Science Siftings

New Zealand Tablet, 11 May 1911, Page 883

Science Siftings

BY ‘VOLT*

Oil as a Motive Power. Dr. Dresel, speaking at a conference of naval architects, confirmed the rumors that in some unrevealed corner of the world an oil-propelled battleship is building. He was not, however, at liberty to give details. He said that fully 250 ships, for both the navy and the merchant service, were either fitted or were being fitted with oil engines, and that if some 9000-ton. freighters now building in Hamburg were successful, there would be a revolutionary tendency towards the adoption of oil as a motive power. A New Alloy. A new alloy, said to be compounded principally of copper and aluminum, is placed on the market under the name, of cupsor. In color it resembles gold, polishes readily, acquiring a brilliant lustre, and is, consequently, well adapted for ornamental purposes. Its coefficient of resistibility to chemical influence is high ; it is immune to atmospheric conditions, salt water and air, and even to sulphuric, hydrochloric, and acetic acids. . It can be easily tooled, rolled, and drawn into wire. The tensile strength has been measured up to 80,000 pounds per square inch. In weight it is 8.11 times that of water. Machine-made Silk Embroidery. The adaptation of an ordinary sewing machine to the making of silk embroidery has been taken up by the Chinese of Hong Kong and in other places in South China with considerable enthusiasm, and although the idea was put into execution only a little over one year ago, the progress mqde in producing really handsome machine work is notable. It is the Chinese ladies of the better class who are learning to make embroidery, and in Canton, for instance, soqje of the more wealthy ladies have organised classes in their - respective residences in order to further study the art, for it is not only simply a matter of the machine doing all that is required, but much scope is left for the individual in designing as well as color shading. The work is done chiefly on Chinese raw silk (at the beginning Japanese was used), and comprises all manners of designs—scenery, bird life, flower studies, emblematical scrolls, etc. Seaweed. When we see the tangled masses of seaweed washed up on the, beach, we little conceive that it has any commercial value. The fact is that on the British coast' 400,000 tons of seaweed are collected every year. From the kelp into which it is burned chemists manufacture iodine and bromide, besides valuable chlorides and silicates. Thousands of Japanese and Chinese almost live on seaweed. France collects 8,000,000 pounds yearly, which is used in the manufacture of mattresses. The Irish convert seaweed into valuable jellies, and make other useful foods out of it. All along the coast of Nova Scotia the farmers collect what is known as Nova Scotia eel grass, which is shipped daily to Boston, to be used in the wadding of airtight, noiseless floors, besides making the finest of filling for upholstery and serving other useful purposes. Thousands of farmers make money, out of collecting the grasses and marine substances that grow along the shores. By a wise provision of the law, nobody is allowed to fence it in, at least below high-water mark. Manila Hemp. As is generally known, the growth of hemp is the foremost industry of the Philippines. More Americans have token up this business than any other one thing, because it requires less capital. The hemp plant belongs to the banana family, and Manila hemp thrives nowhere else in the world. The Philippine fields supply the entire worll with _ raw hemp for manufacture into rope and cordage In view of these conditions (says Gassier’s Magazine) one would naturally judge that factories for working up the raw product are numerous. But such is not the case. It is very doubtful if there were more than a dozen rope-works of any nature in existence when the Americans landed And at present there is but one modern factory in Manila that being owned and operated by Americans. A number of British firms, who have branch offices in Manila and agents throughout the provinces, do most of the buying ™ exporting Exports aggregate anywhere from 200 to 300 millions of pounds annually, more than half of which comes to the United States. It is estimated that the average value of the total production is £6,000,000. Until a year ago hemp had always been stripped by hand—a slow and wasteful process. It. is cleaned by having a number of native laborers drag the stocks across a knife provided with iron teeth, thus separating the strands from the pulp No sooner had the Americans arrived than inventors commenced to devise means to do this work by machinery getting out a better grade of hemp, wasting'less, and accomplishing more in a given time. Several of these inventors have been successful, and the machines are now doing excellent work, thus increasing the output. The tensile strength of machine-stripped hemp is nearly 50 per cent ? greater than that of the hand-stripped, * P '