General News

Horowhenua Chronicle, 15 April 1915, Page 3

General News

« ■J.lie famous Gnome rotary gasolim motor is to be made in Great Britaiu during the war by the Daimlei Company at Coventry. The Daimler product is rated at SO horse-power, and is to be used in aeronautical work. **•••*• It has been calculated by a bo tan.si that one seed of cotton, given the application of all possible care and skill would produce 80,000,000.000 seeds in six years, and he gives an actual eafic of the production of 11,000 bushels of seed of a pure strain of wheat from a .single grain in five years, without exorcise of any special care. ****#•# An ingenious method o! extinguishing a candle when it burns down to a certain point is worked as follows: Tie a string round the candle at the desired point, then take the string through the usual loop .support or ring at the base of the candlestick then pass it up to a pair of pulleys on ceiling or wall, bring down the erid of the cold just above the [audio riiif] lie on n light extinguisher which th'i.s hangs over the candle. Nans or books can be used instead of pulleys f"r, iV coiil. When the candle burns do fri to the string, this is detached and lets tin extinguisher drop upon 'he cnjdle. The device should, of eouific, hi tried to make sure that the cord work* .-(isily in the different supports. »««»•«• According to a story in Power a state dinner was to be given in r, castle in Germany in which there ivas no heatin-.' .system, but a.s this mediaeval condition could not be tolerated in modern times for the dinner was a function of recent occurrence, the engineers were asked to heat the building for the occasion; but it was specified that no portion of the heating /system was to lie visible m the room. The result was .accomplished bv means of stored beat. For a number of days previous to the dinner the floor of the dining room was covered with steam pipes and these pipes were kept hot by means of a temporary toiler. The day before the dinner all the pipes were removed and the stored heat in the walls maintained the room iu a perfectly comfortable condition for a number of days, although the outside temperature was well below the freezing point.. *««**#« Mucli money is lost annually by private motorists and by dealers in rubber tubes to become hard and brittle ties, because of the tendency of the rubber tubes to become hard and brittle after a few months of storage. To fold up tubes, cover them with chalk and put them in pasteboard boxes is only a makeshift. They will lose their resiliency after a while. A German rubber manufacturer not long ago furnished to all bis dealers instructions as to now best to care lor inner tubes. According to these, the best way to preserve tubes is to blow them up to the pressure in an ordinary rubber ball; to hang tlieni upon one or two fairly thick round polts. stretched horizontally, in a dark cued room, iu which a dish of unslaked lime ami one of ammonia solution are placed in the corners of the floor. This arrangement keeps the nir free of destructive acids and retard the process ot vulcanisation wliich goes on in the tubes. • »»»»«# The efficiency of the German mi lit try motor transport service, in whicli substitutes for gasoline, such as benzole and alcohol, are very extensively employed, is gradually forcing the attention of engineers and investigators to the fuel question, and calling attention - to the very material advance that Germany lia.s made in this direction. In America, when cheaper fuel is mentioned to an automobile maker or dealer the reply too often is that the price ol gasoline has not gone up. consequently there is no necessity for. worry. Hut how long will this condition last? And in the meantime why should motorists pay twice what thev should for fuel? Too many people in the automobile business are so unwise as to persist in regarding their product as a luxury, in regard to which no one should consider the question of expense: but some of the wise business men in the trade are quietly pressing forward their preparations for meeting tile new conditions that are sure" to come. • •»»*»» -Making paper from wood, the .liscovery of Dr Hill, of Augusta, Maine, is one of the world's most inportant industries. It has revolutionised the paper trade and made it possible for a great newspaper to be sold at a halfpenny. An old hornet's nest caused Dr Hill to make the discovery. His friend and neighbor. James G. Blaine, had told him that there was not enough cotton and rags in the world to supply the newspapers and other publications with their raw material. That was about forty yea re nun. when paper was very dear. Dr Hill took a hornet's .lest to the superintendent of a nearby pa per factory and asked him: "Why can't you make paper like that?" Tliev sat down together, took the nest apart, analysed it carefully, and decided that if a hornet could make paper out of wood, man ought to be able to do as much. The doctor discovered that the hornet first clien ed the wood into a fine pulp. They decided to make machinery and water do what the hornet's mouth did. Such was the beginning oP the wood pulp industry. Now the logs are floated down the river to a pulp mill. Tn an amazingly short time each log coulee out in a great sheet of pulp ready to be sent to the paper mill. Oft

The troopers in camp at the racecourse are satisfied that Major Samuels, officer in charge, was right, when he told a meeting of the citizens entertainment committee that the men find como here for work, .Reveille is sounued at G a.m. and from then till 7.30 the muii are busy attending to the horses and other camp duties. Half an hour is allowed for breakfast and from 8 o'clock to 11.30 is spent in drilling, then another half-hour attending to the horse lines and dinner at 12 o'clock. The afternoon from 1 o'clock till 4.30 is devoted to further drill, and after .seeing the horses made right for the night tea ie served at 5 o'clock. The aoovo routine does not allow much time for leisure. Yesterday was spent in troop drill.