The Swansea Gazette and Daily Shipping Register

(ht Swansea Gazers ma Oallp Sbippiim Register Swansea, January 20, 1969.

Swansea Harbour Trust. Weekly Trade Report. Officially Communicated. There was only a very limited supply of tonnage in the week, and compared with fhe corresponding period of last year there is a decrease fn the total of imports and m excess of the increase of the previous week. The shipments of coal and patent fuel were 64,478 tons. Imports include--Sweden 79 tons copper matte, Germany 215 tons general, Hol- land and Belgium 450 tons general, France 1800 tons pitwood. 120 tons general, Spain 1750 tons pyrites, Portugal 1100 tons pit- wood and 1456 tons pyrites. Cape of Good Hope 2447 tons copper regulus, and 1887 tons copper ore. Imports 14,697 tons, exports 70,287 tons and total trade 84,984 tons compared with 129,647 tons the previous week and 115,092 tons the corresponding week last year. Shipments of coal were— Sweden 5950 tons. Germany 4495 tons, Holland and Belgium 1110 tons, France 28,965 tons, Spain 2680 tons, Italy 1900 tons, Spanish Forth Africa 410 tons, Alexandris 240 tons, New York 600 tons, Brazil 200 tons, Home ports 4593 ions, total 58,568 tons. Patent fuel—France 2335 tons Spain 180 'tons, Italy 1600 tons, Alexandria 1000 tons, Brazil 800 tons total 5,915 tons. Tinplates and general goods 5,809 tons, the latter for Denmark Germany, Hol- land and Belgium; France, Portugal, Italy Alexandria, New York, Brazil, and ahome ports. Shipments of tinplate 100,430 boxes, and receipts from works 71,779 boxes. Stocks in the dock warehouses and vans, 106,903 boxes compared with 189,354 boxes this day week and 122,636 boxes at this date last year To load—Hero and Tassa for Antwerp, Juno and Veghtstroom for Amsterdam, Milo Jor Rotterdam, Rogaland for Copenhagen and Stettin, Adolf for Gothenburg, Princess Alexandria for Nantes and Bordeaux, Se- fontian and Brescia for Mediterranean ports few York City for New York, Vessels in dock-Steam 40; sail 89; 4ot tl 79. r

Local Chartering. Bremerhaven, 5/ name not known, In- gram & Co. Caen, 4/6, Bass Rock, Evans & Rogers Genoa, 6/9, Bengar, G Thomas Guernsey, 4/3, Slateford, Cann & Glass. Harburg, 5/ Barbro, Cleeves & Co Marseilles. 7-75 ir, Segoutian, Worms' & Co. Middlesbro, 5/ Teesdale, Cleeves & Co. Naples, 7/ Lackenby, Pwllbach Col. Co Orau, 7-50, Cap Spartel, E. W. Cook Rouen, 5/3, Rosslyn, Cleeves & Co Rouen, 5/ Alacrity, M Depeaux St Nazaire, 4 26, Nettleton, Cie Blanzy. Tunis-Swansea, 7/ Ada

Vaughan's Year Book 1909 Now ready, and may be obtained from all Newsagents Price one penny

T«B AHTtf ULUC.T .)w DA'FL. Of the millions of people who havf A fcindl' propensity towards oats, fow probably Aave aD) Idea bow much might be written tbout thctt peta from the side not alone of hudtan aseoci*. tion but of distinguished companionship. A French writer who has been devoting nirosell to this aspect of pussy's history brings togetnei fuite an imposing list of great names of both Saxes as lovers of the cat tribe. xftat tabby always falls on her feet, like some careloef bipeds, in a proverb, but not many perhaps have "ard that this enviable faculty is a miraculous privilege bestowed by Mahomet. Richelieu, it teems, kept twenty cats; Taeeo had the" fancy." and merely to mention Baudelaire, Chateau fetiand, Victor Hugo, Berariger, and Maupas ■ant, one almost regrets to learn that Petrarclv »fter so far departing from the spiritual tone oi fcis sonnets to Laura as to half cherish thought# ij it suicide on her death, finally found consolation ta the caresses of a cat whose skeleton may still be soon in the museum at Padua. ♦

EABLT RELIO CUREB. That the therapeutic value of prayer is one aJ dw oldest beliefs is shewn by Dr. Hugo Mag BUt in his book Superstition in Medioine.* The early fathers of the Church sought to in- ereasethis therapeutic power by means of vart ous accessories and aids, which even now survive in this twentieth century. Thus the Gospel wai plao«<d upon the affected part of the V.ody, or ilothing of a particularly pious man was spread Over the patient It appears that the sudarium and thf "Joat of the Apostle Paul were held to possess healing power, and were, therefor* iwquenxly employed as instruments of healing

iHRIGATION IN PALESTINE. Whoever heard of watering a garden with the foot? Certainly no one in the Occident, hut j ID the Orient it is alaily duty, says the Sundof at Home, incumbent on those who attend to the plots 'i which herbs and vegetables arte j yrown. It. an Eastern garden the surface of tbo aarth is divided off into smal! beds each abot»* a yard square. In these the <&eds are SOWlJ, MM as irrigation is largely practised the beds art vatered periodically. the water is u*ualk brought from a near-by spring Deu.g conducted iKtough channels to the bed-plot. But a minia ture bank hinders the water from enteringth, soun bed. Here the watering with the root" gomes in. For the cultivator, instead of using a; aan from »"hich to water his seeds or plants Bimp'y pusnes aside some of the earth bankwitb his foot and allows enough water to run in t« saturate the little enclosure. In the same man- lier he pushes back If a earth and closes up the kUle passage-way so recently opened. In thii way, with only his foot, and without Sending hif j kack, the gardener is able to water the plot and MMEberoui beds und Itivation.

