Science Siftings

New Zealand Tablet, 15 July 1915, Page 49

Science Siftings

By ‘Volt.’

Ireland's ‘ Straddle ' Railway. - Running between Ballybunion and Listowel, in Ireland, is a unique ‘peg-leg' railroad, so called, because it runs astraddle a single rail, elevated a suitable V distance above the ground. The entire weight of the train is carried by this rail, guide rails being arranged nearer the ground to keep the train balanced. Each coach consists of two compartments, one on .each side of the elevated rail, and the engine has two boilers,, fire-boxes, and smoke-stacks. Strange Potato Industries. Towns in - the Netherlands have several ways of dealing with the surplus production of potatoes. According to a recent Consular report, there are now factories, for drying potatoes, with an. annual output of many thousand bushels. Of these phw.ts 350 are for the production of potato flakes, while in 86 the potatoes* are. dried by the hot-air process. Potato flakes can be used for feeding stock, for 'distilling alcohol, for making:... starch, and for the other purposes for which natural, potatoes are used ; or they can be ground and boiled to make potato flour. This flour is a yellowish-white product, rich in carbo-hydrates, and is used principally by bakers for adding to rye and wheat flour in making bread. It is claimed that the addition of potato flourgives the bread a good flavor, makes it more digestible,, and keeps it fresh for a comparatively long time. It. . is also used to some extent in thickening soups and sauces. * Quicksilver. The ore from which quicksilver is obtained is a. brilliant red rock known as cinnabar. When of high purity it is actually vermillion in color. Cinnabar is the original source of the pigment known commercially as vermillion. It is a compound of sulphur and quicksilver, and in order to separate the latter from the sulphur the rock is roasted. Passing off in the form of a gas, the mercury is afterward condensed and flows out in a fine stream, like a continuous pencil of molten, silver. Like gold and silver, mercury is occasionally found in a native or pure state. Sometimes the miner’s pick penetrates a cavity that contains a cupful or more of the elusive and beautiful fluid. Miners suffer much from the poisonous effects of the quicksilver fumes. Extreme cleanliness is the best safeguard for workers in this dangerous occupation. Silkworms. Though the silkworm is allied to the destructive caterpillar tribe, this little creature compensates for all the mischief occasioned by the rest. It has been mad© of the utmost service to man ; and furnishes him with a covering more beautiful than any other animal can supply. The silkworm is now very well known to be a large caterpillar, of whitish color, with twelve feet, and producing a. butterfly of the moth‘'kind. The cone on which it spins is formed for covering it while it continues in the aurelia state ; and several of these, properly, wound off and united together, form those strong and beautiful threads which are woven into silk. In the warm climates, the silkworm proceeds from an egg, which has been glued by the parent moth upon proper parts of the mulberry tree, and which remains in that situation during the winter. The manner in which they are situated and fixed to the tree keeps them unaffected by the influence of the weather ; so . that those frosts which are severe enough to kill the tree have no power to injure the silkworm. The insect never proceeds from the egg till "Nature has provided it a sufficient supply, and till the budding leaves are furnished in sufficient abundance for its support.