Scientific American 1927-07: Vol 137 Iss 1

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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SULY 1927 ii hirty-five Cents a Copy THOMAS ALVA EDISON SUPER-GUNS FOR OUR ARMY BY J. BERNARD WALKER SEEING THE EARTH TURN SUNBURN IN THE DARK

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Jul LINDBERG + i KA ENT ACROSS ONG FF BEARINGS There are no service stations along the airways that follow the great water- ways. Bearings must be dependable. The same bearings were used by Byrd when he flew over the North Pole—by Chamberlin and Acosta on their fifty-hour, record-breaking en- durance flight—they were on the NC-4 on its epoch-making trans-Atlantic hop—they were with Lt. Maughan on the famous dawn-to-dusk flight—they are now on the Los Angeles. 1843 SKF INDUSTRIES, Inc. 40 East 34th Street New York City i fo “s ror li 100 Factory Offices Throughout Toe || tae x Puts the Lt Righ t Bearing 83 bem adel = Ball Bearings’ Right Place ‘Roller Bearing = = EE ——aen

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July 1927 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

of the population of the Pacific Coast States, lives in <

beers great market, consuming large volumes of manufactured products, has caused many nation- ally known industries to establish factories here, the latest being the B. F. Goodrich Rubber Co., with a = $4,000,000 plant. These companies have found not only a rich nearby / market, but a vast tributary market reached quickly _ and more economically than from any Western point of distribution, as well as harbor and steamship facilities reaching all world-ports.

Los Angeles County has been truly called ‘‘the land of balanced prosperity.’’ A rich market, almost every known variety of raw material, industrial freedom, ample transportation of every kind, low power rates, natural gas and plentiful water and a mild all-year climate—the essential requisites for manufacturing success are here. Specific information regarding manufacturing opportunities and distribution advantages will be furnished by the Industrial Department, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce,

if 7 7, N : a e New Y - . Yost Office as Second Class Matter June 28th, 1879, under the Scie 4 Price ly, 1927. Vol. 137, No. 1. Entered at the New York, N. Y., Post Office a ; ; , [ a rc a rican 5 ‘ *aditic ~ entry oe Dunellen, N. J. Published Monthly by _ Scientific American Publishing Co., 24 W est 40th aa trent New Ye sy City Copyright 1927 by Scientific American Publishing Co. Great Britain Rights Reser ved. Subscription Price $%. per year 0 . ~ . r

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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Sinews of Steel for Your Car Economy, smoothness, quiet, safety, simplicity and endless endurance —these advantages in your car or truck are best assured by Timken Tapered Roller Bearings in the transmis- sion, differential, pinion or worm drive, rear wheels, front wheels, steering pivots and fan. Timken electric steel, Timken tapered construction and Timken POSITIVELY ALIGNED ROLLS are fully effective against friction and side-thrust and speed and torque and weight. Surely that is what you want. Then make sure you get Timken Bearings, built into a great majority of all makes of motor vehicles, and into every type of industrial equipment. THE TIMKEN ROLLER BEARING CO., CANTON, OHIO Tapered » Rolier From the rod mill in the Timken Steel Plant come the red hot coils of steel that finally reach your car as Timken Tapered Roller Bearings. Here is produced the world’s largest output of electric furnace steel, the finest and most wear- resisting ever developed. July 1927 eG MERI 2 ee a ae Ea eo 4 ot me ot lee Cet lhe! let m= of #8 a Ot Gee

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927 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Pa July 1927 Edited by ORSON D. MUNN Eighty-third Year FLIP-FLOPS \ ELL—here it is: the new SCIEN- TIFIC AMERICAN; how do you like it? We have decreased somewhat in over- all acreage, but we are a little bulkier to make up for it—more magazine, as a matter of fact, and in a little different shape. We wonder whether you realize how much of a job it has been to get ready this new format? We shan’t go into all the nightmare of details here—it would require a whole article in itself; yes, more than that—but you may take it on faith that there is much more to it than meets the eye. Planning, planning, wrestling with styles and sizes of type, layout, makeup. Our layout editor has been doing flip-flops over it ever since January. Now that it is all finished we are go- ing to sit back and await the reaction. If you are satisfied with our efforts, we are more than repaid. As we said at the beginning, how do you like it? EDISON t Bw impossibilities of yesterday are the commonplaces of today. Our lives are brighter, happier, longer, more ef- fective than those of our fathers. The swift-moving era in which we live is the most wonderful the world has ever known. In the last fifty years greater progress has been made than in all the five thousand years of recorded history which went before. Here is the golden age of invention, and so it will be written in the annals of time. In the career of one man we find the genius of the age expressed. The story of his life—from boyhood poverty to affluence and veneration in his declining years—epitomizes the opportunities which lie in our democracy. The story of his achievements—including more than a thousand patented inventions—is the very flower of our civilization. The world is a better place because the wizard of electricity has lived and worked. We feel honored that so great an American has loaned us his portrait that we might reproduce it this month on our cover. ERROR N the May ScIENTIFIC AMERICAN the frontispiece was a picture of Profes- sor R. W. Wood of John Hopkins Uni- versity, noted physicist. Under this picture we stated that Professor Wood’s book, “Physical Optics,” was out of print. We have since found out that our informant was wrong—the book is still in print and is published by the Macmillan Company, New York. We are glad to know that “Physical Optics” is still available, because we like it best of all the books on that subject, and recommend it to those who wish to dig into optics. CONTENTS | JULY 1927 | Super Guns for Our Army—By J. Bernard Walker..................2.45. 9 Watching the Earth Turn Over—By Russell W. Porter................. 14 ee PONE OE Wine NI, 6.5K ices cats 50 on cke nd anadtoboeesescadeces 17 | The Month In Medical Science—By Morris Fishbein, M.D........... 18 Is Mars Habitable?—By Henry Norris Russell, Ph.D................... . 20 American Farmers of 4000 B.C.—By A. V. Kidder, Ph.D................ 22 Sunburn In the Dark—By Dr. D. T. MacDougal....................... 25 Are: TP. SOIR. 5 5.6. oe ciaisigs deco aes sale leah b Mea . 28 A Microbe In International Affairs—By D. H. Killeffer............... 30 Successful Inventors—VII—By Milton Wright........................ 33 When the President Broadcasts—By Orrin E. Dunlap, Jr................ 36 Small Balloons Provide New Sport................. 0... ccc eeeee 39 America’s Longest Tunnel—By Charles F. A. Mann........... > : 40 Stupendous Pressures—By P. W. Bridgman, Ph.D. ; 43 The Wanderings of an Oil Well 46 Our Agricultural Ellis Island—By George H. Dacy 48 The Most Fascinating Spot on Earth—By D. Moreau Barringer, Jr. 52 Uncle Sam, Spendthrift—XI—By J. Bernard Walker 55 From the Scrap-book of Science—Camera Shots of Scientific Events 58 Household Inventions 60 With the Automotive Inventors 62 Inventions in the Engineering Field....................ccccccccccccccee 63 DEPARTMENTS SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Digest eaten Oe Radio Notes pase bbe 69 Learning to Use Our Wings—A Department of Aviation News 72 In the World of Chemistry 74 Applied Science for the Amateur 78 In the Editor’s Mail—Where Reader Meets Reader 86 The Heavens In July 90 Commercial Property News 92 Patents Recently Issued 92 PLATINUM -* page 52 we publish the first install- ment of an article about the famous Meteor Crater in Arizona. Meteor Cra- ter resembles two things: an ordinary voleanic crater and an enormous shell- hole. Some say it is a volcanic crater, especially since there are evidences of extinct volcanoes in Arizona. Others claim it is actually a giant shell-hole made by an iron meteor which struck the earth and buried itself deep in the rock. Meteor Crater is not news—articles about it have appeared in Sunday news- paper supplements for years. Writers have embroidered the description with wild conjecture. The article we now publish is the only first-hand description which has ever been published. It was written by the son of the owner of the Crater. The author is a mining engi- neer now employed as geologist for a mining company whose name is a by- word the world over. What he says may cause you to revise some of the impressions created by previous errone- ous statements about Meteor Crater. Scientists estimate that the meteor contains 10,000,000 tons of nickeliferous iron in lump form. If the belief that this iron will average four tenths of an ounce of platinum metals per ton turns out to be true, then Meteor Crater is something worth thinking about. Within a short time a shaft will be sunk near the point beneath which the great meteor is believed to lie. We are holding our breath! LINDBERGH HE brevity of this reference to Lindbergh’s superb, one-man flight from New York to Paris is due to the fact that we were just going to press when the flight ended. We would have liked to give several pages to a descrip- tion of the plane, the engine, and the man. Audacity, courage, and skill such as his have ever made a supreme appeal; but when to these is added a natural modesty, it is easy to understand the world-wide applause which acclaimed this galiant youngster. It was sheer audacity to set out with little knowledge of navigation, but the elements were kind, and in less than 34 hours, Lind- bergh crossed the Atlantic.

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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN July 1927 What’s the Verdict? you are now looking at the new style Scientific American. ee SUPER-Gl POR OUR ARMS *SEEING EK EARTEL TURN SUNBURN UN TIETE DARK If you haven't gone through it already, look through it now and then come back to this page. How does it appeal to you? easier or. the eyes? Could you locate it more readily on the news stand? Isn't it easier to hold and to handle than the older large size? Don’t you find the type Doesn't the page size seem to lend itself better to a more pleasing arrangement of reading matter and pictures? Altogether, don’t you agree that it is a superior magazine—one you would be proud to have your friends see on your library table? As for its contents, you know the Scientific American's position in science and in- dustry. you now have in your hands. There is no change in the editorial treatment, as you can see from this number The editors do strive constantly, however, for improve- ment, and the material in hand now indicates that every month the Scientific American will be more valuable and interesting than the month before. If you like this first number of the new style Scientific American, you'll like next month’s better, and the month after that better still. today Credit Coupon Good for One Dollar Scientific American, 24 West 40th Street, New York City, N. Y. Send me Scientific American for one year. is enclosed Check for $3 Name Street and No P.O State This coupon must be used before August |, 1927. Better send in your subscription you won't want to risk not getting the magazine every month from now on. Here’s an added reason for acting now. We’re offering you a dollar reduction. Use this coupon before August Ist, and you get a $4 full year’s subscription for only $3. Clip the coupon now while the new style Scientific American is in your hands. a —

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y 1927

ODOR RENT es

cA mong our Contributors DR. D. T. MACDOUGAL Dr. MacDougal, well-known botanist and author, is director of the two plant-physi- ology laboratories of the Carnegie Institu- tion of Washington, one in California, the other at Tucson, Arizona. Between these two he makes frequent trips in a steam- driven automobile. He is a member of the famed National Academy of Sciences and is influential in scientific circles. For sev- eral years he has been corresponding edi- tor of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN. His most recent work bears on the unsolved problem of the nature of life. DR. ALFRED V. KIDDER Dr. Kidder has spent virtually his whole life on the archeology of the Southwest, making explorations and excavations. He has been curator of North American Ar- cheology at the well-known Peabody Mu- seum of Harvard University. For several years he conducted excavations at Pecos, New Mexico, for Phillips Academy, An- dover. At present he is excavating under the aegis of the National Research Council. Russell W. Porter ScIENTIFIC AMERICAN read- ers know him for his contri- butions on amateur telescope making. Originally an archi- tect trained at Boston “Tech,” he spent twelve years with Peary and others in the Arctic. Co-inventor of the screw- thread comparator, in spare time he is an artist, composer and corresponding editor of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN. Orrin E. Dunlap, Jr. Mr. Dunlap is our radio edi- tor. Since 1922 he has also been radio editor of the New York Times. A member of the Institute of Radio Engi- neers, he was formerly a Mar- coni and United States Naval operator. He is a graduate of Colgate University. Prof. P. W. Bridgman Professor Bridgman belongs to the Department of Physics at Harvard. One of our edi- tors recently visited him and found him in working clothes in the cellar of the physics laboratory, trying to find a way to exert still higher pres- sures than those which will stagger the readers of the article commencing on page 43. D. Moreau Barringer, Jr. Mr. Barringer is assistant geologist for a famous copper mining company. His father, D. M. Barringer, is the owner of Meteor Crater, Arizona, and has collaborated with his son in the preparation of the engrossing series of articles which begins with this issue, commencing on page 52.

Looking Ahead wth the Editor TORNADOES The fact is, little has yet been discovered about the cause of tornadoes. Next month Dr. W. J. Humphreys, foremost Weather Bureau authority on the physics of the air, will present his theory. TACT What is “social intelli- gence?” Briefly, it helps you to get along with other peo- ple. It makes “college grad- uates” of unschooled politi- cians in the race for pre- ferment. Prof. F. A. Moss, psychologist, has tested the social intelligence of 7000 persons. His article about these tests contains sur- prises. Next month. TELEPATHY Spring this question in any group—you have an argu- ment on your hands at once. It is a subject everybody is interested in. In an early is- sue Dr. Walter Franklin Prince, famous investigator of psychic phenomena, will provide some “meat” for these heated oral battles. ATHLETICS With college men in science and college men in athletics it is odd how little the one has been applied to the other. Next month, however, a fa- mous physiologist who also enjoys sports will describe some of these applications. He finds that a runner is virtually a machine. GOLF Golf clubs designed by fol- lowing mechanical engineer- ing principles offer the player an opportunity to improve his game vastly. <A _ well- known scientist will tell of his dissatisfaction with ex- isting clubs and how he de- signed an entirely new type.

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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN July 190 | oS eS Sad : Lu M BRE R’ ' aes The mechanical Yarder is a typical ‘ e/ ; exampie of a iabor-saving machine jAnother| Presentar ia C Seearhenionool for the lec i ' t r um- tion gn “ RINDING ber industry. Machining operations by the grinding wheel and qrind- Cl ing machine are important steps = NORTON COMPANY ; n the manufacture of this won- WORCESTER. MAS - : meee derful lumbering apparatus C_) "*) Axes that fell the trees in the vast forests are shaped and sharpened on grinding wheels in S@® tremendous quantity to, production 2 : Pies i IeA* ‘ Saws that work lumber intd usable forms are kept sharp by saw-gum- ming machines equip-~ me ped with wheels made especially for this pur- pose fu engines of transporta— caterpillar crawler, the hieltemtalia MeliteM loldet Toiai haiti a: transport lumber thru the forests owe a share of their efficiency to the production of hundreds of close fitting and working parts DAC lalarel tare the & ers rd apes ; Se Ss Gan O AB. dan5 ee WOW QQ uw _ Wd) RrA N° WON OG F’>F7FKHHwqSv "lh | WOOO MG FHPNHNnd]HH] SME Kn AA “NORTON. Grinding Wheels @) Refractories ~Floor Grinding Machines SZ and Stair ies SQ GQ GGG. o0vv9waanrWWWhWWWDW 0Unrnnd’ldli 9. ng AANA GG wn vv".T.F-/Pntv MAE AAA

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aie Si ait The industrial life of America and the health and well-being of our people are clearly de- pendent on future applications, by engineers and physicians, of new discove ries in the physical and biological sciences. If we are to go on increasing our population we must either advance in scientific discovery or we must recede in our standard of living. Of ~ even greater importance, however, is the ad- vance of human thought, the stimulation to the human mind which comes from the ad- vance of science, and publications such as the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN which pass on to the thinking public the truths our intellectual leaders have uncovered, are rendering a public service whose value cannot be over-estimated.

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tee ene Mig, * + A : = re alld aac. a im Multiple Mount of Four The Bureau of Ordnance, under General Williams and his brilliant staff, has spent the post-war years in developing new ordnance material (guns, mounts, fire-control, motorized tractor mounts, aircraft bombs, et cetera,) that shows an average .50-Caliber Machine Guns increase in efficiency of one hundred percent or more over the ordnance with which we entered the war. Indeed, the .50-caliber machine gun, shown in the above illustration, is four times as effective as the old .30-caliber machine gun. Jul

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em er July 1927 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN ARMY COAST-DEFENSE 16-INCH GUN Super-Guns For Our Army Ordnance Officer, Chemist and Mathematician Combined Have Doubled the Efficiency of Our Army Ordnance Since the War NE of the most important, if not indeed the leading factor in the defences of the United States, is the large and highly efficient Proving Ground at Aberdeen, Mary- land, which has to do with the de- velopment of new and improved types of ordnance and acts as the great test- ing plant in which the guns that are issued for service are thoroughly tried out. “Its responsibility to the War Department is to design, develop, pro- cure (which includes both purchase and manufacture), test for acceptance, store and issue, maintain and repair, both in the hands of troops and in Storage, all army ordnance. Also, it is charged with the training of our Reserve Ordnance Officers.” EFORE our entrance into the World War, and indeed until Jan- uary, 1918, most of this work was done at the Sandy Hook Proving Ground. The war had not progressed very far, however, before it was real- ized that the facilities at Sandy Hook would be inadequate and that a much greater anea of land and a larger plant would be necessary to keep pace with the huge ordnance manufacturing Program which was contemplated. By J. BERNARD WALKER So the present site at Aberdeen, Maryland, which is about midway be- tween Baltimore and Philadelphia, was selected. It is accessible to the principal industrial centers; weather conditions are favorable throughout the year, and it was possible to take up an area of adequate size, and suf- ficiently remote from surrounding communities to let the work of testing go on without danger. The Proving Ground is on the north- west shore of Chesapeake Bay. It covers about 35,000 acres; its maximum width is some four miles and its maximum length 15 miles. The work of testing commenced in January, 1918, and it expanded so rapidly that, just before the Ar- mistice, as high as 70,000 rounds per month were being fired on the grounds. The main firing platform has an un- obstructed range of as high as 30,000 yards. The railway and_ sea-coast artillery firing ground is so located that there is a clear range up to 30,000 yards in front of it, and a water range down an adjacent stretch of the Ches- apeake extending 60,000 yards. The fall of the shell on these water ranges is observed from 12 range towers, built at intervals along the shore of Chesapeake Bay. Intersecting sights taken from these towers of the splash of the falling projectile give its exact position and enable the range to be accurately determined. The Proving Ground plant also includes apparatus for testing tanks, tractors and the new heavy, driven, gun-mounts. Furthermore, there has been built since the Armistice a firing range for the testing of small arms, machine guns, et cetera, and a certain area has been set apart for the testing of bombs, bomb-sights, and so on. To assist in this work, there are per- manently stationed at the Proving Ground certain squadrons of flying men. HE presenf article is a story of the really marvelous development in the efficiency of ordnance which has been made possible through the work of the Ordnance Department in gen- eral and the Proving Ground in par- ticular. After the Armistice, an im- mediate halt was called upon the pro- digious output of guns and powder for the supply of our Army and those of the Allies, and, as soon as the guns then under manufacture had passed through the Proving Grounds successfully, the activities at Aber-

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10 NEW 4.7-INCH GUN At maximum elevation has range of 20,050 yards, traverse 60 degrees. Wartime gun, range 14,060 yards, traverse 8 degrees deen quickly and inevitably slowed down. At the Armistice, the per- sonnel comprised 272 commissioned officers, over 4,000 enlisted men and 1,200 civilian employees, to say noth- ing of 3,000 men employed on the con- struction of the plant. This personnel was finally cut down to 40 officers, 250 enlisted men and 375 civilians. In the interval from 1918 to 1926, the staff has devoted itself to the de- velopment of new types of ordnance that should greatly exceed in range, power, accuracy and mobility, the best of the ordnance that had been de- veloped by ourselves and the enemy during the War. We do not hesitate to say that the resulting post-war artillery constitutes one of the great- est triumphs in the whole modern field of mechanical engineering. This is a strong statement; but, remembering the great complexity and difficulty of the science and art of gun design and development, it is sufficient to look at the accompanying drawings and their descriptive captions to realize that the statement is not an exaggeration. OR the photographs, diagrams and general information contained in this article, we are indebted to the courtesy of Major General C. C. Williams, Chief of Ordnance, Wash- SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Lieutenant Colonel C. M. Wesson, Commanding Officer at the Proving Ground, and their re- spective staffs, and to the descriptions of our country’s progress in artillery as recorded from month to month in that excellent publication Army Ord- ington, D. C., nance. To this data we have added our personal impressions gathered COMPARISON OF LIGHT FIELD ARTILLERY WEIGHT OF PROJECTILE vamece am - TEE LbS JERMAN ~ 4 SS as = US _ Mar eo Sm, ~~e ie “Te, % de cee © xeon 3 «3 oa a4 gt é: 3 a 7 during several visits to the Army Proving Ground. Ordnance is a term applied generi- cally to implements of war which may range all the way from the delicate parts of a time-fuse up to the massive forms of a 16-inch gun and its mount. As an instance of delicate and highly specialized work of this kind, take the case of fuses of the shells of anti-air- craft guns. As airplanes went higher, it was found that the old powder-train fuses, because of the changing atmospheric pressure and the failure of the train to burn at a uniform rate, were in- accurate. Therefore, the ordnance of- ficers called in the watchmaker to de- sign a mechanical time-fuse. There was developed a mechanism far more delicate than a high-grade watch, but sufficiently rugged to stand the shock of firing from a high-velocity gun, and being whirled around with the shell at 30,000 revolutions per minute. Consider, also, the investigation to de- termine the proper shape to give the bullet its highest velocity. It was desired to take photographs July 1927 THE FIRE DIRECTOR This remarkable machine automatically deter- mines the height, range and speed of enemy aircraft and transmits data to battery of a .30-caliber bullet moving at 32,400 inches per second, and it must be re- membered that, even with an exposure of only 1/32,400 of a second, the bullet would move one inch. The time had to be cut down. By using an electric spark and by damping the discharge, the time was reduced to one ten-mil- lionths of a second and a sufficiently sharp photograph was secured. The air “bow wave” and the “wake,” or partial vacuum back of the bullet, were clearly shown, and out of this investigation came a bullet, with a long pointed nose and a “boat tail” after portion, which gave the best results and added unbelievably to the range of a bullet using the same charge of powder. As a result of this investigation the range of the bullet was increased from 3,500 to 5,700 yards, and this was done without changing the cartridge case or the gun. ECAUSE of the tremendous air blast, the camera could not be used for large projectiles. Here the higher mathematics of the astronomer were called in to solve the problem. These computations, coupled with many experiments in the wind tunnel, gave a six-inch projectile with a range, from a greatly improved, gun, of NEW 155-mm. GUN ON NEW MOUNT Range now, 26,000 yards; war- time, 17,160 yards. Split trail gives 60 degree traverse Greatly superior to wartime 155. EIGHT-INCH HOWITZER ON NEW MOUNT Throws 200-pound shell 18,700 yards. Range of wartime howitzer 12,600 yards. New 155-mm. gun uses same mount he eee apo RET OR Cem 8 2: RS TRUER ETE July | 25,8 the sam greg gun calil ble com orig trai the gree spli of t

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100 ire let ad ric ze, il- ly he or at, ‘is ee eae July 1927 AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC 11 FOURTEEN-INCH GUN ON RAILWAY MOUNT This gun was Pacific Coast Throws a 1,560-pound projectile 45,000 yards. transported by rail to the 25,850 yards as against 17,160 yards, the range of the pre-war shell of the same caliber. Not only was the range greatly increased, but all modern field guns, except those of the heaviest caliber, are now provided with a dou- ble or split trail, as shown in the ac- companying photographs. On_ the original single trail, the gun could be trained in azimuth, that is to say in the horizontal plane, only a few de- grees; but by the use of the wide open, split trail, the traverse, as it is called, of the gun, has been enlarged to the AN a a HES .’ ARTILLE A ih Me ‘ Ms \ Pe ox x OT ~” ee . MIM GUN 19 ON 2 ba aN “OW N Se cYA « = “~ / j ™ / i / £ / ah, ae se extent shown in the accompanying line drawing. The vast increase in the area which can be covered by a single gun has rendered the modern piece an enor- mously more potent weapon than the type which was used in the World War. The metallurgist has fulfilled his part, and a very important part it has been, in the development of our post- war artillery. By the development of a suitable alloy steel, and subjecting it to suitable heat-treatment, guns of much greater caliber-length, able to withstand higher powder pressure, have been provided. Hence the in- creased ranges mentioned above have been obtained without any increase of weight or loss of mobility of the gun— an important consideration. Another notable improvement in mobility has been secured by mount- ing guns up to 9.5 in caliber upon mo- tor-driven caterpillar mounts. This development, it is true, began before the close of the war; but since the Armistice, it has been carried to such a point of efficiency that by the judi- cious use of rubber with its conse- quent reduction of shock and saving of energy, the speed of the smaller units has been raised from five miles per hour up to, in some cases, as high as 30 miles per hour. Moreover, the engines have been waterproofed and the tractive effort has been so greatly increased, that the tractor can be driven through water and the tractor- mounted gun can climb a 45-degree grade without difficulty. The maneu- vering ability in fact has been de- veloped to a point “where no human being could dodge it in an open field.” We do not know what the other artillerists throughout the world have been doing during the past nine years; but, in view of the great advance which has been shown at Aberdeen, it is reasonable to believe that we can, today, at least hold our own and prob- ably surpass the artillery perform- ance of any foreign nation. OW, let us turn our attention to the shoulder rifle—the great weapon of the infantryman. Even be- fore the commencement of the World War, our “Springfield” was probably the finest regulation army rifle to be found anywhere in the world. It is stated on official authority that during the war, allied soldiers would “pick up and cherish our Springfields whenever they found one on the field of battle.” The Springfield, of course, was hand-operated. Between each shot, THE 16-INCH GUN IN THE SHOPS This dramatic picture shows the gun at high elevation. Note the scale afforded by men standing by the infantryman had to go through the operations of lifting the bolt, withdrawing it, pushing it forward, and pulling it down and locking it— all these movements having to be gone through before the next aimed shot. This prevented the sight being held continuously on the target. To enable this to be done, there was developed the semi-automatic shoulder rifle, which automatically ejects the empty shell and places another cartridge in position. Today, all the rifleman need do is to hold his sights on the target and pull the trigger. The automatic machine gun, which is used when it is desired to pump a stream of lead over enemy troops or at an enemy position, was, of course, a) N OF MEDIUM FIELD ARTILLERY | | EE ——— _ — developed long before the war; but like every other weapon, it was im- proved during and since the war, and the Browning machine gun represents, in the opinion of our artillerists, the highest development of machine guns of the .30-caliber type. But, the great demand made upon the machine gun by aerial combat and by anti-aircraft gunners, led to a demand for a larger caliber with greater range and ac- curacy. Hence, since the war, we have developed the .50-caliber machine gun,

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12 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN July 1927 NEW 3-INCH aimed prtwe per minute with a range Fires 27 throws a bullet four times as heavy and three times as far as that of the .30-caliber Browning gun. Limitations of space prevent more than a brief reference to the develop- ment of airplane bombs. At the Ar- mistice, a bomb weighing 500 pounds was considered powerful; but today the large army planes can carry a which ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUN to a height of 6 miles of 25,000 feet and rivers and streams. The limit of such mounting has been reached in the 9.5-inch howitzer and this heavy piece —thanks to skillful distribution of weight—exerts a ground pressure per unit of area no greater than the pres- sure due a man standing on one foot. And, by the way, due to its great mo- bility, the motorized artillery, even of NEW FULLY-AUTOMATIC 37-mm. GUN Fires a 1%-pound erplosive projectile at a rate of 120 shots per minute. i Range 1% miles The development of tanks at the Proving Ground can be fully appre- ciated only by one who, like the writer, has had the opportunity to study them in action on ground selected for its roughness. The celebrated Mark VIII —a joint British-American design— remains the standard; but it has been bomb of 4,000 pounds con- taining a ton of high explo- INCREASING THE ACCURACY OF RIFLE AND MACHINE GUN AMMUNITION rendered more efficient by many improvements, conspicuous among which is the stro- sive. The size of the indi- vidual bomb is today governed by the lifting ability of the airplane. Returning to the matter of motorized artillery, the ex- + \ perts of the Ordnance Depart- | | ment have this to say % “When the Ordnance engineer mounted his new long-range ‘Seventy-Five’ directly on the SO new 15-mile-per-hour cater- pillar tractor, he blazed the way for artillery development of the future.” This develop- ment is one of the outstanding features of the ordnance de- veloped since the war. There is no question that automo- tive transport will ultimately displace horse-drawn trans- port; for motor transport is cheaper; its gas and oil are less bulky than forage; it re- quires fewer men to operate; aN A WORLD WAR a9 7 RANGE 1000 YAROS o> 920-1929 1922-1923 RANGE 600 YAROS 920-1921 (22-1923 TOTAL SHOTS FIRED MALORITY OF Sx0Ts A enronrry oF ore, (924-1925 tf boscope which is carried in a cylindrical sighting turret on the roof of the tank. This is provided with narrow, verti- cal slits and a concentric ver- tical, rotating cylinder. By this arrangement, the officer is well protected by armor and yet has a practically clear and continuous vision. O article describing Aber- deen would be complete that failed to mention the won- derful development in anti-air- craft artillery. We have spoken already of the great post-war increase in the range of the anti-aircraft .30-caliber machine gun and of the even more striking increase of power and range of the anti- aircraft .50-caliber gun. AI- though the bullets from these will reach and perforate the fabric of an airplane and may, it is easier to ship; it occupies less space on the march; never grows weary; is less vulner- able than horse-drawn trans- port; it is more sanitary and, a most important point, it can be camou- flaged more easily. E heard much about the .155- (6-inch) gun during the war. The post-war piece of this caliber out- ranges the World War piece by nearly five miles. It has been mounted on a caterpillar tractor which can carry it at a speed of 15 miles per hour; it can climb a 45-degree grade, and can ford Tests made No trained sniper, of course, THE RIFLE’S DEADLY with rifle ACCURACY the great weight of the 9.5 piece, can be moved quickly, as soon as its posi- tion has been located by the enemy. With automotive artillery, a number of positions can be selected in advance, firing data computed for each, and at the proper time, the self-propelled mount can move to each position in turn, fire a few rounds (the engine meanwhile running) and before the enemy battery locates its position, it can pull out and move elsewhere. rigidly clamped in a mechanical rest. could equal this record once in a while reach the avia- tor himself, it was proved in the World War that a machine could come back, with its wings and fuselage heavily perforated with bul- let holes, and yet be perfectly manage- able. Evidently, something larger than a bullet hole was necessary, and hence the Aberdeen artillerists have developed a wonderful little gun—the light 37 mm.—which has great ra- pidity of fire, great range, and carries a fuse so sensitive that it is detonated even by the faint resistance offered by the fabric cof an airplane wing. TSP RODE Tea ee erm Te aR RO aR RT Ju Ni la mi sh