PliMphorericem Bacteria. At a meeting of the Academy of Sciences at Fienna, Professor Molisch, of Prague, communi- cated a paper upon phosphoresceut bacteria. He has been able to photograph the colonies of a phosphorescent micrococcus by means of its owt Ught. By inoculating large glass flasks of 1-2 (tres capacity containing a suitable culture medium with the organisms, a "bacterial lamp" is obtained with which it is quite possible for an observer at a distance on one to two metres to read a thermometer Or to see the time of a watch. On a dark night the "bacterial lamp" is visible at a distance of more than sixty paces. It is suggested that such culture* of phosphore ieent bacteria might be employed in Sowder magazines, or for attracting fish, as ths ask might be sealed up and lowered into the water. Onder suitable conditions the phosphorescent properties cf the cultures last for two or thMe weeks.

Micro" Photography and Armour Plato. The application of micro-photography to metalSt And its revelations of the changes of metallic Structure produced by various methods of work- Ing, have resulted in very striking improvement* and discoveries in hardening steel. One of tht most remarkable is the Holzer-Frith proceiss-in which the alteration in the texture of the metal is «reduced by rearranging its molecular structure. [eat and electricity are uti'-sed as exciting agent* on the crystals of which the metal is composed, and are employed while the metal is surrdunded by Biercury in a hermetically-sealed vessel. No great alteration in the metai is perceptible to the unaided eye; but when examined under the microscope it is Men that the crystalline structure is very much more regular &nd uniform than before. This meaD! Beater toughness, greater elasticity; the metal, af Horoloyical Journal points out, will withstand frtater, more sudden, and more continuous ttmux HUroughouo Its mass.

Diamonds and X-Raya. A diamond when exposed to the violet rayi oi fight becomes fluorescent, the most brilliant diamonds giving out a clear blue fluorescence aai less brilliant ones becoming violet. A yellow diamond submitted by Sir William Crookes to the* rays gave out a red light, and rather to the C-iiinnay Df its owners subsequently tuined a dingy brown when exposed to daylight. The brownishnea provbd, fortunately, only a temporary effect. TheM experiments have suggested to Mr. Fuchs, of Chicago, the treatment of diamonds with X-rays, and he says that he is able to bleach brownish and yellow diamonds by such means. This does not exhaust his claims regarding the possibilities of the X-ray* By directing them through various metalt and chemicals before. they penetrate the diamo; tie believos that colour can be permanently Imparted to the stone and that it will be possible to reproduce thus the famous blue of the Hops diamond or the brown of a well-known diamond In the British regalia. In view of the other experi- taents which have been mentioned, the JIliutratA Science flews extremely doubtful, however, el the permanency of Mr, Fuchs's methoug

The Myatery of the Echo The science of acoustics is, as yet, in its tifaney, and men nave much to learn before they can solve the mystery of the echo or predict her fleeting Moods, writes Miss Gertrude Bacor in Gcod Wordt- Belated in general terms the explanation of echoes w simple and e&sy to understand. Sound, as we know, is conveyed to us by vibrations of the ahr4 Which spread around from the source of sound aotactly as waves of Titer spread in ever widening tings when a pebble Is thrown into a still lake. Very frequently it happens that these waves of IØUnd, in their outward course, strike against soese anrface of such a nature that they are, by it, feflected baclk again without being broken and Scattered. And when it occurs that these waTef IMM returned at duch an angle as to strike the ear Of a listener, we have what we call.an echo. Often more than one reflection goes to thfl making up. of to echo, the sound-waves being thrown from oss andam to another in their passage to the ear-juef as a billiard ball will rebound from cushion to Cushion on its way round the table. This, rough)# Is the cai^se of the phenomenon. But so endleit are the variations of circumstances ,nd environ* llent, and the effects they produce so far-reaching and hard to fere see, that we are continually being taken unawares. Sometimes t;be echo returns St faickly that it cannot be distinguished frosa tilt gnginal sound; and yet its undetected pres* Mice is enough to affect seriously the penetratioa if a roice in a church or theatre Sometimes ene aound will produce several eohoes in different directions, which return and return again at different time intervals, to the great distraction at libe hearers. Again the surfaoe of the reflecting abject has a great deal to do with the nature el the echo returned. Certain substances seem to have a teniencv to absorb the sound-waves, and ethers to eflect them more readily. Another curious property of sound-waves, exemplified in many well- known buildings, is the tendency « 4 the wares to run round a eurred apse or gallesr* much M < Ware at the sea, striking aslant on a shallow bay, Will ran round the shore. This is the explanation familiar acoustic curiosities, noiftbgf HI Whitgern^ a alloc? «f gt,