Science Siftings

New Zealand Tablet, 10 December 1914, Page 49

Science Siftings

‘ Volt.’

A Tree that Grows Paper

The dagger palm which grows in Jamaica, and reaches, a height of eight or ten feet, is remarkable for the fact that it has paper growing in its leaves. The outer leaves are of no use; only those from the heart of the palm yield paper ; which is a fine, smooth substance, something like tissue, and which can be written on. Each • leaf gives . a separate' piece of paper from seven to nine 1 inches long and from two to three inches wide, according to the size of the palm. The paper is used for making hats, photograph frames, flowers, and feathers.

;. , : The Gyroscope Compass. ‘ .. The gyroscope compass, invented some years ago, seems to have now proved a practical instrument. It is based on the principle—already applied in the automatic steering of torpedoes—that a rapidly rotating body tends to keep in the same plane, and during a nine months’ test covering a cruise of the Deutschland in different parts of the world, it kept the true direction, and on one occasion was left untended and unchecked for a month. On being adopted in the German navy it is expected to prove much more reliable than the magnetic compass for submarines.

Biggest Wafer Wheels.

The power house of the new dam across the Mississippi at Keokuk, la., will eventually, contain thirty of the largest , water wheels ever built. Each turbine furnishes ten thousand horse-power,' and weighs about one million pounds. Many of the ‘ runners,’ or .water wheels for the turbines, wcie cast in one niece. The largest runners previously cast in one niece, either in America or Europe, weighed about 35,000 pounds. Taking these immense wheels from the factory at Akron, Ohio, to the dam, was nearly as hard a task as building them, for the wheels were probably the largest niece of freight ever- carried by an American railway. Many changes had to be made along the railroad in order to . give clearance way, and the enormous loads were moved only by daylight. The first wheel was received at the power house eight days after it left the factory.

Training Pigeons.

The system of breeding and training carrier pigeons for the use of the French army has been well described by M. Lucien Fournier. The first training flight is about 42 miles, the course being gradually extended, until after the thirty-fourth day it has reached

nearly 200 .miles. Military despatches are written on thin sheets of _ paper and on occasion these are photographed on films.: By this process long messages may be prepared, which, .when enclosed in a glass, quill or aluminium tube, are still not too : heavy to incommode the bird in flight. It is further stated that arrangements are made for military aeroplanes each to carry a number of pigeons in order that the birds when liberated may not come into contact with the swiftly moving machine, they are dropped head downwards though a long vertical tube. * - > T'

No Camel’s-Hair Brushes.

No brushes are ever made of camel’s hair, yet they are asked for daily and sold as such. There are very many kinds of hair used in the making of ‘camel’s hair brushes, such as bear, fox, rabbit, squirrel, etc., and, indeed an authority states that over one hundred and fifty sorts of brushes are known as ‘ camel’s-hair ’ brushes, but there is only one definition accepted by the British Board of Trade— ‘ camel’s-hair ’ brushes made from squirrel tails, these being the best and most expensive. Real camel’s hair is • absolutely useless for making brushes, and resembles soft tow of a yellowbrownish color the mane of a camel is the only part which could be used, and possibly a dozen brushes could be made from one mane. As a matter of fact there are only two specimens ,of brushes made from the actual hair of a. camel in existence. The reason for the term ‘camel’s hair ’ is the fact that a man named * Camel ’ was the first one to make these finer kinds of brushes.