Science Siftings

New Zealand Tablet, 31 December 1914, Page 53

Science Siftings

Bt 'Volt.'

Oil v. Electricity.

' The latest big feat of the lighthouse engineer in British waters- is the building of the new tower on the Fastnet Rock, a small pinnacle off the coast of Ireland. It cost no less than £420,000, though it should be added that in this item is included" the expenses of a special steamer,that was built to carry the stone blocks to the rock. The'light here is given by a series of incandescent burners, producing a power of ,1200 candles. By means of mirrors this is intensified and concentrated into a single flash of 750,000 candle-power, and capable of being seen, on .a clear night, twenty miles out at sea. It is a remarkable fact that, despite the wonderful advance which electricity has made oil is still generally used in lighthouses. The truth is, electricity has been found too costly for lighthouse work, and there are few stations that boast of their electrical installations, the most famous exception being in Heligoland lighthouse, whose electrical beams are equal to 43,000,000 candle-power. The light here alone costs £I4OO a year to maintain.

Whales.

A government official, who has made a special study of whales, states that the average length of a full-grown whale is just under 80 feet. This estimate disregards the exaggerated -reports sometimes spread by sailors, and is based on actual measurements of many individual specimens. There seem to be credible accounts of whales reaching a length of from 85 to 95 feet, but the authority quoted has never seen any of that size. Whales appear to grow with great rapidity, the length of yearlings being estimated at from 30 to 35 feet. How high can whales spout? Photographs taken by the scientist referred to give a means of measuring with some accuracy the height to which the water is thrown. This appears to be much less than it has often been supposed, to be. It is claimed that even the great sulphur-bottom whale, on the average, spouts to a height of only fourteen feet, although occasionally the height may be as much as twenty feet. '

The Ostrich,’

" / Those . who . know the , ostrich declare it to be the stupidest bird ; going. The ostrich, able to - kill -a man when so ; mindet*i' is, pn the other hand, subject to fits of abject fright,' under the influence of which it will sometimes take to its heels and never stop running until it is out of sight. The ostrich chick is a funny little ' fellow, covered with spiky feathers, and looks something like a. two-legged hedgehog with a long neck. He is plucked for the first time at nine months old; but not until the third year do his feathers lose the coarseness of youth, •'while at five years he has reached .maturity. For plucking, the ostriches are collected in a large enclosure. At the other end of this enclosure is the plucking-box, which has an entrance and exit door. Into this the ostrich is bundled; he finds it impossible to move, as the box gives him no room for turning round. Then a man, armed with a pair of shears, cut off the feathers from his left wing, while a.second man does the same with the right wing. The quills are left in the flesh for a couple of. months or so, by which time they are quite ripe and can be pulled out without causing the bird any pain. If the feathers had been left they would, in fact, have fallen out at this time; a very slight pull, therefore, releases them, making room for the next crop. If, however, anyone were cruel enough to pull out these quills before they became ripe, he would himself suffer for the act, because in such a case the next lot of feathers would be of very poor quality. Plucking takes place once every year. ’ " ,