Science Sittings

New Zealand Tablet, 20 January 1916, Page 49

Science Sittings

By ‘ Volt,’

. Modern Naval Guns. As showing the excellent workmanship which goes into the modern heavy naval gun, it may he noted that the whole of the 15-inch guns for the five British battleships of the Queen Elizabeth type were ordered without any trial gun being made and tested. When the first 15-in gun was tried out, the results agreed exactly with the calculations of the designer. It is stated that it is the best and most accurate gun of all ranges that has yet been built for the British Navy. The explosive charge of the shell, which weighs nearly 2000 pounds, is 50 per cent., larger than that of the 13.5-inch guns which preceded it. Vegetable Tallow. The Indian vegetable tallow is the product of the seeds of the Valeria Indica, or piney tallow tree. The seeds are collected in the form of kernels within a husk. These are simply dried, and sold loaded on shipboard at Bombay for about £lO per ton. Upon being treated with a solvent they yield a solid edible tallow amounting to about 30 per' cent, of their weight. This product is used (in Europe) largely in confectionery, and also in the manufacture of stearin, olein, and glycerine, bringing (before the war) in the Antwerp market close on £IOO per ton. World’s Largest Oil Well. Referring to the resources of Mexico as an oil-fuel producing country, the Autocar recalls that some oil was got from that locality as early as 1868, but only small wells were tapped until about 1904. In 1908 probably the largest oil well the world has ever seen was . opened up. Unfortunately, however, it proved uncontrollable. The pressure was so enormous that the heavy casings were hurled into the air, and the original eight-inch hole developed into a huge crater, from which great volumes of salt water are still flowing. The oil from this well burned for forty days with a flame 1800 feet in height, and the light given was so brilliant that newspapers could be read by it at a distance of seven miles ! Electric Plants. ‘ A very peculiar plant,’ according to Royal Dixon, author of Flic Human Sole of Plants , ‘ and one which has tremendous electrical powers is the “telegraph plant” (Desmodium gyrans). It is a native of India, and each of its leaves is composed of three leaflets; the larger one stretches out towards the sun during the day, but turns down at night, while each of the smaller leaflets moves day and night without stopping. They describe by means of jerking motions complete circles, not unlike the smaller hand of a watch.’ Then there is the utricularia, or fishing plant, which lures small fish ‘ into its capacious mouth and suddenly, as if an electric button were secretly pressed, closes in upon its helpless prey. In other words, it fishes with a net electrically wired!’ Near Lake Titicaca, in South America, and in the interior of Nicaragua is found a really terrible plant, a sorb of vegetable octopus. This was first discovered by the naturalist Dunstaxx, who heard his dog cry out as if in agony. Running to his relief, Mr. Dunstan found the animal ‘enveloped in what appeared to him a perfect network of what seemed to be a fine, ropelike tissue of 'roots and fibres.’ He cut the fleshy fibres of the magnetised plant only with great difficulty. The dog was covered with blood. ‘ The twigs curled like living sinuous fingers about his hands, and it required terrific force to free himself from the plant’s electric grasp, which left his hands red and blistered.’