Science Siftings

New Zealand Tablet, 30 March 1911, Page 595

Science Siftings

BY 'VOLT'

A Venerable Hen’s Egg.

A hen's egg which is estimated to have been buried for maybe nineteen centuries has been excavated by a party of explorers belonging to the Archaeological Society of Mayence, Germany, in the ancient Moguntiacum which was built by Drusus, the son of the Roman Emperor * Augustus, in the year 14 B.C. Upon the site of the ancient Roman castrum or encampment near the city some excavations have been recently made with the result that among other relics several water cisterns of Roman make were discovered. It was in one of these, which was located twenty feet below the ground, that a damaged Roman clay pot was found containing the shell of a broken egg, also a whole egg protected by a shred of the damaged pot which covered it like a shield. The ancient Roman egg can be seen in the municipal museum of antiquities, and as far as size and shape goes might be claimed for its own by any present-day fowl. A New Use for Nettles. The spinning department of the Kaiser Franz Josef School of Textile Industry, in Reichenberg, is now experimenting with the cleaned fibre of the nettle. By the new Austrian process the gum is extracted from the fibre of the plant by mechanical and partly by chemical means. The stalks are relieved of their wood, resin, and rubber substances by pressure. The experiment station at Brunn has succeeded in completely separating and spinning the fibres furnished without destroying their tension or firmness. These experiments were made on knitting-yarn machines, and yarns were produced which it is claimed, owing to their excellent qualities, can be used in various branches of weaving and knitting, in the production of furniture covers, blankets, tapestries, damasks, cloths, ribbons, laces, and underwear. The inventors of the new process believe that, sooner or later, nettle fibre will largely replace cotton. A Novel Pavement. Perhaps the oddest pavement ever laid is one at Chino. California. It is made mostly of molasses, and if it proves all of the success claimed for it, it may point a way f or the sugar planters of the South to profitably dispose of the millions of gallons of useless molasses which they are said to have on hand. The chemist of a sugar factory was led to make certain experiments, of which the new sidewalk, a thousand feet long from the factory to the main street, is the result. The molasses used is a refuse product, hitherto believed to be of no value. It is simply mixed with a certain kind of sand to about the consistency of asphalt, and laid like an asphalt pavement. The composition dries quickly and becomes quite hard, and remains so. The peculiar point of it is that the sun only makes it drier and harder, instead of softening it, as might be expected. A block of the composition two feet long, a foot wide, and one inch thick, was submitted to severe tests and stood them well. Laid with only an inch or so of its edges resting on supports, it stood repeated blows o fa machine hammer without showing any effects of cracking or bending. "What Voltage Causes Death? At a recent meeting of the British Medical Association Dr. S. Jellinek, of Vienna, read a paper on ' Disorders and Death Following Electric Shock.' He stated that, while in some cases fatal accidents had been brought about by shocks at 100 volts, in other cases, in which the voltage had been 1000, and even 10,000, recovery had ensued. In order to understand a matter so seemingly inconsistent, the doctor stated, it should be kept in mind that the danger of an electric current depended on circumstances which might be placed in the following two categories: 1. The external: (a) voltage, (b) amperage, (c) number of poles, (d) the time limit of contact, and (e) the kind of current (A.C. or D.C.). The continuous current appeared to be more dangerous than the alternating. 2. The individual : (a) the resistance of skin and body, (b) the path of the current through the body, or over the surface of the skin, and (c) the condition of mind and body. The speaker stated that electric lesions were painless. With regard to the mechanism of death by electricity there was no definite scheme or model. In most cases it seemed like suspended animation. It is an interesting fact that there was between electric shock and death an interim of a few seconds in which the stricken person appeared to be quite in a normal state. By experiments on dogs in the physiological institute of Professor von Tschermak it had been discovered that the irritability of the brain, which had subsided immediately after a shock, had a few seconds' later become re-established, and everything then depended upon whether the action of the heart would be continued or not. As there were sometimes hemorrhages of the brain, and as the pressure of the cerebro-spinal liquid was increased, it was necessary and important in cases of first aid to lay the patient with the head elevated.