SCIENCE NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 215, 9 March 1912, Page 7

SCIENCE NOTES.

HYDRO-ELECTRIC SERVICE. The Ontario Government hydro-electric service has recently established a new world's record for the long-distance tansmission of electricity. A voltage of 15,000-h.p. was successfully scut over wires a total distance of "273 miles. The longest previous record was that of 150 miles, made in California. The test demonstrates the ability of the Power Commission to deliver power from Niagara Falls in all parts of Old Ontario, including Windsor, 242 miles away, and Ottawa, 300 miles away. The Commission is already moving to deliver power in Northern and Eastern Ontario. A number of municipalities in Huron, Grey and Bruce counties are about to vote on the question whether they will take power from the Commission.

AN ISLAND OF IRON. The island of Raasay, which lies about two miles east of Skye, has turned out to be a veritable island of iron. The works carried on for the past six months by Messrs William Baird and Co., Gartsherrie, are now to be largely extended. Large quantities of ore have been shipped to the south for smelting purposes, and 3000 tons have been carted to the old pier for shipment. A railway and a new pier are to be constructed, and 40 workmen's houses are to be built. There is also a probability that the smelting will be done on the spot.

ANOTHER NEW COMET. The Observatory at Nice has discovered another new comet, which was to attain its perihelion in February. This comet, which is the eighth of last year, will be known as Comet 1911 hj., and also as Schaumasse's Comet, after the name of the discoverer. At the time of its discovery the comet was of the twelfth magnitude, so that it is far beyond the limit of naked-eve visibility.

371 TONS OF GOLD. The annual report of the Royal Mint at London gives an account of the enormous operations of this department during the year. No less than 3tl tons of gold were melted during the twelve months, this amount being more than double the average of the 10 years 1899-1908. A large quantity of nickel is melted at the Mint for coinage for East and West Africa. The quantity of gold, silver, bronze arid nickel melted during the year amounted to the prodigious total of 1251 tons, and even then the demand for coinage was so great that 250 tons of bronze blanks had to be purchased from contractors. The total number of coins struck during the year was 158,204,241, the value of these amounting to £28,040.217, which is the highest recofd for the Royal Mint. Some very important changes have been made in the methods of melting the various metals used for coinage. Preliminary experiments on the use of gas and oil, instead of coke, have been in progress since early in 1909, and these experiments have involved the preparation of many designs for furnaces of various sizes, and the testing of a number of burners for obtaining high temperatures, some specially designed, and others of patterns already in use in various trades. Electric furnaces were also experimented with. In the experiments with ordinary town gas a variety of systems were tested, involving the use of gas at ordinary and high pressures, combined with variations in the pressure of the air, and the burner ultimately adopted was the BrayshaW.

REMOVAL OF A LIGHTHOUSE. ■ The somewhat remarkable feat of removing a lighthouse .from one position and depositing it bodily in another was performed at Hartlepool, England, recently . The structure, which is of wood, is 40ft high, surmounted by a fourth order red dioptric light. Recently the old pier, on which it stands, was lengthened, and the task was to move the lighthouse about 30ft on to the new part. The work was accomplished by means of ways, similar to those used in launching a steamer, being laid under the lighthouse. Along these ways the structure was drawn by the use of purchase blocks and tackle, about 20 men hauling on the ropes. So steadily did the lighthouse glide along that even an incandescent gas mantle up aloft remained undamaged. The actual process of removal barely occupied half an hour.

HAIR AND BRAIN POWER. A very momentous question has arisen: "Does a woman's hair reduce her brain power?" Experts are busy disagreeing on the point. The principal of a girls' school says that in every case where the younger girls have had their hair cut short their brains have been rendered more capable of sustained effort. A doctor and a schoolmaster, however, scout the idea, perhaps because they have never had upon the tops of their head a heat-generating mass of hair, intersected with metal instruments, and shell combs. Every woman knows the hot throbbing, distinct from headache, which goes on under the mass of her hair, wherever it placed, while schoolgirls have either a heavy plait involving some strain from the top of the scalp, or a wide spreading mass of hair, which is equally hot. We may yet come to a day when small girls will have short hair, just as they wear knickerbocker suits to play in the sand. A PET WASP. The strangest pet man ever had, surely, was the wasp that Sir John Lubbock caught in the Spanish Pyrenees. He began by teaching it to take its meals on his hand, and although the tiny creature was at first shy of going through the operation on such an un- | usual baslg, in a very short time it grew I to expect to be fed that way. Sir John preserved his pet with the greatest care. It stung him but once. The naturalist was examining it on a railway journey, and the door being opened by a ticket collector he unceremoniously stuffed the wasp into a bottle, and the offended ■wasp, indignant at the unusual treatment, gave Sir John a gentle reminder as to the proper way to treat a guest. It enjoyed the friendship of the naturalist for a period of nine months, when it fell ill and died. Many wasps were afterwards under Sir John's observation, but he never had another pet like this one. HURRIED FOOD-TAKING. Advise is offered by the Hospital to those who come to table tense after some spell of arduous duty. When this is the case and no interval of relaxation has intervened before the meal, it is simplv to court dyspepsia to bolt a plateful of not too tender meat, followed by some heavy pudding, with perhaps a glass of ale or milk, and then rush to work. It would be far better under such circumstances to take merely a "lass of hot milk with bread and butter and stewed fruit and postpone the heavy meal, even for a day, if need be. The addition 'of a savory dish of a light and nourishing nature to the ordinary bill of fare would be a great protection to

