SCIENCE NOTES

Otago Witness, Issue 2811, 29 January 1908, Page 76

SCIENCE NOTES

— The curious phenomena of alloys are jnly beginning to be known. Seeking an ' «|k>y- that would' give an iron interior with -\- i l bronze veneer— a * thing tfiat proved to . "•''be'nbt tft'alT- impossible or impracticable— "" j atr'-C.- Vickei-8 made a series of ' experi-■'-'VnentS,- iin the course of which iron was * jaSe?ted in a •crucible .and alloyed with aluminium. It was desired to karn the ' -effect of adding a small percentage of -zinc. ''■*&'- 2oz' bit 'was ''catitioiusly tossed upon -thefi ■A'olten mas9}-when, after a few .seconds, ft . series ot mutfled explosions ensued,^ andiAha^ mixture .in 1 " the crucft^e jwas^slrot upwards io«a»d^lhe rool"of" the shtfp,- giving -a. beau- **> lit&V pyrotechnic display", th« iron -produc- "• ing etare, the zino yielding -dazzling blue lights, while flakes of molten metal" glowed ' between. 'This, continued until- the. --cjucible '■? r 'w&s- emptied: . »' '-' v . " - - ■ — Tha-t' -no 5 * one* has ieven- .-Been'- the-«su.n is-. a"coM 6cientific .fa«t, "and the" reason -s this: What we see shining in the sky is "~ the sun's atmosphere, a glowing mass of blazing gases which surrounds the: 6un itsejf to a depth of thousands of miles. What is 1 inside "these" blazing -envelopes we do not. Imow ; the most learned astronomers canonly tell us that there is a nucleus which is infinitely hotter than- the Eercest of fiery Jurnaeeß, and that it occupies about nmetenths of the total mass which we see. •' So when you look at the sun you see only the gases and the flames that envelop him. It is not impossible to express the marvellous ' power of the sun's heat, but it is impossible to comprehend it. The heat emitted by the • sun in each second, is equal to that which would result from the combustion of eleven quadrillions six hundred thousand milliards of tons of coal burning at the same time. — That the- use of perfumes has warded off much infection and many diseases goes without saying, and the potency of perfume has been recognised from the • Dark Ages. -The aesthetic power of perfume and its in- j fiuence can no more be gauged than the effect that music, sculpture, and painting have upon our being. We associate some of the loveliest women of present and past times with certain odours. Aloe, cinnamon, sandal wood, camphor, nutmeg, and cloves are employed as a foundation by the perfumera, and all are excellent from a sanhary point of view ac preventives of disease; hence we see that the use of perfume has a more important side even than that of pleasing our noses and" sense of eme'l. That f&e scents of plants antieeptio is proved by the fact that in several - of our cholera epidemics none who were employe j in the manufacture of perfumes fell a victim. They recognise this 1 use' of ; perfume? in ihe -East, .sprinkling 1 the:-r.j guests' with roß.e water^or something of the j kind, on their arrival. ' " ! — Experiments being made with cassava, J undsr the direction of the U.S. Department ] of Agriculture^ show it to be one « the best afcoTiol-pToducing plants, a , top Of Tre-root-etock yifeldmc .Kgail ot alcohol.- The j plant ;s; s easily and cheaply grown, and the ! • yield is very large, soil of average quality - yielding- 10 ' tons to the acre. SSSf 'froth : -35 ' to 40 cents a -gallon, -the gross profit would therefore be from 35d0l to 40do] an acre. This profit is greater than that derived frond the alcohol potato .raised so" abundantly in Germany, and_ Russia. ' !' ~* j — The result ol 1&e •experiments 'whidi J have been quietly carried on for- s6ms months wi the feeding , the kerpienis in ,| the- reptile house 'at liie '■; lidndon Zoological " Gardens ~; knock the ■' head out of the delusion that serpents fcould ' , not take dead animals .«.« food. Mr R, T. Pocock, the superintendent of the Gardens, announced at a meeting of the Zoological -Society Tield recently thai this belief lias been jfotuideii on no- i thing more than tradition, since Tie had femself been feeding _ifche «erpenrfe in the ' society's menagerie during the post six months on dead rabbits, pigeone, fowls, and - «£e.ts, all of which were' eajen with avidity, i >%c great pythons, which Ti&ve always -befen 'led at all zoological gardens at batne^Jand •.broad _on live aoats ' and rabbits, have , shown their" readiness to tttke t"he same *niir»ls In a dead condition. ' ■— Ifittle attention has been paid to' the physiological effects of odours", «,nd ►*. Gerxt»n physician enters a new field' in his ' fßoirk -confirming »a pop.ulaT ' belief that stroßff perfumes have an intoxicating and benumomg action. His "were ' iande lay p_lacingr frocs under -glass bells with sponges saturatoa with the 'essences. As in poisoning, a brief- •excitejnent is followed by • partial or complete jparalyds, and the many odours -triea •eemed to differ only in rapidity of action. 'Musk W« tme of the slowest. Can^phoa-, , ]p«!ppeTinint, lavender, and cloves were slow, mkuQ nWehyde, turpentine, elder flowers, yeang-yeang, asafcetida, carbon disulphide, mustß/rd, wnd nicotine were ra?pi3 and -energetic Instantaneous action was .noted in . tsoinfe cases. Jumping aSout- a moment or '■two -5n a. lively way, 'the frosf would *cry soon stop, close his eyes and rub hia tacee,* •wldle, 'brea'Hhinft and .n'eaTt «ction Tiecame slow, and he freely perepired. ConKanued- a little longer, the odour caused coHvobrro "breathing, rolling of the" eyes," and gradual stoppage of the heart. — Arctto is as faseinatinp to- - Say ac in ihe,<J»js of Probisher <*r Hudson. TChe Pole itself fiill pwaserveß its secret, and tSe lure of iame tempts many .-men to endeavour to solve it. Several of the suegeeted trtetbole of progression show the wide change of plan since,. the days when' ■whaling shipß endeavoured to force the 5*5 * blunt bows through fhe ice. An expedition Js projected in which dog-sleds *?ill . be superseded by an amphibious automobile ' Doat, designed to • travel either -on Itfnd or water. Mr Wellmann- still expects -bo achieve succes* through his baloon ; and Captain Amundse.i proposes to utilise a, team of polarjbears. In addition to, these, Dr Oook. at Etah, is aw^Jtingr n fevourable rjioment for 4 rfeah -northward. Hobert E. J^cary and JL T- Baldwin. both expect to gwsrt Again | and similar word 'comes iron-; C«pt*jri Joseph "E. ißernier .of Jt3ie Oanadian ! ?iis>lorinff expeditkm, who is at present- reHsniajr trom-A journej' In the.^Par STorffa. , ~- A Milanese .engineer named Oominada J\to iplauneo » c&jial, to extend from. Genoa , JSsiJy) to "Lake 'Constance, (between Switrer\X\nd, Germsixry, ivA Austria), and -crossing Q)e Ajipeniiine Alps. The proposed iana.l K^ould edmit vessels of 600 tpns, and ' 161 ' ?wlee of th» existing waterways could be tttftised th© 366 miles reatifred, leaTinjr 205 Tniles Jor construouon^-a vC«t undertaking' indeed. One -of tbe VDsatesb ca-nale t.pon the continent cf feuropft was completed as early as 1681. V?hls is the Lauguedoc Canal, designed by piquet to connect the Atlantic with tl>a

