SCIENCE NOTES.
! — A Pittsburg doctor has, it is stated, , prescribed variously coloured foods for a, patient who is losing his sense of taste. The doctor asserts that certain colour's produce in the brain sensations resembling those conveyed through the medium of the palate, and that it will thus be possible to make the eye supersede the. tongue. — Trees 'keep air pure, because their leaves decompose carbonic acid. The volume of the carbonic exhaled by a human being in 24 -hours is roughly estimated at 100 gallons. If a" single' tree of "moderate -stee^'werfe' growing • where v do«en, or even as .many as 20/ mes". were 'sleeping;': the purifying action of its leaves .would ensure that the air was kept quite fresh. — It is announced that a French inventor has discovered a cheap and easy process by means of thread similar in texture to cotton" or linen, and possessing great 'strength, can be 1 manufactured from paper. No details of the methbd of production are vouchsafed, but the thread is staled to be suitable for a variety of purposes, such as dre^ materials for ladies' costumes, being impervious to damp, and non-inflammable. It can also be used for the manufacture of bags, towels, hats, and so forth. It <s claimed that the thread can be made at a coet of 90 per cent, below that of linen, and some 60 per cent, less than that o* cotton.
— Following the statement made by Sir William Ramsay that a solution of copper sulphate in distilled water shows in the spectroscope the characteristic red line of lithium whei placed in contact with the emanation from radium, comes the report that the German chemist Dr Theodore Grosse has succeeded in breaking up the element platinum. He for a number of hours subjected potassium carbonate, maintained at a high temperature in a platinum vesse' to tho action of an alternating current between platinum electrodes. After home time the electrodes became coated With ft deposit of charcoal-coloured crystals, and gave evidence of having been attacked, both the electrodes and the containing vessel losing weight. On extracting the melt, a brown powder, free from carbon or potassium, was obtained. Although both the crystals and the uowder gave solutions from which they v/ere precipitated by hydrogen sulphide. ' u he presence of platinum could not be detected.
— The object of the International Association of Seismology is the promotion and encouragement, of th ( j study of earthquakes, and one of th© principal means of attaining this is the publication of catalogues of large and small seismic disturbances for the use of students. The practical value^of the study of earthquakes has been shown m that country of earthquakes, Japan. From a careful and' detailed investigation they have learnt in that country to build earth-quake-proof chimneys, hotels, and other edifices. The theoretical value of the study, again; ia indicated by a. paper read by Professor Wiechert, in which it was shown how seismological records could be used in the investigation of the physical properties of th© earth. Seismology thus becomes an ertremely important adjunct to geology, in which "science it may perhaps be said to have had its birth.
— A brilliant and powerful beacon is to be attached to the tower of the new Lakawanna station at Hoboken, New Jersey, and will rate as no leas than a million and a-half candle-power. The most striking feature of thfe exterior lighting, and one which will make this tower the most conspicuous object at night on the entire North River water front, wi 1 be a cluster of 49 flaming aro limps, which will be arranged in eerips within a single globe 6ft in diameter, each arc consuming 16 *mperes at 2300 volts. It is estimated that a candle-power of 1.500,000 will be reached. This will unquestionably b« the most powerful light ever produced from a single fixture. The globe will be suspended from the upper part of the tower. Besides being the most impressive spectacle, this experiment will prove of no little commercial value in demonstrating the possibility of lighting large open spaces ■with exceedingly hich candle-power units placed at a proportionately great distance abovi) the illuminated surface.