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y 1927 © Fa the pre- oY te n- ir- ve ge er on eS 1 —— —— July 1927 Not only do its bursting shells tear a large hole in the fabric, but the frag- ments will be scattered like those of a shrapnel shell. HE anti-aircraft 3-inch gun— i gro to a new system of di- rector-firing and generally improved mechanism—is a vastly more effective piece than that of 1918. The progress in the work of improvement has been continuous and is still going on. Thus, at a test at Fort Tilden in 1925, with 38-inch wartime guns, ten shots were fired per gun per minute, at a sleeve target towed at 80 miles per hour at a range of 4,000 yards; and 5 percent of hits were secured. In the following year, 1926, the latest 38-inch guns were tried out at a similar target towed at 80 miles per hour at about 5,000 yards range. The average rate of fire was 22 rounds per gun per minute, and the average hits reached an average of 12 percent. Not only has the rate of fire of the anti-aircraft machine gun been in- creased, but as many as four machine guns are being placed in a new mul- tiple mount which means that if each gun is capable of, say, 500 shots per minute, the man at the trigger can deliver a stream of 2,000 shots per minute against an airplane. The new “director,” a photograph of which is herewith reproduced, makes it possible for the officers who operate it to de- termine the speed of an airplane, its elevation, changes of course, et cetera, and send this data by connecting cables to every gun of a battery. Carried upon the gun mount are elec- tric motors which, in response to the electrical impulses from the tractor, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN A word must be said about the great guns which have been developed for coast defense and which will be either emplaced in fixed fortifications or will do their firing from railway mounts traveling upon strategic railways lo- cated along the coastline. Guns too heavy for transportation by tractor are carried upon what are known as railway mounts. The latest models BROWNING .50 CALIBER MACHINE GUN This water-cooled gun far exceeds the .30- caliber gun in range and height of trajectory can transport both the 14-inch .50- caliber gun and the 16-inch high-angle fire howitzer. The 14-inch gun can hurl a 1,560 pound shell for 45,000 yards, and the 16-inch howitzer throws a 2,340 pound shell 55,000 yards. These railroad mounts have given our heavy artillery a wonderful mobility. The 14-inch gun, here shown, was transported by rail from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. The heavy, long-range gun, on rail- way mount, will undoubtedly play a 13 cated by their flash and by airplane observation, they may be subjected to accurate and sustained long-range bombardment. The heavy gun, rail-mounted, is subject to no such disadvantage. The military tracks for such artillery would be located near the coastline; but they would be so placed as to take advantage of the cover offered by the natural features of the ground, such as bluffs, woodland, sand dunes, etc. Upon its location by the enemy, the gun would be moved over the rails to .a new site from which it would open up on the enemy with little delay. HE most powerful gun in the country today is the 16-inch, .50- caliber gun, which can hurl a 2,340- pound projectile over 55,000 yards. This weapon is more powerful and has a greater range than any gun now mounted, either ashore or afloat. Its armor-piercing shell, by the way, will penetrate 14 inches of face-hardened armor at any range. Just here let it be said that the Aberdeen Proving Ground represents the most effective means of prepared- ness available under existing condi- tions in the United States; since, by providing standard ordnance of the very highest quality and preparing sets of jigs for each weapon, the War Department, in the event of war, will be able at once to start the vast in- dustrial plants of the country upon the task of manufacturing the neces- sary ordnance, without the intolerable delay which occurred when we found ourselves suddenly enlisted in the World War. Says Mr. D. M. Edwards of The CALIBER.30*** CALIBER 50 BULLETS TRAJECTORIES OF NATIONAL MATCH BULLETS 1919 I2¢ CALIBER 30 FIRED ATAN ANGLE 30° SERVICE (SO GRAIN FLAT BASE BULLET 92/ NM IJO GRAIN FLAT BASE BULLET 92.3NM V'OGRAIN 6° BOAT TAIL BULLET 25. M (NEW SERVICE}/}2 GRAIN 9° BOAT T JISOO 4OOO ASH SOOO S50 60% RANGE IN YARDS give the gun changes of elevation and traverse necessary to insure that shell and airplane will meet at a prede- termined position in the heavens. The vertical range of the 3-inch and of a new 4-inch gun of high velocity is such that no existing airplane can rise beyond its reach—all of which means that the airman of the future is going to have a pretty hot time of it when he passes over the terrain occupied by the forces of the enemy. part in future coast defense. great Its potentialities were shown in the Turkish defense of the Dardanelles, where heavy pieces, shifting continu- ally from place to place along the shore, proved very baffling to the at- tacking ships of the allies. The weak- ness of fixed defenses, such as the forts which defend the entrances to our leading ports, lies in the fact that their exact position is known, and when the heavy guns have been lo- National Association of Manufac- turers: “Should war unhappily come again, it will be won by masses of men at the front and the massed intelli- gence of industry back of the lines. Had our nation been as well equipped when it entered the war as it is to- day, instead of taking eight or nine months to get into action, it would have meant the saving of a million or more lives and millions of dollars worth of property.”

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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN July 1927 Watching the Earth Turn Over The Famous Pendulum Experiment which Makes Visible the Earth’s Rotation May be Performed with Simple Apparatus By RUSSELL W. PORTER Optical Associate, Jones and Lamson Machine Company NCE in a great blue moon you will run across someone who believes that this old earth of ours is fixed rigidly somewhere in space, and that what we see in the heavens —the sun, moon, stars and planets—is circling about us. And I fear some of us would be hard put to it to prove that our globe, and not the other objects, is doing the rotating. A pretty strong argument against a non-rotating earth would be this: were we immovable in space, the more distant stars would have to revolve faster than those nearer to us, in order not to change their relative positions in the heavens. But we now know enough of star distances to make any such assumption at least highly improbable. Apart from any astronomical con- siderations, there are at least three proofs of the earth’s rotation. As far back as 1697 Newton suggested that an object dropped through a great distance—in this case a mine shaft— should strike the bottom a little east of a point directly beneath the point of projection, because the top of the shaft is moving more rapidly than the bottom. In the 500-foot drop available the theoretical devia- tion was about an inch. And the Let Us Hear From You Following numerous requests we publish definite specifications for constructing the apparatus needed to perform the famous Foucault pendulum’ experiment. Such information has always been relatively hard to obtain. The author of the accompanying arti- cle has, however, both constructed the apparatus and made the ex- periment. Mr. Porter has been in turn polar explorer, architect and inventor, and is now attached as Optical Associate to a famous industry. It was he also who fathered the Scientific American amateur telescope making cam- paign. If you perform the ex- periment please advise us how it worked out. The Edftor. means of a large number of trials was in fair agreement with this the- oretical value. Another proof depends on the prop- erty of the gyroscope of maintaining the direction of its axis invariable in space (unless acted on by disturbing forces). Consequently the earth will appear to rotate under the gyroscope. The experiment to be described here is, however, that of the simple pendulum. The man to whom we are indebted for this demonstration that the earth turns over, was that wizard of the last century (1819-1868), Leon Foucault. Not only did his remarkable ingenuity in experimental physics give us a fundamental proof of the earth’s rotation, but also a determina- tion of the velocity of light and a priceless method of testing optical surfaces, one application of which was described recently in the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN in connection with the making of mirrors for reflecting tele- scopes. The consideration which led Fou- cault to perform his famous experi- ment was simply this: a perfect pendu- lum will continue vibrating in space in the direction in which it was origi- nally set swinging, independent of any rotation of its support about its point of suspension. Therefore the earth will be seen slowly turning be- neath the pendulum, just as in the gyroscope experiment. Not only does it res eee a reer | July shov rota one ern cloc! stat wes ¥ exp caul the Par nea: wei; pen the the pat] tra} T pro ent: vide tior non T to i a te tail: wal lack pro pen in wit Spr um ear by can 7 litt me! the hea N I-b

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927 July 1927 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 15 show the fact of the earth’s rotation, but its direction. To one looking down on the north- ern hemisphere this is counter- clockwise; or, as we ordinarily state it, the earth turns from west to east. When he performed his classic experiment, 75 years ago, Fou- cault hung his pendulum from the dome of the Pantheon in Paris. The suspending wire was nearly 200 feet long and the ball weighed about 80 pounds. As the pendulum swung back and forth, the needle which projected from the bottom of the ball traced its path in a tray of sand. And the tray was seen to turn! The announcement made a profound impression on the sci- entists of the time, as it pro- vided a proof of the earth’s rota- tion, independent of any astro- nomical observations. This famous experiment is referred to in all textbooks of physics, but with a total disregard to the practical de- tails necessary to help the fellow who wants to do it himself, and it is this lack of definite information that prompts the present article: I recently constructed a Foucault pendulum, and when it became known in the large industrial organization with which I am associated here in Springfield, that “‘Porter had a ‘thing- umbob’ in his office that showed the earth turning over,” I was besieged by the mechanics in the shop, who came to me asking to be shown. The demonstration gave quite a little thrill. It is so simple that the men all grasped its significance, and they would go away shaking their heads, saying, “Well, I'll be darned.” Y pendulum is about twelve feet long, and is hung from a steel I-beam in the ceiling. I used piano When performing it one has an uncanny sense of personal detachment from the earth wire, and a cast-iron ball weighing perhaps 40 pounds. The effects of air resistance are reduced as we increase the length of the pendulum and the weight of the bob. Lead naturally makes the most efficient bob, but any heavy mass will do. In time, of course, the pendulum slows up, but with a three-foot initial swing my bob will still be swinging through two feet amplitude at the end of half an hour ample time to see the rotation, which becomes apparent even after a few moments. The pendulum must be hung from a solid support free from vibration (I have trouble when the shop ma- chinery is running), and the air in the room must be free from drafts. To free the pendulum from any tendency to twist I fastened to the wire a brass hook having very much the shape of an interrogation point (see drawing). The point of the hook rests in a shallow cup of steel screwed into the I-beam. The concave surface of the cup was carefully lapped smooth in a lathe, with fine emery. In making the experiment it is important that the bob be completely at rest before it is started swinging. To assure this the ball is drawn back with a string and, after coming to rest, the string is burned. Unless this precaution is taken the bob will tend to swing in an elongated ellipse, and any slight “looping”’ at the start will become aggra- vated as the swinging continues. It does not matter in what direction the pendulum is set swinging. In the accompanying sketches I have depicted it swing- ing north and south, that is, in the meridian. However, this was done merely for clarity. The pin or needle protruding from the ball should just clear a sheet of cardboard on the table. Draw a straight line across the cardboard and move it on the table until the line lies in the vertical plane with the path of the swinging needle. Now watch the line on the card- board—or the southerly end of it. In a few minutes—two or three—the rotation of the earth will become noticeable. The cardboard with its line is actually turning, and its south end is moving towards the east—that is, counter-clockwise. R. CHARLES 8S. HASTINGS of Yale, now retired, tells me that in demonstrating the Foucault pendu- lum experiment before his classes in physics, he used a bob of cast iron some four inches in diameter, and a piano wire about sixteen feet long. He found that knife-edge suspension was not as efficient in preventing looping as allowing the wire to rest in a V-grooved support at a slight angle (shown at A in one of the draw- HOW THE EARTH ROTATES The rotation is counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere, but goes with the hands of a clock in the southern hemisphere STARTING THE PENDULUM It is held back by a string until it comes to rest. The string is then burned. These precautions are essential to success

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16 ADJUSTABLE WEIGHT — LJ ——— 7 BRONZE BALL FILLED WITH LEAD WEIGHT oN, ANOTHER METHOD Elevation drawing of the pendulum installed at the National Academy of Sciences ings). He remarked on the close agreement of the measured rotational rate of the pendulum with theory, usually with less than ten percent of error, even during as short an in- terval as 15 minutes. He used a hard brass wire which would not carry more than two (perhaps three) times the weight of the bob. This is prob- ably not unimportant, There remains the mathematical demonstration of the rate of rotation of the pendulum for any given latitude. It is obvious that if the pendulum were to be set swinging at the north pole, the cardboard and the earth would make one complete rotation under it in 24 hours. At the equator, on the other hand, there would be no rotation of the cardboard with re- spect to the plane in which the pendu- lum swings. For positions intermediate between pole and equator let us consider an observer at some northerly latitude, O (see drawing at top of page 12). Here | ey —_—_—e a my 2 rg bh \ i j A P / | A. / / \/ | - 4 } Ler NP] NortH Pore A = ANY ANGLE = 15°xX Time _@ = CORRESPONDING CHANGE IN DIRECTION OF MERIDIAN bc = DISTANCE OF FIXED PoiInT b TO EDGE OF 43° CIRCLE A MEASURED BY PROTRACTOR = 25°2 a td ad ° = 17.1 A sin 43° = 17°22) (Heck) SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN the pendulum is set swinging north and south, OH. After an interval (t) the rotating earth moves the position of the observer to O’H’. But angle H’O’H=—angle OHO’. The are OO’ is common to OHO’ and O-center of earth-O’. Whence, OHO’ O-center O-center-O’ OH But O-center divided by OH is the sine of the latitude, for the rate of — OHO’ O-center-O’ _ rotation, — a sine latitude. That is, while the earth rotates through angle O-center-O’, the pendu- lum, relative to the earth, rotates through the lesser angle OHO’, and therefore its angular velocity is less than that of the earth. Thus, when the earth has made one revolution the pendulum has not done so, and must be swinging in a different direction with regard to the meridian over which it was set vibrating 24 hours earlier. That this must be so seems conclusive from the above demonstra- tion, but it is not so easy to visualize. I have followed Hastings’ treatment (Hastings and Beach, “General Physics, 1898,” page 60), but Jones in his new “General Astronomy,” page 13, employs the same steps and arrives at the same results. Very well, if you want to exer- cise. your imagination, get your terrestrial globe and try to figure out how this state of affairs can be. I spent one evening with several Springfield amateur astronomers, try- ing to unravel the mystery, but it was given up in despair. Perhaps some reader of the Scientific American will take pity on and send us the answer. To return to our demonstration: the angular velocity of the observer O is, us July 1927 PLAN OF SUPPORT VIEW FROM ABOVE drawing of the installation shown in elevation in the drawing at the left Plan of course, 15° an hour. Therefore the rate of rotation of the pendulum, OHO’, is 15° per hour sine of the latitude. For the neighborhood of New York, whose latitude is 41° (sine — .65), the rate at which the pendulum will rotate is therefore 15° .65 = 10° per hour. To check this in actual practice, mark off on the cardboard an angle of 15° from the central line and sub- divide this angle to single degrees. Then note the number of degrees the card turns from the path of the needle. The cardboard rotates at the rate of 10° per hour—that is, at the rate of one degree per six minutes— and if the amplitude or length of swing of the pendulum is two feet, one de- gree on the paper amounts to about one-eighth of an inch. So it takes only a few moments to make the rota- tion of the earth apparent. I would like to see a Foucault pendulum apparatus of some type in every school and library in this coun- try, for its educational value alone. INTERVAL IN HOURS | | | | | | ! GRAPHIC SOLUTION OF THE OF ROTATION This solution for the author's own latitude was furnished by Dr. Charles S. Hastings, eminent physicist (retired) at Yale RATE AUTHOR’S METHOD OF SUSPENDING THE PENDULUM A brass hook one-eighth of am inch in thickness rests in a cup of steel, lapped smooth. This is provided to prevent twisting SE ae eC ea fae OR teenage RES eT ll = fda am S&S f= @®

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7 the um, the of 41° the 15° ice, » of ub- eS, RRL” July 1927 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN OUR POINT OF VIEW | PROPAGANDA ARELY has a word in our lan- R guage been misunderstood and misused so widely as the term “propa- ganda.” We have come to the way of thinking that if we apply the word “propaganda” to a movement for the dissemination of an unpopular truth, we have nailed that movement to the cross. So true is this, that “propa- ganda,” in the minds of the unin- structed and unthinking majority, has come to stand for deliberate lying; so that when a man finds himself being worsted in an argument, it is more likely than not that he will throw out a sheltering smoke screen by shout- ing with gusto, “I and my cause are the victims of propaganda.” Now, “propaganda” is a perfectly good and wholesome word, with an honorable lineage behind it. Only during and since the World War has it been clothed with its present sinis- ter significance. Centuries ago it originated in the missionary activities of the Roman Catholic Church and was applied to a society of cardinals who directed foreign missionary en- terprise, and formed the College of the Propaganda for the education of missionary priests—a perfectly laud- able enterprise as everybody surely will admit. In this sense, any body of men who are associated for the dissemination of some truth or doc- trine may be called “propagandists,” and it is only when such united effort seeks to distort the truth, and dis- seminates what it knows to be hurtful and trouble-making lies, that the term takes on its sinister meaning. UNADULTERATED NERVE HAT modern advertising has be- come a potent force for good, no one of intelligence even wishes to deny. Long past is the day when the owner of a business regarded dubiously—“‘as good as thrown away” —the 5 percent of his annual earn- ings which advertising men urged him to “forego this year, that profits might be all the greater next year.” Long ago has the phrase, “It pays to advertise,” become trite with accept- ance; one would find it no more nec- essary to go about urging that two and two make four, or that the sun rises in the east. More recently we have seen how great advertising campaigns are con- ducted. Given the money, it is possi- ble to introduce—“put over”’—any worthy new product on an old market; the results are in proportion to the expenditure. But can miracles be accomplished by advertisers? Are we all such dunces that they can ram anything they wish down our throats? The Glass Container is a _ special organ “published in the interest of all makers and users of glass con- tainers, and the contributing indus- tries.” It advocates glass bottles for liquids, glass jars for foods, and, al- most, glass everything for everything —which is a pretty good idea. Evi- dently, however, its editor believes rather fully in the power of advertis- ing to hypnotize the public into the belief that two and two make three, or maybe five. It seems we are all going to stop wanting fresh foods and begin craving canned foods—in glass containers, of course—and actually like it. The following is a quotation from an editorial box conspicuously The Mississippi Lesson | HE unprecedented rainfall which caused the Mississippi flood was an act of God. The bursting of the huge flood through its artificial banks was an act of man. It is chargeable to the shortsightedness, lack of cooperation and petty local rival- ries of the lay population and its non-technical representatives in Congress. The only men who understand the Mississippi prob- lem are the United States Army Engineer Corps. Years ago they formulated a plan. Had Con- gress authorized the full sum needed for its execution and | year by year granted the appro- | priations for the continuous ex- | ecution of the project, it would, | today, be completed and the flood would have passed harm- lessly to the gulf. The levees, as they stand, are a chain, full of missing links. printed on the front cover of a recent issue of that journal: “The destiny of the food-packing industry,” it says, “lies in the hands of the food packers themselves. If they will not attempt to make the public prefer canned to fresh prod- ucts, then they will have only them- selves to blame if they find themselves with a cadaver on their hands where once rested a thriving industry.” For cool, unadulterated nerve, this has anything we have read in a long time nailed to the mast. Make the public prefer canned to fresh prod- ucts! Readers, is your intelligence and ours about to be operated on by means of “educational” campaigns so that we shall insist on the genuine canned foods, accepting no fresh sub- stitutes? Will constant hammering accomplish the change of opinion? Shall we in the end find ourselves be- coming indignant when well-meaning grocers try to foist on us fresh foods? Or picture yourself in a restaurant saying, “Waiter! Take away these fresh peas—I ordered canned peas!” Few advertising men will be found to undertake such a silly campaign. THE CITY BEAUTIFUL HEN the traveler gets his first sight of Manhattan, he is fas- cinated by the “marvelous skyline” and justly so; for the picture pre- sented has all the qualities of sur- prise, majesty and picturesque beauty. But it requires something more than a striking skyline to produce the “City Beautiful.” Many of the build- ings that contribute to skyline effects, are found, upon closer view, to be oppressively monotonous, devoid of any appeal to the imagination, utterly naked of any treatment that would give them architectural appeal, or place them in harmony with their surroundings. We are justly proud of the New York Public Library as a dignified and artistic work. Within the past few months, it has been over- topped by a 30-story, brick, office building, across the street, which lifts its vast, yellow, monotonous bulk into the heavens—a blazing, vertical Sa- hara, unrelieved by those shadow ef- fects which a skillful artist knows how to use with telling results. And in every city there are many such. Our own Art Commission’s super- visory powers should be broadened to cover the modern office building. TUNNEL VENTILATION ECENT preliminary and partial tests of the ventilating plant for the Hudson River Vehicular Tunnel seem to have worried the officials in charge of the work. On paper, the present plan of forcing air into the tunnel at the roadway level and draw- ing it out by powerful suction at the ceiling level, strongly commends itself as the most direct way to remove the monoxide gas from the tunnel. On the other hand, should a truck loaded with combustible material catch fire in the tunnel, the :pward rush of air from the roadway might well serve as a forced draft to increase the heat and rapidity of the fire. It seems that preliminary tests with combustible material, purposely set afire in the tunnel, has brought this forced-draft effect to official at- tention. We do not question, how- ever, the ability of the engineers to meet this problem and solve it satis- factorily. If 10,000 feet of vehicular tunnel cannot be fully and safely ven- tilated, there remains the moving belt or platform, which could be so de- signed as satisfactorily to meet the emergency.

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18 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN July 1927 The Month in Medical Science A Review and Commentary on Progress in the Medical and Surgical Field By MORRIS FISHBEIN, M. D. Editor of the Journal! of the American Medical Association and of Hygeia Stretching the Back YERSONS with contracted muscles and ligaments in the back and with weak abdominal muscles are fre- quently told by physicians to take certain exercises that will improve the flexibility and power of the muscles concerned. A simple apparatus de- scribed by Dr. Philip Lewin consists of a one and one-half inch belt strap 15 inches long, fastened to the floor, and a small stool, 14 inches high, 11 inches wide and 18 inches long, placed as shown below. This apparatus could readily be made at home. The subject sits on the stool and the forefeet are slipped through the strap. The hands are placed behind the head. On the count of one, the trunk is al- lowed to hyperextend until the head touches the floor. It remains in this position during the counts of two and three, and on the count of four the return to the starting position is made. This exercise should be done from 10 to 20 times each morning and night, but this number is to be at- tained gradually. At first a pillow or soft pad is placed on the floor to re- ceive the head, so that the extreme position is not assumed. During ex- tensicn there is a combined effect of gravity resisted by the abdominal muscles. During flexion the abdom- inal muscles are given much work to perform and are well exercised. FIRST POSITION The simple apparatus for stretching the muscles and liga- ments of the back, as well as those of the abdomen, is shown here in use, the exercise to be performed morning and night Hair Encircling a Finger at Birth R. JAMES J. SNIPES reports to the American Medical Asso- ciation the case of a child aged four weeks which was found to have a con- traction around the center of the first phalanx of the middle finger of the APPEARANCE OF FINGER It is thought that the hair encircling the finger was present at the time of birth of the child left hand at birth. Because of the contraction, the finger was somewhat swollen and there was a slight ulcera- tion present. In cleaning the finger, a hair was found imbedded in the crease and completely encircling the finger. When the hair was removed the finger grad- ually returned to normal. So far as is known, the encircling hair was present on the finger at birth. Synthalin in Diabetes LTHOUGH the product synthalin for the treatment of diabetes is not yet available in this country and not yet established as actually useful in the treatment of this disease, in- vestigators abroad continue to study it with a view to determining its actual merits. A Hungarian physi- cian, Dr. Hetényi, reported to the Budapest Royal Medical Society the results of its use in 14 cases. In ten, the drug seemed promising because when taken by mouth the patients were freed of sugar and the effect was relatively lasting. However, in four cases its use was accompanied by loss of appetite, disagreeable symptoms related to the stomach and intestines, and nausea and vomiting. In some cases the drug seemed to irritate the kidneys and women who were weak or especially nervous reacted seriously to its administration. In view of these dangerous side ef- fects, the Hungarian physicians be- lieve that the advantages of synthalin over insulin, because of its cheapness and the fact that it can be taken by mouth, are not sufficient to warrant its use. It is, of course, possible that continued experimentation will develop a product free from such side effects. SECOND POSITION The back is arched and the abdominal muscles are exerted to resist the force of gravity. ove directions for construction and use of this simple apparatus The text above gives complete July 1 AV R McCo! ical I Publi versit tigati Ef, fir: of th facto! spons ciatec assim work indic: vitam fetus of tk this | assim be pl appr¢ ning Th socia tions tions gard ing treat that consi liver As tion, knov satis the pose celle A ly i that

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. 1927 ; * as was lin is ind ful in- idy its si- he he se its July 1927 A Vitamin to Control Iron in the Body R. NINA SIMMONDS, Miss J. Ernestine Becker and Dr. E. V. McCollum of the Department of Chem- ical Hygiene, School of Hygiene and Public Health of Johns Hopkins Uni- versity, have recently completed inves- tigations which indicate that vitamin E, first described by Evans and Bishop of the University of California as a factor controlling sterility, is also re- sponsible or in some manner asso- ciated with the way in which iron is assimilated in the human body. The work done by previous investigators indicated that a deficiency of this vitamin resulted in the death of the fetuses in rats, and it is the belief of the Baltimore investigators that this death is due to a crisis in iron assimilation and that the death may be prevented by giving vitamin E in appropriate amounts from the begin- ning of pregnancy in the mother rat. The authors are also inclined to as- sociate the results of their investiga- tions with the encouraging observa- tions made by Minot and Murphy re- garding the eating of diets contain- ing large amounts of liver in the treatment of anemia. They point out that liver fats contain vitamin E in considerable amounts, and that the liver also contains much iron. As a by-product of their investiga- tion, it was found that the iron salt known as ferrous sulfate is not a satisfactory source of iron, but that the ferric citrate will serve the pur- pose. Wheat germ oil is also an ex- cellent source of vitamin E. An Unusual Tumor MONG the most unusual of the tumors affecting man, particular- ly in the extraordinary appearance that they may produce, are those com- A TUMOR OF FAT This growth continued for 25 years and was finally removed by a very simple operation in which only local anesthesia was used SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN AUTOMATIC ELECTRICAL TIMER This device warns the patient or doc- tor when the time period for a certain treatment is completed posed of fat. They may appear any- where in the body. In a case described by Dr. R. J. White of Fort Worth, Texas, the tumor affected a man 64 years of age. As shown in the picture, the tumor very much resembled a female breast. It began when the man was 24 years of age and grew intermittently until he was 49 years of age, after which it apparently ceased to grow further. The tumor was entirely of fat and did no harm, except by its unusual appearance. It was easily removed with a simple incision of the skin un- der local anesthesia. The remarkable fact in the case is that anyone would continue to carry such a deformity when the removal was such a simple matter. Treatment Timer oe the coming into scientific medicine of modern methods of treatment by the use of light, X ray, continuous warm baths, and similar procedures in which the treatment may extend over varying periods of time, from a few minutes up to sev- eral hours, and in which excessive treatment may produce harm, it has been necessary to develop means for automatically controlling the applica- tions. Such a device is the treatment timer described by Dr. H. L. Classen of Ohio. The device correctly times periods of from one minute up to 45 minutes; warns the operator and automatically turns off the electric current after the 19 end of the time period for which it is set; may be automatically turned off by the patient, and is automatically integrating. It is not necessary to wind it up or to control it in any other fashion than merely to turn on the switch when the device is in use. Counting the Fetal Heart Beat R. JOSEPH B. DELEE, chief physician of the Lying-In Hos- pital in Chicago, an institution noted for its contribution to the advance- ment of this branch to medical science, has been able with the assistance of the firm of Vacheron and Constantin of Geneva, Switzerland, recognized as among the greatest of watch-makers in the world, to develop a watch and a clock for assisting the physician in counting the heart beat under circum- stances when it is unusually rapid or heard with difficulty. This is espe- cially important in a case of an infant previous to birth, when the fluctua- tions, the rapidity, rhythm or charac- ter of the heart tones may be of great significance. Dr. DeLee is authority for the statement that it is possible to diag- nose injury te the brain of the un- born child under such circumstances, and even to predict whether it will have convulsions after it is born. The clock shown in the illustration rings a bell every fifteen seconds. The physician listens to the beat of the baby’s heart with a stethoscope that fastens to a headband and which need not be touched by hand. When the bell strikes, the physician counts the beat until the bell strikes again, which is exactly 15 seconds measured time. A watch, slightly larger than the usual watch, is also made with a bell- ringing attachment. This size is ideal for portable use. TIMER FOR THE HEART rings a signal bell every 15 seconds. During the interval, heart beats are counted. It is thus unneces- sary to watch the clock The clock

