Science Siftings

New Zealand Tablet, 23 February 1911, Page 355

Science Siftings

BY ‘VOLT*

Swim by Machinery.

A ten-pound swimming machine that may be packed in a suit-case is the invention of a Frenchman. it is a safe and rapid semi-craft for the man who swims or the man who doesn’t. At the front of the apparatus is a cylindrical metal float, with conical point and a depending rudder. At the rear is another metal float, with stirrups actings upon a propeller, the two ends connected by a wooden bar, on which the swimmer lies as if on the water, kicking with his feet and alternately pushing and pulling with a cross handle-bar just back of the forward float. The swimmer on the swimming machine gets a maximum of exercise while making a speed impossible to the ordinary swimmer on the open water.

How Cats Fall.

A scientist has constructed an ingenious model to show why a cat in falling invariably alights on its feet. This model, roughly speaking, consists of a cardboard cylinder wherein are stuck four rods to serve for legs, together with a tail devised on similar principles. The object of the experiment is to show that a feline’s peculiar faculty depends on the rotation of its tail with sufficient vigor. This faculty is one especially developed by climbing and leaping animals, such as members of the cat tribe, monkeys, squirrels, rats, and most lemurs. As mentioned, the tail plays an important part in the turning process. According to the investigator, all tree-inhabiting monkeys have long tails, and there is not the slightest doubt that these tails are of great aid to all climbers in enabling them to turn in the air. The tail also serves as a balancer, as evidenced in the case of a squirrel, which may be seen walking along a tightly stretched wire or string, swinging its tail from side to side, much after the manner of tight-* rope walkers balancing themselves with a pole.

A Chemical Fire Extinguisher.

Remarkable results were obtained in a series of tests of a chemical fire extinguisher invented by the Abbe Daney. The tests were carried out at Lyons in the presence of the maire, military commanders, fire brigade chiefs, and the military sappers and engineers, as well industrial representatives. A pyramid of boxes filled with inflammable material impregnated with oil was erected to a height of thirty-five feet. The structure was set on fire, and when the entire mass was blazing a special apparatus threw on it a shower of dark liquid mixed of gases and salts. The fire was instantly extinguished, and on close inspection no trace of fire was found anywhere in the enormous mass. Then showers of oil and inflammable essences were thrown on the heap, fire was applied once more, and it w r as found that the oils and the essences alone, burnt. Everything which had been touched by Dancy’s extinguisher remained incombustible, and when the oils had burnt out the mass w 7 as found intact, as after the first fire. The Dehats says that the test was absolutely conclusive, and the modest clergyman is to be felicitated without reserve on an invention which at last makes us “ master of the fire.” ’

The Mud-nest Builder.

Flamingoes are perhaps the most curious and picturesque birds in the world. Their long necks, legs, and heavy beaks seem out of all proportion to their bodies, and the rosy plumage of the adult bird is very beautiful. The flamingo is the only member of the stork tribe which builds a mud nest. The foundation for this is often laid in as much as fifteen inches of water, and rises above the surface, a pile of no mean size. Some remote and desolate spot is' chosen, and here hundreds of birds build their nests and rear their young. Most of the nests hold their eggs, some only one; and the incubation of these is delayed so long that before they are hatched the water has dried up, leaving the nests as mounds of mud and fibre along the edge of the lake. On the top of the nest the parent sits, with its long legs doubled up, and projecting behind her for some distance beyond the tail. The egg, which has a greenish blue shell, is protected by an outer thick chalky coat, which can be removed. The plumage of the young flamingo is white, with here and there brown touches, and the bill is nearly straight. The characteristic crooked beak of the adult does not appear till the bird has nearly matured. These birds can walk, swim, or fly, but they are never so happy as when wading knee-deep in water. There is a European variety in the south of France and Spain, but the grander specimen comes from Equitorial Africa.