those who sit down to table ''too tired to eat." DANGER IN KITCHEN UTENSILS. Professor A. Ritsel, of Freiburg, Germany, has just called attention to'a possible factor in the spread of infectious conditions of the mouth, nose and pharynx, which he believes to be insufficiently recognised in most households—viz., the table utensils, such as the forks, spoons and glasses which come in contact with the mouth. He points out that these are usually washed all together, often very perfunctorily, and then dried upon the same cloth, so that it is not surprising if the infective agent gets distributed by this means. Professor KiTschl states that in his own family the utensils used by any member suffering from an infectious conditions are separately sterilised in "boiling water. One of his children having contracted mumps at school, recovered without communicating the disease to any other member of the family. Professor Ritschl insists upon the importance of strict measures in regard to this matter in restaurants, hotels and boarding houses, and he is of opinion that if these precautions were adopted it would be lees common than at present for people to complain of "catching cold."

A RACE OF BIGGER BABIES. In the Marylebone district of London the height and weight of newly-born children have increased in an astonishing degree during the last few years. Dr. Ezekiel Boyd says:—"The extraordinary increase in the size and weight of babies in this district is out of all proportion to dur gradual increase of stature. An average newly-born infant used to weigh 6.81b, but I am now accustomed to babies weighing B%lb, which is about the average for the last two years, the period during which I have noticed this strange phenomenon. Babies of IMb and I2lb, or almost double the old average weight, are not unusual."

KING SOLOMON'S MINES.

Sir Alfred Sharpe, lecturing before the Royal Geographical Society, said the idea that King Solomon got his gold from Mashonaland has sometimes been ridiculed. We know that in those times fleets were sent out from the Red Sea periodically, which returned with gold, apes, ivory and feathers—all products of Africa. Where would the explorers be likely to go first on leaving the Red Sea? Out into the Indian Ocean or down the African coast? They would, of course, follow down the land; and whether or not in King Solomon's days he got his gold from the east or the south, it may be taken as certain that the whole East African coast was then known and frequented by traders.

WATCH YOUR EYES. Many people between the ages of 40 and 50 who feel the need of reading glasses either refuse or postpone wearing them. There is no greater mistake (says the Family Doctor. It is a physiological fact that at about the age of 45 years the crystalline lens loses some of its elasticity; it loses more as age advances, so that even under accommodation it cannot become convex as it did before, consequently this convexity (needed for reading) must be supplied artificially by means of spectacles.

DUNDONALDS AS INVENTORS. The Eajrl of Dundonald has had the satisfaction of seeing his improvements in gun-traction adopted in the German Army. The "Dundonald gun, carriage" was an example of the inventive genius of the gallant soldier who was "first man in" at the relief of Ladysmith in 1900. Others of his line have invented new mechanical contrivances. His famous grandfather, the celebrated Admiral Lord Cochrane, might have been a great inventor if he had not been a great jailor, and his great-grandfather invented coal tar.

DURATION OF LIFE. Life is not growing shorter, but Dr. O. H. Howe finds that the world's statistics indicate a steady lengthening for 350 years, with a present rate of increase greater than ever before. Records for Geneva shows an average increase in the average age of all deaths from 21.2 years in the sixteenth century to 39.7 years in the nineteenth. In Europe the increase per century is about 17 years, anjl in Prussia, the land of medical diseovery and its application, about 27 years. In India, which has neglected the medical science, the life span has remained stationary at only about 25 years. Continued study of disease germs, of which the number has increased in 25 years from only two to between 20 and 30 now known, will further lengthen life. Modern conditions, however, partially offset the beneficent work of medicine.

A QUART OF HONEY. A bee culturist contributes some interesting data to Popular Mechanics concerning the work of bees in gathering honey. He calculates that a quart of honey represents no less than 48,000 miles of flight between the hive and the, flowers. The gathering of about 10 quarts of honey means, totalling the flight of all the workers of the colony, a flight of some 475,200 miles.

NEW USE FOR TYPEWRITER RIBBONS.

We are repeatedly being informed that there is a use for everything. Even worn-out and discarded typewriter ribbons, which generally go right into the waste-paper basket, have a use nowadays. They make splendid writing ink. Take about two feet of an old ribbon and put it in an Boz. Bottle half filled with water and shake it well. If the ink isn't strong enough add another foot of ribbon. If it is too strong add more water. The color of the ink will depend, of course, on the color of the ribbon used, but with a few old ribbons to select from you can make for yourself a few gallons of red, blue or black ink without any trouble. "Copying" ribbons make excellent copying ink. A REMARKABLE OPERATION. A remarkable operation has been performed by a Wanstead veterinary surgeon on a pony which had a bad fracture of the lower jaw. After injecting cocaine and wiring the teeth together, the surgeon drilled a hole through the jawbone, and the broken parts were then firmly drawn together by strong silver wire. The pony is expected to make a complete recovery. PATENT BED-WARMER. John Alden, of Boise, Idaho, U.S.A., has patented a bed warmer which includes a metal casting covered with asbestos so that it will not burn the feet of the sleeper, and having an opening through which the. lieat of an electric lamp in the casing can escape to heat the bed. THE HITMAN FOOT. A horrible possibility regarding the future development of the human foot is forecasted by Dr. R. Clement Lucas, of London, who predicts the coming of the time when men will only possess two toes apiece in place of their present liberal allowance of ten. Fortunately, the period necessary to bring about such a state of affairs as Dr. Lucas foretells is fixed by him at least half a million years, so there is no occasion for alarm.