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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Courtesy the Verkes Observatory Be TBE THE DOME OF ONE OF THE GREAT TELESCOPES AT MT. WILSON OBSERVATORY Is Mars Habitable? Its Habitability is Made More Probable By Recent Observations Whether it is Actually Inhabited is Still Unknown By HENRY NORRIS RUSSELL, Ph. D., Chairman of the Department of Astronomy and Director of the Observatory at Princeton University Research Associate of the Mt. Wilson Observatory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington VERYONE knows that astro- nomical observation is a try- ing business; the picture of the “pale astronomer” work- ing at his telescope the whole night long is a commonplace. But, except in a few isolated fields of research, the astronomer’s work has only begun when his observations are made and duly recorded. He must in- terpret them—and this “discussion” of his observations often takes more time and work than the making of them. Those who do not understand this are likely to be impatient to learn the results of the astronomer’s work. They know that some noteworthy event—an eclipse, a close approach of a planet, or the like—occurred months ago and they ask, “Why don’t they tell us what they discovered?” Mean- while the observers are busy finding out just what the observations have indicated—checking their results in every way they can think of, applying all possible tests, until the sheets of calculations grow into a mighty pile. VERY good instance of this is found in last year’s study of Mars. Six months have passed since the observers were busiest with their telescopes, and the first detailed ac- count of their conclusions has just been published—a summary of the work of Dr. Coblentz of the Bureau of Standards, in cooperation with Dr. Lampland of the Lowell Observatory. The particular question under dis- cussion is the very interesting one of the temperature of the planet’s sur- face—upon which the observations of 1924 gave the world the first really trustworthy information. We may recall that these observa- tions are made with the aid of a ther- mocouple—that most delicate device in which the planet’s rays heat up a tiny speck of blackened metal at the junction of two wires of different al- loys—and set up a feeble electric cur- rent which is recorded by a sensitive galvanometer. By mounting the ap- paratus in a vacuum, and making it extremely small, great sensitiveness may be secured; one of Dr. Coblentz’s thermocouples was only 1/200 of an inch in diameter. Such an apparatus, with proper precautions, measures the heat which comes in from the planet, or rather, from that particular part of its surface whose image fell on the receiving device. (The smallest ther- mocouple covered only one thirteenth of the diameter of the image of Mars.) We have no time here to tell the story of the long series of researches which led to the development of the amazingly delicate and efficient de- vices now in use. Some idea of the care employed, even in handling the instruments, may be gained from: Dr. Coblentz’s remark that one instrument containing these brittie filaments as fine as hairs is “still in good condi- tion in spite of one trip to California and four to Arizona, totalling over 26,000 miles.” Reliable measurements can now be made as a matter of routine; but how | are we to interpret them? Some of | the heat from the planet is carried | through the ether in short waves— | this corresponds simply to the reflected | sunlight. The rest comes in long waves, emitted from the planet’s warm surface. By the interposition of suit- able filters—cells containing water, or plates of glass, quartz, or fluorspar— the waves of different lengths may | be sorted out, and their relative heat- | carrying powers compared. ' HEN this is done, the quest would be fairly plain sailing if | only there were no atmosphere on the | earth, and none on Mars; for the rela- tive amounts of radiation of the va- rious wavelengths given out by a standard body at various tempera- tures can easily be computed, and we would only have to match these with the observed data. But, as things are, the earth’s atmosphere interposes an additional screen, imperfectly trans- parent, and varying hourly in its transmission, as weather conditions change; also as the planet’s rays traverse various thicknesses of air as it raises or sinks in the sky. The higher the altitude of the ob- servatory and the drier the air, the less will be these difficulties; so that Flagstaff was, in these particulars, an exceptionally good observing station. After allowance has been made as fully as possible for our atmosphere, July there the € We | atm¢ mucl The1 the | snov in th snov pear spec far also W have the and deal dep! of i by cool thre face atm is \ wal wal a h sur ma: im} slig goo one alr flue the ital be L day wo agi sul rai wh ol

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July 197 (A) w be how 1e of rried 2cted long arm suit- r, or ar— may eat- | ee July 1927 there remains the difficult question of the effects of the atmosphere of Mars. We are sure that the planet has an atmosphere, although probably one much less dense than the earth’s. There can no longer be any doubt that the polar caps are really composed of snow; and the presence of water vapor in the Martian atmosphere, after these snows have for the most part disap- peared, has been shown by direct spectroscopic tests. Clouds, although far less abundant than on earth, have also often been observed on Mars. What effects will all these things have on the observed radiation and the deduced temperature? Clouds and even a thin haze reflect a good deal of sunlight back into space, thus depriving the planet’s surface of some of its income of heat. This influence, by itself, would make the surface cooler. But the heat which does get through the haze to the planet’s sur- face has to get out again; and a damp atmosphere, even if not visibly cloudy, is very effective in blocking the out- ward passage of most of the long waves. This second influence acts as a heat-trap, and tends to warm the surface. Under certain conditions, it may considerably exceed the first in importance, and a planet with a moist, slightly hazy atmosphere may be a good deal hotter on the surface than one without such a protection. It is almost certain, indeed, that this in- fluence is a major factor in making the temperate zones of the earth hab- itable. Without it New York might be as cold as Greenland is now. a. clouds would produce a more nearly balanced effect, by day; but if they formed at night, they would act as a very effective blanket against the escape of heat from the surface and might do a great deal to raise the average temperature for the whole 24 hours. Courtesy of Popular Astronomy THE VACUUM THERMOCOUPLE The The the the radiation enters by window W. observer’s window, for sighting couple, is at C. Between them thin thermocouple shows faintly SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN When, however, we consider what influence clouds or water-vapor haze will have on the observed heat radia- tion from a planet, we have quite an- other story. The short waves of sun- light are reflected back to us in larger amounts than before, while the long waves coming from the underlying surface are partly prevented from getting out. These two effects work the same way, and should cause the observed proportion of long-wave to short-wave radiation to be much di- THERMOCOUPLE ~ on Syrtis Major THERMOCOUPLE .on Mare Sirenum Courtesy U.S. Bureau of Standards THERMOCOUPLE ON MARS The tiny junctions are about the size of a pe riod. They can be placed over any chosen part of the planet’s image minished. For an atmosphereless sur- face, this would correspond to a lower temperature; hence the temperature of a cloudy or hazy part of the Mar- tian disk, as calculated by the (rela- tively) simple formulae which have usually been employed, will be lower, and may be a good deal lower, than that of the actual surface beneath. Dr. Coblentz uses this principle to explain one of the worst puzzles of the observations of 1924. The region of the polar caps, when the snows are rapidly diminishing, when tested by radiation measurements, appeared to have a temperature of —60° Centi- grade, or about 75° below zero, Fah- renheit. Now it may perhaps be that the snows evaporate into dry air at a temperature a little below the freezing point, but at anything like this degree of cold they would show no tendency to evaporate at all. The actual sur- face temperature at the edge of the caps is, at the worst, probably about zero, Fahrenheit, and may be a good deal higher. Similar considerations apply to the measurements upon the eastern and western limbs of the planet (when the sun is just rising or setting) which appeared to be pretty cold, with tem- peratures of 20°, Fahrenheit or lower. Here one line of sight penetrates the Martian atmosphere obliquely, and any effect of haze would be heightened. Taking all these things into ac- count, Dr. Coblentz arrives at the fol- lowing estimates of the actual surface temperatures of different portions of the planet. In the south polar region —in the latter part of its summer season — the temperature probably ranges from 15° to 50°, Fahrenheit; 21 in the south temperate zone (summer), 65° to 75°; in the tropics, at noon, 65° to 85°; in the north temperate zone (winter in rather low latitude), 30° to 60°; nearer the north pole, where the winter days are short, from 10° to 40° below zero. All these are tem- peratures at noon; at sunrise the tem- perature is probably not much above zero, and at sunset, perhaps 15° or 20°, Fahrenheit. The nights, even on the equator, are probably very cold, and at the sunless pole the tempera- ture may fall very low. LL these results differ widely from the opinions which were held, even by the best authorities, five years ago; but they rest upon a solid foun- dation of measurement, and afford a sufficient base for change of the pre- vailing expert opinion, They are not without independent confirmation. Pettit and Nicholson, at Mount Wil- son, have made similar observations. Their results for 1926 are not yet an- nounced; those of 1924 indicated a temperature at noon in the tropics of about 80°, Fahrenheit. Coblentz em- phasizes the point that the results ob- tained at the two observatories are not in disagreement, (as has errone- ously been supposed by some uncrit- ical readers). The numerical differ- ences in the published statements de- pend on the fact that the corrections for the probable effects of clouds and haze have been applied in some cases and not in others. Just how great these corrections may actually be, future research must tell; Dr. Coblentz states expressly that his values are subject to further re- vision. But there can now be little doubt that, owing to atmospheric in- fluences, the surface of Mars is a good deal warmer than even once sup- posed, and there appears to be no further difficulty on the score in re- garding the planet as habitable. Courtesy of Popular Astronomy WHAT THE OBSERVER SEES Here the reader is looking through window C of the figure on opposite side of the page. The two round ther- mojunctions show quite plainly here

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22 - ‘y PP 4 te SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN July 1927 Courtesy of Peabody Museum Harvard University EXCAVATORS AT WORK IN A TYPICAL REFUGE CAVE OF CLIFF DWELLERS American Farmers of 4000 B.C. A Brief Survey of the Known History of Our Southwestern Aborigines By A. V. KIDDER, Ph. D. Chairman, Division of Anthropology and Psychology, National Research Council! HE tremendous public in- terest aroused by the dis- covery of King Tutankha- men’s tomb, and by the opening, one by one, of its treasure-packed chambers, served to put archaeology, to speak, “on the map.” Since then archaeolog- ical news from various SO past can as yet catch only fleeting glimpses. But in some regions, be- cause of abundant remains or fortu- nate accidents of preservation, the outlines, at least, of pre-history are shaping themselves. One of these regions is the American Southwest. The Southwest, archaeologically much of it is true desert, and it is, one would naturally suppose, the very last place in which primitive man could have made unassisted any ad- vance from barbarism. Yet here there grew up the highest civilization that was achieved by any Indian people in the United States, and that civili- zation was intrinsically parts of the world has been regularly on the front page of our great dailies, and the period- ical press has carried an increasingly large number of special arch- aeological articles. As a rule, however, the press notices and the feature stories have described work done at single sites, or have recorded isolated finds ef spectacular spéci- mens; the public has had only the high- lights. If mere incidents in the subject as a whole? Bringing Order Out of Chaos Has it been the experience of the reader, as it is that of the Editor, that a great deal has been written about the arch- aeology of the Southwestern States, without greatly clarifying Usually the writer, being himself an expert on his own subject, assumes that the reader already knows the fundamentals of it. And the reader usually does not. With this in mind Professor Kidder, an authority on the archaeology of the Southwest and author of a notable recent work entitled “Southwestern Archaeology,” was asked to pre- pare a short survey of the subject. done, and the reader will now have a peg on which to hang future statements about the archaeology of the Southwest. The main periods are approximately as follows: Maker, ? to 2000 B.C.; Basket Maker, 2000 B.C. to 500 B.C.; Post-Basket Maker, 500 B.C. to 1 A.D.; Pre-Pueblo, 1 A.D. to 250 A.D.; Early Pueblo, 250 A.D. to 500 A.D.; Great Pueblo period, 500 A.D. to 1100 A.D.; Period of decline, 1/00 A.D. to 1540 A.D.; European Discovery, 1549 A.D.; Historic Period, 1540 to 1927 A.D. This he has admirably Pre-Basket so strong, and was so well adapted to its pe- culiar environment that, of all the native cultures of our coun- try, it alone has sur- vived to the present day in anything like its aboriginal purity. And, as I said above, we are now able to trace its history with considerable accuracy. Long before the birth of Christ, prob- ably two or three thou- sand years before, the if mesas and canyons of jj} the Southwest were the great drama of man’s rise from savagery can com- mand publie attention, much deeper and more intelligent interest will be aroused when the entire story can be told. The major part of that story is still to be unravelled, for even the best informed students of the human speaking, comprises those parts of Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and the Old Mexican State of Chihuahua which contain remains of the Pueblo Indians or of their cul- tural ancestors. The region is in general a semi-arid or arid plateau, roamed over by little groups of nomadic Indians. They led a hand-to-mouth existence by hunting such small game as existed in that barren land and by gathering scanty harvests of wild seeds and roots. In some way, not as yet clearly under- stood, there reached these people seeds July of c cere: brou The) place that crop ually weal thei! habi' It stag of f our that eal kno life west pai rec mal olog ing bur’ see buil heat livil con scat the no} zon ern Ma leat pla bea T leat par hut pea gre in | dra cro of | anc ser cor we! wa: tec roo key all des fec Ca} off we wil gr: da; or ers ha no

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'y 1927 July 1927 of corn, the great native American cereal, which had still earlier been prought under cultivation in Mexico. They began to plant corn in favorable places, and the possession of fields that required attention, together with crops they could depend upon, grad- ually served to wean them from their wandering habits. It is at this stage, this dawn of farming in our country, that we get our earliest real knowledge of life in the South- west, knowledge painstakingly recovered by many archae- ologists excavat- ing in dusty burial caves. We see a strongly built folk, long- headed, _tallish, living in little communities scattered among the gorges of northern Ari- zona and south- ern Utah. We call them the Basket Makers, because not yet having learned to mold pottery vessels, they placed with their dead offerings of beautifully woven baskets. ern Arizona. HE Basket Makers, according to S. J. Guernsey of Harvard, the leading authority on this period, ap- parently lived in perishable brush huts, all trace of which has now disap- peared. They took advantage of the great caves, which occur so commonly in the canyons of the Colorado River drainage, as storage places for their crops. Holes dug in the sandy floors of the caverns, lined with stone slabs, and roofed with poles and _ brush, served as receptacles for harvested corn, and very often these same holes were used as burial places. When, as was often the case, the cave was pro- tected from rain by an overhanging roof, the sandy deposits within were kept bone-dry and quickly absorbed all moisture from the interred bodies, dessicating them to mummies as per- fect as those of Egypt. Nor did de- cay overtake the wrappings and the Offerings of baskets, textiles and Weapons that had piously been placed with the dead. They come from the graves as fresh and as sound as the day they were made, a thousand years or more before the birth of Christ. Good fabrics the early Basket Mak- ers wove, all by hand, for the loom had not yet been invented. They did not even have the bow-and-arrow, but Courtesy of Peabody Museum, Harvard University CLIFF HOUSES IN ARIZONA This is part of the Betatakin ruin in north- illustration below. Study the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN used instead a long, light, flint-tipped dart, hurled with the aid of a peculiar wooden spear-thrower. These lances were no mean weapons, however, for in the Natural History Museum in New York there is a Basket Maker skull with a dart-point driven deep into the bone. We know that the Basket Mak- ers were thefirst agriculturists of the South- west, because wherever we find their re- mains in the same cave with the relics of other people, the latter always lie above them. This simple principle of stratigraphy, which geologists and _ palaeontol- ogists have util- ized to recon- struct the his- tory of the earth and the succes- Another part is shown in the sion of extinct masonry from . . . a structural standpoint ty pes of anl- mals, has also been of the greatest value to arch- aeology, particularly in such regions as Arizona, where many successive peoples lived in the same _ places, Among other things, it en- ables us to rec- ognize the later stages of the Basket Maker culture. This later pe- riod, which is called the “post- 3asket Maker,” brought with it no change of race. The mum- mies and the skeletons are all of the same long-headed people. But they 23 the region they hardly erected a house worthy of the name. But the discov- eries had been made, and it needed only the energy of a new people to carry them forward. Certainly not much later than the year 1, quite likely earlier—the dates of these remote periods are still very uncertain—the new people arrived. They were a _ round-headed folk, shorter of stature and lighter of bone than the Basket Makers and their descendants the post-Basket Makers. T is hard, in the present fragmen- tary state of our knowledge, to make even an intelligent guess as to where they came from, but in view of the fact that deserts, mountain ranges and great canyons make formidable barriers to the north, northwest and west, it seems likely that they filtered in from the south or the east. Of these two directions the south seems perhaps the more likely, as the agri- cultural nations of central Mexico may well, about this time, have been expanding to such an extent as to set up an outward pressure, thus caus- ing northward movements of popula- tion. At all events, the new people ar- rived in the post-Basket Maker coun- try, and eventually replaced the old long-headed type. I referred above to this immigration as a filtering, and such it seems to have been, for there are no signs of a sudden destruction of the post-Basket Makers. Further- more the new- comers took over the old way of life practi- cally as it was, and this they could hardly have done had they swept over the country as a Hun-like horde. Earl H. Morris has, indeed, found evidence that the two races lived for a short time mixed together in the little can- had made two yon communi- most important ties. discoveries: The new peo- that clay could Courtesy of Peabody Museum, Harvard University ple we call the be molded into BETATAKIN CLIFF HOUSE “pre-Pueblos.” vessels and The straight, nearly vertical black line They were with- made hard and above the center is an ancient pole used out doubt the : by the former occupants. By shinning up . direct ances- watertight by burning; and that flat stones piled one upon another would make a wall. These beginnings of architecture and of the pottery art were not carried far by the post- Basket Makers. They were long sat- isfied with crude vessels, and during the centuries of their occupancy of it one can reach a spring on a ledge tors of the Pue- blo cliff-dwellers of the later prehis- toric periods and, in turn, of the Hopis, Zunis and other present-day Pueblos. They took over the culture of their predecessors practically un- changed. They built the same sort of crude houses, and made only slightly

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24 better pottery. But they eventually began to group together in larger settlements, to improve their dwell- ings by raising higher masonry, to fashion better and orate more elaborately their earthen vessels. Cotton also to have appeared at about this time, and the bow began to be used. dec seems QROGRESS was slow and it prob- ] ably took some hundreds of years to develop the compact house-cluster of solidly built rectangular rooms that is usually considered to mark the opening of the Pueblo period. The early part of this period is remark- able for the rapid extension of agri- cultural communities in the South- west. The post-Basket Makers and the pre-Pueblos seem to have had a somewhat restricted range in north- eastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico and nearby regions in south- ern Utah and Colorado. The early Pueblos, however, spread out far and wide from this center and the remains of their villages are found over a vast extent of territory. Con- ditions were evidently most favor- able for them, the climate was per- haps slightly more moist than it is today, and it is certain that they were in little, if any, danger from human enemies. This is proved by the fact that their towns were small, were widely scattered and were not built with any reference to ease of defense. These good times, which apparently lasted until the sixth or seventh cen- turies of our era, were brought to a close by the arrival in the Southwest of nomadic foes. Again, we do not know who they. were, but their on- slaught was evidently ferocious, for they very quickly caused the abandon- ment of practically all the outlying regions, and forced the Pueblos to gather together in the central and walls of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN ( irte of the Peabody Museum, Harvard Universit BASKET MAKER MUMMY The wrappings consist of brightly colored textiles southern parts of their old range. There now opened the Great Period of Southwestern history. The Pueb- los had been obliged to congregate in a more or less limited area. Large towns gathered to themselves the in- habitants of the little scattered vil- lagers of former times. Community of interest stimulated community of effort. The necessity for protection against attack led to the selection of easily defensible house sites or, if such were not available, the building of compact, fortified structures shel- tering hundreds of families. This was the era of the cliff-houses, those dizzily placed dwellings in caves and on high ledges, that have aroused so much interest and speculation. an Courtesy of the American Indian-Heye Foundation ROUND DWELLINGS IN A BASKET MAKER CAVE The scale of size is given by the figure of a man just above and to the right of the center Courtesy of Phillips Andover Academy PUEBLO SKELETON AND MORTUARY OFFERING The offering consists of a baked clay pot which may be seen at the right, near the skull July 19% To the Great Period belong Cliff} Palace and Sprucetree House in the Mesa Verde National Park; Betata- kin in the Navajo National Monv- ment; and the many cliff-houses of Canyon de Chelly. During the Great? Period also were built Pueblo Bonito and the other huge village of Chaco! Canyon, now being excavated by Neil | M. Judd for the National Geographic | Society. It was a time of great] achievement, both in architecture and! in all the other arts; pottery-making | flourished, weaving was brought to} great perfection and it is probable that there were developed some of the elaborate ceremonies such as_ the Snake Dance, which are still carried on by the Pueblos of today. HAT caused the abandonment of the prosperous communities of the Great Period is still uncertain; possibly drought, possibly further at- tacks by strengthened foes, possibly inbreeding due to isolation of units of population. All we know now is that they were abandoned, most of them, presumably, about 1100 A. D. No cliff-house, nor any one of the great northern pueblos was occupied when the Spanish arrived in _ the Southwest in 1540. Between these two dates the Pueblo Indians were forced or migrated into the territory along the Rio Grande and in the Little Colorado drainage, where they live today. This is a very brief outline of the history of the Southwest. Nor can we today write with confidence any- | thing more than an outline. But | further excavation will fill in the details, further study of the ruins, of the pottery, and of the skeletons will tell us much that we do not yet know as to the cultural and racial rela- | tionships of these most interesting | peoples of the American Southwest. | ee ees July

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‘uly 1927) ig Clift in the Betata- | Mont. ises of ; > Great | Bonito Chaco y Neil rraphic great re and! naking | ght to | ‘obable of the Ss the arried nment nities rtain; ler at- ssibly units Ow is st of A. D, f the upied 1 the these were ritory Little live f the * can any- Sut the Ss, of § will cnow rela- sting vest, HTTREENE ET July 1927 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN THE DESERT SANATORIUM AT TUCSON, ARIZONA variations in the intensity of the sun’s ultra- violet radiation shows at the left of the center ed dome of the The cur radiometer for measuring daily Sunburn in the Dark Treatment With Isolated Ultra-Violet Rays from the Sun Director, Laboratory for Plant Physiology, OST solids and liquids as well as our skins are warmed by the sun’s rays. But the fact that the most pronounced cases of sur: burn of our faces and hands do not occur on the hottest days or in the regions having the warmest climate, suggests that it is neither visible light nor the so-called “heat rays” beyond the visible red rays in the spectrum of sunlight that causes pigmentation and tanning of the skin. And sucha suspicion would be well-founded, for sunburn or similar effects may actu- ally be experienced in radiation which does not give much illumination. ADIANT energy from the sun exercises highly specific effects according to its wavelengths. For ex- ample, when sunlight, which has passed through a solution of green coloring matter (chlorophyll) from the leaves of plants, is spread out to make the rainbow play of primary colors, dark gaps or bands will appear mainly in the region of the blue- violet and red in which the rays have been stopped by the chlorophyll. The energy in that part of the light which is absorbed by the plant is converted into power by which the leaf-mills manufacture sugar and other sub- Stances which enter into living mat- ter. This process is absolutely funda- mental to life in all of its forms. Many fads and fancies as to the use of various parts of the spectrum have had wide vogue at various times; yet By D. T. MacDOUGAL none greater than the “blue-glass”’ craze of the ’seventies. Windows with panes of this glass, which, in fact, al- lowed daylight of low intensity chief- ly in the blue-violet to pass into rooms, were installed in the belief that it would have curative and tonic effects on persons or plants living in this magical twilight. The color of the glass or screen is THE ULTRA-VIOLET RADIOMETER Figure 1—IJn the box are the lenses and thermocouple. Above it is the driv- ing motor; below it, the electrically operated escapement. The cable carries to the galvanometer in the laboratory below the minute currents generated in the thermocouple by ultra-violet rays sent out by the sun Carnegie Institution of Washington not an index of the rays which may pass through it. Thus one of the best media for transmitting the ultra-violet rays and shutting out the remainder of the spectrum is a glass as brown- ish-black as this ink, while another glass which cuts out heat rays, includ- ing some of the red rays of visible light, has a distinct greenish tinge. The eye is sensitive to wavelengths only as short as one sixty-five-thou- sandths of an inch, but it is to some of the rays of shorter wavelength which we can not see that attention is now beimg increasingly paid, as it is found that waves of not more than one seventy-five-thousandths of an inch in length exercise a curative ef- fect for rickets, speed up the vitamines in fatty substances and tan the skin. These are the ultra-violet rays—or, more properly speaking, a part of them, for they do not have the same effect throughout their entire range of wavelengths. OW it is a matter of no little interest that these shorter wave- lengths from the sun which just pass the screen of air surrounding the earth, and which can not be seen, are of very great importance to animals, especially man. These rays get down to the earth’s surface only when the sun is not too far from the zenith or the air too hazy. Total deprivation of the effects of these rays may result in serious ailments, while proper ex- posures may have curative effects or promote growth, development or tonein

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26 an organism, such as the human body. Experimental analysis of the extent and character of the effects of these shorter wavelengths is now being car- ried on vigorously in half a hundred laboratories, and every month wit- nesses the appearance of contributions dealing with detailed or general ef- fects of the ultra-violet rays on babies, plants, protoplasm, food-sub- stances or vitamines. It is not easy, therefore, to make a general statement rats, which may hold in all features, even over the two months which must elapse before this article is to be published. It may be safely ventured, however, that, beginning with the _ shortest waves which reach the earth from the sun, with a wavelength of 290 milli- microns, and ranging up to 320 millimicrons, the effect is to produce greater vigor, accelerate growth and heighten the action of certain vita- mines, (A millimicron equals one millionth of a millimeter, or about one 250,000,000th of an inch. The wave- lengths of several parts of the spec- trum, expressed in millimicrons, are shown in Figure 5.) HE results of some studies on the effects of short wavelengths on seeds, by Sheard and Higgins, made in the laboratory for experimental medicine of the Mayo Foundation, may be cited as illustrative of the use of mercury vapor-lamps as a source of rays. Rays from 320 to 390 milli- microns in length appeared to favor germination and growth, while rays from 270 to 320 retarded the pro- cesses. Both series of exposures were for periods of a few minutes. As the physician who practices heliotherapy well knows, it is desir- able to shield the patient from the more intense heating rays, and care FiGurRE 2—The contact clock (right), and the lamp (center) from which a beam of light falls on the galvanometer mirror and is reflected back to a screen and measuring scale on left HOW THE VARIATIONS ARE MEASURED SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN must be exercised not to expose him to the rays beyond a certain time. This duration of time is determined chiefly by the intensity of the ultra- violet light, for these unseen rays in sunlight may by long-continued action exercise a destructive action on the fragile jellies of protoplasm in our bodies. In this very action, in fact, lies the sterilizing effect of sunlight in destroying bacteria and other minute unprotected organisms. UARTZ mercury-vapor lamps emit rays which are especially intense in regions of the far ultra- violet spectrum (Figure 5) between 200 and 280 millimicrons, and some of these rays exercise an especially rapid action on living matter and are consequently very efficacious in sterili- zation. In exposing the human skin to rays from lamps which emit ultra- violet rays the problem is to avoid the disintegrating effects of these shorter, sterilizing wavelengths. This is at- tempted by various screening devices. The action of ultra-violet on the constituents of fatty substances which are used in curing rickets is very notable. The vitaminic action is speeded up or accelerated by exposure to rays from quartz mercury-vapor lamps. Recently Dr. Hess and his colleagues have shown that this effect is due to changes in a component of the cholesterol included in cod-liver oil, under the action of rays from such alamp. However, little progress has been made in the determination of the direct physical effects of ultra- violet rays on the surface of the hu- man body. Our blood carries cho- lesterol through the tiny capillaries near the surface of the body, but nothing whatever may yet be said as to any direct action of the sun’s rays on this substance in our bodies. July 19% Progress in this field has been de- layed by the complexity of the prob- lem, lack of adequate technique and by the fact that practical methods of rapid, dependable measurements of the intensity of the ultra-violet com- ponent of the sun’s rays have until recently not been possible to make. As will be described below, records of the total intensity of the sun’s rays, however accurately made, do not serve as an index of the ultra-violet in them, because fine dust in the air may screen out the short wavelengths; also because the relative intensity of these rays as emitted by the sun varies greatly from year to year. So much is this so, in fact, that a patient exposed to sunlight between 10 and 11 A.M, for example, in May, 1924, actually re- ceived less than two thirds the total exposure that he might have received in the same place and position in May, 1927. OBSON, of Oxford University. England, found that variatior in the energy of the blue-violet sun- light transmitted through a silver film were found to show differences as great as 30 percent from day to day. This method was taken up by Pettit at the Solar Observatory at -asadena. After some experimenta- tion he designed an ultra-violet radi- ometer in which a daily record of the intensity of these short waves is traced on a photographic plate, in parallel with a tracing of the intensity of the green light of the sun at the same time. As an instance of the short time in which the instruments and methods of so-called “pure research” may be put to direct use, this ultra-violet radiometer serves as a good example. Dr. Pettit began his studies in June, 1924; before the close of 1925 an in- DR. EDISON PETTIT AND HIS RADIOMETER Figure 3—Dr. Pettit is a member of the staff of the Mt. Wilson Observatory. j the sun’s ultra-violet radiation varies widely from day to day With his radiometer he has shown that a 7AM. Fit 1926 two fron mati crease of the Some of the measu writer for tl paratt found son Vi Const: conter public eter ' showr the st strum solar “appli secont tion ¢ H V) quart: therm inch ¢ two ir cell be is use trans] of the quart: cells i metal! all ra that i is stop on th broug violet diame galvai mocou tion ij glass the ir pass, Visibl The rotate

