SCIENCE NOTES & NEWS.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 696, 3 January 1922, Page 3

SCIENCE NOTES & NEWS.

RQWEROF air-brakes. Some idea of the power of an airbreak may be gained from the followling facts: It takes a powerful locomotive drawing a train of ten passenger cars a distance of about five miles to reach a speed of sixty miles per hour on a straight and level track. The brakes will 6top the same train from a speed of .sixty miles per hour in i7OO feet. Roughly, it may be stated that a train may be stopped by the brakes in about 3 per cent, of the distance that must be covered to give it its speed. THE MAGNET IN SURGERY. Doctor Garel, of Lyons, has drawn, a French nai,l about two inches-long from the bronchial tube of a boy of eighteen months from Buenos Ayres. The nail had" been there for some time, causing the child to cough much. Rontgen rays showed the position of it, and an electro-magnet drew it out. Another successful operation, of a similar kind has been performed by Doctor Piechaud, of Bordeaux, on a child of three years. In this case the trachea was opened to get a projection from the pole of thejmagnet near the nail. ' (\ • THE BEARD. It is recorded that the reign of Henry the Fourth of France was the golden age of beards, for at that time quite as much attention was. paid to them as to the dressing of the hair of both sexes. Beards were clipped in all manner of fashions —round, square, pointed, fan-shaped, and after the fashion’of an artichoke leaf. Unfortunately, when the craze for. beards of all shapes and sizes was at its height, Louis the Thirteenth, who was then a ■child, came to the throne, and the beard had to go .in honour of the, hairless chin of the new monarch. Soon afterwards the tuft came into vogue. PLUMBAGO MINES IN CEYLON. Plumbago, Ceylon’s most important mineral product, is known all over the worlcj for its lustre, lubricating, polishing, and binding • qualities. In appearance it is a strong black cnstalline. There arc now about one thousand plumbago mines in Ceylon, including all-the shallow pits, open works, and deep mines. Ibe depth varies from a few yards to as much as seven hundred feet. Most of the mines are worked by natives, the only important one controlled by Eurppeans being the Medapola. At the majority of the mines the only machinery used is the “dabare.” This consists of a long wooden barrel with handles at »ach end. Round this a rope is given two or three turns, and a bucket is fastened to each,end. It is worked by seven or eight men turning the handle.