Science and Invention.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 446, 3 November 1904, Page 7

Science and Invention.

A NARCOTIC bomb has been invented by a surgeon in the Austrian army. The bomb, which may be fired from any gun, has a time fuse, and when dropped among a regiment of the enemy will not explode, but will fill the air with narcotic gases strong enough to make 2,000 men unconscious for several hours. While in this condition they may be captured, and when they wake up they will feel no bad effects of their experience beyond a slight headache,

A new industry seems to be foreshadowed in the production of artificial cotton yarn' from wood pulp, the finished article imitating the genuine product closely with regard to softness, lustre, and strength. The wood of the spruce or the pine is preferred for the purpose, and after being defibrated, it is bleached in the usual manner. The product is next treated with a mixture of zinc chloride, castor-oil, and gelatine, and is reduced to strands and rubbed into threads, when it assumes much the appearance of cotton yarn.

MIRACLES AflD EXPERIMENTS

There are scientists in Washington who believe that there is a fixed basis of the weather, and that, once this basis is discovered, it will be possible, say, on October 1, to predict exactly what the weather will be for every day that month, including rainfall, temperature, and all other things necessary to bo known for the benefit of agriculcure, horticulture, or commerce. These scientists consulted with Senator Bard, of California, with the result that' he has introduced into the Senate a bill which provides a prize of 100,000dol. for anyone who will accurately predict the weather for thirty-day intervals during half a year, and show the Weather Bureau the scientific basis of the prognostications. An additional 50,000d01. is to be given for prediction of the rainfall.

UNDERWATER SIGNALLING

Recently there has been installed on the steamers of the Metropolitan Company of Boston an apparatus which may yet make it possible for the vessel beating about the . coast in a storm to know where the rocks and shoals are when the fog will not permit the light to be seen and the noise of the wind drowns the sound of the bell buoy or the siren ; for a battleship to know of the approach of a submarine, and a fishing smack of the approach of a liner off the banks of Newfoundland. The apparatus is extremely simple. It amounts to nothing more or less than ringing a bell under water which the pilot or captain can hear telephonically. Screwed on both sides of the vessel's hull are two receivers, which are connected by wires with ihe wheelhouse. These receive the vibrations from the bell hanging in the water on the side of the lightship. The navigator has only to put the ear piece to his ear and ascertain on which side the vibrations are the louder, in order to know the direction of the lighthouse and his own position in the fog with comparative accuracy. For fishing vessels a ball receiver has been provided, and this is used to get more delicate intonations aboard a steel vessel.

GREAT TELEGRAPH ANNIVERSARY.

Last May witnessed the sixtieth anniversary of the despatch of the first Morse telegraph message in the United States. It was on May 1, 1844, that the first telegram was sent between Baltimore and Washington, announcing the result of a convention at Baltimore, at which Mr Henry Clay was designated for the American Presidency. The immense progress which has since been made by land and submarine telegraphy is shown in the fact that, in round figures, 1,000,000 telegrams and cablegrams are now despatched throughout the world daily. A recent compilation upon the subject arrived at an annual aggregate of 364.845,474 telegrams. In this vast total Great Britain figured for 92,471,000 ; the United States for 91,391,000; France for 48,114,151; Germany for 46,008,794: Russia for 15,5G5,867 ; Austria for 15,057, 17G ; Belgium for 14,411,487 ; Hungary for 14,370,439 ; Italy for 9,064,488 ; Spain for 5,393,872! Holland for 5,088,104; and Sweden and Norway for 4,311,657. The first submarine telegraph message was despatched in June, 1850, from France to Great Britain, over a cable uniting Dover and Capo Grisnez. The subsequent extension of the submarine telegraph system has been simply marvellous, comprising, as it now does, 235,625 miles of cable. Account must also be taken of the development of the telephone, which is acquiring more and more importance, especially in the United States,

A NOYEL FLYING MACHINE.

Mr B. Nemethy, Arad, Hungary, some years ago designed a flying-wheel according to the well-known kite principle. In this flying machine the magnitude of the bearing surfaces and the weight of the apparatus weze adapted to the conditions observed with the flying of large birds, an air-screw rapidly rotated by a gasoline motor being used as drive. In the course of his experiments, the inventor eventually abandoned the kite principle, designing his novel flying-machine (which seems to constitute an important step towards the definite solution of the flying problem) like a paper arrow. The inventor claims to have found solution of the problem by accounting for the statical drift a floating body undergoes in virtue of the supporting air cushion formed underneath. The flying-maehine in its recent form comprises two roofshaped bearing surfaces of linen, being fixed to a frame of very light steel tube, resting on wheels and bearing a small benzine motor of an output of with 1,800 revolutions per minute, the power of which is transmitted to an air-screw performing 300 to 600 revolutions per minute. The most important feature is the fact that the air-ship may be used on the ground as an automobile, and that the landing takes place quite smoothly, the air-ship continuing its way on the ground like a motorcycle. Mr Nemethy has not so far been able to construct a machine with a motor of sufficient power to carry out in practice the whole of his theoretical results ; nevertheless, the fact that the flying-machine having been launched from the roof of a building 10m. in height was able to slide through the air over a distance of 40m., demonstrates the practicability of the new apparatus