SCIENTIFIC AND USEFUL.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VIII, Issue 30, 25 July 1891, Page 191

SCIENTIFIC AND USEFUL.

THE FIRST' SEWING MACHINE. The first sewing machine was patented in England in the year 1700. One of these old machines is on exhibition in England. America, however, ean claim the credit of perfecting the sewing machine and making it a commercial success. PETROLEUM GAS. The Chicago Journal of Commerce states that a new process for the manufacture of gas from petroleum has been put into practice at Kittanning, Pennsylvania, by which it is claimed gas can be manufactured at one-half the cost of the old, and is much better for illuminating pur|>o3es. A PNEUMATIC CHISEL. A firm of stonecutters in Berlin have introduced a pneumatic chisel into their establishment. The workman holds the syringe-like apparatus with both hands, and, as he slides it over the surface of the stone or metal, the chisel, making 10,000 or 12,000 revolutions a minute, chips off particles. A POWER TO BE HARNESSED. The horse-power going to waste at Niagara Falls is estimated at an aggregate of 16,000,000 units. All the locomotives and steamships in the world have only one-quarter that sum of horse power. The time may come when the waste force at Niagara will be harnessed and put to use. It should, at least, be made to carry backward and forward the interrupted commerce of the lakes, to which it now interposes an impassable barrier. THE PROCTER TOWER AT CHICAGO. An ‘ Eiffel,’ which is to be named after the well-known astronomer who died suddenly some time ago in the States, will be one of the attiactions at the ‘ World’s Fair.’ As now submitted the plan shows a tower 1,109 feet high over a base 380 feet square. Ten elevators are to be provided, with a capacity of 80,000 persons ascending per hour, and a speed of ‘ 700 feet per minute.’ In general design the tower is a fair copy of the Eiffel Tower, with the elevators rising vertically from the grounds instead of starting on the inclined legs. TOO BIG TO CONCEIVE OF. Most people are probably not aware that there is one at least of the well-known stars compared to which the sun is a mere pigmy. Sirius, the dog-star, which is also a sun, is believed to have nearly five thousand limes the volume of our sun. Its immense' distance, probably a hundred million millions of miles, make such measurement as is applied to the planets impossible. Hence the above estimate is based on a comparison of the light of Sirius with that received from the sun. It is the most brilliant star in the heavens, being far brighter than the first magnitude, and its light has a greenish tinge. During the winter months the place to look for Sirius is in the southern heavens. SENSE OF SMELL IN THE HORSE. The horse will leave musty hay untouched, and will not drink from a bucket of water which some odour makes offensive. A mare is never satisfied by either sight or whinny that her colt is really her own until she has certified the fact by means of her nose. Blind horses, as a rule, will gallop wildly about a pasture without striking the surrounding fence. The sense of smell informs them of its proximity. Others will go directly to the gate or bars opening to their accustomed feeding grounds ; and when desiring to return, will distinguish the one outlet and patiently await its opening. The odour of that particular part of the fence is their guide to it. The horse while browsing, or while gathering herbage with its lips, is guided in its choice of proper food entirely by its nostrils. Blind horses do not make mistakes in their diet. THE NERVOUS OYSTER An oyster lives 30 years and may be longer ; it is a very nervous animal and dies from a sudden jar, so that a loud thunder elap will instantly kill a whole boat load. Among the oyster’s foes are sea worms and mollusks, known by the name of ‘ winkle’ and ‘conch,’ which prey upon the oyster and crush its shell by sheer muscular power of the large ‘foot,’ by which they grasp it. Most destructive of all the oyster’s enemies, however, is the star fish, which swallows the younger oyster, shell and all ; and after the soft parts are absorbed, the shell is cast out of the stomach. With a big oyster the star fish cannot apply this method, so it grasps the unhappy bivalve in its five arms and, little by little, breaks off the edges of the shell by the muscles at the entrance of the star fish’s stomach ; when a sufficient opening has been effected the star fish intrudes its mouth into the shell and eats the oyster. CAN EARTHQUAKES BE FORETOLD? Few follies of science have been greater than the notion that earthquakes are dependent upon the weather or the changes of the moon, and can, therefore, be foretold. Of late, there has been a pestilent amount of this nonsense ventilated, with the sole result that quacks have obtained the passing notoriety for which they hungered, and credulous people have been subjected to a great deal of self-inflicted alarm. 1c is, therefore, well to note that after investigating the meteorological and astronomical antecedents of 63,555 earth-tremors, M. de Montessus finds no possible connection between them and the movements of the heavenly bodies, the rise and fall of temperature, or the greater or less pressure of the atmosphere. They occur just as often in summer as in winter, and, in short, have about as much relations to the seasons ami the state of the barometer as have the price of consols, oi the odds on the Derby favourite.