Science Sittings

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 19, 9 May 1907, Page 35

Science Siftings

By 'Volf

An American Train. The New ,Yor& Central Railway Company's ' Twentieth Century Limited ' express, which travels 960 miles in 18 hours, supplies the stocK and market reports to its passengers. A shorthand writer is on the staff, which includes a barber, valet, and ladies' maid. Fresh and salt water baths are among the luxuries of this the fastest longdistance train in the world. New Uses of Paper. Paper bricks are- used in Berlin for paving ; - many telegra'pjh poles are now made of rolled sheets of paper^ paper coffins are used in the United States. Some straw hats, into which enters not an atom of straw, consist or 'narrow paper strips 'dyed yellow. Artificial sponges can be made- of paper pulp. There also exists a device for paper thread to be used in sewing shoes, and Chiardonnet's artificial silk is made on a basis of paper pulp. In Norway there is a church, seating a thousand persons, built entirely of paper, belfry anil all ; while paper bullets may soon see the light. A Large Flower. 7 Can you imagine a blossom as large as a carriage wheel ? On the island of Mimdano, one of the Philippine (group, was found by some explorers such a flower. Far up on the mountain of Parag, 2000 feet above the sea level, some explorers were wandering when they came across great buds larger than a cabbiage head. Greatly astonished they searched further, and presently discovered a full-grown blossom, five-petalled, and three feet in diameter. It was carried in low lying luxuriant vines. The natives call it bolo. It was found impossible to preserve it. fresh. So they photographed it and 1 kept several petals to press, and by Improvised scales found that .a single flower weighed twenty-two pounds. It was afterwards found to be <a species of Rafllesda, first found, in Sumatra, and named after Sir Stamford Raffles. The new flower was called Rafflesia Sohademburgia, in honor of its discoverer, Dr. Schadenburg. Stored Acetylene. Acetylene ds now* carefutly purified, washed and dried and stored in cylinders in dissolved form, safety in using the compressed gas being thus ensured. Cylinders of any desired size are filled with such porous absorbent as asbestos or a special charcoal cement, making explosion in the cylinder impossible, and the porous material is then soaked with a fixed quantity of acetone,a volatile organic liquid having the peculiar property of absorbing 25 times its own volume of acetylene at atmospheric pressure and 60 degrees F., and a greater proportion at increased pressure. In practice, the acetone, is so regulated in quantity that the cylinders contain ten times their own volume of acetylene for every atmosphere of pressure. The compression being ten atmospheres, the cylinders contain 100 times their own volume of . acetylene, or ten times more than when the undassolved gas is compressed in the ordinary way. A Sound Deflector. A device has recently been patented whose- aim is to deflect the sound of the piano so as to prevent its diffusion toward the ceiling of a room or its muffling by the case of the instrument. The deflector is a very simple device of light construction, comprising two end boards connected 'by a curved back of such form as properly to direct the sound into the room. The end ' boards are formed with cushioned flanges adapted t 0 rest on the side walls of the piano case, while the curved back is formed with cushioned extension, which fits (between the side wall and thus prevents lateral displacement. In consequence, the deflector does not neejf to be fastened Ha place, but m a y be readily set in position or removed without operating any fastening !^nnL ? 7^ j ts us - e . the full volume of sou »« Posies in •concentrated form into the room without being diffused