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aly 1927.8 uty 1927 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN en de | —— 7 : bg | IN -RE VISIBLE ULITIRIAI-|ViLOL/ ET es ee cos eg en eT a | lelxPREME Ods Of BR] | eT Less Beicee pune, ( BAT) |LitiGiHiT| |MEAIR] | |F ats of serge”? i tegene liad hee ” ~——— LONG . re y Ee SHORT—> t com- —— rs _ = cunt P| | enn Mk WE: Pole | Pel | | | de ake, eo “ 7 wth, pet, cetteeenet tte Beey egatepegee ereneneeetdbten sen, 7, Ky %. VA. ecords % %. Z§ : ’ | | | c CG Cl c io aa 7AM. 8AM) 9AM. 10AM. IAM NOON 1PM. 2PM. 3PM im! Pa Pag. Ps -Violet he air A DAY’S ULTRA-VIOLET RECORD SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TERM ‘‘MILLIMICRON’”’ igths; 3 Ficure 4—This sample record covers the day of October 19, FiGuRE 5-——The diagram is practically self explanatory. The ity of 1926. It shows respectively the amount of ultra-violet (inner letters in the center represent red, orange, yellow, and so varies i two rows of dots) and green (outer rows of dots) radiation on. Through familiarity, the physicist comes to associate pe from the sun on that day. Each four minutes a dot is auto- various wavelength designations in millimicrons, or some- uch ig | matically made by the radiometer. In this particular record times in Angstroms (tenths of a millimicron), with certain posed § local apparent time at Tucson, Arizona, is indicated parts of the spectrum, a thing the tyro quickly picks up b a i crease of 57 percent in the intensity acted on by ultra-violet rays for one Times and other newspapers print a total » of the ultra-violet had been measured. minute, then by green rays for the daily record of the intensity of the eived | Some description of these results and next minute. By this method two lines ultra-violet rays received on the city n in | Of the radiometer by which they were of dots are made on the record. These streets. It is now possible to pur- measured was given verbally to the show the relative intensity of the chase a pocket spectroscope with writer in December, 1925. A request green and ultra-violet. Variations in which the arrival of the ultra-violet rsity, for the construction of such an ap- intensity by four-minute intervals rays in the morning may be detected, tione & paratus for the use of the newly throughout the day in both the green and their presence confirmed during sun founded Desert Sanatorium at Tuc- and ultra-violet are thus made avail- the day. ‘ ; silver § 80 was made in the same month. able. If the thermocouple is exposed Light-screens of various kinds are ncaa Construction was begun in February, to a standard lamp at intervals, the now available. Sheets of quartz allow vy tof contemporaneously with Dr. Pettit s relative values of the green and ultra- all sunlight that reaches the earth’s D by | publication of results, and a radiom- violet may be reduced to absolute surface to pass into a room. But if 7, a eter was installed a year later, as values. (Figure 4.) a film of silver is laid on the quartz, onta- & shown in Figure 1. In other words, visible light is stopped, although the radi- : the second model of a technical In- l ultra-violet is transmitted with near the F strument for pure-science research in |, perfectness. A screen of this kind 7 & solar physics: is already devoted to ¥ would be an ideal arrangement for ~~ “applied” science. Naturally this | A, the use of a physician for giving his sity ; second instrument possesses a perfec- | L Mi patients ultra-violet treatment in the | tion of design not in the original. y Tx keliotherapy, at the same time avoid- Le, ing the heating rays. But its financial ei ; HE essential part of the ultra- IN “temperature” would be high! rods | violet radiometer consists of two 12} a , ae quartz lenses and a small delicate ODAY the development of form- ‘olet | thermocouple. The lenses are of one ulae for making glass which will ple. inch aperture, with a focal length of J transmit ultra-violet with the least nat two inches, and are set in an air-tight 1924 1925 1926 1927 loss is the object of researches in more ime i cell behind thin quartz plates. Quartz HOW THE ULTRA-VIOLET VARIES than one industrial organization. | is used instead of glass because it is Puen 6—~Iorch of the satin eine Some technical success has been | transparent to the ultra-violet rays value of the ultra-violet solar radiation achieved, one glass and other media of the sun. The inner surface of the quartz plate and lens in one of the cells is covered by two dense coats of metallic silver of such thickness that all radiation except the ultra-violet, that is, radiant heat and visible light, is stopped ; while the ultra-violet passes on through the quartz lens and is brought to a focus as a disk of ultra- Violet light one fiftieth of an inch in diameter, on a thermocouple. The galvanometer connected with the ther- mocouple is deflected, and the deflec- tion is recorded photographically on a glass plate. This gives a measure of the intensity of the ultra-violet light. A second cell, mounted on the same disk as the first, contains a glass plate and a lens coated with gold. This metal, reversing the action of silver, does not allow the ultra-violet rays to pass, but it does transmit most of the Visible rays. The disk with the two cells is now rotated so that the thermocouple is in wavelength of 32 millimicrons dur- ing three years as measured on Mt. Wilson. A maximum was reached in the month of November, 1925 The radiometer must be kept in continuous adjustment with the sun’s apparent movement, and this is done by carrying it on an equatorial mount- ing such as might serve for a six-inch telescope, as shown in Figure 1. That it may be advantageous to ex- pose materials, living things and par- ticularly human patients, to some types of radiation and not to others is now abundantly evident. In some operations the red, or heat rays, give the desired effects. At present, at- tention is being directed chiefly to ex- posures to the ultra-violet, without un- due heating; that is, to the production of effects like sunburn in the dark. Recognition and public interest in these facts has progressed far, and a well-known news service is authority for the statement that the London are already in use in a New York hospital and in the Desert Sanatori- um. Most of these substances also transmit some of the longer visible rays, which is not always a disad- vantage. Behind the dark-colored glass men- tioned, and also behind a sheet of sil- vered quartz a sunburn in the dark or in an illumination no stronger than that of deep twilight may be possible. Crowded populations living or work; ing indoors are deprived of sunlight and we are becoming aware that de- ficiencies result from it. In getting back to natural daylight, some progress has been made in the study of differential effects of various wavelengths. Of these, the shortest which penetrate the atmosphere, and which are beyond the range of the eye, and certain other parts of the ultra-violet, are of very great im- portance for their curative effects and tonic influence.

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SCIENTIFI C AMERICAN

= Hes nee = a: ie a. owe ie ~ R eS

; S

eS > ol 3“ eet es

ee ee eS -_ a 7 . ear BS eS — Se ee Seas “ * a Ome ~% <= . : a . a er — = Peace? “ - Photo by Burton Holmes, from Ewing Galloway IRRIGATION WITH THE SAKIEH, OR CHAIN OF POTS, ALGERIA uthern Mediterranean land In the arid sx daries plod sleepily ’round and ’round such primitive pumps as

s thousands of drome- this. The design has been changed but little in several millenia. A study of the efficiency of the gearing might prove interesting!

THE COMMON WHEEL, OR CAPSTAN, FOR IRRIGATION IN HUNGARY reverses direction The Here there are two buckets and the horse after each bucket of water has been raised. empty de- Primitive Irrigation Methods Still Because man-power in many countries may still be had so cheaply, ancient irrigation machinery still squeaks and creaks its inefficient way through a modern world. Some of the irrigation pumps shown on these pages are literally “as old as Moses.” Just as civilization stands squarely on agriculture for its existence, so did agricul- ture itself first depend on the discovery of irrigation. scending bucket helps counterbalance the rising bucket. This is not so crude as it seems; its mechanical losses are not excessive Compete With Modern Machinery “The discovery of the device of irrigation and the reali- zation of its tremendous significance involved vastly greater issues than even the invention of so fundamel- tally important a practice as agriculture,” says Prof. G. Elliot Smith in “The Ancient Egyptians.” Inrriga tion, according to Prof. Smith, was first hit on in Egypt. Today, in that arid land the traveler may see in every

SOs

fiel tho the wi fas pul is Re pul

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ET li- ly ne if. a- it. roo July 1927 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN g | Photo vy Burton Holmes, from Ewing G,alloway IRRIGATION IN SIAM, WITH THE SIMPLE DRAINAGE WHEEL PUMP The worl (in this case a that she does it right!) keeps the paddles turning by walking cman woman: the man is busy seeing foot treadles. Thirty-foot wheels of this type, steam driven, have proved efficient in Louisiana, for drainage on a set of Photo by Ewing Galloway WALKING WATER UPHILL WITH THE PICOTAH This is similar to the counterbalanced well sweep. Instead of I . puliing downward on the pole to elevate the counterweight, as field, irrigation pumps that are practically identical with those depicted on ancient engravings. In addition to the “chain of pots” illustrated on page 26, the shadouf is widely used in Egypt. The shadouf is simply the old- fashioned, counterbalanced well sweep: the workman pulls down on an upright pole, raising the counterweight. In descending, this raises the bucket. This equipment 18 remarkably efficient if time and labor are no object. Recently Dr. J. S. Haldane and Dr. Yandell Henderson published an analysis of the work performed by one INDIA in the Egyptian shadouf—and in many an old-fashioned Amer- ican farmyard—the workman's own body acts as counterweight workman irrigating with this form of apparatus. They found that a man in lifting a 60-pound bucket of water 6% times a minute, did 4,290 foot-pounds of work per minute. From physiological data they reckon the effi- ciency of the entire unit—shadouf and workman—at about twenty percent. This is far above the mechanical efficiency of a boiler, engine and low-lift centrifugal pump such as would be used in a modern installation. Such comparisons are not, however, fair to machinery: it does some things a man cannot do.

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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN All illustrations courtesy Commercial Solvents Corporation HUGE PLANTS HAVE BEEN BUILT FOR BUTANOL MANUFACTURE Growing demands for the solvents produced through the activities of a minute microbe form the basis of a flour- ishing industry. This is one of the Peoria, Illinois, plants that is so engaged A Microbe in International Affairs As a Detective, the Chemist Has Unearthed Processes of Vital Industrial Importance HERLOCK HOLMES gained his reputation by using un- noticed trifles to build up a chain of evidence to manacle a wrongdoer. Indeed the whole system of criminal investigation is built upon the connections between trifling clues which only a trained eye could find and only a trained mind build into a complete story. Yet one need not go beyond the ordinary bounds of work-a-day business to find thrillers quite as picturesque and de- tails quite as important as could be found in any detective romances. As Dr. Watson might have said to Sher- lock Holmes, had he been interested, “That butanol case stirs my imagina- tion. One might believe that so long a chain of circumstances had been entirely invented by a mere writer of fiction and had never existed in real life. Your deductions in that case, my dear Holmes, were perfectly mar- velous.” Of course, Dr. Watson never said anything of the kind because the bu- tanol business is a thriving reality and is not in any way to be connected with criminals. Yet the train of cir- cumstances which led to the building of this industry and the many effects it has had in the world of business are far more like a romance than a serious history. As long ago as 1910 the threads of evidence began and ultimately they connected the British War Office, an odd micro-organism, a potential swimming pool, an early unsuccessful effort to make rubber, By D. H. KILLEFFER the demise of the legitimate American whisky industry, the making of char- coal, a new modification of smokeless powder, the paint and varnish indus- try, Chile’s nitrate monopoly, and the corn that hogs refuse to eat. One must admit that there is something of the detective in a chemist when such THE MICROBE ITSELF The clostridium acetobutylicum (Weiz- mann), shown at 240 diameters, converts starch to solvents apparently unconnected things can be worked together into the foundation of two great American industries. To bring these apparently isolated circumstances into their proper mu- tual relations, it is necessary to go back to 1910, and before, when ener- getic efforts were being made to pro- duce rubber without having to go to a tropical tree for it. A number of Associate Editor, Industrial and Engineering Chemistry chemists working on this problem found that they could produce a kind of rubber by using certain very rare and costly chemical substances. These materials, isoprene and _ butadiene, could be made without great difficulty from butanol, a very near relative of grain alcohol but not nearly so easy to get. The search for synthetic rubber was almost at the point of being aban- doned when a tiny micro-organism, with a name, as usual, much more imposing than itself, turned up with every apparent intention of saving the day. The day has not yet been saved for synthetic rubber but the clostri- dium acetobutylicum (Weizmann) to- day is permitted to exercise its re markable appetite for starch and its still more remarkable ability to con vert it into acetone and butanol on huge scale. Because this butanol at that time interesting as a raw terial for synthetic rubber, the habi and desires of this microbe were stu ied with minute care and ways we found to make it even more comfort able than a “bug in a rug” or a “cone tented cow.” All of which having been duly determined was record with greatest care against futuré need. a The second circumstantial oe begins with a peculiar specification of the British War Office, that smokeless powder for the British armies be made with acetone as a component of the solvent used in its preparation. At the time that this specification was July 19 adopte: as that the po manuf: wood g any o! course, concep! were S) digious world, ain, m it been alone t gency, forced rubber tial su factori Perh 80 esse one dic time w its wor factory Englan underti quantit into the the Wa that ti more b than a

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ly 199 its ud- July 1927 adopted, no such demand for powder as that of the World War was within the possibility of imagining, and the manufacture of charcoal from hard wood gave every promise of supplying any ordinary need for acetone. Of course, the war changed everyone’s conceptions and the British Tommies were shooting away powder at so pro- digious a rate that the forests of the world, and particularly those of Brit- ain, might have ceased to exist had it been necessary to depend upon them alone to supply acetone. In this emer- gency, the British War Office was forced to turn to the microbe of the rubber makers to keep up the essen- tial supply of acetone for its powder factories. Perhaps no microbe ever enjoyed so essential a part in a war as this one did and every possible effort that time would permit was made to make its working conditions the most satis- factory that could be devised. In England, in India and in Canada, it undertook the task of converting huge quantities of potatoes, rice and corn into the much needed acetone. Neither the War Office nor anyone else was at that time interested in the fact that more butanol was made in the process than acetone, for was too everyone = FIFTY-THOUSAND-GALLON FERMENTERS The microbe gets seriously to work in great fermenters, each as large as a small-town water tower SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN LEFT Beginning with a dormant spore, the industrial oper- ation consists in growing successive generations on starch solutions until ac- tive bacteria are obtained. After growing under care- ful surveillance, cultures are transferred to these 50-gallonaluminum kettles RIGHT Growth of the bacteria is carefully followed through six days on successively larger scales until the final brew from these thousand-gallon ketties is of proved purity, capable of satisfactory perform- ance in the large-scale fermenters which follow busy doing his part in winning the war, or at least in preparing to tell the world how essential he had been, to worry about the not very pressing problem of rubber synthesis. Later, after our entrance into the conflict, an erstwhile whisky distillery in the Indiana corn belt was converted into a plant for the manufacture of acetone under the joint control of the Ameri- can and British governments. With this eonverted distillery, the story might properly begin, for it has served as the foundation on which a new American industry has been built. HE whisky industry in the United States had always centered around the sources of corn in Indiana and Illinois and had performed the task of converting edible and waste corn, which could not be used for anything else, into a marketable product. When the food administration curtailed the use of corn for this purpose, it was necessary not only to find something to do with the distillery itself but also to find a way to use up mouldy, waste corn. Under these circumstances our microbe was put actively to work pro- ducing in this old distillery great quantities of acetone, which was in urgent demand as a solvent for nitro- cellulose, to be made into smokeless powder for the British and into air- plane dope for the Americans. Disguises must have a part in every detective romance, and in this partic- ular one a deep disguise covered the blessing in the operation of this old Every time a pound of acetone was made, the microbe in- sisted upon accompanying it with two pounds of butanol, and although everyone wanted acetone, no one was at all interested in butanol. A little of it was used but the vast amount which had to be made was not only quite useless but to dispose of it was very troublesome. It would not burn satisfactorily and the fish in the rivers refused to accept it as part of their watery habitat. In this quandary the operators of the plant decided to save it by building immense vats in which to keep it against future need. One of these vats now serves as an admir- able swimming pool and it is on this swimming pool filled with its un- wanted contents that one leg of the American lacquer industry rests. This bit of economy was most fortunate, despite the cost of the vats. The disguise was torn distillery. from the face of butanol when some chemists who had been much interested in COLUMN STILLS Here the water is removed from the solvents produced, and the latter are separated by distillation

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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN EXPERIMENTAL GAS UTILIZATION PLANT Methods of utilizing the studied her: smokeless powder discovered a method of making nitro-cellulose which would yield a solution thin enough to spread and thick enough to cover, as a Var- nish covers, the object to which it is applied. It was this kind of nitrated cotton which made possible our pres- ent-day industry in nitro-cellulose lac- quers and it was this swimming pool full of butanol that furnished butyl acetate to serve as the essential sol- vent. It is somewhat doubtful if capital could have been persuaded to go into the large-scale manufacture of butanol which this new industry re- quired without the benefit of the com- pelling proof of its fitness which this surplus furnished. HESE two things, cheap butanol and low-viscosity cotton, are the foundations of the lacquer industry, whose phenomenal growth is among the most amazing of modern indus- trial wonders. Little more than three years ago, nitro-cellulose lacquers had been used only in small quantities as a protection of metal surfaces and for airplane wings, whereas today the de- partment stores offer a dozen differ- ent varieties in dozens of colors and shades for household use and there are few automobiles made whose fin- ish is not a lacquer. The quantities of lacquer used are increasing at a prodigious rate and, concurrently, the output of butanol has had to grow to supply the necessary solvent. Within the past 18 months, the butanol output has been more than doubled—it is now 60 tons per day—and a still further increase of an approximately equal amount is expected within an- other year. The effect of the lacquer, made from butanol, on the paint and varnish in- dustry has been serious, but the wood distillers, already under an accumula- tion of difficulties, have found it hard to survive the manufacture and sale hydrogen-carbon An ammonia synthesis plant is already operating as a result of research dioxide mixture from the fermenters are of the huge quantities of acetone pro- duced as a by-product of this opera- tion. The activities of the microbe result in the production of butanol (normal butyl alcohol), acetone, and ethanol (ethyl alcohol) in the ratio of 6:3:1, and thus the present unavoid- able output of acetone amounts to some 30 tons per day. This must be absorbed by industry, and since no corresponding increase in use has been developed, it has operated to control acetone prices, acetone having for- merly been one of the main depend- ences of the wood distillers for a profit from their operations. The wood distillers and the Chilean nitrate industry are not quite in the same category but both have had their activities impeded by the delicate little microbe with the peculiar appetite. The wood distillers have been in the habit of supplying the world with five materials of importance and now their monopolistic hold on each has been loosened by cheaper processes. July 197 The Chilean nitrate industry hy long exercised a monopoly in supply. ing the world’s farms with nitroge for fertilizers, but in recent yeay synthetic ammonia has become a for. midable competitor. Now, the syp thesis of ammonia requires nitrogen to be had gratis, or nearly so, front the air, and hydrogen, which is e. pensive. When our peculiar clostri dium is comfortably converting starch into butanol and acetone, it breathe out great quantities of hydrogen} mixed with carbon dioxide from whid! it is easily separated, and so the lates effect of the microbe was the use of this hydrogen to make ammonia. (Oj! course, the quantity produced by the microbe’s help is not enormous, but | every little bit added to the world’) increasing output of synthetic am)! monia sends a new shiver down Chiles) back. t HE shift of emphasis from by! tanol, desired by the rubber syn ‘ thesists to acetone, important during the war, and now back to butanol, af fundamental raw material for a ney and very important industry, is char- acteristic of the kaleidoscopic changes constantly occurring in the rapid de velopment of chemical industry. 4A useless by-product, expensive to dis pose of today, often becomes over- night the valuable part of one’s out- put. The changing face of affairs un der such circumstances can only be met by continuous, energetic research. New ideas come so rapidly to an in tensively thoughtful industry that no one can afford to be lulled into fancied security by things as they are, for they have an altogether too discon- certing way of changing. The immense present size of the butanol industry, founded as it is on a micro-organism, and its further growth, must be a continuing source of wonder. So sd FERMENTATION PILOT PLANT Many suggestions for improving yields in the large plant units are sent to this pilot plant for trial before adoption, to prevent needlessly upsetting commercial operations July 1 the ¢ fund “M with who ; posse there much idea | is out ries 1 on. | as ir flies prine In ot] the fe “A woulc be bi facili sourc exert plenty comm has t and h for t And | he w | Ty in tor ¢ electr gram inven telepl the ir Victo pany recor‘ is ca inven serve whose of th Berlit | sentat CAN,” his of ing h the cl of Co most maga: I was invent “He liner ?

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uly 19 ha Supply. itrogey yean a so e syn crogen | fron is ex. -Lostri- Starch! eathes rogen,| which! lates? use off a. OFF oy the) Ss, but! yorld’s) C ame hile’) n bu ha uring! nol, af L new} char.) anges | d def r, Ay » dis-F over: | out: | S un- y be arch. 1 in- t no \cied for con- the 3 on ther irce — July 1927 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 33 Successful Inventors--- V II A Pioneer in the Telephone Art Gives Some Excellent Advice oe N the field of invention the out- sider often has better prospects of success than the man on the inside of a particular industry. I am assuming, of course, that the outside inventor has a fund of fundamental knowledge. “Men who are too closely identified with a particular line of industry— who are working at it every day and possess all the existing knowledge there is about it—are likely to be too much concerned with details. A new idea does not occur to them when it is out of line with all the theo- By MILTON WRIGHT “That was back in 1874. I read it as part of my scientific education when I was attending Cooper Union in New York. With the hankering I had for scientific things, I read all the scientific literature I could lay my hands on.” “What started you on your first in- vention—the magneto telephone? ” we asked. “Was it through coming in contact with people working along the same lines?” “As a matter of fact, I had never seen Bell’s telephone when I started I was learning to transmit messages. ““Let me hear what you can do,’ he said, pointing to a sending instrument not being used. I placed my finger on the key and started. “*Hold on,’ he exclaimed, ‘that isn’t right, you must press down on the key, not simply touch it. There must be a firm contact or your message may not be understood at the other end.’ He went on to explain that in long- distance transmission, where the re- sistance is high, more current passes through the contacts when more pres- sure is used on the key. “With that explanation I ries they have been working on. That scheme is branded as impracticable because it flies in the face of all principles they have studied. In other words, they ‘can’t see the forest for the trees.’ “Also, the inventor who would be successful must not be burdened with too many facilities. When a man’s re- sources are meagre he has to exert himself as the man with plenty of at his command never has to do. He has to stretch his imagination and his ingenuity to make up for the equipment he lacks. And because he works harder, he works more resultfully.” resources T was Emile Berliner speak- the No beets—Sheet E. BERLINER MBINED TELEGRAPH AND TE PHONE 463,569 Patented Nov. 17, 1 fg / Mtg A 1 knew I had what I had been seeking. I went home, rigged up a diaphragm and made a contact with a steel button. I began to adjust it until the galvanometer showed that current was flowing. Then pressed gently and I found that each time I pressed, the galvanometer deflected through a larger angle.” Berliner hit upon the idea of the micro- phone. Hitherto the invari- able rule with electromagnets was firm contacts. Discard- ing the old make-and-break principle, he converted a con- tinuous electric current of any strength into waves, corre- sponding to sound waves with HUS ing—Berliner, the inven- tor of the microphone, the all their delicate variations, electrical transformer and the aca instead of letting the force gramophone. His were the eee 2 fone of the voice produce a weak inventions which made _ the GE Masson Crt, Berlone electric current as Bell was telephone practical. His was RRL python on 4. Sh ves doing. the invention upon which the hie On April 14, 1877, he filed Victor Talking Machine Com- a caveat on his invention in pany was founded. In the ONE OF BERLINER’S FIRST PATENTS the Patent Office, drawing up record of invention his name tite naan anae 7 as eM a ak the document himself. Such . " ris covers the type of transmitter in whic variations is carved deep. If ever an of pressure between two contacts vary the current flow a document—caveats were inventor’s experience might abolished several years ago— serve as inspiration to inventors to work to make a transmitter in was a description of an invention filed whose feet are still on the first rungs 1877,” he replied. “But the telephone in the Patent Office before the patent of the ladder, it is that of Emile was being talked about. Bell had application was filed. Its purpose was Berliner. “I am indeed glad to see a repre- sentative of the SCIENTIFIC AMERI- CAN,” he said when we visited him in his office in Washington, in the build- ing he has erected for administering the child welfare work in the District of Columbia, to which he now gives most of his time and energy. “Your Magazine was a great help to me when I was preparing for a career as an inventor.” “How long ago was that, liner ?” Mr. Ber- demonstrated it at the Centennial Ex- position in 1876 and it was looked upon as one of the wonders of the age. I was clerking in a Washington dry-goods store, but I put in all my spare time experimenting with a tele- phone of my own contrivance. “Tt is strange what little things will serve as a clue when you are groping for a new idea. One of the men I used to visit occasionally in those days was Alvan S. Richards, chief operator at the Washington fire-alarm tele- graph office. I told him one day that to get an invention on record, in order to establish priority while the inven- tor was still working away on the de- tails. In June he filed a regular ap- are 8 and in October of the same year Berliner filed his application for the continuous-current transformer. “How did you commercialize your telephone inventions?” we asked. “T got in touch with the Telephone Company of New York, a subsidiary of the then struggling Bell Company,’ he said, “and offered to sell my inven- tions. They turned down my offer 9

