Science Siftings

New Zealand Tablet, 12 June 1913, Page 49

Science Siftings

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Lost Arts. , . . Current tradition credits the ancients with many ‘lost arts.’ It is still common to hear people say that means unknown to us must have been employed to erect the pyramids, that the Damascus blade is beyond the power of'modern cutlers, and that the art of hardening copper died with some little brown Aztec. .In point of fact (says the New York Tribune ), larger stones than any found in the pyramids have been quarried in Maine, carried across the sea, and erected in buildings in England and France. If anyone cared to pay the cost, there are plenty of contractors who would build a replica of the largest pyramid, and would not take so very long about it. It is doubtful whether a ‘ Damascus blade ’ will stand as much as a good modern hand saw or the spring of a cheap clock. Copper can be hardened by modern methods to ’equal any specimen that has been left to us by the ancients. Many arts that are supposed to be lost are simply abandoned because there is no modern need of cultivating them, and others are not even abandoned, but employed every day and improved upon. To Last Four More Centuries. The ingenuity with which clever workmen restore damaged masterpieces of painting is shown by the means recently taken to rescue a famous Madonna by Botticelli. The Madonna was painted on a wooden panel at least four hundred years ago. Not long since the wood began to crack, and it- was feared that the painting would be ruined; but a restorer was found who said that he could save it. His first step was to paste thin strips of tissue paper on the face of the picture, pressing the paper into the uneven surface of the paint. He added layer after layer, until a thick body of paper concealed the picture. Then the restorer turned the picture over and began to sandpaper the board away. After many months of careful work he had all the wood removed, and nothing but the paint adhered to the paper. Next he glued a piece of linen canvas very carefully to the paint, and slowly and patiently removed the paper bit K y bit. The work took nearly a year ; but when it was finished the painting was in a condition to last another four centuries. The Possibilities of Aerial Fleets. A remarkable feat was performed on April 17 by Mr. G. Hamel, the aviator, who flew- from Dover to Cologne without a stop. This remarkable flight, which began at 12.40 p.m. from Dover Harbor, and ended in the famous German city at 4.58 p.m., was made in a BLeriot monoplane. We ( Universe ) are not enthusiastic over the prospect of adding to the horrors and destructiveness of warfare which tins feat brings within the bounds of possibility, but until the nations seriously begin to consider the question of ‘ turning their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks,’ we are unfortunately compelled to look to our weapons of offence and defence if wo intend to hold what wo possess. Mr. Hamel’s flight across five frontiers and over- the soil of four foreign nations proves that we are rapidly approaching the time when aerial fleets will render the battleship more or less obsolete. War will be ‘in the air ’in a very real sense. Of what use would land fortresses or warships be against the attack of hundreds of winged monsters dropping deadly explosives on to the helpless combatants below? Possibly, howy ever, human ingenuity will devise means of counter attack; and so the deadly rivalry goes on, and will go on until we arrive at the realisation of the poet’s dread, ‘ the Parliament of Man and the Federation of the World.’