SCIENCE SIFTINGS

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LI, Issue 40, 24 September 1924, Page 54

SCIENCE SIFTINGS

By VOLT

Where the Lighthouse Fell. A few weeks ago was celebrated the bicentenary of John Smeaton, the famous engineer, who was born on June 8, 1724. His name is associated with the Forth and Clyde Canal, in Scotland, which was completed in 1790, and was probably the most important engineering work carried out in Britain up to that date. He also rebuilt the Eddystone Lighthouse after its destruction by fire in 1755. The lighthouse then erected by him stood for over a century. The first lighthouse erected on the perilous Eddystone Reef was that designed by Henry Winstanley. It was a fantastic structure, resembling a Chinese pagoda in shape, and had only stood for four years, when it was destroyed by a great storm on November 26, 1703. Winstanley, who had gone to the lighthouse a few days previously to super- ; intend some repairs, perished in the disaster along with five other persons. AVorld's Fastest Trains. The highest train speed, 120 miles an hour, is said to have been made by a train running from Fleming to Jacksonville, on the Plant system, in the United States, a distance of five miles, in 2 minutes 30 seconds. This was in March, 1901. In July, 1904, a train on the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad is said to have run from Egg Harbor to Brigantine Junction, 4.8 miles, in 2 minutes 30 seconds, representing a speed of over 115 miles an hour. The record speed for a British railway was a run on the Great Western, in May, 1904, when, after passing through the Whitehall Tunnel, the Plymouth to Paddington mail train for a time ran at a speed of 102.3 miles an hour. This run was properly clocked —that is, it was recorded by an expert taking the time with a split-second chronometer, which gives the exact speed within a decimal. British railways hold the greatest number of habitually high speed runs over short distances, regularly clocked by experts. A Triumph of Surgery. Formed from skin taken from his arm, two eyelids have been grafted on to a man's face at a Liverpool hospital and even eyelashes have started to grow (says the London Daily Mail). The man, a chemist's assistant, who desires to remain anonymous, is a citizen of the United States and came to England from California during the war. While working in- a Gretna munition factory in June, 1917, a phial of sulphuric acid burst and the liquid splashed over his face. His left eyelid was completely burned away and the other was partly- destroyed. Fortunately his eyes escaped. The man said to a Daily Mail reporter. "My eyes, unable to blink, were always dry, and as there were no lids to cover them they were continually tired. "I became a patient at hospitals in various parts of the country, including Carlisle, Edinburgh, Manchester, and Liverpool. At Edinburgh an attempt to graft new eyelids was unsuccessful. "About a couple of months ago I entered a Liverpool hospital and a surgeon successfully grafted two eyelids formed from the skin of my arm." The man's face shows little indication that an operation has been performed, and he is now able to close his eyes.