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34 but invited me to go to New York and demonstrate what I had. One demon- stration led to another, until Bell’s associate, Thomas A. Watson, at a visit to me in Washington, said, ‘We will want that, Mr. Berliner. You will hear from us in a few days.’ Later I signed an agreement to turn over my caveats and patent applica- tions, as well as the use of my induc- tion coil or transformer patent. I re- ceived a modest salary and a royalty on all transmitters to be exported. Several years later the Bell Company paid me a lump sum and greatly in- creased my annual retainer. This took the place of salary, because | later went to work for myself.” “What do you consider the best time for an inventor to capitalize his invention—after he gets his patent or before?” “After you perfect your invention, apply for a patent. As soon as you get a favorable action in the Patent Office, go to some big concern which would be interested, and lay your in- vention before the chief engineer. He will either tell you why, in his opin- ion, it will not work, or he will make vou an offer. This is substantially the method I adopted and I think it is the logical one.” UT cannot better results some- times be obtained by an inven- tor organizing his own company and selling articles covered by his pat- ent?” “Oh, yes. That is the method I pursued after I invented the lateral- cut disk gramophone record. There was keen competition. The Ameri- can Graphophone Company had es- tablished a factory and was produc- ing the Bell-Tainter graphophones and wax-covered paper-cylinder records. Edison, too, had invented his im- proved phonograph. It appeared to be practically the same apparatus as EVOLUTION OF THE GRAMOPHONE These models of gramophones and the records used with them Mr. in Washington, are exhibited in the National Museum, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN FIRST BERLINER TRANSMITTER This original model of the loose-contact microphone is now in the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, D. C. the graphophone, differing only in form and motive power. “When you have something rad- ically different from anything every- body else has—when you can accom- plish something nobody else can ac- complish—your prospects of making a commercial success are bright. What I succeeded in doing in the little laboratory in Washington which I opened up after I left the Telephone Company, was to ‘etch the human voice.’ By devising a disk gramo- phone record and working out a means of cutting it laterally at an even depth, I could get accuracy and purity of tone impossible with the cylinder records with their up-and-down cuts of uneven depth. More than that, however, I solved the problem of mak- ing unlimited copies of one original record. “The cess of tremendous commercial suc- the talking machine is, of July 199 course, due in some measure to the genius of Eldridge R. Johnson, pregi- dent of the Victor Talking Machin Company, who covered both technica and business fields. My part in it yoy may gather from the statement issued by the Victor Company several year ago as a warning to infringers.” We read this statement. It said: “The manufacture and sale of the gramophone was first conducted by the United States Gramophone Com- pany, followed by the _ Berliner Gramophone Company, and then by the Victor Talking Machine Com pany, which latter company ae § quired its rights from the former companies. “We now control the original Berliner basic patents, and we have ian the gramophone developed to its present condition. Through our ef- forts and improvements, the gramo- phone has become an important fae- tor in the market, in spite of the general opinion among talking-ma- chine manufacturers, at the time of its advent, that it was destined to remain nothing more than a toy,” M': YDFUL of the fact that Ber. | liner’s first inventions — those? relating to the telephone—were made} when he was 25 years old, and his next—those relating to the talking/ machine—when he was 36, we asked: ! “When would you say an inve...ar} is most productive—in youth or in later years when he has acquired a} fund of knowledge and experience} upon which to build?” i “The young man is the most pro} lific inventor every time,” he replied § unhesitatingly. “Most of the great} inventions have been made by men between the ages of 22 and 27. More! original ideas are evolved in youth! than at any other time, but, of course, | a man who is a born inventor boon producing all his life.” Berliner, himself, ogee is a born inven- | At 76 he is working away with tor. Underwood and Underwood D.C. FIRST COMMERCIAL GRAMOPHONE Berliner is shown here with one of his first instruments. He holds a matrix from which many records may be made Jul all oth in fec ise acc tre ex] son ria vol as esp auc Tw of : Lal Bey of | con ties usu ciel me! and wal pan by bes! nar tile: whe vib) fou us laid abo slig ene the is t! acol Oys

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Ss @ - — eee Ber. those made d his king sked: ta. or in ‘ed a ience | k pro- | plied § rreat | men | More outh urse, eeps ven: | with ' July 1927 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN @Harris and Ewing wall in this used to obtair A section of the tiles which are all the enthusiasm of youth upon an- other invention just as revolutionary in the field of acoustics as any he per- fected in days gone by. And it prom- ises to be just as successful. “What is the principle of this acoustic tile of yours?” we asked. “Usually when an auditorium is treated for defective acoustics,” he explained, “the walls are covered with some sound-absorbing mate- rial, such as felt. This reduces the volume of all the bad sound, as well as the sounds you want to hear. “On the other hand, wooden walls, especially pine or spruce, are ideal for auditoriums. They vibrate freely. Two of the best auditoriums I know of are the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City and the Wagner Theater in Beyreuth, Germany; the walls in both of them are of wood. It is logical to conclude that the cause of bad acous- tics is the hardness or rigidity of the usual stone or concrete walls. porous, se Y remedy for bad acoustics is a process of covering a suffi- cient portion of the walls with a ce- ment which combines the hardness and dignified appearance of a stone wall with the resonance of wooden panels. Such a cement I obtain, first, by mixing a porous material like as- bestos, sawdust or pumice with ordi- nary cement, and then so shaping the tiles made from this mixture that, when joined to the wall, they form Vibratory diaphragms. Here is the foundation of such a tile.” He handed us a circular piece of wire netting laid over some sheets of coarse paper, about the size of a pie plate, but slightly convex. These are to be fast- ened to a wall, one beside another with the bulge out. The acoustic cement is then spread over the surface. To get an idea of the effect of acoustic tile we went to the James H. Oyster School where Berliner had DEMONSTRATING ACOUSTIC TILE photograph is covered u ith the good acoustics in auditoriums Ms ¥ A Clntermational Newsr MANUI They are treated the walls of the auditorium, notorious for its bad acoustics. The inventor took a tuning fork from his pocket, struck it on a radiator and set it against the brick wall. A _ dull sound resulted, hardly louder than the tuning fork gave when vibrating out of contact with anything. He struck the tuning fork again. This time he set it against a handsome cement panel containing his acoustic cells. Instantly a deep, loud, sweet tone responded. “This is only a small auditorium,” he said, “seating about 600. The acoustics have been so bad, however, with such echoes and distortions that nobody could understand anything. Now anyone in the back row can hear perfectly the recitation of a six-year- old youngster on the platform. About one quarter of the wall surface is treated—_that is all that is necessary.” Back at the Health Center where “ee built up on a base of wire screen. properly placed and covered, they act as vibrating diaphragms 4 = —— THE SOAP-BOX TRANSMITTER This®model of the loose-contact micro- phone is on display in the National VMuseum at Washington, D.C. *ACTURING ACOUSTIC TILE When finished, Mr. Berliner has his office, we had another demonstration. Down in the basement, which he has fitted up as a billiard room, he has lined the walls with acoustic tile. The floor is of wood, as is the floor in the hall lead- ing into the room. “PT ISTEN to your footfalls as you | Spetahi the room,” said Mr. Ber- liner. We did. The moment we crossed the threshold the sound of our steps become louder and deeper, although our tread was no heavier. The acoustic tiles were responsible for the change. While we were with him, he received an acceptance of his offer to apply his acoustic cement cells in the trading hall of the New York Cotton Exchange. A few days after we left Mr. Ber- liner, he informed us that he had just finished the large “Board Room” of the District Commissioners of Wash- ington, which has suffered from bad acoustics for many years. Today that hall, which is 85 feet by 27 feet and 18 feet high to a vaulted ceiling, is so perfect acoustically that two people can carry on a conversation in an ordinary tone of voice from end to end. “What would you say, Mr. Berliner, are the qualities necessary for an in- ventor?” we asked before we ended our visit with him. “To be an inventor,” he replied, “a man must be a keen observer. He should have unlimited patience, and hundreds of failures must mean nothing to him.” “But how about marketing the in- vention? Does it not take as much real ability to make a financial suc- cess as it does to produce the inven- tion?” “After you have made something really worth while, success is bound to come. Manufacturers in every line always are eager for new inventions.”

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36 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN July 197 . SS Hl "ar% 4G Ar Wide World WOODROW WILSON BROADCAST ONLY ONCE is here shown leaving his home, in He ere ing OUR years have passed since Warren G. Harding faced the microphone on June 21, 1923, in St. Louis, to deliv- er an address on the World Court, thus establishing a record as the first President of the United States to be heard by radio. Many will recall how his opening greeting, “My countrymen all,” and his fre- quent reference to the “wide open spaces” of the west, sent through the ether from the lone transmitter of WEAF, afforded the public in the Metropolitan district their first op- portunity to tune in the voice President. of a “T SHALL not attempt to coerce the Senate of the United States,” said Mr. Harding. “I shall make no de- mand upon the people. I shall not try to impose my will upon anybody or any body. I shall embark upon no cru- sades. May our-vision never be clouded by“ specters of disaster or shadows of dismay! If, in our search for everlasting peace, we but let lead and follow humbly but dauntlessly the ‘kindly light’ of divine inspiration to all human brotherhood, gleaming like a star in the heavens from the most beautiful of all hymns ever written, ‘God will not let us fail.’ ” Several weeks later, on August 2, 1923, President Harding died in San Francisco. The utmost interest was manifest talled for picking up his first and last radio address When the President Broadcasts Harding Was the First Chief Executive Heard on the Radio— Coolidge establishes a record Wide World which m crophones uted toa ORRIN E. DUNLAP, Jr. over another broadcast on November 10, 1923, when it was announced that ex-President Woodrow Wilson, whose voice the public had never heard over the radio, was scheduled to speak through a trio of stations, namely, WEAF, New York; WCAP, Washing- ton, and WJAR, Providence. Thou- sands of auditors, including President Calvin Coolidge, listened in, because it was reported that the great propo- nent of the League of Nations Cove- FIRST PRESIDENT TO BROADCAST . Warren G. Harding, delivering his first radio address in St. Louis in June, 1923 PRESIDENT COOLIDGE AT ARLINGTON Through three microphones, the network of transmitters throughout the country voice currents were distrib- circu phon castil send speec tion, Peac minu ex-P} but § was what radio who | Sp the ¢ clare¢ try s ; “deep honor draw! nant and the man most responsible for the armistice would give his views on subjects suggested by the recur- rence of Armistice Day and by its significance. Radio impresarios, aware that this would be an historic occasion, because of the multitudes anxious to hear the voice of the wartime President, whose health had been wrecked, took every precaution to avoid interference. There was a common understanding between many of the important sta- tions, not participating in the trans- mission of the Wilson speech, that they should sign off while Mr. Wilson was on the air. HE Chesapeake and Potomat Telephone Company sent repre- sentatives to the Wilson residence on S Street in Washington with a spe cially equipped truck to which was attached the devices used in forward- ing the voice over the telephone lines to the transmitters. The truck was stationed in the driveway beside the house and a trunk line was extended from the truck into the library on the second floor where the microphone was located. The amplifiers and other paraphernalia were on the truck where an engineer was on duty to regulate the amplification of Mr. Wil son’s voice. From the motor car, the message was conveyed by an under- ground wire to WCAP and forwarded to the two other broadcasters. 5 TOS ORS “in sl our s¢ for r ories days | ever by re part and € by th IN Sc radio fort b the m and t speak ration in his kind | sion, were micro The: poin

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1927 ble ws ur- its his ise et tac aa wenn July 1927 The Washington announcer came on the air at 8:28 P. M., opening the circuit which switched in the micro- phone. Thus was opened the broad- casting system which was destined to send Woodrow Wilson's first public speech, addressed directly to the na- tion, since his collapse during the Peace Treaty ratification fight. Three minutes elapsed and the voice of the ex-President, a trifle husky at first but growing better as he proceeded, was heard by the radio audience in what proved to be the first and last radio address by Woodrow Wilson, who passed away on February 3, 1924. Speaking to auditors throughout the the former President de- clared that the attitude of this coun- try the World War had been “deeply ignoble,’ “cowardly and dis- honorable.” He said that we had with- drawn from the affairs of the world “in sullen and selfish isolation,” after our soldiers aided in winning the “war for right” and that the happy mem- ories of those “‘never-to-be-forgotten days in November” of 1918 were “‘for- ever marred and embittered” for us by refusing to “bear any responsible east, since administrations of peace won part in the and establishment by the war.” of the rights President use of INCE that occasion, Coolidge has made good radio and has saved much time and ef- fort by addressing the people through the microphone instead of taking long and tiresome train trips in order to speak to them. The Coolidge inaugu- ration on March 4, 1925, will go down in history as the first ceremony of its kind to be broadcast. On that occa- sion, 27 stations from coast to coast were connected to the battery of microphones in front of the Capitol. AMERICAN . SCIENTIFIC Har ris and E ‘ing ; HE BROADCAST FROM YALE Exv-President Taft heard on the was air when he administered the oath of office to President Coolidge on March 5. His first radio address was ed on April 20, 1927, u hen he before a lar audience tr the le Club at Washington, D. C. This record tie-up of transmitters was surpassed on February 22, 1927, when President Coolidge addressed a joint session of Congress assembled to pay tribute to George Washington, through a network of 42 broadcasters scattered across the nation from Port- land, Maine, to San Francisco, Cali- fornia, reaching an audience esti- mated to be 20,000,000. So was formed a vivid contrast of the present time with the days when Washington’s chief contact with the people was through small newspapers and letters to the leaders in each state. In addition to the regular broad- cast, transmitters at WGY and KDKA Courtesy Points along the radio wire the signal strength delivered to the of American Telephone and Telegraph Company REPEATER INSTALLATION AT PRINCETON These repeaters or amplifying relays are located at various network, so various stations Herbert Photo as to maintain volume and route the lines, thus insuring proper transmission from all points 37 sent the President’s voice into space on short wavelengths which were de- tected in London, Paris and South Africa. The British Broadcasting Corporation rebroadcast the Ameri- can waves from station 2LO so that listeners throughout the British Isles heard the President and the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” by the United States Army band, despite occasional interference and fading. IXTY Americans listened at the Savoy Hotel. They tuned in on the speech on eight-tube sets installed in their suites, and the last 15 min- utes of the speech was_ broadcast through loudspeakers to 50 Ameri- cans who were dancing in the hotels. “T had left my set turned on,” said one American, “and was just coming down the corridor to the room when I heard the President’s voice through the open door, yards away. It was that I could visualize him ” so good speaking. The special wire circuits used to link the stations on this occasion cov- ered approximately 10,000 miles and required the attention of 200 tele- phone engineers—two men at each of 53 repeater points and 37 terminal points and 20 at the central office at 24 Walker Street, New York City, the nucleus of the network. In addition, more than 200 radio engineers were on duty, since five or more men were occupied with the transmission of the program at each of the 42 stations. In this manner, chain broadcasting achieved a new record, while enabling President Coolidge to speak to the people of the United States in honor of the 200th anniversary of George Washington’s birth. The circuits utilized for connect- ing the broadcasters for simultaneous SWITCHBOARD AT CENTRAL STATION The operators at WEAF’s speech-input control board, control } } P voice currents over the network’s land

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38 transmission consist of telephone lines especially adapted for the purpbse. While the ordinary long-distance tele- phone wires may carry at the same time four or five telephone messages and numerous telegraphic communica- tions, a “special circuit” for radio broadcasting must be cleared of all other traffic. Also, the broadcast cir- cuits must be equipped with special vacuum-tube repeaters or amplifiers, since the ordinary repeaters used in long-distance telephone work are not designed to cover at one time the wide range of frequencies that are involved in the broadcasting of music and of speech. N addition to the telephone circuits over which the program is trans- ported, another line paralleling the first is employed to keep all stations in the network in constant communi- cation with each other by telegraph. In this manner, the condition of the various circuits is cheeked at regular intervals to make sure that every word or every musical note of the program is reaching all stations in the system with good intensity and free of ex- traneous noises. The detailed routing of the Presi- dent’s address and other events of na- tional importance begins with six cir- cuits which leave the telephone head- SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN direct to Springfield, Massachusetts, to WBZ; the other passing through Hartford, Connecticut, where WTIC is located, then on to Boston, where WEE I is supplied, and to Portland, Maine, where the program is fed to the transmitter of WCSH. Taps at Hartford connect with WTAG at Worcester, Massachusetts, and with WJAR at Providence, Rhode Island. The third main line from New York carries the program to WGY, Schen- ectady, and the fourth passing through Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Elmira, New York, leads to WGR at Buffalo. Still another circuit parallels the incoming wire from Washington, running through Philadelphia, where it supplies either WFI or WLIT and then continues to Washington to feed WRC. The sixth main circuit from New York travels west to Brushton, Penn- sylvania, where a tap emanates to KDKA and WCAE in Pittsburgh, and passes on to Beaver Dam, Ohio. From this point a connecting circuit extends north through Maumee, Ohio, where a tap supplies WTAM at Cleveland and then goes on to WWJ at De- troit. Traveling south to Beaver Dam, another line runs through Cin- cinnati, Ohio, (WSAI); Louisville, Kentucky, (WHAS); Nashville, Ten- nessee, (WSM); Memphis, Tennessee, July special circuits with Morrell P, Illinois, located near Chicago, from that point the transmitters ; WGN, WEBH, WMAQ and KYW fed. A circuit running north fr Morrell Park connects with WCCQ; Minneapolis, Minnesota, and anoth traveling south reaches St. Oui Missouri, (KSD); then to Kan City, Missouri, (WDAF); Bristoy Oklahoma, (KVOO), and D Texas, (WFAA). fay from Beaver Dam, WO at Davenport, Iowa, is plied by a circuit which continueg through Omaha, Nebraska, to ings, Nebraska, (KFKX); Denye Colorado,- (KOA); Salt Lake Gp Utah, (KSL), and then on to Francisco, where KPO is supp with the program. Station KGO, @ land, California, is fed direct fro San Francisco by a_ special lin Another channel passes south Los Angeles (KFI), and anothe extends north to Portland, Oregm (KGW), from which point a t& emanates to Spokane, Washingto (KHQ). Then continuing north from Portland through Tacoma, Washing ton, wires connect with KOMO an KFOA in Seattle. Thus, a broadcast event originating in the east is spread across the con quarters at 24 Walker Street, New (WMC), and so on through Chatta- tinent; the Capitol is linked with th York City, in different directions. nooga to Atlanta, Georgia, (WSB), nation and the voice of the President New England stations are supplied and Jacksonville, Florida, (WJAX). is within reach of an international through two circuits, one traveling Beaver Dam is connected also by audience. Dscatrve oT Br SPOKANE @ — “ e >) a now lng rent APO's J _ ! St PAUL US MENECTADY® 50. oe “Heogron wert : weco wer wer odcisTer FALO Pmovieence t man tromo i : Pas X ean wear woe H Oavenrort — SACT LANE CITY Woe wes mr taguace 7 PRL ADELA Wert oapiano— aes — ecuven ! - “1 WASHINGTON FRANCISCO 4 Wes os Noten” ya) a “poe MEMPris wae OALLAS NASHVILLE wan * JACKSONVALE WUAK HOW PRESIDENT COOLIDGE’S ADDRESS WAS BROADCAST The solid lines show th routes of the wires that carried the voice currents on February 22, 1927. Forty-two stations were included July 19 Pers Photo:

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July 1927 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 39

h t other) regon | 1 ta gton | fron’ Photographs by P and A hing? PREPARING FOR A JUMP ) an The “jumping balloonist” is adjusting his ball bef re enturing to lea e the ore ind ast ar d harne ss in an initial jump

OVER AN AUTOMOBILE halloonist is A single bo demonstrating his ability to clear und carried him over an automobile Here the obstacles.

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specially for the Scientific American ssibilities of the new tist has here shown the po unhindered by wind. tance of » yards or more, when Using a balloon having a capacity of about 3500 cubic feet, and equipped with the proper harness, it has been found possible to make enormous jumps with no motive power other than that of the jumper’s muscles and any slight breeze that may be blowing. The balloons, as illustrated above, are fitted with a rigging and body harness similar to that used on a parachute. The jumper carries a certain amount of ballast with him, which can be used to control the lift of the balloon. For short jumps, a light yet strong rope attached to the balloonist may be held by those on the ground, or otherwise fast- ened, thus preventing the jumper from traveling far.

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CROSS-COUNTRY JUMPING WITH SMALL sport of balloon jumping. An ordinarily strong jump will send the jumper 40 feet into the air BALLOONS At a single bound, it is possible to cover a dis- Small Balloons Provide New Sport pod hen starting, the ballast and the gas in the balloon are ) balanced that the gas-bag itself supports all of the pein ’s weight with the exception of about four pounds. With this effective lightness, the aeronaut can jump many feet into the air, and by properly pushing himself at the take-off, can, to a great extent, govern the direction in which he will travel. To rise still higher, ballast can be released, while in the event of being carried off by a sudden wind, a valve is conveniently located so that gas can be released and buoyancy lost. There is a great possibility for competitive sport here, using these bal- loons for racing, high jumping, and similar contests.

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ks 3 nana SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN ! SIS a SIS ~ qe CEG 4 4 4 vai od Sew, ay, EAST PORTAL AT BERNE main line. A one and one-half mile fill debris from the tunnel TUNNEL was made with July 197 ——_—-————., ENTRANCE AT WESTERN END A short piece of track connects the east entrance with the Here are shown the first forms that were laid for the concrete. Included in the photograph are the West Portal shield and tunnel entrance America’s Longest Tunnel Rapid Construction of the Greatest Tunnel to be Built In the New World NE of the most important pieces of engineering in progress at the present time in the United States, is the boring of the new eight-mile tunnel through the Cascade Mountains in Washington by the Great Northern Railway. The new tunnel when finished will be exactly 7.79 miles long and will be cut on a tangent across the Cascades from Scenic to Berne. When completed it will be the longest tunnel in the western hemi- sphere and the fourth longest in the entire world, exceeded only by the mighty cuts through the Alps between Switzerland, France and Italy. The problem of crossing the Cas- cades has been an important one to engineers ever since the opening up of the Puget Sound country 70 years ago. The problems here are peculiar, inasmuch as the Great Northern, like other northwest roads, crosses the Columbia River in central Washing- ton at an altitude of 608 feet above sea level and climbs to an altitude of 3,381 feet in 71 miles. At the summit of the Cascades the line descends sharply to an altitude of only ten feet at Everett, on Puget Sound, giving a rise and fall of well over 3,000 feet in 140 miles. In addition to the sharp grades and many curves, the lines,are in constant danger in the winter months from the tremendous snowfall By CHARLES PF. A. MANN on the western slope. A single snow or mud slide may destroy hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of the costly sheds in a few seconds. A large re- pair crew has to be in constant readi- ness for such an emergency. Railway officials estimate the average cost per - 7 . "eS Severe WEST PORTAL FROM THE AIR The arrows show the route chosen for the bore through the mountain. The eight-mile tunnel will cut off eight miles of track and six miles of tunneling and snow sheds. This photograph was taken from a peak just northeast of Scenic foot of these snow sheds at around 150 dollars. Summing up the problem as a whole, the engineering department of the Great Northern decided that in order to eliminate the heavy annual expense of hauling traffic over the mountains, and to speed up the serv- ice, a shorter route must be found. Accordingly, a surveying party was sent into the mountains early in 1925 and after a careful survey of hun- dreds of square miles of rocky coun- try, selected suitable portal sites for a new tunnel at Berne on the east side and Scenic on the west. The compara- tively small difference in elevation of Scenic and Berne made it possible to construct a tunnel with a 1.565 grade descending from east to west, with a total length of 41,136 feet and costing ten million dollars to build. The new tunnel will benefit the system in six ways: 1. It will eliminate the annuai maintenance charges for renewal of snow sheds and the heavy expense of operating rotary snow plows through the snow belt. 2. It will afford permanent proteec- tion from snow slides and will elimi- nate the six miles of snow sheds. 3. It will reduce operating costs brought about by heavy grades re quiring helper engines. 4. It will lessen the distance by several miles. cu tic ris wl ho of cre the for for are me Mc an sys in| as fur Inc anc The

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he al July 1927 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 41 MAP SHOWING Creen OLD AND NEW. LINES OF G.N.RY. 0 BERNE 0 "SCENIC WASH. ae a The va / f.av AT east CASCADE Z PORTAL 208:° TUNNEL crs [LZ BERNE cy \ e) 6 \ Si mauaero yy 4 “ » wenarcme 2 ¢ 6 i) ud Y ¥ * sfle \ d 4 né \ Lo . €2 TYE\S i wit 6 4 Gt weg uN & — gee" TABLE OF COMPARISONS OF PRESENT v $00 AND PROPOSED LINES BERNE | ro SCENIC macomanun ve LENGTH rer ae | $s9ms] 7eaus. | \ MAx CURVE 4.1000 | €°00 | TOTAL CURVATURE 228 167? 1” \ MAx GRADE 22- 22- | | TUNNEL GRADE , 695~ Lses- | ~ — | Summit ELEVATION (SUBRG)_ 3362 288 Soc TOTAL. RISE WESTWARD | 546 we So A TOTAL FALL WESTWARD. _| 1325 2s 5 sg os SNOWSHEDS TOTAL LENGTH 604 ms ooms Goa ms — 9? MKE8 NI 4 4 BRIDGES , | 023 ms 0.04 ms oe Saearrie @ "racena SCE c TUNNELS 366 ms 776ms a excessive the mountains for children of the workers. The bitter lesson of other large tunnel jobs pointed to the fact that every precaution must be taken in order to complete the bore by No- vember, 1928, before the snows begin. 5. It will eliminate the curvature in the Martin Creek loop. 6. It will lower the summit eleva- tion by 500 feet and lessen the total rise and fall. It is estimated that when the new line is opened, four hours will be cut from the schedule of freight trains and that 17 train crews can be done away with. After months of careful planning the Great Northern contracted with A. Guthrie and Company of St. Paul for actual construction of the tunnel. Immediately both organizations joined forces and built three camps, which are the finest ever built for caring for 1en working on a project of this kind. Model cities were built at Scenic and Berne, equipped with electric light and heat, sanitary sewage-removal systems, and running water. CTUAL boring started early in 1926 and it was decided to use what is known as a pioneer tunnel paralleling the main bore. This runs from the west portal to the Mill Creek shaft, or for nearly six miles. The Mill Creek shaft was sunk about two and one-half miles west of the east portal, at what is known as Mill Creek valley. It is carried down 622 feet below the floor of the valley to subgrade of the main bore. Drilling and mucking op- erations are going ahead from both Everything is furnished all camps faces on the pioneer cut and the main in order to make them as comfortable tunnel. No pioneer tunnel has been as possible, and special quarters are run from Mill Creek to the east portal furnished married men with families. on account of the short distance and Indeed, a modern electrically lighted because all operations eastward are and heated school was built high up in upgrade. Should excessive water in- flow occur, all uphill operations could be stopped and there would be prac- tically no necessity for extending the time. Using this system involves much extra expense; but where the work is done against time the saving will well repay the extra work. Cross cuts are made every 1,500 feet, and when finally all openings are being drilled there will be from 10 to 20 double-faced workings instead of two. Furthermore, this will give two out- lets for air, water, light, ventilation and rail lines and will care for exces- sive inflow of water, one tunnel being plugged to handle water only. The main center heading, which procedes the enlarged section, is 10 by 10 feet in size and is later enlarged by the top heading and bench methods to the full size of 18 by 25 feet. Sep- arate crews timber the cut, and lastly the concrete —w is poured in at the rate of about 25 feet per day. The pioneer cut is 8 by 9 feet in size and is unlined. The method of cutting s-RECORD CREW feet of granite rock in 29% days. The former record was a cut of 984 feet in 80 days, made in 1913 A WORLD’S These men bored through 1,157 SHAFT-HEAD AT MILL CREEK A shaft drilled to the grade of the main tunnel about two and one- half miles west of East Portal provided three exits instead of two

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42 away the rock face, which is a varied mixture of fundamental gneiss and calearious schist with occasional strata of hard fine granite, is interesting for From 20 to 30 holes nine feet deep are drilled into the rock face by a set of drills mounted on a movable drill carriage holes are one and one half inches in diame- ter and are constantly kept free of dust by a stream of water flowing its speed and accuracy. The braced against the rock. through the drill rods. FTER the holes are ment are moved back about 2,000 feet and the charges are set off in five separate blasts. First the middle core is blasted. Another charge enlarges the loosened layer to a large cone; another loosens the outer edge; and one charge lifts the entire mass from the back face. Lastly a heavy charge blows the entire loosened section clear of the roof and floor. Automatic elec- tric muckers scoop the debris into conveyors and drop it into mine cars. This cycle is repeated five or six times in 24 hours and it never stops from one month’s end to another. The un- derground workers are supplied with hot food, and telephone communica- tion is available clear to the face of the workings. Strong flood lights make the work a veritable movie studio, and there is less physical inconvenience than would be incurred in digging a large cellar where such details are overlooked. From 40 to 50 feet per day is rated as excellent progress for the drill ganys and nearly two miles of pioneer tunnel have been driven. Concreting has been started at the west portal carefully i tamped full of measured charges of blasting gelatin, the men and equip- SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN July 19n A MYERS-WHALEY MUCKING MACHINE . Four men operating one of these machines can remove as much debris as could formerly a dozen men and a string of mules. The machines operate by electricity and can run in a five-foot tunnel and is now in nearly 300 feet. Recently the world’s record for drilling an 8 by 9-foot hole was established by a crew at the west portal. They drilled 1,157 feet in 2914 days through hard gran- ite. The former record was held by a crew on the Rodgers Pass tunnel in 3ritish Columbia in 1913 when they cut a passageway through a distance of 954 feet in 30 days. Contrast this marvel of engi- neering efficiency with the methods used in boring the world’s first long tunnel nearly 2,000 years ago. It was built by the Emperor Claudius in 52 A. D. for the purpose of draining lake Fucino in Italy and was four and one- quarter miles long. It required the ELECTRIC AIR-COMPRESSORS In order to keep the air-operated drills constantly at work, it was necessary to provide compressed air at a pressure of 120 pounds per square inch. The machines shown above handled all requirements labor of 30,000 men for 11 years. Modern methods would have _ holed this tunnel in six months with 400 men and some compressed air and electricity. When the two sections meet some- time early in 1928, the Great Northern will open a new era in transportation in the Pacific Northwest. Traffic to Puget Sound has increased by leaps and bounds. The heroic task of mov- ing the heavy freight and passenger trains over one of the worst sections on the 2,000-mile journey westward from St. Paul will be much easier, and “on time schedule” will be easier to maintain than ever before in the history of the road. HE new tunnel marks the begin- ning of a long series of improve- ments which not only the Great North- ern but other railroads are forced to make to maintain their standards un- der the pressure of modern traffic, and it is in keeping with the policies of other railroads of the country which, during the last 15 years, have spent hundreds of millions on eliminating curvature and grade. The new tunnel will eliminate over five complete cir- cles of curvature or nearly 2,000 de- grees. Ever since the days of the famous switchbacks, which were first used in the Cascades to raise the trains over the mountains, the Great Northern has found snow to be its worst enemy. It now bids fair to ban the soft white monster forever. This great work is being done under the personal direction of Colonel Frederick Mears, Seattle, with Mr. M. J. C. Andrews as Engineer in Charge on the work. or enn Jt N pe st gi st as gi 3 el pe

