NEWS BY MAIL.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 December 1923, Page 4

NEWS BY MAIL.

POPPIES IN THE MOON. LONDON, at. 25. A very rare German account of the notorious moon-hoax of 1836 has conic into lhu possession of Messrs Henry Sothcnin, booksellers, of Pice i Lily i in' tho Strain!. It was printed in Hamburg in the same year. The perpetrator was Joseph Nicolas Nicollet, librarian and secretary of the Paris Observatory, who in 1881. being involved in heavy Stock Exert age losses, went to the Fnir.-d Stales and there published the story in tho New Yolk Sun. partly to obtain money and partly to entrap bis enemy, Ai. Arago, the astronomer, into believing it. TIE account purported 6) relate the astronomical discoveries oL Sir John Hersehel during his Sotr.li A,/' can exj edition, and gave a graphic account of the marvels in the moon d'Scovered by the English astr r.i e r r, m eluding mountain ranges, buildings, animals in motion, the ape-like lunai inhabitants, and even flov.'Ol -. to in', extent of a rod poppy. The public on both sides or the nilantic appear to have swallowed the story whole—at least tor a time. ELUSIVE GERAIS. LONDON. Nov. 5. In the research work now being earrvd ~nt in many countries to discover the germs of measles and scarlet- fever a number of experiments have been made on human beings. Or T.ikabas’ut. of Tokio. injected live ot PE own children with a very small quantity of the blood ol a scarlet lever patient. There v, a no reaction, not even iiillamuiati ui of the skin in the area of injection. Later on he tried to infect the children bv giving a large dose ol the scarlatinal patient’s blood and by other means but lailed to cause tho disease, showing that Hie first small' injection conferred immunity as does vaccination to smallpox. Other workers have made similar experiments, and l’rolessor G. Cantina ami Dr AE B. Rinduiii claim to have conferred immunity by vaccinating children witli killed cultures ot a miorolio first disoovered lev Dr Alervyn Gordon of SI. Bartholomew’s Hospital. Similar experiments have been made in the ease of measles, and. although the evidence i> lint, decisive, baeleriolegists are on life track of the germs ot both diseases, which have hitherto eluded every effort !<« find them. ‘■Evidence is accumulating from different parts of the world,” says the p'r.e-h Medical Journal, "in favour of the view that a particular typo of haemolytic ; blood-disintegrating) st repluroeeus may be tin* casual ageui in scarlet lever.” MOTOR-CAR AY ITT 'OUT (.KARS. CONTROLLED BY A SAY ITCH. LONDON, Ooctnber ML A ear which ii is claimed will rovolui ionise motoring throughout London for demoiistrai ion at the British .Empire Exhibition a Wembley Park next April. 11l i he lii'si place i be ear-- a three.sealer coupe—- v. ill eo-l only 109 •'iiiu-S.-eoudly. lL will have one cylinder, but neither clutch nor gears. Ji will be controlled by a three-way switch fixed on the dashhoaitl. an ordinal-.- stealing wheel, and an accelerator. Finally, ii "ill. it is claimed, climb and travel better than any existing it i-. the invention ol Mr George Constantinesco—or rather the mechanism which takes the place ol the geai'-hox and renders more than one cylinder superfluous for a ear of ordinary size is his invenloii. It wn Mr Consiautineseo who made it p., -i11]..-, I,y the invention of an in-U-t niieer gear, for a machine gun, rottnil.- per minute, to shoot through iho Hying blades of an aeroplane propeller without damaging it. He calls bis new invention, on which he has been at work for more than 18 month.-., a converter, and yesterday alTcrnnun he demonstrated hi- claims to a repot'ler by means of a. working model. Stripped of technical lernis, Ha* invent ion is one which conveys the power of the engine to the road wheel in such a way that the intervention of gears is not necessary, no matter what the gradient may he. It works Hindi on I lie principle of (he railway locomotive, in which increasing steam pressure to move heavy loads nr advance speed is con veyed to the cylinders by the movement on a level. Tn the case of the

converter this is done by foot pressure on the accelerator.

The three-way switch on the dashboard is to send the machine forward backward, or place the engine in neutral.

Mr Consiautineseo has tried the converter on a road model with remarkable success. Fitted to a 10-li.p. car of pre-war date, it ended up by toiving a four-toil lorry which had accompanied tho car to tow it home Jn case of a breakdown.