Science Siftings

New Zealand Tablet, 30 May 1912, Page 59

Science Siftings

By 'Volt.'

Largest Mammoth Skeleton. The skeleton of the largest mammoth so far known to the scientific world has just been unearthed at Steinheim, Germany, near the birthplace of the poet SchiL. ler. According to advices received, it will go to the Wurtemburg Natural History Museum at Stuttgart. The skeleton is over 17 feet high, and the tusks are more than 8 feet long. It is thought to be about 4000 years old. Art of Papermaking. In the matter of making and using paper we are not in line with the Chinese and other Asiatics, who not only make the finest paper in the world, but apply it to all sorts of uses, making window panes, fans, umbrellas, sandals, and even cloaks and other garments of it. The art of making paper from mulberry bast is said to have been invented in China in the second century B.C. Afterward bamboo straw, grass, and other materials were also used. The manufacture spread to the adjacent countries. The Arabs learned it in Samerkand, and there learned men carefully kept secret the process by which they made paper for their own use." The Crusades made Europe acquainted with the art, and the first paper mill in Germany dates from the twelfth century. Typewriting Work Heavy. The girl who is operating a typewriter doesn't appear to be doing very heavy physical labor, as compared with the brawny individual in a stokehold who is shovelling coal into a hungry furnace, but this is one of the many instances in which superficial appearances are deceptive, as a comparison of the force expended by the two will show. The stoker may be credited with handling one ton of coal per hour, or eight tons per day, plus the weight of his shovel. Adding the shovel to his 17,960 pounds of coal, he expends about 20,000 pounds of energy. For each key struck on the typewriter there is an expenditure of something over three ounces of energy, or say, one pound to the average word. A fair operator will average 500 words an hour, or, in eight hours, 12,000 wordsl2,ooo pounds of energy. To throw over the carriage for each new line requires on an average three pounds of force. Twelve thousand words will make 1000 lines, so that there are 3000 pounds of energy to be added to the 12,000, making it 15,000 pounds of energy expended compares pretty well with the stoker's 20,000, all things considered. A really fast operator woald push the expenditure of energy up to 25,000 or more. Petrol and Electricity in Place of Steam. The Great Western Railway authorities of England are the first to experiment with the view of substituting petrol and electricity for steam. They have decided that if the . petrol-electric engine is more economical than the steam engine upon steep gradients and in services where the passenger traffic is light, then they, as the largest users of rail' motor cars in the United Kingdom, stand to benefit. They have, accordingly, installed upon the Windsor branch for temporary service between Slough and Windsor an experimental coach, the first of its kind to be used in England, which is entirely independent of steam power and external auxiliaries. The car is now in regular service. It is fitted with a forty-horse-power petrol engine, which transmits its power through an electric motor of similar capacity. Accommodation is provided for forty-six passengers, and a maximum speed of nearly thirty-five mile per hour, with an average of twenty miles per hour, can be obtained with ease. The petrol-electric combination insures absolute smoothness of running and a minimum of strain upon the gearing when starting and stopping. If the system proves successful, it will be applied to the whole Great i Western system. - ■•■•■■ '" ; %