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y 1927 i ars, pled 400 and ern ion to aps Ov- ger ons ard er, ier the eS July 1927 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Stupendous Pressures Pressures of Great Magnitude Profoundly Alter the Properties of Matter. How Extreme Pressures are Produced in the Laboratory By P. W. BRIDGMAN, Ph. D. Professor of Physics at Harvard University, Member of the National Academy of Sciences HE pressures of ordinary experi- ence may be ar- ranged according to orders of magnitude in some such way as this. First, pres- sures of the order of tens of pounds The author, whose I 2 experiments with per square inch, of high pressures have which the pressure ope ned an interest- = : ages ing field of the atmosphere is the most familiar. Next, pressures of hundreds of pounds per square inch, such as are met in steam engines or the explosions of gas engines. Next in order are pres- sures of thousands of pounds, such as we find in cylinders of compressed gas, which usually measure 2000 or 8000 pounds, or in hydraulic machin- ery, which sometimes operates to 5000 pounds. The next higher order is that of tens of thousands of pounds. Of this, the most familiar example is artillery, which operates usually at not more than 30,000 Ib/in? (pounds per square inch). The pressure at the bottom of the ocean at its deepest part is in the neighborhood of 15,000 pounds. The next higher order is that of hundreds of thousands of pounds per square _ inch. A number of years ago I devised methods for handling pressures of this order, and have been able to reach in the extreme case as much as 600,000 Ttb/in2, al- though most of my work has been limited to more modest pressures of 200,000 Tb /in?. One may visualize a pressure of 200,000 Ib /in? by imagin- ing a 100-ton locomotive supported on a pin one square inch in cross section. fern pressures of the order of hundreds of thousands of pounds, many of the properties of matter are profoundly altered, and there are many phenomena of great physical interest to be measured. But before entering on a systematic investiga- tion of this field of high pressures it is evident that there were a great many new preliminary problems to be solved in the production, handling, and measurement of such pressures. I have thought that the readers of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN would be interested in hearing of some of the preliminary steps, since a great many interesting things were found in the preparatory work. In the first place, this whole high- pressure field was opened somewhat by accident. I was engaged in an optical experiment under the quite modest pressure of 1000 Ib/in?, where one of the problems was the de- signing of a packing plug for a hole. On examining the plug after it was designed, I saw that incidentally it did very much more than was neces- sary, for it was such that it auto- matically became tighter as pressure increased, and thus could never leak, no matter how high the pressure, provided only that the walls of the containing vessel did not break. This packing at once opened an enormous field, for the highest pressure reached in previous research was about 45,000 Ib /in’, and the limit was set by leaks, and not at all by the strength of the containing vessels. BS FIGURE 1 General principle of the packing by which the pressure in the packing B is always kept higher than that in the liquid at L The magnitude of the field opened is shown by the fact that now after nearly 20 years’ work I do not feel that I have much more than begun. The situation presented by the dis- covery of this new principle in pack- ing was one of the few occasions where persistence in research is not a virtue. I immediately dropped the original problem to cultivate the new field, and have not yet had a chance to return to it. The fundamental principle of the packing is shown in Figure 1, where is represented the method by which a piston is packed. The figure shows a piston (P) forced into a cylindrical hole in a steel block, compressing the liquid (L) with which the hole is filled. (R) is a ring of hardened steel, (C) is a cup-shaped soft-steel washer, (B) a packing of soft rub- ber, and (A) a mushroom-shaped piece of heat-treated steel. The es- sential feature is that the stem of the mushroom does not reach entirely through the ring (R), but its end is unsupported. This means that the entire push of the piston (P), which, of course, is equal to the pressure in the liquid except for friction, is trans- mitted to the mushroom through the packing (B). Now the area of this packing is less, by the area of the stem, than the total area of the pis- ton, so that the pressure in pounds per square inch in the packing is greater by a fixed fraction than the pressure exerted by the piston and in the liquid. Hence the liquid can never leak out past the packing, but para- doxically, since the pressure in the packing is greater than that in the liquid, it is the packing that tends to leak in past the liquid. Any such in- ward leak of the packing can easily be prevented if the plug is a close fit for the cylinder. practice, the stem of the mush- room is usually about one-half the diameter of the head, so that the area of the stem is one-quarter of the area of the head, and the area of the ring on which the packing pushes is three- quarters of the area on which the liquid pushes, and therefore the pres- sure in the packing is always 33 per- cent greater than that in the liquid. Thus if the pressure in the liquid is 30,000 Ib/in2, that in the packing is 40,000 pounds, and when the pressure in the liquid becomes 300,000 pounds, that in the packing rises to 400,000 pounds. It is an interesting comment on the vagaries of patent law that a patent for this packing was refused because it had been previously used on the plunger of a sausage machine. Having now this means of produc- ing any pressure without leaks, the

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FIGURE 2 One of the halves of a cylinder of tool steel split by the application of internal pressure. The inner hole has stretched from one half to one and one fifth inches. The marimum pres sure withstood by this cylinder was 600,000 pounds per square inch first question was to find how high pressures could be reached without bursting the walls of the containing vessels. Of course, one does. not double the strength of a cylinder by doubling the thickness of the walls, and engineers had long known that there is a practical limit beyond which it does no good to increase the thick- ness of the walls. The reason is that the inner fibers of the cylinder have to do by far the largest part of the work of supporting the internal pres- sure, since the more distant outer layers cannot help in supporting the pressure until the strain is propa- gated to them by the inner layers stretching far beyond their elastic limit. f qsmapeoe no experiments had been made to find just how much pressure a very thick-walled cylinder would support, there were various theories, and these all agreed in say- ing that the maximum pressure possi- ble was about equal to the ordinary breaking strength of the metal. Thus a cylinder made of ordinary mild steel of a tensile strength of 60,000 Ib /in? would not be expected to support more than 60,000 pounds internal pressure, even if the walls of the cylinder were infinitely thick. Very fortunately, this estimate of theory turned out to be much too low. The fact is that in a thick-walled cylinder the inner fibers are so supported by the outer fibers that they can stretch very much more without breaking than they can under the conditions of the ordinary tensile tests, and so allow the outer fibers to assume a greater share of the load than was thought possible. This possibility is shown in Figure SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 2, which is a photograph of one of the halves of a cylinder of ordinary tool steel broken by an internal pres- sure of 600,000 Ib/in-. The tensile strength of such a steel is not more than 150,000 pounds, so that this cylinder actually supported four times as much pressure as the simple theory indicated. The photograph also shows the great stretch of the inner fibers; their elongation was 140 percent, whereas not more than 25 percent is possible under ordinary conditions. Most paradoxical of all, the cylinder broke at the outside surface, where stress and strain are both least, in- stead of at the inner surface, where both stress and strain are a max- imum. Such phenomena _ evidently give very important light on the theories of rupture of metals, into which, however, there is not space to enter here. In Figure 3 and 4 are shown two other examples of cylinders broken by internal pressure. Figure 38 is a cylinder of mild steel, the maximum strength of which under ordinary ten- sile tests is 60,000 tb/in2, which re- quired over 200,000 tb /in2 to break it as shown. The inner hole was stretched from '% to 1%g inches, or 175 percent. Figure 4 is the cross section of a cylinder of copper; this required 150,000 Ib/in? to break it, against a breaking strength in ordi- nary tension of 30,000 Ib/in?. The inner hole stretched 200 percent, from 1, to %g inch, before rupture took place. Notice that in copper the rup- ture traveled in from the outside along a sort of spiral; this is <uite characteristic. F a heavy cylinder is stretched be- yond the elastic limit, so that the internal layers receive a permanent stretch, and pressure is then released, the cylinder is put into a condition of internal stress very much like that in a built-up gun, in which there is compression at the inner layers and tension at the outside, except that the distribution of stress is very much

FIGURE 4 Cross section of a copper cylinder burst by the application of internal pressure. The inner hole was stretched from % to %% of an inch

July 1927

FIGURE 3 A cylinder of mild steel ruptured by excessive internal pressure. This cyl- inder was originally two inches in out- side diameter and one half inch in in- side diameter. The inner hole was stretched until it measured one and three eighths inches in diameter more uniform than that possible to reach in a gun by shrinking on hoops. This principle offers a very much bet- ter and cheaper way of constructing large artillery; experimental guns were made by this method during the war, and now such guns are in reg- ular construction. Another problem on which much thought was expended was that of the piston by which these high pressures were to be produced. Many designs of elaborate apparatus were made, in which I attempted by various fea- tures of design to make the average compressive stress in the piston less than the pressure which it produces in the liquid. Fortunately all such elaborate schemes proved unnecessary because the strength of steel for the simple compressive stress which the piston must support turned out to be much higher than expected. Steel, when glass hard, can support an as- tonishingly high compression, al- though for most purposes glass-hard steel is much too brittle. ANY different grades of steel were tried; any high-carbon steel that can be made glass hard wii support 450,000 Ib /in? or more, and I found one steel that required 750,000 Ib /in2 to break it in pure compression. My experience with the piston empha- sizes the enormous value of simplicity in design. The results of my experi- ence can now after many years be reduced to an extremely simple receipt for producing the highest possible pressures: Take a strong piece of steel, bore a hole in it, fill the hole with a liquid and close the hole with a plug that will not leak, and push as hard as you can on the plug.

Jul me pre oth ap] pal bre al ap} avo ing of cen flav for. as | min cult; the tion tric Te to o tube: time tube: than finall for ¢ the s with an it 7. ( sions of st some Six |] Thes founc to in recog after in Fj illust: pletel der, boxes exter} hydro liquid When high cente) apart parts the st

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927 eee July 1927 Another problem was to devise a method for piping a liquid under high pressure from one vessel to an- other, for obviously the experimental methods can be much simplified if the apparatus can be made in several parts connected by pipe. This brought forcibly home after spending a month constructing a complicated piece of steel to was apparatus of one avoid connecting pipe, and then hav- ing it break on the first application of pressure because of a flaw in the center of the ingot. The difficulty of flaws in the metal proved very serious, may be imagined, pressures for, as . e+, ze is 3 a — — g l FIGURE 5 Ap] tus for producing the “pinch- q-off” effect, that is, separation of the longitudinal fibers by the Sinn f pressure to the curves face of a cylinder. The specime? e show? at A The fluid ererting the essure by hich rupture is produced con- taines the an? B as high as these will find out the minutest flaws. This particular diffi- culty has become much less serious in the last few years with the introduc- tion of sound steel made in the elec- tric furnace. To return to the pipe, it is possible to obtain commercial steel capillary tubes with an external diameter five times the internal diameter, but such tubes will not stand permanently more than 60,000 Ib/in?. The difficulty was finally met by working out a method for drilling the connecting tubes from the solid rod; I have made such tubes with an internal diameter of 1/16 of an inch and 18 inches long. HE early work was not without a certain amount of danger, explo- sions continually occurring, and pieces of steel flying about with velocities sometimes high enough to penetrate six inches of hard pine planking. These dangerous ruptures were finally found to be all of the same type, and to involve a possibility not previously recognized. This type of rupture was afterward studied for its own sake; in Figure 5 this sort of rupture is illustrated. The rod (A) passes com- pletely through a high-pressure cylin- der, coming out through stuffing boxes (C), and within the cylinder its external curved surface is exposed to hydrostatic pressure exerted by a liquid in the annular (B). When the pressure in the liquid rises high enough, the rod parts in the center just as if it had been pulled apart by a tensile load, and the two parts of the rod are expelled through the stuffing boxes with much violence. space SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN In Figure 6 is shown one of these pinched-off rods; the pinching took place at the pointed end. For safety, the rod was expelled into a hole in a massive block of steel. The violence of the expulsion is suggested by the fact, which can be easily detected in the photograph, that the diameter of the rod was appreciably enlarged for at least one third of its length. The paradoxical feature of this sort of rupture is that there is no force lengthwise of the rod tending to make it break, but nevertheless the fibers are lengthened in this direction and eventually break. The effect in prin- ciple is much like pinching off a roll of putty between the fingers, only here the putty is solid steel, and the fingers which pinch it are a mobile liquid. The importance of such a type of rup- ture for the theories of the engineer is evident. A which has many Pressure is cvlinder (A) (1% inch diameter) larger piston (C) (2.5 inches in diam- eter) of a hydraulic press, which in turn is operated by the hand pump (D). By means of the valves at (E), the pump (D) may be connected at will to the piston (C), or to the small hydraulic intensifier (H). The inten- sifier is used to produce in the high pressure parts of the apparatus an initial pressure of 30,000 Ib/in2. This one of the finally apparatus VIEW of evolved pieces of been in constant use for vears is shown in Figure 7. produced in the upper by a small piston (B) driven by the initial pressure compresses to negli- gible volume any air accidentally pres- ent in the apparatus, and also takes up a large part of the compressibility of the liquid, thus making it possible to reach 200,000 Ib/in? with a single stroke of the high pressure piston, FIGURE 7 A photograph of a standard kigh- pressure assembly. The letters are ex- plained in the text directly above 45 which could not otherwise be accom- plished because of the necessary ab- sence of all valves in the high pres- sure part of the apparatus. The upper cylinder (A) is connected through the pipe (F) with the lower cylinder (G), which may be removed and altered to suit the experiment. gg spent an unexpected feature of the apparatus is its small size, the cylinders being not over five inches in diameter. There is a real reason for this, because only the strongest steel will stand these pressures, and steel must be heat treated to bring out its greatest strength, and only small pieces of steel can be heat treated throughout their entire mass. With this apparatus a great many phenomena have been _ investi- gated which there is no space to de- scribe here. Most of these phenom- ena have been accurately measured. new i } FIGURE 6 A “pinched-off” rod. Notice the up diameter for a third setting of the of the length of the rod, suggesting the extreme violence of the effect Some of them, however, were of in- terest primarily because of their bear- ing on the design of the apparatus, and these were investigated only qualitatively. Thus it was found that no steel cylinder will support more than about 90,000 Ib /in? without rup- ture, when the pressure is transmitted to it by mercury. The reason is that the atoms of the mercury, which are very small, are driven by the pressure between the atoms of the steel, where they amalgamate it. Another surpris- ing effect is that many substances nor- mally soft and pliable become enor- mously hard and stiff under pressure. Thus it is not possible to transmit a pressure of more than 60,000 Ib /in2 with ordinary oil, because the oil be- conres so stiff that it no longer flows under pressure. Paraffine wax is made by pressure harder than ordi- nary machine steel; it is quite easy under high pressure to make a piece of steel flow by pushing it with a piece of paraffine. Soft rubber acts in the same way and becomes very hard. Sometimes a soft rubber washer be- comes so brittle that it cracks under pressure, and then the soft steel in contact with it is forced in ridges into the cracks in the rubber. That is, under high pressure soft rubber becomes so hard that it may be used as a die to form steel.

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46 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN July 19H The Wanderings of An Oil Well Automatic Surveying Machine Shows World’s Deepest Wellto be 517 Feet Outof Plumb at6,000 Feet Depth T is probable that the men who rush off to a newly discovered oil district, put up a derrick, and begin to bore for oil, believe that they are driving their drills vertically into the ground beneath them. If the drill should not go where it is pointed, it would be a serious matter for these adventurers, for the derrick is erected and the drilling mining and petroleum engineer, Mr. Alexander Anderson of Fullerton, Cal- ifornia, to design a small and very ingenious instrument that is capable of making such a survey. It is so small that it can be lowered bodily into the drill hole, and so accurate that, in its course down to the bottom of the well, it automatically records and photographs on a reel of film directed to the photograph showing the head of the well. At the back of the picture are seen several lengths of drill pipe, each section being 85 feet long. In the center at the top of the picture is the end of the main drill pipe, (the drilling machine, by the way, being of the rotary type,) and below this the pipe reduces in diame- ter until it is screwed into the top of the survey machine, which is started upon a plot of ground which is selected under the be- lief that the quickest way to get at the oil is by a vertical well running straight to the supposed oil reservoir below. Not all of the experienced well drillers, and certainly not the w | PLAN OF UNDERGROUND COURSE, ROUND COURS! 1s . — END OF SURVEY o AT 6348 PaEy | ! 6000 ' | | trained mining and petroleum | gee engineers and the_ geologists, ; a | have such a simple faith in the DERRICK FLOOR | | 5000 good behavior of the oil drill. os -~ These expert men are well aware 2000 | that the progress of the drill on seen Zz | its way down to the oil-bearing will be noticed projecting some- what above the mouth of the drill hole. The man to the left is —,j standing upon the circular drill table, gear-driven, by which the boring bit is operated. The man in the center is screwing the sur- vey machine into the tool joint pin by means of a_ sprocket wrench. When the coupling up of the survey machine has been ratic; but none of them was able to determine the extent or the | sands is apt to be somewhat er- | 30007 | + 74 | ae ae completed, successive lengths of the 85-foot pipe will be screwed on as the machine is lowered into the well. At stated intervals the recording apparatus within the little tube will make a photo- direction of these deviations from the vertical. If the well hole had only been big enough to allow’ one to descend, carrying with him a level, inclinometer and compass, it would have been a very simple matter to plot the deviations, both in the verti- cal and the horizontal plane, but this, of course, was impossible; the di- ameter of the well was altogether too small for that. It was reserved for a well-known its exact position at any desired depth. The survey machine proper consists of a tube, 314 inches in diameter and 7 feet long, as shown in the accom- panying photograph. At its lower end is a conical plug welded into the tube. At its upper end, a top plug is welded into the tube, and this connects by a coupling to the tool joint pin at the bottom of the drill pipe. Attention is TOP OF WELL Lert: This shows top of well. Drillers are attach- ing the tubular surveying machine to bottom of drill pipe. Note group of “stands” ready to _ be coupled on as the pipe is lowered into the well THE OUTFIT RicuTt: The inventor dem- onstrating the operation of the surveying machine. It is so mounted on a tri- pod that it can be given movements similar to those which occur when it is lowered into a well graphic record of the inclination and of the variation in azimuth of the survey machine at successive levels. Now, consider the photograph shown in the bottom right-hand cor- ner of the page. This is a demonstra- tion frame which serves to show the method of operation of the survey machine. The 7-foot 34-inch tube is supported by three rods upon a cireu- lar ring baseplate. Note the screws passing through the lower flange of Ju th Cal sul be cla al 12 tel no are an a 1 tal ve’ the vic

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1927 ving k of ths » 85 p of lain by and me- top lich me- lrill is rill the nan jur- int ket een of ved red als 1in ‘a- —— | eden ae ERIE ote a July 1927 the ring by means of which the tripod can be leveled up. The tube is so supported at its mid-length that it can be swung freely in a vertical plane. Above its point of support, there is clamped to the tube a metal compass- graduated horizontal circle. The amplifier attachment, and the telephone receivers, which will be noted in the hands of Mr. Anderson, are for listening in on the mechanism, and coordinating by stop watch with a time schedule on which are taken during the lowering of the sur- vey machine into the well. Carried on the base ring of the tripod and pro- rews for its adjust- vertical are card, or “shots” with set si graduated vided ment, is a GLASS MODEL OF WELL The hori depths. planes at left derrick act path is geologi- -ontal plates The plumb represe nt line to the from the dark line various represents a floor. The other line trace of the well hole through the } ca formatio s the « ns ence ntered which is provided with a clamp at- tachment by which the survey tube can be held in any determined posi- tion. The illustrations show some of the surprising facts which were brought to light by a survey with this machine of the famous Olinda Well Number 96 in Orange County, California. This is the deepest well in the world. At the time that this survey was made, May, 1926, it had reached a total SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN depth of 6,948 feet. At the present writing, it is down to over 8,000 feet. We present a photograph of a glass model which was built to show the amount of deviation fron: the vertical at the different levels. The plan of the underground course of the hole proves that, in addition to traveling very much out of plumb, the drill also moved in a general circular or rather rectangular direction. It shows how the course of the well would appear if it were projected onto the surface of the ground The survey ma- chine was lowered into the well to a measured depth of 6,522 feet. After each stand of pipe was attached and lowered, the machine automatically made a photographic record; an addi- tional reading was taken at the bot- tom of the hole, making a total of 75 photographic readings. The survey started at 8:45 A.M. and reached bot- tom at 3:50 P.M. The following July, when the hole was 1,000 feet deeper, the machine was again lowered to the bottom of the well. abc ve. N R. ANDERSON tells us that un- expectedly high temperatures and that they in- were er2ountered capacitated the batteries inside the machine, so that the photographic rec- ord ceased at a depth of 6,948 feet. The temperature was determined by laboratory tests made on similar bat- teries, and it was found to have been about 212 degrees, Fahrenheit. It is believed that with the use of improved insulation inside the machine, the sur- vey can be carried down to 8,000 feet. The first part of the hole, to a depth of 3,751 feet, runs in a general south- easterly direction; then the slope of the hole changes to a northeasterly direction and follows this course down to a measured depth of 5,962 feet. Here, the hole swings sharply around to a direction north 75 degrees west and maintains this course with the last reading at 6,948 feet. The glass model shows that there is a rather even rate of departure from the vertical from near the top of the well to the 6,000-foot level where the hole is not less than 517 feet off vertical. From that level, it swings back towards the plumb line and is 348 feet off vertical at 6,948 feet depth. Now, let us what is the sig- nificance of these erratic wander- ings of the well hole as revealed by survey. Let us suppose that oil had been struck at the depth of 6,000 feet, where the lateral drift has carried the well to its extreme distance of 517 feet, measured horizontally from the derrick floor. This would mean that under the derrick there would be ex- actly 30 acres of untapped area. Mr. Anderson, writing in Petroleum World, tells us that there is a good deal of literature dealing with the see 47 TRANSPORTING THE MACHINE The device is carried distances well to well. It steel frame, de- signed to protect it from shock from long rides on a spacing of derricks according to theo- retical considerations. Such sugges- tions show that the great underground drift of wells was not formerly appre- ciated. Underground surveying of California rotary wells has demon- strated that wells in the same field do not follow parallel lines underground; the amount of drift of two adjoining wells might also vary within wide limits. It is surprising to learn from this authority that Olinda Number 96 is by no means an exceptional case of large drift, since the drift of some shallow wells has been found to ex- ceed that amount. Furthermore, the fact that wells drift in different direc- tions and by different amounts sug- gests that areas of untapped oil sand may exist under leases that are seem- ingly fully drilled. THE SURVEYING MACHINE This consists of a steel shell 3/16 of an inch thick, three half inches in diameter seven within which are bat-~ mechanism for re- and one feet long, teries and an ingenious cording photographically the inclinations and positions of the well at various points in its wanderings from the perpendicular. The re- sults obtained are fully described in the text and

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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN July 1927 . DETERMINING THE EFFECT OF SUNLIGHT ON PLANT GROWTH The plants to be tested are placed on small cars and exposed to sunlight for definite periods Our Agricultural Ellis Island How the Department of Agriculture is Using a Famous Old Virginia Estate as a Testing Ground for Immigrant Plants LMOST under the shadow of the huge radio towers at Arlington, Virginia, and contiguous to the borders of our greatest national cemetery, is located the finest plant proving-ground under the sun—an outdoor laboratory for grain, grass, fruit, flower, crop, bulb and soil re- search whose fame has reverberated around the world. Spacious and palatial Arlington Farm, a cradle of American history and a clearing house through which thousands of foreign crops, fruits, nuts, berries and vegetables have gained citizenship in these United States, annually attracts agricultural scientists and visitors from the four quarters of the earth. It is unique and unrivaled in its distinctiveness. There is not another experimental enterprise in all creation that is the equal of this farming estate which nestles close to the banks of the mean- dering Potomac. ATE’S shuffle has written a most curious history at Arlington Farm. Once it was the beloved home of the notable Custis family of Vir- ginia, and was widely heralded as a center of lavish hospitality. Later, it was the scene of some of George Washington’s surveying exploits. Our first President surveyed and con- structed a viaduct under the historical By GEORGE H. DACY Chesapeake and Ohio Canal which penetrated a part of Arlington Farm and is still in use. Subsequently, Gen- eral Lafayette and his son visited at the manor house which once _ stood where the superintendent’s home at Arlington is now situated. After the tumultuous times of the Civil War, Arlington—once the scene of brilliant fetes and parties—slumped into dis- card and was used by the War De- partment as a mammoth pasturage for army mules. Negro squatters took possession of some of the outlying land, where they built crude cabins. It was exactly 26 years ago when the War Department transferred the tract of 400 acres to the United States Department of Agriculture to be used as a plant, fruit and crop experimen- tal station. From then to the present day, government experts have been busily engaged in reclaiming the im- poverished fields, and in providing es- sential buildings, laboratories, green- houses, fertilizer factories, cold stor- age facilities and other research ap- pliances. ‘Today, Arlington Farm is the official testing ground for the most extensive experimentation in soil till- age, crop production and plant life ever attempted. Uncle Sam _ spends from 350,000 to 400,000 dollars a year in scientific research at this great es- tablishment. Epochal results have been secured since the inception of the test farm, and these justify its exist- ence forever. The investigations have saved untold millions of dollars annually for American agriculture. Fully to appreciate Arlington Farm, one must browse through the pages of dog-eared histories and time-stained records. They add the sparkle of ro- mance and the tinge of adventure toa national estate which now is used as a try-out center where old theories, new-fangled ideas and agricultural speculations and surmises are sub- jected to thorough tests. Where John Parke Custis once pro- duced corn, cotton and tobacco and where his son, George Washington Parke Custis, later lived and gained fame as a prince of hosts, Uncle Sam, master-farmer, now cultivates rolling fields and level bottomlands, HE King of England granted a patent to the colony of Virginia to Lord Culpeper and the Earl of Ar- lington, during the days when knee breeches and silken ruffs were in style. Arlington Estate was christ- ened in honor of the latter celebrity, by a certain Robert Howson who se- cured a grant to 6000 acres of North- ern Virginia land from Sir William Berkeley. Eventually, Howson traded Arlington to General John Alexander for 64 hogsheads of tobacco. During the latter months of the Revolutionary War, John Parke Cus- tis purchased 1100 acres of Arlington July Esta ande in V prop the ingt of th Was the Geor cour sole thro Tl and the brat duri Geol Cust patr He « of | men bled tion and judg pion ingt cam Mar 1831 Lee Aca T afte by t ing mili Sho fisca and of Thr arre Sam

