SCIENCE SIFTINGS

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LI, Issue 15, 10 April 1924, Page 54

SCIENCE SIFTINGS

;:■■■<- , By -VOLT" A

' - Waterspout Wonders. ~ A remarkable experience recently befell the crow of

the steamship Carston, off Guantanamo, Cuba. One afternoon the vessel was caught in a tropical thun-

derstorm, which lasted for about three-quarters of an hour. Then the wind dropped suddenly and the low clouds began to send down a number of long, tapering-arms towards the water. • '

These arms were constantly changing their shape and size. Sometimes some of the smaller ones would revolve rapidly round a larger one. All were spinning at an almost incredible speed. When a larger spout was formed it would absoyb all the smaller ones around it. At one time no fewer than nine waterspouts were visible at the same moment.

Waterspouts are fairly common in the course of the Gulf Stream, and one is occasionally seen round the British coast. But,to encounter them in such numbers is an almost unheard-of occurrence.

They are caused by small swirls of air, which are brought about by conflicting currents in the atmosphere. These swirls suck up the water from the sen, sometimes in the form of spray, but more often in the form of a great swaying column of solid water. As the spout reaches the clouds, which are always low at such a time, it spreads out and breaks into drops .which are scattered through the body of the clouds.

Driving London’s Tubes.

The largest and most wonderful of Great Britain’s power stations is that on the Thames Embankment, at Chelsea, in London.

Here electrical energy representing 120,000 horse-power —greater than that generated at any of the Niagara stationsis produced and used for driving the underground railways and trams of the Metropolis. But, quite apart from its size, the institution is famed for its engineering and mechanical wonders.

For instance, the huge boilers, of which there are 64, which produce the steam to dr ire the ] great turbines by which electrical energy is obtained, are situated, not in the basement or on the ground floor, but on the first and second, storeys of the building in nests or groups of eight. Immediately under the boilers are the furnaces. These gire fed automatically by coal through a chute from the hoppers above. Stoking, as it is generally understood, is unknown at this up-to-date generating station. All that the attendant has to do is to turn a handle, when, lo! the coal drops on to the grate.

The grate, too, revolves in a very ingenious manner, although it is as large as an ordinary suburban . garden plot, boasting of 83 square feet of surface. After the coal has passed through the furnace, the ashes drop automatically into little trucks in the basement below. These are carried along on rails and dropped into a great ashpit. . On an average 500 tons of coal are burnt every day.