Science Siftings

New Zealand Tablet, 4 September 1913, Page 47

Science Siftings

By 'Volt.'

Porcelain Houses. Mr. W. Hales Turner, a member of a great pottery family, has a scheme for building houses of porcelain. He has spent forty years in obtaining porcelain tiles strong enough to build a house of the required strength and cheapness, and it is his contention that such a house would be specially suitable for rural districts. His houses will consist of a steel framework to which are fitted by simple means large porcelain tiles which no other designer has yet been able to manufacture. The tiles are one inch thick, and the doorways and wainscots are of steel. The walls, floor, and ceiling are all of porcelain, and not only waterproof but steam-proof also. Then and Now. Those who attach importance to anniversaries will be interested to know that 61 years ago the first mail steamer from Great Britan to Australia completed her voyage at Sydney, having called at Melbourne six days previously. This was the P. and O. steamer Chusan, which left Southampton on May 15, and made her voyage by way of St. Vincent and the Cape of Good Hope. In these days of mammoth liners, it is strange to read of this vessel of 709 tons and 80 horsepower spoken of as representative of the ocean-going vessels of , her time. An arrangement had just been made with the -British Government for a monthly service, commencing in the following April. The Chusan, which was described as ' barque-rigged and with the appearance of a man-of-war,' thus anticipated the contract service by .several months. Improvements in Telegraphy. When the Submarine Telegraph Company's business was taken over by the Post Office in 1899 telegrams to and from the Continent averaged from 11,000 to 12,000 daily (says the London Universe). Since that time not only has the volume of business enormously increased, but the mechanism and methods of transmission have • left behind the old way as far as the modern locomotive has surpassed the ' Puffing Billy,' culminating in the Marconi triumph of wireless telegraphy, the gift to the world of a clean-handed Italian gentleman, although some Englishmen have sadly soiled their plumes in the business. In a dozen years foreign messages have increased from 12,000 to 30,000, and the staff of the foreign section of the service from 190 to 400. The general business has risen to the enormous volume of more than 89 million telegrams a year, a daily average of 250,000, the staff of the Central Office having been augmented from 500 to over 4500. The number of offices has increased from 3000 in 1886-7 to 14,000, and the system comprises 310,000 miles of wire, as compared with 60,000 miles in 1870. Inventions and improvements have multiplied apace. Multiplex simultaneous messages over a single wire have superseded the single message. Mechanical transmitters have further multiplied the power of transmitting messages tenfold. A speed of sixty words a minute in 1870 has given place to a possible 600 words a minute, and a fixed working standard for some circuits of 400, words a minute. Other time-saving apparatus have added to the miracle of modern telegraphy, and to crown all comes the Marconi invention for dispensing with apparatus by the marvel of radio-telegrams. The number of British ships now equipped with wireless apparatus is 425.