— Sir Oliver Lodge, whose knowledge of science is so varied, has uttered another pronouncement on the immortality of the soul He says first that the simple important truth to be kept in sight is the commonplace fact that there is nothing irnu^tal or persistent about the body except the material atoms of which it is composed. He dismisses utterly the notion that these atoms will some day be gathered and re-, united so as to constitute a complete man as he appeared on the earth, and who, therefore, will last for ever. Sir Oliver says that nobody knows what the soul is. but that conrmon sense rebels against^ it being nothing and that no genuine science has assume -i to declare it a purely '"maginar* nonentity. He holds it must be acknowledged by f=cienee that no really existing thing perishes j it only changes form. As this has been shown clearly in the case of. mattei and energy, it must also be true of mind consciousness, will, memory, love, and other activities which interact with matter and appeal to the bodily senses. These facts of th<» individual human consciousness, he | says, cannot be regarded as nothing, and '. they will never, vanish into nothingness. They did arise with us. They never sprang suddenly into being from previous nonexistencV. They are eternal and will in eternal being endure for ever. — Electrical engineers foresee at least one more stage in the evolution of Atlantic lineus. The steaii turbine is most efficient iat high speed, while the propeller slips without doing full work when driven be [ yond * comparatively slow rate, and gearing "down is impracticable with the groat horsepower of large vessels. With turbines like those of the Lusitania. made large for a rat© of only 180 revolutions per minute, much steam* reaches the condensers without giving up its full energy.. A suggestion that is being worked out already is the use of turbinei to drive electrical generators, which would propel the vessel through electric motors, and it is believed that the gain in employing high-speed turbines would more than balance the loss in transforming mechanical energy into electricity and -back again. The rearrangement of machinery would leave mone room for cargo. It is predicted that the coming fa3t passenger ship may be given a speed of 30 knots an hour by six. turbo-generators of 20,0G0 horse-power each, one to be used only m case of breakdown, with four propeller", each having six motors of 5000 horsp power, one to be kept in reserve '"or Instanr «<se in -wrgenoy The motors eouH be reversed aln o*t instantaneously, ■whilf the -aviaatinj' office would control
the vcsse' diiect from the bridge instead of through signals to the engineers. — Comets are the bulkiest members of the solar system ; but so far as we know, writes a scientific contributor, they are also probably the least massive. This has been proved in many cases by the fact that when^ a congest has oassed very near a planet it si attraction has not been g?e,^t enough to in>t; flucnoe the planet's motion to any appreciable degree. While the r action of tbo2 placet on the comet may have altered thajj period of the lattel- by several weeks; the? planet's own period has not been changed^ by so much as- a single second ; and ' this-" proves that the planet's mass must -havjg. been, at least 100,000 times as great as. thef comet.'s. "We have, therefore, in % comet?? a. quantity, of mat3rial very jnuch less, ihaiy,enough to make planet, spread tKrougite a volumi* far greater than the planet oc»% cupies. It is therefore clear that it muS^ consist either of gases of small density or: of solid partioles, separated by empty spaces^ much larger than themselves. It is prob^, able that both these hypothesis are correct, for the spectra, of corr.ets enow that partf; of thou* light is reflected sunlight,, such »a^ solid bodies would send us, and part comes*; from luminous gas — hydro-carbons — giving^ a series of bright bands identical 'with those*. 5 shown by the light from the base of a> candle flame or a Bunsen burner. W-e 'may therefore regard a comet as a swarm ofr loo&e particles, carrying- with them more or less gas, which move together throughempty space simply because there is no . force acting to pull them apart strong enough to overbalance their own very feeble gravitation. Professor G. Poe, of South Norfolk, "Vir.^ ginia — a relative, by the way, of Edgar* Allan Poe' — has been experimenting for more than 30 years on the resuscitation of the victims of asphyxia and the like. Ho began by restoring life to a rat which was to all appearance dead, by filling its lungs with oxygen. The usual method by means of artificial respiration in many cases does not succeed because it is hardly energetic enough to restore the lungs and the heart' to their normal activity. Moreover, it demands a vast store of patience on the part of the operator, and great physical effort, continued, perhaps, for hours. If unsuccessful the mind of the operator must ever be haunted by the feeling that perhaps if his efforts had been more energetic and more prolonged they might have been crowned with success. Dr Gradenkitz has described some striking experiments ' made before an assembly of medical and' scientific men with Professor Poe's patent. To a rabbit were administered 0.13 grammes of morphine and 113.4 grammes of ether, and the usual tests, went to show beyond a doubt that the animal was really dead. The apparatus was applied, and after the lapse of three minutes the patient began to breathe naturally, and in six minutes it • was hopping about the room. There were no signs of nausea, so that the whole of the ether must have been extracted from the body of the rabbit. A dog was next exposed to acetylene gas for 40 minutes, and in its turn was restored to life after a very short time. Since then apparatus has been employed 1 with success upon humaft beings, If the incidents related be true, comments the Westminster Gazette, we may look forward' to having the Foe oxygen cylinders installed as part of the equipment of ev§ry police station. "' For 'it is said* -tha-*; by its timely aid a man who is dead ; drunk can be made sober in & few minutes. Death by cold being a particular form of death by asphyxia, ,the Poe patent will be found a necessary part of the outfit of ex-" plorers in icy climes. The gynecologist will find it of use in cases where new-born, children are slowly dying of asphyxia owing to *he weakness of their respiratory organs. Professor Poe seems to Have the inventive turn of mind largely developed. He is sai<i to have discovered a synthetic process for preparing alcohol From crushed' marble, «nd was the first in America to prepare peroxide of hydrogen as a commercial product.
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Otago Witness, Issue 2814, 19 February 1908, Page 76
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1,851SCIENCE NOTES. Otago Witness, Issue 2814, 19 February 1908, Page 76
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