SCIENCE NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 353, 2 April 1910, Page 10

SCIENCE NOTES.

. TELESCOPE TERCENTENARY. This year is being celebrated the tercentenary of the first employment the telescope and of astronomical, discovery, not of observation—for Tycho ilrabe, the greatst master of that art, had been dead five years when Galileo made his telescope—but of discovery made possible by the power of gathering light and producing an enlarged image. From an article in the Edinburgh Review we learn that the greatest lens at present in use is the 40in at the Yerkes Observatory of the University of Chicago; the greatest mirror the 09 : n at the Carnegie Institution's Observatory on Mount Wilson. Each is perhaps thirty times as great in diameter as the first of its kind. It is curious to note that all the greatest advances in the construction of reflecting telescopes have been made by amateurs; most of the great advances in refracting telescopes have been due to professional glass makers and opticians.

ELECTRICAL ECONOMIES. Electricians dream that in addition to its other uses electricity will be harnessed to most of the operations that go on in the home. It is now applied to half a hundred such purposes. New York leads all cities in this movement. More families in New York now do all their cooking Iby electricity than in einy other city. At least a hundred families do all their cooking by electricity, and there are twelve homes in which all the work—sewing, washing, ironing, sweeping and cooking—is done just by pushing buttons.

The electric kitchen of 1910 is a table with a row of kaobs at the back. These knobs are for the wire connections. Each utensil has a heater in the bottom. The cook, to set it going, plugs the short wire attached to the stewpan, or whatever it is, into a socket in the back of the table just as a telephone girl makes a connection, and the pan heats up at once. A new electric range has just been developed in New York. This looks like an ordinary range. It has pads on the top that are heated red hot by electricity. The cooking is done in ordinary utensils set on the tops of these pads. The new electric range has an oven, also what is known as a quick oven, for pies and similar things. Besides its use in washing, ironing and cooking, for sweeping and for running the sewing machine and the pianola, electricity will be applied to many other devices in the electrical house of 1010. The electric razor is one of the most reeent innovations. Several are in use in New York. It is Ibuilt om the principle of the lawn mower. It has several blades that turn at the rate of several thousand revolutions per minute. You connect it with an electric light globe socket, and mow your face. The electric shaving mag is more familiar. It heats the water in the mug. Of course, it will just as well heat water for a nice hot drink. Electric toilet articles are numerous already. Electric massage jiggers are well known. Almost every barber's shop has one. A ,similar-looking machine is now made for women. It contains small fans that revolve rapidly, and blow a blast of hot or cold air for drying the hair.

Electric heaters have been in use for a long time. The head of a family residing in an electrical house in New York pushes a button that closes the bedroom window before he gets out of bed in the morning. He pushes another button, and that turns on the electric heater. Before he is out of" his bath the water is hot in his electric shaving mug. and a turn of the button sets his electric razor humming. His breakfast is prepared on the electric range, with the bread toasted on an electric toaster on the table. When he has finished, he takes his electric motor or an electric train, to his office down town. After he has departed and the breakfast is out of the way, the house is swept and cleaned by the electrical devices, the linen is washed and ironed, and all the other work is completed with the aid of electricity. When the head of the family returns for dinner at seven o'clock the meal has been cooked by electricity, and is ready to serve.

WHY ZERO?

The word "zero" is of Spanish origin, I and means "empty"—hence, nothing. It was first applied to the thermometer in | 1795 by the celebrated Prussian chemist; Fahrenheit. By experimenting with | snow and salt Fahrenheit found that he' could produce a degree of cold equal to \ that of the coldest winter day. It happened that the day on which he made his final experiment was the coldest that' anybody could remember, and, struck I with! the coincidence of his scientific dis- j covery, he hastily concluded that he had i found the lowest degree of temperature \ either natural or artificial. He called the degree "zero," and constructed a J thermometer graduating up from zero to boiling point, which he numbered 212, and the freezing point 33. , I

TYPEWRITING BY TELEPHONE,

The invention of a novel typewriting machine by M. S. Gerebotani, which enables messages to be typed over the telephone line, was recently demonstrated to the Minister of Posts and Telegraphs in Paris. The new instrument, which in appearance is similar to a typewriter, enables a person telephoning to transmit a typed message, should the person to whom he is telephoning Ibe away.

FIRST-AID IN A CIGARETTE CASE. A remarkable little first-aid outfit has been prepared in Paris for the use of aviators. It may almost be described as a surgery in a cigarette case, for the wHoIe equipment can be carried in the waistcoat pocket. The case is made of alluminium. The contents are skilfully aranged so as to be instantly available, and provide, and provide first aid requisites for the treatment of burns, contusions, and cuts.

Mills for spinning yarn from paper exist in German and France, and anotller is being established in Southern Sweden. The paper yarn seems to be especially adapted for rugs and carpets. .Carpets from unspun paper tape are being made already in Sweden, and Consul-Gcneral E. D. Winslow reports that this homewomen product is apparently very satisfactory.

A human hair of average thickness can support a load of 6 x Aoz. and the average numbers of hairs on the head is about thirtv thousand. A woman's hair has a. total tensile strength of more than five tons, and this strength can be increased one-third by twisting the hair.