Science Siftings

New Zealand Tablet, 20 May 1915, Page 47

Science Siftings

By Volt.'

Strength of a" Fly. A scientist has made many experiments with various insects, such as caterpillars, fleas, butterflies, and flies, which show how extraordinarily strong these insects are. A bluebottle fly weighing l-28th of an ounce was hitched by a thread to a tiny waggon and drew a total weight of a little over six ounces, or practically 170 times its own weight. A caterpillar harnessed in a, similar manner pulled twenty-five times its own weight. A strong man with a like equipment of large size can at most move but ten times his "own weight. Source of Radium. >;< For some years after the discovery of radium by the Curies in 1898, the chief source of the mysterious element was pitch-blende, a mineral principally mined at Joachimsthal, in Bohemia, for the uranium that it contains. It is found also in Gilpin County, Colorado. There is, however, another substance that" is a much more generous «source of radium. It is carnotite, a lemon-yellow mineral that occurs in pockets in the sandstone formations of Western Colorado and Utah. Very little of it has been treated for. radium in America, but many tons of it have been shipped to Europe to be treated by French and German chemists. The United States Bureau of Mines now propose, however, that they should treat the carnotite themselves. The Colorado deposits are now the largest known source of radium. Wonders of the World's Cables. The various Governments of the world own together 880 cables, having a total length of 14,480 miles and containing 21,560 miles of conductors. 4 . The French Government, which takes the lead as to length of cables, has 3460 miles in fifty-four cables. As to number, the Norwegian Government comes first, with 255 cables, having a total length of 248 miles. Finally, as to the length of conductors, the English Government comes first, with 5468 miles of conductors, divided among 115 cables, having a total length of 1588 miles. Private companies to the number of twenty-eight own 288 cables, having a length of 126,864 miles and containing 127,632 miles of conductors. The French companies, only two in numberthe Compagnie Francaise du Telegr'aphe de Paris et New York and the Societe Francaise des Telegraphes Sous-Marins-—have eighteen cables with a total length of 7249 nautical miles. The most important of the private companies is the Eastern Telegraph Company, which operates seventy-five cables, with a total length of 25,347 miles. The total number of cables in the world is 1168, with a total length of 141,344 miles and 149,193 miles of conductors. This is not sufficient to reach to the moon, but would extend more than half-way there. A Huge Magnet. To pick up needles and pins with tiny magnets has for ages been a source of boyish amusement. But a great electric magnet carrying a ton and a-half at a load is something at once new and intensely interesting. A magnet of this sort has just been installed in a large motor manufacturing plant in Detroit. It is probably the largest in the world, and is the consequence of a boy's play being observed by his father, who is an efficient' engineer in the plant. By the way, it has long been a problem in the factory to get rid of the large quantities of scrap iron and steel which is constantly accumulating in the forge and stamping room. One day the efficiency engineer saw his boy playing with a new magnet which he had just purchased at a hardware store. The idea flashed on him that if the boy could lift pins with a small magnet, machinery could lift bigger things with a bigger magnet. The longer he thought of it the more convinced he became that he had hit upon the solution of the stamping-room problem, and the firm thought the idea worth working out. The i

size of the magnet was carefully calculated and from the time it was put to work, it has been performing quickly and accurately tasks which it would take many men twice the time to accomplish. -