Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 April 1910 — POPULAR SCIENCE [ARTICLE]

POPULAR SCIENCE

The Simplex system of driving concrete piles, which the British admiralty is trying at Rosyth, is the invention of an American, F. Shuman. A steel tube, having a loose point or a pair of binged jaws at the lower end, is first driven to the required depth. Then, as the tube is withdrawn, concrete is introduced, and this passes through the now opened lower end and fills up the hole made by the tube. The concrete is filled up to a level several feet above the finished bead ol the pile, in order to allotv for sinking as the tube is withdrawn. Th« plan has been successfully tried in many places. In an English review of the progress In aeronautics during 1909 the first place in the list of unsolved problems is given to that of obtaining a certain degree of automatic stability at slow speeds. It is recognized that the high velocity of flight required to enabl« the aeroplane simply to keep afloat must be lowered before the machinei can become truly useful and safe. An other question is that of the engine. In order to make this certain in operation, it is suggested that the weight must be still further reduced, so as to permit either of a duplication of parts, or the employment of two complete engines, each under normal conditions working at only a fraction of its full power. A remarkable phrotograph of half a dozen porpoises, playing under water, just ahead of the bow of a steamship traveling at the rate of 13 knots an hour, has been published by a cor respondent of Knowledge, C| H. Gale. The sea was calm and the photograph was made by leaning over the bow of the vessel. Mr. Gale calls attention to the singular fact that the porpoises, while easily maintaining their position ahead of the ship, showed no apparent effort or motion of body, tail or fin. Yet he thinks that they were not carried along by movement of the water in front of the vessel, because airbubbles were seen rushing from their backs, and the photograph shows ths effect of these bubbles by the whits streaks on the backs of the animals. Sometimes they rolled over sidewise, but always maintained their position. In a recent book about apts, Rev. H. C. McCook gives some surprising facta about the mound-making ants o| the Alleghenies. He has measured some mounds more than 30 feet in circumference, although rarely mors than three feet in height. But around these there are many new mounds, in course of construction, only a few inches in height. They are found in groups, one of which, near Hollidaysburg, Pa., contains 1,700 mounds within a space of 60 acres. Their total population is enormous, and each group of mounds appears to constitute a community—an insect kingdom or empire. In regard to their numbers, Doctor Fcrel is quoted as saying that these ant kingdoms have in all probability from 200,000,000 to 400,000,00 b inhabitants, “all forming a single community, and living together In active and friendly Intercourse.”*