Science Siftings

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 19, 14 May 1908, Page 35

Science Siftings

The First Steamboat.

The first steamship appeared on the Hudson^in 1807, when Robert Fu.lton proved the possibility of steam navigation with the famous little Clermomt. Ten years later the first steamboat appeared on the Ohio and Mississippi, and in 1827 the ' Chancellor Livingstone ' made her first run through Long Island Sound, from New York to Providence. In those days the ordinary steamboat was about as largo as a good-sized modern tugjboat, and among them «*»,- ' Chancellor Livingstone,' 157 feet long and 33 feet wide, was a veritable giant. All these vessels were propelled by paddle wheels.

The Arthur's Pass Tunnel

T-he Arthur's Pass Tunnel, the work on which was formally commenced last week, will be the fifth largest in the world, and compares with other long tunnels as follows :— Simpion (Swiss Alps), 12-|- miles ; St. Gothard (Swiss Alps), 9£ miles ; Mont Cenis (Swiss Alps), 7£ miles ; Arlberg (Swiss Alps), 6£ miles ; Tanern (Austrian Alps), 5-\- miles ; Arthur's Pass, 5£ miles. The upper end of the tunnel in Bealey Valley will be about 2400 feet, and the summit of Arthur's Pass about 3000 feet above sea level. The greatest depth from the surface of the ground to the tunnel is 1150 feet, which occurs at a spur off Warnock's Knob.

The First Elevators.

Tnc idea involved in our m,odern ' lift ' or ' elevator ' was anticipated in the middle of the seventeenth century by Velager, who also established the first letter boxes in Pa.ris in 1653. Velager's lift was in demand until a mishap occurred to the king's daughter at Versailles. The mechanism failed to work when she was half-way up, and there she stuck for three long hours until the servants could break away the wall to release her. His l flying chairs ' then fell into disrepute. The apparatus was simple in the extreme , just a chair attached to a rope which was passed over a pulley, With a weight as a counterbalance at its other end. In 1860 someone brought out as a new invention an imitation of this primitive lift, which has de\elopied into our hydraulic or electric apparatus.

Aluminum in Machinery

Aluminum is increasingly used in machine construction, as in crank cases and gear boxes for motor cars, for panelling inside of underground railway cars, for electric wire, and for new allo\s, pigments, and 'metal plating, and the aluminum ceil as a lightning arrester has proved to be a valuable addition to lightning protecting deuces. During recent years the price of tin has been very high, and since adequate new supplies of ore have not been discovered, substitutes for I'm must be us,ed in manufactures. Aluminum is regarded as probably the most available substitute for in the great majority of uses to which that metal tin 1 is put, owing to the diminution in the price of " aluminum, the practically limitless supply of the raw material, and the favorable physical properties of the metal. As the production of aluminum is cheapened, so will the uses for it increase. The demand steadily keeps 1 ahead of the supply.

Windmills

Tt fts supposed that the Crusaders brought the idea of using the wind to grind corn or raise water back With them from the East. Early writers record their widespread employment in Europe in the twelfth century. Beekmanii gives an instance of one at Pipewell Ab*bVsy, Northamptonshire, in ,1143, and we ailso read of one, about 1190, at Haberdon, in Suffolk. Another early Instance of an English windmill is that'in which Richard, Earl of Cornwall, took refuge after the battle of Lewis in 1264. In the famous song connected with that event the. ' sayles ' and the ' mulne ' are mentioned, sft owing**- that it really was a windmill. The oldest windmill in Belgium, and probably the oldest in Europe, the historic ' Grand Moulin de Silly,' was totally destroyed by the great storm at the end of January, 1900, after a continuous existence since the eleventh century. It is said to have been built by Otto von Trazegn'iesi the crusading lord of Silly, in 1011.