops driven at high speed in opposite directions by an electric motor.