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) 1927 ns irs m, of “ July 1927 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 49 Estate from General Alex- ander, paying 1100 pounds in Virginia currency for the property. Mr. Custis was the son of Martha Wash- ington, America’s “first lady of the White House.” George Washington Parke Custis, the adopted son of General George Washington, in the course of time, became the sole owner of Arlington through inheritance. The first agricultural fairs and live-stock exhibitions in the United States were cele- brated at Arlington Estate during the occupancy of George Washington Parke Custis. He was a _ pioneer stock. patron of pure-bred He offered prizes and the use of his estate to rival stock- men and farmers who assem- bled their fat, sleek-condi- tioned horses, cattle, sheep and swine in order that experienced judges might select the annual cham- pions. Upon the demise of ington Parke Custis, Arlington be- came the property of his daughter, Mary Ann Randolph Custis, who, in 1831, was married to Cadet Robert E. Lee of the West Point Military Academy. George Wash- HE next remarkable events chronicled at Arlington, occurred after the abandonment of the estate by the Lee family, Robert E. Lee mov- ing to Richmond where he became military leader of the Confederacy. Shortly thereafter, Arlington was con- fiscated by the Federal Government and was used for some time as one of the Union Army headquarters. Three years later, it was sold for tax arrears and was purchased by Uncle Sam for 26,000 dollars. It was net nitrogen STUDYING SOIL BACTERIA Tiny bacteria annually manufacture 1,000,000 tons of which is stored as plant food on the roots of clover, alfalfa, beans and peas until 1877 that the Lee family finally won a settlement from the Govern- ment for its treasured and cherished estate. At that time, the courts awarded 150,000 dollars to George Washington Lee, the chief surviving heir. The original now subdivided of outstanding cal importance. Arlington Estate is into three units, each national and histori- One tract composes Arlington Cemetery, designated as such by Abraham Lincoln. Another portion now consists of the Fort Meyer (Virginia) Military Reserva- tion where leading detachments of the United States Cavalry are stationed. The third body of land has been im- proved and perfected as Arlington Farm, where America’s most intricate crop-production riddles are solved. You can appreciate that the plant research at Arlington Farm can be continued to the millenium when you understand that civilized man now uses only about 200 of the more than 500,000 dis- tinct species of plants which have been identified. One of the great works of the De- partment of Agriculture is to introduce and test out at Ar- lington Farm as many of the unused plant varieties as are adaptable to American soils and climate. This is a pro- digious assignment. Take the case of soy beans, for example. All the leading species of this billionaire crop now in use in the United States were first tested as plant immigrants at Arling- ton Farm. Selections were made which have proved to be valuable mortgage-lifters in the different sections of our continent. Today, more than 1,500 additional varieties of soy beans are being studied by science as they grow in Arling- ton’s fertile fields. Translate these figures pertaining to one specialized crop into terms of the several hun- dred crops which are experimented with, and you can visualize the mag- nitude of this matchless agricultural project. Kk VEN in this day of our 48 state “4 experimental farms, agricultural colleges and thousands of sub-stations with scientific experts working con- stantly, the food-producing power of the world is still practically unknown. This is because science has only just begun to study, in a modern way, the relative performance of different plants. Arlington Farm is the leader in this campaign to unlock the secrets of plant production which, since the dawn of human existence, have been barred from man’s knowledge. To help find the plant which will produce MODEL OF government for making This plant, designe d by full ll € ! size, wi FERTILIZER FACTORY experts, concentrated fertilizer when built in ment design that ELECTRIC PRECIPITATOR AND FURNACE This is another model of an efficient apparatus of govern- s a result of work at the Arlington Farm

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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SR One of the fu t the best food results of any that can be grown on every land in this country, is, in general, the broad policy of the United States Depart- ment of Agriculture. A _ veritable flood of plant life annually flows from all parts of the globe to Washington and eventually is tested under practi- cal field conditions at Arlington. The finest arterial highways and cross-country boulevards in America trace back to research of one kind or another which has been consummated at Arlington. The Bureau of> Public Roads, since its rise to international prominence as a highway investiga- tor, has conducted the majority of its experiments at this research factory. The purpose of many of these tests has been the ultimate development of standardized systems of highway con- struction—the building of roads which will not only withstand current vehicular traffic but which will resist the wear and tear of the ever-increas- ing potential burdens and loads. The influences of freezes and thaws, drainage and drought on permanent roads have been surveyed; viralithic and strength tests of concrete have been made. Subgrade research, the effects of six-wheeled trucks on high- ways, the impact influences of heavy loads, the use of original machines to simulate heavy traffic on test roads —these and hundreds of other ex- periments have been performed. acre of UCH that we know about soils and fertilizers results from Ar- lington’s practical research. During the last 14 years, experiments in the production of high quality, concen- trated fertilizers from low-grade ma- terials have yielded revolutionizing results. In this campaign, the gov- ernment specialists had to invent new fertilizer factory appliances, includ- A COMPLETE FERTILIZER FACTORY ring plar t j ; } 7 - stalat ( A? jton Farm ” ing electric blast-furnaces. They per- fected miniature fertilizer factories and made the experimental products under commercial conditions. Now they are testing these concentrated fertilizers—the “T. N. T.” of the plant food world—in all parts of the country. The potential results will be the annual saving of millions of dollars in fertilizer freight and bills. The concentrated fer- tilizers, which are four to five times as rich in plant food as ordinary commercial fertilizers, can be shipped long distances at comparatively low costs and used to grow three stalks of grain where one _half-starved specimen previously was produced. The fine turf gardens at Arlington are the best which greensward tech- nique ever grew. The United States storage July 197 Golf Association co-operates with the Department of Agriculture in test. ing out hundreds of different kinds of grasses, fertilizers, greens-keeping methods and insect and disease eradi- cation systems at this northern Vir. ginia station. The creeping and vel- vet bents—the premier golf-greens grasses of the central, northern and northwestern United States—nhave been selected and improved. The Government’s tests of grass growing annually save millions of dollars to the 2,000 or more golf club courses and public links now in use in this country. WO hundred acres of cultivated crops were grown, mostly in dim- inutive experimental tracts, at Arling- ton last year. Breeding, disease re- sistance, fertilizer, soil-inoculation, self-sterility, germination and _ seed treatment tests of various kinds have been made. Such important commer- cial bulbs as Easter lilies, narcissus, hyacinths and tulips are being raised under practical field conditions to solve all the commercial problems associated with that economic indus- try. Several acres of drug and poisonous plants are also produced for scientific purposes. Field and greenhouse studies of root-nodular bacteria which occur on all legumi- nous plants are in progress. Crop rotation as it influences the develop- ment of beneficial and harmful bac- teria is also under the microscope of scientific test. The riddles of sugar beets, tobacco, cotton, sugar cane, vegetables, truck crops, grains and hays are being explored and answered accurately from practical investigations under “dirt-farm” con- ditions. More than 50,000 introductions of / ee BLAST FURNACE FOR FERTILIZER EXPERIMENTS Here is only one of the many large installations made by government experts July 19 foreig! the ol perts. Russia larizec 000,00 000,00 Hairy simila Califo 000 d come ble P produ crop, fed f State: M AY throu Suda' good tablis try. wort! mont 000,0 milli anot! the § dolla othe! been asa ile A unde cott« viele vine bear frui bun a Vi spel uhtl exte

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ly 19 th the test. kinds Peping eradi- 1 Vir. d vel. rreens n and ~have The wing rs to urseg this vated dim- ling- > re- tion, seed have mer- sSuS, ised to ems lus- and iced and ilar mi- rop op- ac- ype of rar ins nd ral n- of July 1927 foreign plants have been raised under the observant eyes of farming ex- perts. Durum wheat brought in from Russia 18 years ago, tested and popu- larized by Uncle Sam, now yields 40,- 000,000 bushels, annually worth 60,- 000,000 dollars to American farmers. Hairy Peruvian alfalfa imported in similar manner and acclimatized in California, now adds an extra 5,000,- 000 dollars a year to the farming in- come of the Golden State. The nota- ble Pima cotton of Arizona, which produces a 20,000,000 dollar annual crop, was introduced from the Nile- fed fields of Egypt via the United States Department of Agriculture. MERICA’S date and fig grow- ing industries came into being through Arlington Farm’s assistance. Sudan grass from Africa which made good in Virginia trials, now is an es- tablished economic crop in this coun- try. It produces hay and forage worth 15,000,000 dollars every 12 months. Japanese sugar cane, a 4,- 000,000 dollar crop, Rhodes grass, a million dollar forage, Siberian millet, another millionaire, and feterita from the Sudan, which produces 12,000,000 dollars’ worth of feed a year, are other plant immigrants which have been naturalized in the United States asa consequence of Arlington’s scien- ide aid. A rare tree from Molokai, now under test, produces a crop like cotton; a tropical tree from Nigeria yields berries which will even sweeten vinegar; a palm tree from Para which bears a food like a potato; a new fruit tree from West Africa with bunches of edible peach-like fruits; a variety of Job’s-tears from Brazil; spekboom from South Africa; hua- uhtli from Mexico, a grain raised extensively by the Aztecs which pros- SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 51 THE EXPERIMENTAL ROSE GARDEN This garden at Arlington Farm is run in cooperation with the American Rose Society pers in arid regions too dry for corn; chayotes from Central America; the inga, a tropical walnut from Guate- mala, and the m’tsama melon, the chief water supply of travelers in the Kalahari Desert, are other extraor- dinary plant immigrants now being grown under national observation. The wonderful discovery that day- light exposure is the most important factor which influences plant growth was made at Arlington, where a mul- tiplicity of plant specimens were maintained in cells as dark as the corridors of Stygia. These plants, in tubs and boxes placed on small cars, were hauled outdoors daily on steel tracks and exposed to sunlight on definite schedules. These experiments revised the world’s oldest theories about plant growth, for they proved “TESTING GRASS FOR GOLF GREENS Determining the suitability of grass for greens is an important part of the work that daylight was more important than either temperature fluctuations or seasonal cycle in the development of plant life. ROBABLY the finest collections of roses and peonies ever grown are raised annually at Arlington in co- operation with the American Rose Society and the American Peony As- sociation. Excellent collections of iris, hardy chrysanthemums and other or- namentals are also produced. The Government operates a large experimental cold-storage laboratory at Arlington, where the responses of fruits and vegetables to simulated marketing journeys and processes are studied. A circulatory refrigerated brine system penetrates the 16 cold- storage rooms whose combined ca- pacity is eight carloads of foodstuffs. Potatoes, citrus fruits, nuts, perish- able vegetables and similar products are stored and studied under a vast variety of conditions. The national Bureau of Chemistry also maintains an important color laboratory at Arlington where re- search in the certification of food colors is conducted. Investigations of biological stains and dyestuffs have also been made. The outstand- ing grain-dust explosion research, which has saved hundreds of lives and many million dollars’ worth of property for American industry dur- ing recent years, has been carried on at the estate where the Custis family formerly resided. Small models of grain elevators, factories and food- supply plants have been made and blasted to smithereens in the process of these trials. All in all, Uncle Sam’s 26,000 dollar land purchase has proved of inesti- mable worth to the nation.

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52 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN July 19%) INTERIOR OF METEOR CRATER, NEARLY A MILE ACROSS Here the ph stood on the south general northerly direction. rim, roughly above the position of the supposed meteoric body, looking in a See drawing at top of opposite page The Most Fascinating Spot on Earth A Comet, Weighing Millions of Tons, Is to Be Sought Where It Lies Buried in Arizona UCH has been written and published about the Me- teor Crater of Arizona, but it appears that most people have only a hazy knowledge of the subject at best. This is due, I think, to the fact that the technical publications about it have never had wide circulation; and to the fact that the By D. MOREAU BARRINGER, JR. affected by the impact of the meteor- ite, they are undisturbed and lie quite level. The surface of the plain is limestone of Permian age, with here and there a few remnants of purple sandstone of the Triassic period re- maining on top of it, as little hills. Below the limestone, which is about 250 feet thick, lie a thousand feet of lucidity I shall refer to these beds by their local geological names. The remnants of purple sandstone belong to the Moencopie formation; the lime- stone is the Kaibab limestone; the white sandstone in the Coconino; and the hard, red sandstone below is known as the Supai formation, or more commonly, as the “Red Beds.” Except in the neigh- more popular articles — on the subject which have appeared from time to time have often been woefully dis- torted. It is a subject that seems to challenge the imagination of the average newspaper writer, and several of them have entirely out- done the actual facts in their sensational de- scriptions of it. The physical aspects of the Crater are sim- ple. In a flat, treeless plain there is a round Science Backs Meteor Crater Because certain people, reluctant to believe the unprece- dented, regard as sensational the theory that Meteor Crater was formed by the impact of a giant meteor which struck the earth, we have obtained the following definite state- ments from two well-known scientists: “I am perfectly willing to make a strong affirmative state- ment in support of Mr. Barringer’s article,” writes Dr. W. F. Magie of the Palmer Physical Laboratory, Princeton Uni- versity, “but there ought to be no need for it. no reasonable doubt that the Crater was formed by the fall of a meteor and that this meteor is buried in it.” Dr. Elihu Thomson, Director of the Thomson Laboratory of the General Electric Company, writes, “I am very willing to be quoted as follows: ‘There can be no question of the Crater being made by masses of meteoric iron, and that an enormous mass of such iron remains buried under the south wall of the Crater. >” The Editor. hole, surrounded by a borhood of the Crater, these rocks, as I have said, are lying level and undisturbed. Around the edges of the hole, however, they are greatly cracked and broken, and have been raised up so as to slope radially away from the hole in all directions. Those rocks which once occupied the hole itself have been smashed into fragments of. all sizes and thrown into the air, from whence some of them fell back There is into the hole, partly raised rim of crushed rock. The hole is about four-fifths of a mile in diameter, and some 450 feet deep, not counting the height of the rim, which rises on an average 120 feet above the plain. This makes the total depth of the hole below the crater’s rim about 570 feet. The geological formations of the region are also simple, being horizon- tal sedimentary rocks. Except where soft, white sandstone, also Permian. The lowest members of this bed have a yellowish or brownish tinge, but the great majority of it is white. 3elow this lies an indeterminate thickness of hard, red _ sandstone, quite different in both structure and hardness from the white sandstone above. This is either Permian or upper Carboniferous. For greater filling it, the remainder being scattered and piled up around the rim. Mixed with these fragments around the hole and on the plain a short dis- tance from it there have been found a far greater number of iron meteor- ites than have been found on all the rest of the earth’s surface put to- gether. And, what is even more strik- ing, the closer you get to the hole the July cen

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ar) |

ds by The pelong lime- the and vy is , O ds.” igh- iter, lave and und ole, are and een ype the ns. ice elf ed all to ce *k ly - id July 197

I a TT RE OE nee

PELE Sm rramee e

— PRBS TERT reo REITER

July 1927 more you find. In other words, the center of the swarm of meteorites and the center of the Crater coincide. In addition to the solid, metallic iron metorites, there has been found a great quantity of iron oxide, which by its structure and com- position, has been shown to have been derived, by terrestrial oxidation, from meteoric iron. The distribution of these fragments is the same as that of the metallic iron. Both are found intimately admixed with the material excavated from the hole—in other words, the excavated material and the meteorites got there at the same time. pieces of HIS is sufficient data on which to advance a proof of the metoric theory of the origin of the Crater. Either the hole was made by a metor- ite or a cluster of metorites, or else the juxtaposition of the hole and the me- teorites is accidental. If accidental, then you have the coincidence of an unprecedented fall of meteorites hit- ting the same spot on which sudden- ly appeared an unprecedented crater in sedimentary rocks, and hitting it at the same instant of time in which the crater was made. The chances against such a coincidence are, of course, many billions or trillions to one. Many other proofs of the me- teoric theory have been advanced, but this one has always seemed sufficient to me. It was quite sufficient, also, for my father and the men who were inter- ested with him in the first explora- tion of the Crater. As soon as they had established not only the coinci- dence of location of the mieteorites and the hole, but also their simultane- ity in time, they acquired the property and set to work to find the main mass of the metorite. That was in 1903. SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN now know, for hindsight has a few advantages over foresight) that, since the hole was round, the meteorite must have fallen vertically, and there- fore be in the center of the hole. On this assumption they started a shaft at the center of the Crater, from which they expected to run radial drifts, like the spokes of a wheel, when they reached the required depth, until they encountered the mass. They knew that the meteorite had not penetrated

Rim oF TED ROCK FRAGMENTS

MAP OF METEOR CRATER This series of articles will be much clearer if the reader will study the angle of dip of the strata all around the rim, as indicated by figures on the map. At the north, they are nearly horizontal; on either side they change gradually as the south rim is approached, finally standing on edge; buried body they are hori this portion was made above the zontal again, but raised bodily 100 feet by the impact, instead of being bent. This part is termed the “arch” by the author more than 1300 or 1400 feet below the surface of the plain, because no piece of the Red Beds, which lie at this depth, had been thrown out. But in the shaft at the depth of 200 feet they encountered an un- expected obstacle. A great deal of the 53 shattered by the impact as to be in the form of fine white dust—so fine that 55 percent of it will pass through a 200-mesh screen. This silica dust became mixed with water in the cen- ter of the Crater—for the catchment area of the crater, 4000 feet in diam- eter, is considerable and collects all the scanty rainfall which falls on it —and had made a quicksand through which they were unable to drive their shaft. Luckily, as we have since dis- covered, this quicksand is only local and is confined to the central portion. HE next step was to sink deep drill holes in an effort to locate the mass. Still proceeding on the theory of a vertical fall, they thor- oughly explored the central portion of the great bowl to a depth of a thou- sand feet. This drilling, although it failed of its purpose of finding th’ mass, did disclose some interesting facts. From the floor of the central portion of the Crater to a depth of some 90 feet, the ground is composed of stratified lacustrine sediments, prac- tically all crushed sandstone and limestone. From 90 feet down to 600 or 800 feet, the ground is a jumble of large and small fragments of limestone and sandstone, unstratified. This is the material which was thrown into the air at the time of the impact, and immediately fell back into the hole, partly filling it. In this material were found a great number of small specks of oxidized meteoric iron—possibly sparks thrown off by the advancing meteorite. Two very interesting forms of rock were also found in the shaft and in the drill holes, both of them metamorphic products of the white Coconino sandstone. They are known as Variety A and Variety B of the

They reasoned (mistakenly, as we soft Coconino sandstone had been so metamorphosed sandstone. °o Nil W = F KK AIBAB LimesTONE . ao ge TUNNEL > = } at. tod pres o."O “] ' — o. Oo ° Os a i . o "'>.e Fh BS ~ Cuurn} DRILL I we ‘ ‘ 5 Hope Proposenl) SHAFT as “ ~ . ‘ ; 12. 1800 Fr || Deep COcoNniNo [WHITE] SANDSTONE ~ “EARLY - ee ' . Driut HOLes F = : \ | . ~ ¢ SHATTERED ROCK 2 3 Fr . het - * 2% ° i I = : " | | o ie iI SR r : — wR TTT —— ¢ SUPPOSED. PosiTION— > a. ee “VA +

Supat (Rep Beps] SANDSTONE

CROSS SECTION OF METEOR CRATER, APPROXIMATELY ALONG A NORTH AND SOUTH LINE This how the shows 500 feet in diameter, smashed its way into the solid rock. The outline of the meteoric body, thought to be about shattered rock, shown by dashed line, is not accurately known, but the drill holes indicated above, coupled with the knowledge that a paraboloidal hole would be made by the projectile, establish it relatively well

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54 Variety A, (which is also found outside the Crater on the rim) pears, at first glance, almost like the unaltered sandstone. Its structure, jointing, and cross-bedding are quite distinct. But the rock is soft and friable, and a closer examination re- that nearly every individual sand-grain in it has been so cracked and shattered that it rubbed to dust between the fingers or on a piece of glass. One of the workmen aptly termed it “ghost sandstone.” The explanation of the phenomenon is not easy, but it would appear that a shock-wave, of sufficient intensity to crack the sand-grains, ran through the solid rock ahead of the impacting meteorite, and ahead of its excavat- ing effect. When the big chunks of sandstone were subsequently broken gnd thrown out, most of the sand- grains in them were already thorough- ly cracked, (like a window- pane that still stay in the jamb) but the structure of the rock itself was practically unchanged. The only ma jor change in the structure was the planes, at bedding. ap- veals can be cracked cleavage to the development of various angles HE second type, or Variety B, of the metamorphosed sandstone, is quite different. Here the metamorph- ism was due to heat, caused by the friction of the advancing meteorite. This heat was locally so intense as to fuse the silica, and the resulting Vari- ety B is sometimes quite glassy. Where friction between parts of the meteorite and the rock produced fusion of the latter, one would also expect to find evidence of fusion or volatilization of the former. And this is the case. Here and there, on pieces of the Variety B sandstone, are found yellowish and dark stains of iron oxide, which always give a reaction for nickel. This reaction for nickel, by the way, is used as a con- clusive proof of the meteoric origin of the material tested, for all parts SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN of the meteorite carry from 4 to 8 percent of nickel, while no trace of nickel has been discovered in any of the unaffected indigenous rocks. On the strength of this slight stain- ing by vapors of meteoric iron, it has been suggested by some that the en- tire mass of the meteorite (some 10,- 000,000 tons) may have been volatil- ized by the impact, and so have dis- appeared. To anyone familiar with the staining powers of iron oxide such VARIETY B Appearance of the metamorphosed produced by the terrific friction of the meteoric body as it through the sandstone, sandstone passed a theory is manifestly impossible. Ten million tons of iron, if converted into oxide, could spread a red, insolu- ble coating, one eighth of an inch thick over more than 300 square miles; or a deposit two feet thick over an area two miles square around the Crater. Instead of any evidence of such stain- ing, we find all the rocks of the region peculiarly white and free from iron, except for the infinitesimal amount of the Variety B which is discolored in the way I have described. 3oth Variety A and Variety B of the metamorphosed sandstone present additional proofs of the meteoric theory. The shattered sand-grains July 19N of Variety A _ clearly show the effect of a sudden terrific blow, rather than the effect of any volcanic ex plosion. The same is true of the millions of tons of “rock flour’’—that is, finely pulverized sandstone which forms part of the rim and crater, But to continue with the drill holes, At depths ranging from, 600 to 800 feet, the drills encountered solid sedi- mentary rock, bedded horizontally, and showing no effects of alteration since the late Paleozoic geologie time when they were laid down in the At a little below 800 feet, the sea. Red Beds sandstone appeared, in place and entirely unaltered. One drill went over 100 feet into this standstone and, of course, found no evidence of alteration there. Seven drill holes sunk in the central portion of the Crater entered the Red Beds sandstone and all showed it to be in place and unaffected by any agency. ERE were two important pieces of information. ' Finding the depth of the Red Beds gave pretty accurate information as to the depth at which the meteorite must lie buried, and finding the rocks unaltered below that depth gave additional proof that whatever caused the hole came from above and not from below. No vol- canic or steam explosion could have caused all that havoc in the overlying rocks without disturbing the beds be- neath. But although these drill-holes fur- nished a lot of interesting and use- ful information, still they failed to disclose the whereabouts of the me- teorite. And, furthermore, they used up most of the funds available for the search, so that work was _ sus- pended. That was in 1908. In the next issue Mr. Barringer q will tell how an accidental discov- ery pointed out the direction of flight of the projectile from space. This discovery virtually locates it. CRUSHED AND PULVERIZED SANDSTONE flour, exposed in a found in the crater rock This is the abundantly stream It is described (n the which is “Whale Rock,” text on the cut, mentioned in the article. map, page 52. THROWN OUT BY THE SUDDEN IMPACT Its position is shown Note the Mexican’s hat in the picture

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ly 197 vy the rather nic ex. of the '— that which crater, holes, to 800 1 sedi- ntally, ration ologie in the t, the i, = One this id no Seven rtion Beds be in ney. ieces the retty epth § ried, elk Ww that rom vol- lave ying be- fur- ise- to ne- sed for us- jer V- ht Lis July 1927 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 55 ©Ewing Galloway THE OLD AND THE NEW A lovely stretch of the old Chesapeake and Ohio Canal beside the The first surveys were made by George Washington Potomac. ©Ewing Galloway VIEW ON STATE BARGE CANAL Two grain barges on the State Barge Canal (Old Erie Canal) leaving Lock Number 9 near the town of Amsterdam, New York Uncle Sam, Spendthrift---XI Failure to Develop and Deepen Our Lake and River Systems Causes an Enormous Economic Loss ANY an American who has journeyed through Europe with an observ- ant and _ unprejudiced mind must have noted how extensive are the canal systems of Europe, and what an abundant use is made of the inland navigation fa- cilities thus afforded. He may have memories of a trip up the Rhine, and not the least permanent of all impres- sions is that of the stream of barges of large size that moved in continuous procession up and down that busy waterway; and the same conditions may be noted all over Europe. The dam and the dredge have done their work; banks have been raised and en- tirely new connecting canals cut at strategic points. It appears to the traveler that much of the continent of Europe is net-worked with canals that are teeming with traffic. In returning to America, with these impressions still strong in the trav- eler’s mind, he must have been struck with the magnificent liberality with which Nature, by means of lake, river and stream, has provided immediate or prospective waterway systems. If so, his admiration was tempered with the thought that America, for all her shrewdness, intelligence and activity, has practically failed to make use of the promising transportation facilities thus provided. Oh yes, we have some canals and By J. BERNARD WALKER we have done some dredging; but the work has been done in a haphazard, desultory way, without any broad- visioned plan or any ordered, contin- uous work. The vast floods, which at the hour of writing are spreading desolation throughout the Mississippi Valley, are chargeable to the fact that the work done has been “spotty,” both as to time and locality. Had the money which has gone into the Missis- sippi River improvement been spent where and when the United States LOCK ON WELLAND CANAL This canal (30 feet on lock sills) will pass shipping around Niagara Falls Engineers Corps directed, the levee protection of the river would today be an accomplished fact, and the mighty flood would be moving quietly within its predetermined and amply- protected channel. We ask the reader to consider here, and very briefly, some of the magnifi- cent waterway facilities of the United States which need only the hand of the skilled hydraulic engineer, and— in view of the enormous economic con- ditions to be obtained—a moderate expenditure of capital, to give them rank among the great transportation facilities of the country. First in im- portance, we place the construction of a shipway from the Great Lakes to the sea; the deepening and control of the Mississippi River; similar work upon the Tennessee, the Arkansas and Rio Grande Rivers; and particularly upon that noble stream, the Columbia River in the northwestern part of this country. The opening up of a seaway through the St. Lawrence River for ocean- going ships is, of course, intimately tied in with the raising of the lake levels and the deepening of the chan- nels leading to the various great in- land ports. The whole question has been most carefully studied by the United States Engineers Corps; the main facts of the situation—consid- ered as an engineering problem—and the practical way to meet them, are

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56 well known and have been clearly ex- plained in various government re- ports. Enthusiastically back of the proposed seaway is the Secretary of the Department of Commerce, Mr. Hoover, who is himself an engineer of world-wide reputation. AS regards this Great Lakes-to-the- / i sea be project, the first problem to solved is the raising of the lakes to a predetermined level and their permanent maintenance at that level. Hitherto, this problem has been in the hands of the politicians, and under their benign guidance, the various states and cities in the lake region are engaged in an unseemly squabble, upon which to date there has been spent a sum of money which would have sufficed to build the simple reg- ulating works which proble m of le \ would solve the Is overnight. The United States Engineers’ plan calls for the building of certain submerged weirs, notably at the Lake Erie en- trance to the i River and at the entrance of Lake Huron to the Detroit River. The Great Lakes pro- vide the finest inland transporta- tion system in the world, but traffic which seeks to pass to the sea must go through “bottle-necks” of 11 and 12-foot Three deep-sea canals have been pro- posed. One is from Lake Ontario to the Hudson by the new Wel- land Canal between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. Another calls for devel- oping a so-called “all-American route” which, in addition to the Lake Ontario- Hudson project, would build a new ship canal in American territory along the south side of Niagara, a costly work which, in fact, would be a du- plicate of the Welland Canal. The third—and to our thinking the most sensible and unquestionably the cheap- est route—would be to the canals. way of deepen SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN ere oF} A LOCK ON CHAMPLAIN C ANAL The Lake Cham n Canal is one of St. Lawrence River by means of dams —this last to be a joint undertaking of the United States and Canada. As regards the St. Lawrence route, the locks of the Welland Canal have been built with a depth of 30 feet to enable the canal ultimately to carry that depth throughout. If an imme- diate.depth of 25 feet is adopted, it will permit the passage of 88 percent of all ships that now enter American ports, and its estimated capacity 30,000,000 tons per annum. The report of the United States Engineers of December 6, 1926, timated the cost of the Lake Ontario- Hudson route at 506,000,000 dollars; of the all-American route at 631,000,- 000 dollars—and neither of these routes will offer any returns by the development of water power. The net cost to the United States and Can- is es- ~" | | July 197 adian Governments of the St. Law rence route is estimated b, the join engineers of the two governments a between 123,000,000 dollars and 148.) 000,000 dollars. As regards the hydro! electric power which would be derived) from the great rapids which now ob§ struct river navigation, the commis} sion estimates that the complete prac.f tical power development of the river] will reach a total of about 5,000,000) installed horsepower. Now, the opening up of the ports} of the Great Lakes to direct ocean-} going traffic between them and ports] of the world is a matter of huge eco-f nomic interest to the 18 states whit represent that portion of the country} adjacent to the lakes and which would} be served by such a Great Lakes sys-] tem. A sufficient answer to the ques-| tion “why are these states of the mid- west so enthusiastically in favor of building the St. Lawrence Canal?” js] to say that this improvement will de-§ crease the costs of the export of grain j by Not only will this decreased charge lower the cost to the farmer of reaching his foreign market, but it will be a defin- ite addition to the farmer’s profit. Furthermore, it will make _ possible the introduction of the manufacturers’ raw materials to the interior states on a much cheaper basis. seven to eight cents a bushel. S the matter now stands, all for- eign shipments of agricultural produce have to be taken to the near- est port on the seaboard, either di- rectly by rail, or by combined rail and lake shipping, with a second transfer from lake to rail for the journey to the seaboard. In this connection, we invite atten- J tion to the accompanying map, show- | ing the position of the eighteen states ' and their cities with reference to Lake @QEwing Galloway A 2000-TON STEEL BARG Twin Ports, a Diesel-engined steel barge, rur Great Lakes Barye Canal from Duluth wing Gallowa E “VIEW OF FAMOUS SOO LOCKS ining by way of to New York Soo locks at the entrance of Lake Superior to the St. Claire River, shown with a typical iron-ore steamer in transit ports and to Atlantic and Gulf ports. :