Mediterranean. It is 148 Tniles in length," rises 600 ft, and has over 100 locks and 50 aqueducts. It was not until nearly a century later that Ihe great engineer James Brindley, working' with the Duke of Bridgewater, feirly started the making' of navigable canals in England, with the Bridgewater Canal, from Worsley to Salford; iif Lancashire. To Dutch and to" Italian eh -grneers belongs tha-'credit of the"introducrion of the 2ock in canal construction: ' .- ; ■ — When Sbfaiiklra' drew 1 fa/spark from t&err heavens "he had'no ; omeans -ttt" measuring* the' force- with' which he was "'dealings cMeaStlre^'byr. hojae-pbwery the energy or a listhtning.-' flash 'is .tremendous. ;;-We,.are '^telling; trees. - rir> jtlifowiq^ 'down stone, walls,- setting. ifire to buiMings," fusing metals, anc} killing man and beast. But how seldom do we ttrnk o^ the irresistible ' power that lies behind "effeefe like' theae. >Tlie- ordinary electric. spark 1 of'-tb* laboratory, -produc«d' from a Lovd©n-jsr and- controlled- and directed ,tr „,a; certain- way, is equal to one-fifteenth of a horse-power, though ;ihe spark itself is no more than 2in long. What must be the power of a lightning flash hundreds of feet, or perfaps sev4ral miles, long? Its power h - so 'enormous <:Dat it can hold up a 40 iioreo-nov/e* 'Jetesm" engines-driving a? jbig_ -dynamo, for lie eleobrio light; The incan--descont - lamps blink at each discharge though is occurs a mile away— the distance) being measured by the integral between the blink and th« thunder pea*. The lamps, :na,y be almost extinguished when the discharge occurs within 1000 ft. There is a common supposition, exp'ains a writer in a London paper, that the thousands of electric circuits in our cities and their network of wires have diminished thunderstorms. Of this there is no proof. The multiplication of wires can never banish lightning. To a- certain extent -they . may he a safcguaid, only in so far as they lessen its power by distributing it, and offering it by «o many paths a quicker passage to ' the «rirth. | —It is said that some of the Hindoos ; are -a low type because they go naked and ! make no use of fire. They may wear no 1 clothes because the climate so inclines them, and use no fire because it is too mucn ' touble. Both *re logical motives involving reasoning powers. The Hottentot used ! to be thought the limit in stupidity, but . the few remaining seem less lacking in intellect than in strength and military skill. Then the Australian aboriginal was put at the- bottom of the class. The settlers who i lightly' engaged in his extermination said he couki not count, as if that justified the slaughter. Mark Twain tells a story of nn • aboriginal burning off his own ailing leg by way of rude surgery. Now boys o| the ! tribe go to school, and ate called fairly ] farigKt. ■ If their' fathers did hot count they I wea<& at least marvellous trackers, and m j the boomerang tliey evolved a weapon and i » skill in its use wliich still puzzle the white i man. Later the Ainu of Japan was nomi;,nafced f for $h.e,. honours 4n dfensenese, .chiefly' '. beeaase he has~"tt»oeh nair on his body, which suggests monkey ancestry. But the < Ainus are of fair size, have good heads,, ': and- maSe.. intelligent, soldiers against Russia. So-Tailed civilised matt is too much inclined to call Thrown and black races stupid "beoause -are merely different from himBelf. An Ainu eats putrid whale, a gourI'lrifet" putrid' cheese. A Hottentot ' eats > { locusts, a Digger Indian grubsj a London, coster eats shrimps. It is a matter of taste. ' i Perhaps as good a test of Kafßarism as any 1- is,' 'Cannibalism. No .race "has ever been ' educated out of, it- without Tjeing ashamed of its past' Tecortl in that respect. Yet • many oannibalistic tribes— those of the [ Soutih Sea Islands, for instance, who knew human food^^ohg-W'-^were of good ■ physical .development and -mental abihty. . , The^teobysPme should be^ieserve.d- _for individuals," not^ 1 lavished" on '«ny race 'or na*|'"±ion. -_ . — & 1