Science Siftings

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 50, 16 December 1925, Page 62

Science Siftings

(Br Volt)

. "The Cup That Cheers. On September 25 occurred the 265th anniversary of the day when Samuel Pepys had his first "dish of tea." Only 27 years earlier the very first cup of tea ever drunk in England is recorded as having been prepared at Arlington House, which then occupied the site on which Buckingham Palace now stands. The Earl of Arlington bought the tea in Holland and gave sixty shillings a pound for it, a sum which to-day would be represented by at least twenty pounds. The drink that was a curiosity less than three hundred years ago is now our chief beverage. Meals for Sponges. One of the hardest things to believe is that the sponge you use daily was once an animal, and not a vegetable growth of the ocean. Sponges live their own lives, and eat their food as other animals do. The separate existence of a sponge begins with the breaking away from the parent of a tiny particle. The latter, after being whirled about for a time by tides and currents, eventually attaches itself to a piece of rock, and from that home it seeks its own livelihood. The food of infant sponges consists of yelk cells, which contain a form of nourishment. Later, as' the sponge grows, it requires something more solid, and this is brought by the currents, which sweep into a haghalf-mouth half-stomach —minute particles of the new food. Clocks Without Hands. A new type of clock with a square dial and no hands is being tested at Waterloo and other London terminal stations. The time is indicated by figures on two small panels, instead of by hands pointing to numerals on a round dial. A new panel is let down automatically as each minute passes, and the hours are changed the same way. The clock, which is driven' by electricity, is controlled by a master clock of the ordinary type. It is easier to read the figures than hands at a distance, and for that reason the timepiece is particularly suited to railway stations. On the new clock the time appears just as it does .in time-tables. Thus, at 12.30, all that you see are the figures 12.30. Writing with Fireworks. A new method of sky-writing, more appropriately termed sky-printing, has been invented. From an aeroplane, flying one to two miles high, groups of fireworks are fired (colored stars at night, smoke-puffs, during the day) to produce letters or numerals. The apparatus consists of small firing machines, each comprising a number of interconnected Very pistol barrels pointing in (different directions. When the pilot pulls a lever, each of these machines fiers a group of fireworks into the air, where they burst simultaneously, forming a letter about 80 yards square. lo ~ [;;;[:. 'i-^^i-.

An average advertisement fired letter by letter is completed in ten seconds (says a... writer in the Scientific American). The fire- : _.-'-? works, being projected 300 feet or more from the aeroplane before bursting, are free from the wash of the 'plane and are said to produe© a lasting advertisement. : ]£ r