Science Siftings

New Zealand Tablet, 3 July 1913, Page 47

Science Siftings

By 'Volt.'

;.' :..', :."-■'. Time Signals. At the St. Quentin station on the Northern Railroad in France there has been installed a wireless telegraph station for receiving time signals from the Eiffel Tower station so as to have the exact time and thus be able to set the station clocks more accurately than before. The distance from Paris is about ninety-five miles, so that the time signals are well received even with the small aerial used. No doubt the railroad will extend the use of the wireless method in the future. A station which is so equipped can also send the time over the ordinary telegraph lines to other- railroad stations. Circular Saw of Paper. How paper can be made to cut wood was shown at a scientific exhibition recently opened in the Assembly Hall, Surbiton. The demonstration was made by Mr. J. F. Palmer, a local resident, who spun a disc of ordinary drawing paper a foot in diameter by electrical means, so that it made 1542 revolutions a minute. On putting a piece of wood against its edge it cut through the wood like a circular saw, but left the cut edges polished in a high degree. Another experiment shown was the coloring of white tulips by letting them absorb aniline dyes through their stems. Paper Pulp from Flax Fibre. An industry which should do much to eliminate the present waste of flax-growing has recently been established at Rosetown, Saskatchewan. For years efforts have been made to solve the problem of what to do with the vast quantity of flax fibre left after the flax seed has been threshed out. Now the Flax Decorticating Company have erected a plant at Rosetown, said to be the largest flax-growing area in the province, which will use the portion of the flax plant formerly regarded as 'waste in the manufacture of a high-grade paper pulp. It is the forerunner of a number of similar mills. The fibre can be converted into pulp at a very low cost. The Panama Canal. The first voyage through the Panama Canal will be made in the autumn of this year, and the War Department of America have invited Captain Amundsen, the famous Arctic explorer,'to send "his ship, the Fram, to be the first vessel to pass from ocean to ocean through the isthmus. Captain Amundsen has accepted the invitation (says the Universe). From that day Cape Horn will lose its terrors for the navigator as the Cape of storms. Suez and Panama, tunnels undersea and through mountain, air flight and wireless speech, and the world moves apace to the annihilation, of space as a barrier between men and nations. With regard to distances, a ship trading between English ports and Valparaiso or Wellington, N.Z., and steaming at 14 knots an hour, will save four days in the case of the New Zealand port by using Panama instead of Suez, and four days in the case of Valparaiso by Panama rather than Cape Horn. Australian ports will still be nearer to us by way of Suez. The cost of coaling relatively at Port Said and Panama will be a determining factor. Hitherto British coal has had a monopoly, but the two routes will establish a sharp rivalry between English and American coal. The night was cold, loud was his bark, For he'd been sleeping in the park A friendly policeman heard him yell, And made him ' comfy ' in the cell. Next morn before the beak he stood; His Worship thought he looked demure, So told him to begone and get Woods' Great Pepeprmint Cure.