100 years ago

It is much to be regretted that the splendid male Giraffe, presented to the Queen by the Chief Bethoen, of Bechuanaland, died so soon after reaching this country. It was placed on board the s.s. Roslin Castle ⃛ and left Cape Town on September 1. The passage was a stormy one, and after the first week the Giraffe declined to eat anything but bread. It was therefore, on reaching London, nearly dead from exhaustion, and only lived for half an hour after its arrival at Regent's Park. This event is the more to be lamented, as the fine young female already in the Society's Gardens ⃛ thus remains without a mate, and there is at present little prospect of obtaining one.

Prof R. C. Carpenter, professor of engineering science in Cornell University has (says Engineering) been conducting an elaborate set of experiments on bicycle friction which have led him to the conclusion that no form of gearing can possibly equal the best chain for efficiency and durability. With such the frictional loss has been found to be between 1/2 and 3/4 per cent. of the total power transmitted, this result being obtained with a chain which had previously been ridden more than 2000 miles with a rider weighing about 14 stone. With some other chains less well constructed, a greater loss has been found, the friction lying generally between 2 and 5 per cent.; the maximum shown, even by an old chain which did not fit its sprocket properly, was under 10 per cent. No bevel gears as yet constructed give as good results as these.

From Nature 30 September 1897.

50 years ago

A U.S. Air Force “Skymaster” transport aircraft flew from Stephenville, Newfoundland, to Brize Norton R.A.F. Station in Oxfordshire, on September 22, a distance of 2,400 miles across the Atlantic, including taking off and landing, without being controlled in any way by the crew on board. ⃛ The apparatus automatically controls the take-off and climb to an arranged height. It then homes on a beam sent out by a radio beacon. ⃛ Finally, it sets the machine into the required glide, lands and brakes. In the United States the system is understandably described as ‘push button flying’.

From Nature 4 October 1947.