Science and Invention.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 440, 15 September 1904, Page 7

Science and Invention.

ON the Mangishlak Peninsular, on the Caspian Sea, there are five small lakes. One of these is covered with salt crystals, strong enough to allow a man and horse to cross the lake on foot. Another is as round as any circle, and of a lovely rose colour. Its banks of salt crystals !form a setting as white as snow to the ""water, which not only shows all the colours from violet to rosy red, but from it also rises a perfume as of violets. Both the perfume and the colour are the rosult of the presence of seaweeds. A SILENT EXHAUST BOX. The "Fairfax" exhaust-box is well worth the adoption by motor-cycle riders. It insures extreme silence, a free exhaust at will, and increased power. The back pressure, moreover, is reduced to a minimum. It is made throughout in aluminium, and fitted with a free exhaust worked by a lever from the saddle, by mearjs of which the full horse-power of the engine is obtainable while hill-climbing. It is made in several standard sizes. RADIO-ACTIYE ELEMENTS. According to Mme. Curie, three strongly radio-active substances have been discovered in pitch-blende : (1) Polonium, allied to bismuth and separated from it by (a) precipitation of the sulphides from a "chlorhydric acid solution; (b) fractional sublimation of the sulphides in vacuo; (c) fractional precipitation of the basic nitrates. (2) Radium, allied to barium, and separated from it by fractional, crystallisation of the chlorides from water, dilute alcohol, or water acidified with chlorhydric acid. (3) Actinium, allied Lo thorium, from which it has not been, found possible to separate it. Radium is the only one of *these elements which has yet been isolated in the form of a pure salt. A SELf-REPAIRING PNEUMATIC TYRE. . A tyre has recently been placed on the market in France, in which, it is claimed, any puncture is automatically repaired, and which has no valve. The tyre has a wall about §in. thick, composed of fabric and different kinds of rubber. The innermost layers consists of crude rubber, which is very adhesive and immediately stops any puncture caused by a nail or other sharp object. The tyre has no valve, and when it is desired to inflate it the driver simply punches a hole through the tyre by means of a special " needle " fitted to an ordinary tyre pump, and the pressure may then be pumped up to any point desired. When the pump is withdrawn the" hole immediately closes up of itself. A 30in. by 3|in. tyre weighs 7£lbs., or about 41bs. more than the ordinary pneumatic. RADIUM AND CANCER TREATMENT. Dr. W. J, Morton,, of New York, makes the announcement that he has succeeded in affecting cancer cures with the aid of radium. He is not extravagant in his claims, and does not assert Jhat his method will prove successful in every instance, but he has operated on three proven cases of cancer, and he says his patients are now cured. Dr. Morton's treatment consists in administering internally a solution of sulphate of quinine and then holding near the body a minute quantity of radium. The solution fluoresces, and this process by working on the malignant growth, kills it. Whether other practitioners have discovered the same method Dr. Morton does not know, but he says as far as he is concerned the operation is original. His purpose in making public the fact that he has successfully used radium is to induce other physicians to experiment with the treatment to discover its potentiality in cases more difficult than his. American doctors at present withhold comment,

A JiEW TYPE PROTECTOR. Dr. J. F. Burnham, of Madison Station Ala, has invented a tyre protector, consisting of an endless band of leather, rubber, or any other flexible < and durable material, which is held to the tyre cover in much the same way as the latter 'is held to the rim. The band, referred to as the half shoe, is of a form to readily adapt itself to the tread of the tyre, and its edges are bent under to receive the retaining cables. The latter are also made flexible, and have their ends secured together to form a hoop. The protector can be readily put in place when the tyre is deflated, and is held securely when the tyre is inflated. Among the advantages claimec: are that punctures and bursts are prevented, and the life of the tyre is greatly increased at small expense. Patent has been allowed on the invention. WIDTH OF YEINS. Mineral veins may vary in width or thickness from a half-inch to a hundred feet. They also pinch or widen at intervals in their downward course. The widest ' mother' veins are not always the most productive, though they are very persistent in length, and we may suppose in deptb also. In the San Juan (Colorado) district the 'mammoth ' veins of quartz, often a hundred feet wide, are not the favourites for development, the ore being found too much scattered in them, and tho development less easy than in those 10, 20, or 30 feet wide, whore the metal is more concentrated. These mommoth veins in the San Juan aro oasily traceable for miles over the surf ace of the country and down the sides of tho deep canons. Their limiting depth has never beon reached, and probably never will be by mining.