SCIENCE AND INVENTIONS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 9, 4 February 1909, Page 4

SCIENCE AND INVENTIONS

CRADLE ROCKED JiY ELECTRICITY. An engineer in Chicago had some lively experience in home life. He married n lady graduate in medicine, and later he found l-liat when his wife was 011 her rounds tile care of the baby devolved upou him. Finding this work interfering with liis own professional labours, the engineer produced an apparatus for roccradle by electricity. Jle had another switch connected with the phonograph, which as soon as the cradle was set ill motion, played >oine lullaby, a favorite of the little one, and also .sent him to sleep. The engineer has also constructed an electric apparatus which gives the little recipient its milk at intervals.

NEW USE OF ELECTRICITY. Printed sheets as delivered from the press i'rc(|iiently " oilset" or Mucarcd from undried ink. Aji electrical method of preventing this has recently iicen patented. Tin- sheets as they leave the press lirsl pass over electric heaters and also over a conductor carrying a current of very high tension, iroiu which a silent discharge or "leakage" of electricity passes to the paper. The combined effects of the heal and of the electrical discharge, together with the chemical action of the ozone generated in the air by the bitter, "set 1 ' the ink so (hat it cannot smear. Reside this, the ell'cet of any frictimial electricity already present oil the sheets, preventing their piling properly, is neutralised by the discharge.

INOCULATING THE SOIL Ercsh information ns to the experiments he is carrying out in inoculating soil with plant, nourishing bacteria was given by Professor \Y\ R. Itottomley in lecturing before the Uoyal Rotunic Society of London. Unions watered with the bacteria culture, said the professor, showed an increase ol' JW) per cent, in weight over those which had not been treated . A patch of oals watered with the culture produced a much liner crop than a patch not watered. " i won't sav delinitely," remarked the professor, " that inoculation is possible with every kind of plant, hut f do believe that we shall 1)0 able to say so soon, and that the experiment up to date justify that anticipation." COURSE OF A HAILSTORM.

A hailstorm followed the eoiir>e of an electric transmission line in Vanclnsc, ]-'ra;ice, last June. As reported by an observer, this storm swept over an area about a mile and a quarter wide and nine miles long. The storm started to follow ij narrow valley in the side of the mountain chain, but on meeting the <deciric line, rail on the edges of tjie storm's path. Another observer reports that three balls of globe lightning appeared near the cables at or.'c poinr, bursting just before the hail fell. There seems to be 110 doubt that the line conducted the storm, but probably the presence of the electric current had nothing to do with it. Kiirther observalions on electric storms in the same locality may throw light 011 the occurrence, WIND PliKSSl'ltES.

In studying the pressure of the wind on the huge forth Bridge, nearly a. ipiartcr of a century ago, Maker, the great English engineer, discovered that the pressure on long surfaces was relatively less than on small ones. This lias remained unexplained until the recent experiments of T. E. Stanton at the National Physical Laboratory in England. Stanton finds that when the wind blows against any large obstacle its intensity is unevenly distributed, and that the low pressure on large surfaces is due to what may he culled tile "structure" of the wind, whose gusts are more elfccfivc on small areas llian 011 large ones. Owing to this "gustiness" of the wind, tests made in laboratories with steady artilicial " wind" in a laboratory test. Tile experiment on which Stanton relies for his conclusions were made on flat surfaces. ranging up to 100 sipiare feel, exposed to actual winds in open air.

HEAItT STITCHED VP. The surgeons at Leeds Intiriuary la -1 month carried out a remarkable operation oil a Leeds butcher, who was accidentally stabbed in the course of his business. The man wag removed to the institution in a collapsed state. The wound seems lo have been a severe one. (the will of the heart being punctured, An operation was instantly performed and Ihe lesion of the heart sucecssl'ullv stitched up. For the moment at ail events, as the result of this prompt surgical treatment,the mail's lite is saved. The carrying out of such remarkable operations as that of stiltaltig up Hie heart is of comparatively recent practice, and has only been rendered possible by Ihe high state uf ellieicncy ill modern surgical work. During Ihe past two or three years eases simitar to the one mentioned above have been dealt with successfully. In one extraordinary insl.ititer, where a mini's life Has absolutely despaired of some time ago, as tile result of a serious stab puncturing the heart, the operation; wits perlDi'uicd as a forlorn hope, and the man cventuallv recovered under skilful treatment. For some considerable time atterwai'ils he was walking about and performing liis duties, apparently as well as ever.