Science Siftings

New Zealand Tablet, 17 April 1913, Page 53

Science Siftings

By ' Volt.'

REMARKABLE DISCOVERIES. Only twelve years of the twentieth century have gone, and yet in those twelve years have been crowded scientific achievements which aye rapidly revolutionising the world's commerce. In some cases the discoveries and inventions date back to the closing years of the last century, but it is since 1900 that they have been developed and so perfected that to-day scores of great industries are benefited to the extent of millions of pounds. The dyeing business, for instance, has been completely changed by reason of the fact that processes have during recent years been discovered for extracting artificial dyes, pigments, and perfumes from coal-tar products, while the jewellery trade has been revolutionised through methods being discovered for the manufacture of synthetic pearls, rubies, and allied gems. Then, again, the silk industry has been considerably affected by the discovery of a process for transforming vegetable fibre into an artificial silk, in some respects outrivalling the natural, 15,000,0001 b now being annually put on the market. Agriculture, too, has received a considerable fillip on account of numerous fertilisers which chemists have discovered, and which have proved invaluable aids to nature. Nobel Winners. The records of the Nobel prize-winners perhaps provide the most striking illustration of the great advantages the world has derived from the achievements of present-day. scientists and inventors. Alfred Nobel died in 1896, and left part of his great fortune to constitute a fund the interest on which was to be awarded annually in prizes' to those persons who conferred the greatest benefit on mankind during the year. There are five prizes altogether, each worth about £BOOO, which are awarded for the most important discoveries or improvements in physics, chemistry, or medicine, distinguished work in literature, and the best effort towards the promotion of peace. The first prizes were awarded in 1901, and with a few notable exceptions the recipients have been workers in pure science, whose discoveries include the X-ray, radium, five lew gases in the atmosphere, a method for exactly measuring a light wave to the millionth part of an inch, and the proof that carbon can be transformed into diamond in the electric arc. The wireless telegraph, the development of anti-toxin, the Finsen ray treatment for cancer, and other scientific discoveries are also included in the work of the Nobel prize-winners. The Panama Canal. The fact, perhaps, is not generally recognised that the successful building of the Panama Canal is in a great measure due to the discoveries of present-day physicians and chemists, for the building of the canal lhas been as much conditioned on the medical as on the scientific side. The French failed utterly in their attempt to build the canal because the majority of their workers died of infectious diseases that no one knew how to combat. To-day these diseases are under control, mainly owing to the discoveries of medical men, and even within the past six years the amount of sickness in the Panama zone has been decreased by 75 per cent., which has made it possible for vast armies of men to work under conditions of health and life. The Aeroplane and Wireless Telegraphy. Of course, one of the greatest discoveries of the present century is the flying-machine, and when one considers that to-day the Great Powers are as much concerned with the organisation and equipment of an aerial fleet as they are with that of their army and navy, it is astonishing to learn that it is only nine years ago since the Wright Brothers evolved an aeroplane from the gliding machine; and among the world's scientific benefactors, of course, one must not forget to mention Signer .Marconi, who in 1899 established wireless communication between France and England and who twelve months later transmitted messages across the Atlantic, a distance of 2100 miles, by means of his wonderful invention.