Science Siftings

New Zealand Tablet, 6 November 1913, Page 43

Science Siftings

By ' Volt.'

An Inventive Genius.

A lively controversy has been begun over the discoveries of a young Italian engineer, Signor Giulio Ulivi, who is reported to have discovered the F Rays, by means of which he can cause powder deposits', shells, and ammunition stowed in ships or fortresses to be blown up at a distance, and whose experiments were attended recently at Havre by General Joffre and the officers of the headquarters staff (says the London Telegraph’s Paris correspondent). Signor Ulivi, though but 33 years of age, is described as a marvel of an inventive genius, something like an Italian Edison, who can invent or discover something new every day. He came to Paris at the age of 27, in the year 1907, and first took a fancy to motoring. He had scarcely learned to drive a car and mastered the mechanism, when he suggested a number of improvements. The proprietors of the garage where he received his first lessons in driving were so pleased that they offered him a contract for a year.

The Theory of Earthquakes.

Among the papers read at the meeting of the British Association was one by Rev. H. V. Gill, S.J., Dublin, on an analysis of a table of 900 earthquakes completed by the late Mr. J. Milne only a few years ago. Father Gill showed how his views are borne out by the records of the years between 1899 and 1909. Although Milne had applied this view to the records of several years, and had come to the conclusion that the theory was true, it was only in the completion of an extended catalogue such as that analysed in the paper that it was possible to examine the theory in all its bearings. In that paper it was shown that the distribution of great earthquakes with regard to time and space is such as to justify the principles relied on by the writer. Father Gill's theory is of importance in being the only ono which satisfactorily explains many of the seismic phenomena, and in being the first in which the importance of taking into account the rotation of the earth as a factor in the dynamics of earthquake distribution was discovered. Foreign Canals. At the meeting of the British Association at Birmingham Mr. Frank R. Durham discussed the position of the waterways of France, Belgium, and Germany. He pointed out that in these countries large sums were being spent in the provision of additional canals. In France a total expenditure on canals was contemplated of £23,600,000, and on navigable rivers of £2,200,000. Under the Finance Law of February, 1912, a special department of public works had been created to deal with waterways. The average water freight in France was .235 d per ton mile, and the railway rate .7d per ton mile. The average tonnage, that was the metric tons divided by the distance, had increased over a period of 40 years from 162,102 to 460,820 tons, an increase of 70 per cent., while during the.same period the average tonnage of the railways had increased only 27 per cent. In Germany large expenditure had also been authorised on canals, and the programme of 1905, which was to be completed by 1915, represented an expenditure of 30 millions sterling. Of the total traffic of Germany 25 per cent, was waterborne and 75 per cent, was carried by the railways. A new law with regard to towing on canals came into force in April last, by which public bodies were allowed.permission to cooperate with the State.