Science Siftings

New Zealand Tablet, 20 September 1906, Page 35

Science Siftings

By 'Volt'

A New Coating for Iron. ' As a protective coating for iron, cadmium is proving much superior to zinc. The coating looks like zinc, but it is much more adhesive and harder it tarnishes less rapidly, and it withstands the fumes of acids better, A Solar Emanation. From observations on Mont Blanc and recent discoveries m physics, A. Hausky has concluded that the solar corona, zodiacal light, and aurora borealis are all electrical phenomena, and are due' to negatively charged particles detached from the sun and repelled by the pressure of light with a velocity of several thousand miles a second. A Rope Seven Miles Long. . Glasgow is- the proud possessor 1 of the 'biggest rope that was ever made for hauling purposes. Strangers view it as one of the • sights ' of the city Manufactured to haul cars through one of the subways, the rope is seven miles long, several inches in circumference, and weighs nearly sixty tons It -has been made in one unjointed and unspliced length of patent crucible steel. The rope forms a complete circle around Glasgow, crossing the Clyde in its course, and is intended to " run at a speed of fifteen miles an hour. A Lightning Change. A German paper manufacturer at Esenthal has just made an experiment to see how rapidly it is possible to transform a tree into a newspaper. 'Three trees in the neighborhood of his factory were cut down at 7.35 in the morning. They were instantly barked and « U oT ' T^ and the first roll of P a P er was re a<iy at J.d4 it was lifted into an automobile and conveyed to the press-room of the nearest daily paper The paper being already set, the printing began at once and at 10 o'clock precisely the journal was on sale l n a ? , streets. The entire process of transformation had taken exactly 2 hours and 25 minutes. Wood Pulp Drain on Forests. The forest service of the United States Department of Agriculture has furnished a preliminary statement showing there was used in the past years in the United States more than 3,000,000 cords of wood in the manufacture of wood pulp. The returns were from 150 firms controlling 232 mills. The wood used was divided f?S?Sn fl ? various processes as follows: Sulphite, 1,538,000 cords; soda, 410,000 cords; ground wood 1,068,000 cords. The total pulp production by all processes by the firms reporting was 1,903,000 tons. According to the census of 1900, the consumption of pulp wood was then 1,936,310 cords, so that there -has been an increase of over 50 per cent, in the last six years. The Rusting of Iron. So familiar a process as the rusting of iron appears to have been misunderstood. 'The presence of moisture and oxygen has been regarded as the condition necessary, and the old idea that carbonic acid plays a part has been quite generally discarded.. A different view has just been brought before the London Chemical Society by Mr. Gerald Moody. In very careful experiments a piece of polished iron was exposed to- distilled water and a continuous current of air freed from carbonic acid, and the metal continued untarnished at the end of six weeks. When air with the normal carbonic acid was drawn over the sample, however, the Jrl?* -*i Urface wa^ dulled in six h « ur s. and was covered with deep red rust in seventy-two hours. A City of Glass. +w De - S Monies City, lowa, U.S.A., is decidedly a place wtw 1? * b l mg talk€d about - Its iatesb ide a is to strSLr 1 T,p*n£ S ,< of glass ' which is incombustible, stiong, healthy, damp-proof, cheap, and easily kept uSfniW \ J3 Un L al ' Cl ?' ite< r£' who noticed th at glass was U2SSL 10 ?^ ml the decoration of house-fronts, conceived the idea of building houses altogether of FiS B '^!.* 0"0 "* 17 ? 18 £ an<i > he constructed a -glass -cotJHB i J i X W ts to^ to fee so comfortable and sen?S *»£l £?+ has , ha< L to build several other houses of the same material. The. latest thing is to build a SffffW 1 hurch * entirely of g^ss, the interior of Sss TW 6 - mm ° St , b f auti f full y decorated with colored mS,c °^ ls pl , enty of exc dlent sand close to Des £&&£% te^acr* gIaSS iS nn ° W ane ° f th€Ohief