Science Sittings

New Zealand Tablet, 24 July 1913, Page 49

Science Sittings

B* ' Volt.'

Diseases of Metals.

Metals suffer from contagious diseases analogous to those of living beings. Among these diseases one of the most striking is that called ' tin pest.' Sometimes a block, a plate of metal or tin attacked by this disease Crumbles and falls into dust, and sometimes warty protuberances appear on the surface of the metal. Various other metals suffer. from a disease that manifests itself by a spontaneous recrystallisation. The most remarkable cases occur with lead and hard-drawn brass. These diseases are not due, as has been thought, simply to moisture.-. Temperature plays a part l in producing them. The most extraordinary fact, perhaps, is that the 'tin pest' is capable of spreading by contagion. ,

Manufacture of Automobiles.

Few people believe that a single. factory in Detroit produces 200,000 automobiles a year, or more than half of the entire output of the country. The American, Machinist in a series of articles proves that the achievement of this concern as a wholesale producer of automobiles amounts to one complete car every forty seconds by the clock ! Against this production, which necessitates the handling of 1,000,000 lbs. of material per day, the total output of locomotives in the United States is only 15 per day, or 4513 annually. The Ford industry, with the single exception of the United States Steel Company, is the largest in this country (says America). The plant covers 65 acres, and employs 15,000 men, the daily payroll being between £6OOO and £7OOO. Over a. million and a-quarter pieces a week or on' an average of five tons a day of small parts are shipped to this factory.

Eight Thousand Miles in Fifteen Seconds.

On June 3 her Majesty Queen Mary sat in her boudoir at Buckingham Palace, with Princess Mary by her side, and her private secretary (Mr. E. W. Wallington) in attendance, and by pressing a hutton electrically opened at Weston, Ontario, in the neighborhood of Quebec, a hospital fur consumptive children, which she had graciously consented should bear her name. A pre-arranged signal conveyed the intelligence that she had done so, and the whole operation from the instant of informing her Majesty that the time had arrived to press the button to the realisation that the opening had been accomplished, occupied only 30 seconds. The actual time of the two journeys of communication, forward and return, was fifteen seconds, and as it is estimated that the distance is four thousand miles from London, allowing for indirect routes and deviations in the line of cable, the signal sent to Ontario was received and acknowledged over some 8000 miles in a quarter of a minute.

Animal Rip Van Winkles.

. It is a well-known fact that birds and many animals migrate before winter to milder climates to keep themselves warm.- The bat, tortoise, dormouse, and other animals could migrate easily if they had a mind to, but they have another way of getting the same result. These animals are veritable Rip Van. Winkles, and are counted among the best winter sleepers. So deep is the lethargy of a dormouse that if this little creature is awakened suddenly and put near a fire his pulse beats so slowly that he is lifeless in a few minutes. While asleep he is kept alive by the surplus food he has eaten in the autumn, and which is stored up in his body as fat. Frogs and toads are even sounder sleepers and approach nearer to a lifeless condition in sleep than any other animal life except certain fish. _ For in them the heart beating stops and breathing in the ordinary way is impossible. During this time the breathing is carried on through the pores of the skin. These strange samples of torpor are also caused by lack of food during the bitter cold. For in countries where excessive heat and drought prevail there are numerous instances of torpor that are quite as profound as that exhibited by the winter sleepers.