SCIENCE NOTES

Hokitika Guardian, 26 November 1925, Page 1

SCIENCE NOTES

(By Science Service, Washington, U.S.A.) THYROID GLAND AND NEW FEATHERS. ‘•DIE again, on again, off again,” says M. Zavadovsld to himself as he harvests crop after crop of new chicken feathers from the hens in his laboratory at Sverdlov University, as a result of feeding them doses ol dried thyroid gland (writes n .Moscow correspondent). In experimenting to study the effect of excessive thyroid in hens, with a view to applying the knowledge gain-

ed in treating human cases, M. Zavadovski observed that chickens moulted artificially two weeks after one strong dose of thyroid was given, and grew new feathers in another two weeks. The new feathers were always white, regardless of the colour of the original plumage. It wats also shown that fowl could withstand large doses of thyroid without symptoms of acute poisoning, and the fact of cumulative action of the thyroid hormone was confirmed for they could endure large doses in one administration hotter than daily small ones. The Quickness with which the fowl lost the old feathers and put on the new depended on the size of the dose. The biggest dose that could be given induced moulting in six days, and brought new white feathers in seventeen. The method of giving single doses enabled the experimenter to obtain a picked chicken in two weeks and one with new plumage in four. The new plumage that grew after experimental moulting was markedly softer than the original, but was not so easily changed hv a second dose of thyroid. When M. Zavadovski grafted a thyroid gland from a dog under tile wing or on some other part of the fowl, white feathers grow at the site of the operation, but moulting did not occu r. 300 POUNDS BOILER PRESSURE. A steam, boiler of revoutionarv design has been produced by a German engineer-inventor, Bernhard Becker, of Nolira, near Weimar. When stripped of its insulation, it is a cubical box only about 18in on a side, but, according to its inventor’s claims, it can produce over 6001 b of steam per hour, and can get up a pressure of 3001 b per square inch in five minutes. Its action depends on the introduction of water, not as a liquid, hut as a spray of almost mistlike fineness. This is injected into an intensely heated coil of jointless tubing, where it is almost instantly converted into high-pressure steam. There is a small steam chamber, hut no water reservoir. The new quick steaming boiler is thought likely to he useful in automobiles and farm motors. NEW SWEDISH RAIL CAR. Carrying its own private waterfall to run itself by a water turbine, a railway ear utilising a new type of power transmission is attracting the attention of Swedish transportation engineers. The prime motive power consists of an internal combustion motor of the usual type, but instead of using gears or electric transmission the motor operates a centrifugal pump, which supplies water under pressure to a turbine directly geared to the driving axle. The speed of the car is governed by the. height of the artificial “head” of water created by the pump. With a motor of 180 horse-power the car has attained a speed of 50 miles per hour. An especial advantage claimed for the new transmission method is freedom from, jerks in start- * ing and stopping. Swedish railroads have already ordered the manufacture of lour motor railroad cars and one diesel locomotive equipped with the new hydraulic drive. ROOT DISEASE IN CANE. Discovery that a small snail causes the root rot disease, which has almost wrecked the sugar growing industry of Louisiana, was announced at WashingInn by Dr E. W. Braudes, plant pathologist of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Hitherto the molluscs, to which order the snails belong, have remained unconvicted as crop criminals. Dr R. D. Rhands, of the office of Sugar Plan! Investigation, however, found that Zonitoides arborons, a snail so tiny that it easily travels through the tunnels made by earthworms, attacks the cane roots. As many as 150 of these little snails have been counted about the roots of a single plant. In their attack they leave minute cavities which are invaded by microorganisms from the soil. These latter complete the injury, and often kill ihe plant. It is estimated that there is a reduction in crop tonnage of at least twenty per cent directly traceable to the subterranean attack made by these snails, whose sweet tooth is literally cutting off the Louisana cane industry at the roots.