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July 192) st. Lawl he join nents ag nd 148.) e hydro. derive) now ob} -ommis.| te prac le river} 000,009! e ports! ocean.! 1 ports ve eco- which} ountry : would? PS SYs- > ques. | e mid- i — ill de-§ grain | Not lower ig his defin- rofit. sible irers’ i es on J

for- tural 1ear- di- and isfer to

ten- lOW- ates ' sake ca rts,

July 1927 When the St. Lawrence Ship Canal has been built, the various lake ports able to load, let us grain, direct for Europé as is now done at the ports on the seaboard. The great- ly improved position of the shipper as regards the cost of rail transporta- tion is shown by a study of the figures in the various These repre- sent, in the upper half of the circles, the rates in cents per 100 pounds from those points to Chicago, Toledo ana Cleveland, and in the lower half the present rate in cents per 100 pounds by rail to the Gulf and Atlantic ports. This map surely vindicates the wide- enthusiasm with which the rn states are working to se- Law- will be say circles. spread midwest: cure the construction of the St. rence waterway. HE great basin of the Missis- sippi presents ideal conditions for water-borne traffic. Mr. Hoover tells us that here we have a drainage “upon which for moderate cost we can pro- vide a modern transportation system of 9,000 miles of connected waterways, serving 20 states and furnishing a complete north-and-south trunkline from Duluth through Chicago to the Gulf of Mexico, and an east-and-west system from Pittsburgh to Kansas City.” Would it pay? Most certain- ly. The stretch of the improved Mis- sissippi from St. Louis to New Or- leans has proved that modernized, water-borne service can successfully reduce the costs of transportation of AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC

©Ewing Galloway LAKE PONTCHERTRAIN CANAL Bridge over the new navigation canal connecting the Mississippi River with Lake Pontchertrain. This fine water- way provides New Orleans with a large, sheltered anchorage basin Cumberland Rivers would not only provide about 3,000,000 hydro-electric horsepower, but the cities of Nash- ville and Chattanooga would be af- forded adequate water transportation. Similar benefits would follow upon the control and development of the Ar- kansas River Of what could be done on the Rio Grande we have spoken in the pre-

57 should hold a fore- this river, 3,500,000 horsepower await development, and through the basin there is flowing sufficient water for the cultivation of 1,800,000 acres of rich soil, to say nothing of other minor but still im- portant projects. The putting through of this work will also provide that region with a great extension of the Columbia River most place. In present rather limited water-borne traffic. The Columbia Basin project has been made the subject of three sur- veys by a commission of engineers of the State of Oregon; by General George W. Goethals; and by a board of engineers of the United States Re- clamation Bureau. All have pro- nounced in its favor. - the present rate of growth of population continues, there will - added, during the next quarter of century, some 40 million people fo our population. To provide for the needs of the future, as thus vastly increased, we must either build more railway trunkline systems or we must carry out the waterway improvements mentioned above, so they may take their share of the burden. To build new railways of the capacity of the proposed new waterways would mean the expenditure of three times as much capital. g

Growing oysters on trees! This is not a joke, but is a method of

commodities in bulk to pre-war rates. vious chapter of this series. Further- increasing the crop of bivolves. This Similarly, on a proportionate scale, more, in any great national program, method will be described in a future the development of the Tennessee and such as we now advocate, the great issue of this magazine. 4 + V TA ie tin RSs ” ‘Se \ RS “4 ) en. ‘ ‘ ; wi. ‘ = TOLEDO P “prt 7 A ® | SDD prise PHILADELPHIA L, SAN FRANCIS | cOLmaUS (ox @ BALTIMORE We ER ¥ Subr | ive ‘ews A ‘ was 1 WHEELING } IR 40 ’ NOIANAPOLIS , Ne J CHARLESTON

Xe | . — \ Nua LEGEND \, “ } \ @ LAKE Ports \ l 1 @ ATLANTIC AND GULF PORTS \ i) ) VIG Yue | ee © NEw ORLEANS = . TS haf Sea \ _Z™ GALVESTON

3 Fi

NA Seg” 506 (3) citarran00e mae gf

MAP SHOWING TERRITORY HAVING LOWER RAIL RATES TO LAKE PORTS The territory that u shown in circles are first-class domestic ll be benefited by making deep-sea ports out of Great Lake rates, upper figures rates to Lake ports, in cents per 100 pounds; ports is indicated by the heavy dotted line. Rates lower to seaboard ports

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58 SCIENTIFIC

fr. “ ; La ft loka ~ ee te en _ — P and A Fighting the corn borer, a worm that eats the corn and which now threatens the na has made a ten million dollar appropriation for the borer winters over in cornstalks and stubble: it is tion’s corn crop.

P and A Father Gherzi, S. J., at the Jesuit Observatory in Shanghai, China, with the Wiecher astatic seismograph. The

green kernels of fight. therefore necessary to make a thorough clean up of these parts of the plant AMERICAN ‘ongress | The | ee

PandA Illustrating the well- known fact that “there is more than one way to skin a cat,” a gas com- pany in Cincinnati has found a way to extend a large gas main across a street where the top of a subway interfered. They made the pipes flat, as you see them here

Jesuits incline rather strongly to science, especially earthquake science

Wide World A room has been installed in the University of Penn- sylvania Hospital, Philadelphia, for the study of bron- chial asthma, allergic colds and hay fever. To exclude all undesired impurities, the air is washed. Sub- stances suspected of causing the trouble, especially house dusts, are then introduced into the room

Harris and Ewing Apparatus which is being used by Mr. Carl Rosby, Swedish scientist working at the United States Weath- er Bureau, for making model experiments of atmos- pheric movements by means of liquids of different den- sities. In Seandinavia the theory under which this apparatus works is being used for weather prediction

July 1927 | From the Scrap-book of Science — <0 ee epee icey emer

J (

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y 1927 | July 1927 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 59 —! Camera Shots of Scientific Events P and A Virtually a submersible cruiser is this new, giant per hour when not submerged, and carries a crew of British submarine of 3600 tons displacement. It carries 120 men. It has sufficient speed to overtake and cap- four 5.2 inch guns, can make 22 knots (25.3 land miles) ture merchant vessels of more than ordinary speed Alfred Schnitker of Cin- cinnati has built an in- i teresting five cylinder air- 5s plane engine of three and one quarter inch bore and three and one half inch stroke, making 3800 rev- olutions per minute. The wide angle between the cylinders permits bet- ter ventilation P and A The forward end of the same submarine, the XI, shown at the top of the page. Her bulbous raised bow is for buoyancy when running on the surface; thus when running into head seas she will rise over the waves instead of cutting through them P and A RRR Tm ee NaRA Wide World Courtesy Timken Roller Bearing Company The largest Timken tapered roller bear- Insects that live on books will find life not worth living when library ing ever built. Its bore is 42 inches. At books are made of a new kind of “bug-proof” paper invented by 30 revolutions per minute, it carries William R. Reinicke, Librarian of the Apprentices’ Library in Phila- 2,750,000 pounds, It weighs over two tons delphia. Mr. Reinicke is showing samples of the work of “bookworms”

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60 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN July 1927 Household Inventions Devices Illustrated on These Pages Make Housework Easier CONDUCTED BY ALBERT A. HOPKINS

CAN OPENER In this device, two cutting rollers clamp and cut the bead around the top of the can and bend the edge un- der, preventing the _possi- bility of injury to the user

ec ae ae x A a g KNIFE POLISHERS

The devices to the left and in the center have felt strips, between which the knife blades are drawn for polishing. The one in the background is to be used for polishing raised surfaces on handles and the like

COFFEE STRAINER The handy wire utensil at the left, for use in the kitch- en, is fitted with a small piece of muslin or gauze for straining coffee, tea or other liquids. The filtering ma- terial can be changed quickly <

FIRE LIGHTER The enormous matches at the right are really matches in every sense of the word. They are to be struck on the box and used for lighting fires. Because of their large size, they are long burning.

EGG LIFTER This is the same device illustrated in the left center of POURING LADLE this page. Here no cloth is used, as the implement is The shape of this large spoon makes it possi- being employed to remove eggs from hot water. It has ble to guide fruit, liquids, et cetera, directly many other uses in the kitchen as well as those shown into the mouth of a vessel, eliminating spilling

July

Sm in hos wat stre

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uly 1927 J NRE A en AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC July 1927 DISH WASHER Small pieces of soap are put in the glass container, the hose is attached to the hot- water faucet, and the soapy stream directed on the dishes TAPE MEASURE The imitation clock is a spool that holds a rolled-up tape measure. The hands revolve ’ = . : KITCHENETTE as the tape is pulled out, registering the number of This complete kitchen can be installed in a space six and one half inches long. inches that the tape extends five feet, from the holder CLOTHES CLEANER The receptacle above the brush in the device at the left holds gas- oline, naphtha, or similar cleaning fluid, which is applied to the clothes as they are being brushed thoroughly SPOON POLISHER A soft cloth or piece of chamois covers the end of the device illustrated at the right. It is intended for use in polishing the bowls of spoons as shown Every possible convenience for cooking is included here 61 BOTTLE OPENER This combination corkscrew and crown-cap remover comes from England. It is separa- ble, the handle of the corkscrew being re- movable from the corkscrew shaft CORK PULLER The French novelty illustrated above will remove corks from bottles, even when fitted tightly. The “lazy-tongs” arrangement allows the exertion of a large force directly upward from the bottle mouth, thus extracting the cork without trouble

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62 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN July 197 With the Automotive Inventors

FRONT-END DRIVE A novel front-end drive for all types of automobiles has been devised by a New York inventor. Because of the spring suspension, and the fact that the axle swings with the front wheels when steer- ing, the vehicle can be turned in a very small circle. The front of the chassis is suspended by only one point; the result- ing three-point suspension gives stability

< ROADSTER-TRUCK * For the purpose of con- verting a light roadster to a small truck, the body illustrated at the left and right has been designed. This consists of a _ steel box arranged to run ona channel-steel frame. The rear end of the box re- places the regular body- end. When the car is to be used as a truck, the box may be pulled out and locked in any position

THE MECHANISM Front end, show-

ing “fifth wheel,” universal joints and the differential < AID TO PARKING The problem of finding parking space in large cities is becoming one that de mands serious thought. If the amount of space required for each vehicle while standing at the curb can be reduced the result will be that more of them cap be parked in a single block. This is what the device illustrated at the left purports to do. A set of four smal] rubber-tired wheels are mounted on ex. tensible carriages in the under part of the chassis. These are worked through a special gearing arrangement connected to the regu'ar transmission, and when actuated, the regular wheels of the car are raised off the ground. Power may then be applied to the four small wheels, and the entire car moved either to the right or left as desired, thus ena- bling the driver to park in a small space

ROUNDING A CURVE The photograph reproduced below shows the front-wheel-drive car with the wheels turned for executing a sharp curve. With this automobile, it is said that there is less road vibration transmitted to the steering wheel. This is due to the spring suspension, which consists of one half- elliptic and two quarter-elliptic springs. The car will over-ride obstructions with a minimum of twisting of the chassis because of the suspension method used

July 1 ! The | tions one t Conc! illust1 lengtt was i a dish were tract the il of the along the e

nee 2

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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Inventions in the Engineering Field aly 194) = July 1927 MOVING LARGE PIPES at a The problem of moving seven-ton sec- ‘mount tions of sewer pipe proved to be a large whik one to the engineers of the Western duced Concrete Pipe Company, until the idea m on illustrated at the right was hit upon. A his é length of comparatively small iron pipe m left was inserted through the concrete pipe, ee a disk was placed at each end and chains aa were used to attach the iron pipe to a mt of tractor. W hen the machine was started. nal : the iron pipe engaged the inner surface en of the concrete pipe and the latter rolled oo along after the tractor. The disks at “—_ the ends of the iron pipe supported it eS - re ’ may] heels, oO the ena- space - ows eels rve. | ere | the | ing ilf- gs. ith sis sed i PIPE CARRIER In the present day scheme of building, concrete and tile pipes and blocks play a large part. When loose and being handled on the job, their fragility and awk- ward shapes are great drawbacks, To eliminate this, the adjustable device illustrated at the left and right has been invented. This is a simple carrier that can be changed in size so as to accommo- date either square or cylindrical shapes. A handle is provided, and it is so placed that the workman’s hand can grasp it just over the center of gravity, thus making the load balance easily and eliminating the possibility of the pipes slipping off the carrier. the arms that slip within the pipes or blocks are held in place by bolts and nuts and so, once set, the carrier can be used on the same size pipe throughout the job DITCH AND POST-HOLE DIGGER As clearly shown at the right, A ditching machine that digs either straight ditches or vertical holes for locating pipe joints or doing other service work has recently appeared on the market. The photograph above shows the machine in operation digging a square vertical hole. Because of its con- struction, it can be operated close up against the curb The ditch digger is shown in operation in the above illustration. The caterpillar bands transmit the motive power, and a discharge for the dirt is placed so that the material is piled to one side. An ingenious con- struction of the digging buckets makes it impossible for them to be damaged by encountering obstructions

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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN July 1927 The Scientific American Digest A Review of the Newest Developments in Science, Industry and Engineering CONDUCTED BY ALBERT G. ge Poet The ‘‘Paragon”’ 400-horsepower thermo-electric freight locomotive A British Diesel-Electric Locomotive "T°HOSE who have est the comparatively recent develop- ments leading to the on some of our F Diesel-electric followed with inter- use railroads of locomotives, chiefly for switching purposes, will find further interest in the following descrip- tion of a British locomotive of that va- riety, sent us by Mr. F. C. Livingstone, of London: “One of the most difficult problems as- ociated with the development of rail- way electrification on a large scale, is that of providing an electric locomotive suitable for main-line railways equipped with either a direct or alternating cur- rent supply. With this objective in view, a vast amount of experimental and technical research work has been car- ried out during recent years in America and in Europe. What is known as the ‘Paragon’ thermo-electric freight loco- motive can be used with either steam, gasoline or oil as prime movers. “Each axle of this locomotive is driven by a special 85 brake-horsepower, direct- current electric traction motor, through the medium of a worm drive. This worm reduction gear is claimed to be the strongest mechanical reducing power, while it permits the motor to be placed longitudinally with the main frame. “The generating plant is carried on the locomotive and consists of a 400 horsepower, six-cylinder, two-stroke, heavy-oil engine running at 500 revolu- tions per minute. This engine is of spe- cial design for work and is fitted with an altitude compensating de- which permits the locomotive to give full tractive effort even at an alti- tude of 15,000 feet above sea level, where the ordinary types of internal-combustion locomotives fail to deliver their sea-level power owing to lack of atmosphere pres- also locomotive vice, Current is generated by means of an e transformer driven by the oil engine. The armatures of the transformer form the necessary flywheel effect for the engine. The weight and cost are reduced by the absence of the common flywheel, which is provided for by heavy roller bearings fitted at each driving end of the engine to carry the armature. “The starting power is provided for by running the electric transformer as a powerful electric starting motor. The current, which is needed only for a few seconds, is provided by a small storage battery, which is automatically charged from the primary side of the trans- former when the main engines are run- ning. This storage battery also sup- plies the power for the lighting and other auxiliary power work. sure. lectric-kinetic Ss , | | —~—— INGALLS “The locomotive is fitted with two cool- one at either end. These draw the air in at the center and, by means of a variable speed, electrically-driven tur- bine-type fan, the heated air is thrown out radially, thus preventing road dust from being blown into the machinery in locomotive cab. The coolers are of strong construction and are fitted with copper tubes, the whole being tested to 120 pounds per square inch working pressure. “The locomotive, which weighs 43 tons when in full working order, has a start- ing tractive effort of 10,000 pounds and a maximum speed of 26 miles per hour. The length of the locomotive over all is feet, six inches.” ers, the v0 Effective Blueberry Cleaner Invented by United States Chemists A portion of the + crop was saved CONSIDERABLE Maine blueberry from destruction last season by a pro- invented and patented by B. J. Howard and C. H. Stephenson of the 3ureau of Chemistry, United States De- partment of Agriculture. The use of this process prevented great losses to the growers of Maine blueberries and made it possible for consumers every- where to obtain the usual quantity of the delectable blueberry pie. The patent, which has been dedicated to the people of the United States so the process may be used without the payment of any royalties to the inventors, covers a pro- cess for effectively removing maggots, debris and unfit berries. Only clean, sound berries free from maggots may be canned and sold within the jurisdiction of the Federal food and drugs act. The blueberry maggot de- velops from the egg of a little dark fly, cess With this machine, the Maine crop of blueberries, badly infested with maggots, was saved. The machine sorts out the maggots and all of the defective berries at a rapid rate yee reg oer July | some\ house portic infest time / be a tical the u Hows detai the p ess proce ing t the « were out berri whicl dered proce comp Th move wise contr chan’ blueb upon ing | deca} open berri ries berri cove! struc sub of Ww: at a over: from cure: also conti debri Or to 5( amol cond opin resu the port: fron

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cool- the of a tur- “own dust y in e of with d to cing SIO renee ons | Art- and ur, l is [ Jovine Room

Illustrations redrawn from L’ Illustrations Above: A sectional plan of the French revolving house. Here are shown the positions of the electric motor, the driving shaft, the pinion and the curved rack. Note the supporting rollers and bearings Right: This plan view of the revolving house shows the location and shape of all of the rooms. completeness of the equipment and the accessibility of all the rooms from the central, circular ‘‘hall’’

Notice the

DINING ROOM oOo D-lU--e- ---65:7"--e--

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66 Today there is a great hum in the scientific-industrial world, a hum which is likely to reach the public in larger volume within a few years, when the facts have trickled down from the “inner circles” of the experts to the rest of the world. Coal is the source of the hum. SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN the Conference was held. This report actually forms a technical treatise on practically all the newer strides in the chemist’s discoveries with regard to coal , and if the mail inquiries we have re- ceived since the subject appeared in the newspapers is any gage of their desires, Wide World Prominent scientists at the Pittsburgh Conference on coal. Left to right: Dr. Oshima, Director Imperial Fuel Research Institute, Japan; Dr. A. C. Fieldner, Chief Chemist United States Bureau of Mines; John Hays Ham- mond, famous mining expert; Frau inventor of the famous ‘‘berginisation”’ or “‘liquification”’ Ww es ve have been merely burning our coal. Now, it becomes evident, burfhing coal is a wasteful, backward and altogether shortsighted way to treat it. Coal con- tains just exactly the chemical elements carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and _ nitro- gen—needed to make no end of other products which the world greatly needs. The trick is, first, to unscramble these four elements from coal; second, to re- combine them in the proper proportions. This is what chemists are now begin- ning to do and it is why we dare state our belief that a new industrial era impends. The occasion for most of the news- paper comment on “liquifying coal into was the so-called and already famous “Pittsburgh Conference,” held last November. This brought together from the whole world 1700 of the worid’s fuel experts. The exact conference was “The In- ternational Conference on Bituminous Coal.” Here the great and interesting projects centering about the modern manipulation of the elements contained in coal were discussed for four full days. The Conference, it is already seen, was pivotal in the sense that it brought to a head a number of extremely important fuel developments. Scientist after scientist delivered de- scriptions of new processes for perform- ing modern miracles with coal, and the occasion for this note, several months after the event, is that the full report of the Conference, a book of 800 pages embodying each speaker’s exact words, has at last been published by the Car- negie Institute of Technology, at which gasoline,” most capable name of the Bergius and Dr. Frederich Bergius, process for coal we are certain that many of our readers will wish to obtain it. In effect, by reading this notable work, the reader may attend the Conference, for the papers are published just as they were there presented. The following comment on the proc- esses revealed at the Conference was prepared by Dr. E. E. Slosson, Director of Scie NCE Se rvice, “In the old days before the war, men did not know anything better to do with coal than to burn it. Now they are be- ginning to find out that it may be put to better purposes as raw material for making more valuable commodities. “In those days, too, when men wanted to get more gasoline than petroleum con- tained in crude oil they knew no other way to get it than to smash up the big molecules into little ones; to break down the heavy oils to make light oils. This ‘cracking’ was regarded as a great achievement in its day and brought fame and fortune to its inventor; quite rightly, since we could be running few automobiles without it. But the world is passing into another era now, the age of synthesis, when the chemist will build up instead of breaking down. Starting with the commonest and cheapest ma- terials, air, water and coal, ihe chemist can construct at will all sorts of valu- able compounds for which we formerly had to rely upon Nature. “The veteran French chemist, Prof. Paul Sabatier of Toulouse, opened the door to this new era with the key called ‘catalysis.’ Shortly before the last cen- tury closed, he found that hydrogen gas could be made to unite with carbon- process July 197 monoxide gas in the presence of finely divided nickel, and produce methane well known as natural gas. two constituents, hydrogen and carbon monoxide, are easily made by passing | steam over red-hot coal—the ‘water gas’ | process. Many other metals and com. pounds have since been found to act like nickel as a catalyst; that is, they speed up a process by their presence without being used up or appearing among the products. “This principle has of late been ap. plied with remarkable results by a coun- tryman of Sabatier, General Georges Patart, and still more extensively in Ger- many by Prof. Franz Fischer, director of the Institute of Coal Research at Muelheim-Ruhr, and Dr. Friedrich Ber- gius of Heidelberg. All these three Eu- ropean leaders in catalytic research came to Pittsburgh to attend the International Conference on Bituminous Coal, held at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in November, and what they told of the application of catalysis to industry was a surprise to many of our people, for in this field America is far behind Ger- many and France. “For instance, we have been making methanol by the old-fashioned method of distilling wood, but now the Badische Chemical Company makes ten to twenty tons of it a day from water gas ata cost of only 20 cents a gallon. Methamol, formerly known as ‘wood alcohol,’ has long been employed in all countries as a denaturant for industrial alcohol, and has caused many cases of blindness in Germany and America by being used for whisky by those who were already so blind as not to be able to tell one alcohol from another. Various other alcohols, such as butyl alcohol, made in America by fermenting corn and used for auto- mobile lacquers, are made in Germany from water gas. The waste gases that in some sections of the United States are still allowed to escape unused from coke ovens are, at the mines of Bethune France, cooled and condensed and util- ized for making methane, benzene, ethyl] alcohol and ammonia. “Owing to the catalytic process for synthetic ammonia invented by Fritz Haber, Germany is now exporting fer- tilizer instead of importing it as before the war. About 425,000 tons of free nitrogen from the air is now fixed for fertilizers by catalysis every year, and this takes the place of 2,700,000 tons of Chilean nitrate. But Muscle Shoals still stands idle. “Benzene, which can be made from coal in various ways, is the mother sub- stance of the aromatic family of chem- ical compounds, a family of over a hun- dred thousand and rapidly growing Among these are the aniline dyes and drugs that have made the world brighter and safer in our generation. One of these synthetic products, carbolic acid is familiarly used as an antiseptic and is nearly as useful but much less familiar as one of the two components of bake- lite. The other component of bakelite formaldehyde, is also an antiseptic and also is made artificially. “The chief stimulus to such investiga- tions in Europe is the search for home- made motor fuel. We Americans are not interested in this question now but some day we shall be, and meantime it is interesting to watch the chemists over Now these a ae TAG TAIRA Se AE OR Jul the fer mo sca hig thr sul ing coz ly an ret Mi th m¢ th mi lik by mi of ° a etl ot, te oe of Of CD

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ly 1977 finely § thane these -arbon | assing r gas! com *t like speed ithout g the | n ap- coun- orges Ger. ector h at Ber. + Eu- came ional id at ‘y in the was for Ger- king d of sche enty ita mol, has } as and ; in for so »hol ols "ica 1to- iny hat tes om ne til- hy] ‘or itz or- re ee or nd of Is m b- ‘ k 8 i 2 July 1927 the water trying to see how many dif- ferent things they can make out of com- mon coal, like children playing with the Chinese tangram. “A motorized Europe, in spite of the scarcity of oil wells and the consequent high price of ‘gas’ on that continent, is thus held out as a possibility as the re- sult of researches on processes for mak- ing a practicable motor fuel out of soft coal, which have been going on for near- ly a quarter of a century in Germany and France. Prof. Franz Fischer, di- rector of the Institute of Coal Research, Muelheim-Ruhr, Germany, a leader in the search for a practicable synthetic motor fuel, spoke before the meeting of the International Conference on Bitu- minous Coal, telling of the petroleum- like products he has been able to obtain by subjecting water-gas to pressure and moderate temperature, in the presence of finely divided iron or cobalt. “Prof. Fisher uses raw the same mixture of hydrogen and car- bon monoxide familiar in this country as a part of most city gas, under the name of ‘water-gas.’ This is made by as material passing steam over glowing coke. The gas mixture thus produced has high fuel-value but cannot be reduced to liquid form except at extremely low tem- peratures. How to build these small molecules into larger ones, which would be liquid instead of a gas at ordinary temperatures, and still be useful as an engine fuel, was the problem confronting the investigator. “He solved it by the use of what the chemist calls catalyzers, that is, sub- stances which, in some manner yet not understood, speed up chemical reac- tions without themselves entering into the compounds which they call into be- ing. In this case Prof. Fischer used finely divided cobalt and iron; an earlier investigator, he said, had used the allied metal nickel. With these chemical mid- dlemen present, and using moderately high pressures and some heat, he has obtained three different classes of com- pounds. “The first of these, ‘synthol,’ is a mix- ture of about a score of inflammable compounds, including a number of the higher alcohols, ketones and esters, as well as organic acids and aldehydes. This has considerable value fuel. By varying the process, he has been able to obtain a second product, methanol, which is pure synthetic wood alcohol. Other investigators also have obtained methanol; but although it is highly use- ful in the arts and industries, it has less value as a fuel than the petroleum- like products. A third product, ‘gasol,’ most recently obtained, is of the nature of an artificial benzine, which again has high fuel value. “These researches have been carried out on a technical scale, and it has been proved possible to obtain motor fuel from soft coal in commercial quantities, with- out troublesome by-products for which to find markets. But as yet the process is too costly to compete with imported petroleum fuels. As the latter become scarcer and more expensive, and the technique of fuel synthesis from coal becomes more refined, it is expected that practical manufacture may be under- taken. “Gasoline, the most valuable of motor fuels, may be made directly from lignite, te as as a SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN the cheapest of coals, by a direct and economical process. The inventor of this process for synthetic petroleum, Dr. Bergius, gave details of the manufac- ture on a commercial scale of light and heavy fuel oils, lubricating oil, benzene and phenol compounds and ammonia from waste coal dust or low-grade coal. “That the process has passed beyond the experimental stage and is thought likely to become an important factor in the world-wide struggle for new sources of motor fuel is proved by the fact that it has been taken up by strong organiza- tions in Germany, England and in other countries. An international company has been formed to carry on the lique- faction of coal and in this the largest stockholders are the Royal Dutch Shell group, which is the leading petroleum combine of Europe, and the German as- sociation of dye manufacturers. The British government is also interested in this method ef making artificial oil fuel and a plant for the purpose of investi- gating the Bergius process has been erected in England. Two experimental plants are maintained in south Ger- many, employing 150 men. “The discovery of how to convert coal into liquid products is not a lucky acci- dent but the achievement of long and laborious scientific research, such as gave Germany the supremacy in the manufacture of indigo and other syn- thetic dyes before the war. Dr. Bergius began his study of the composition of coal in 1912 and, except for the inter- ruption of the war, the investiga- tion has been carried on continuously ever since at a cost of millions of dollars. “The essential principle of the process consists in combining hydrogen gas with coal by means of high heat and pres- sure. The coal is first ground into small pieces less than a tenth of an inch in diameter, and then mixed with heavy oil to a thick pasty mass. This is placed in a light steel retort and heated to about 800 degrees, Fahrenheit, under a High pressure converters Destillation plant Feel eit Oresel oF end creesete oil Meter -spirit Condensing and cooling plant 67 as much as 90 is transformed low-grade brown coal, percent of the carbon into such marketable products. The ni- trogen contained in the coal is trans- formed into ammonia or liquid bases. A ton of common bituminous coal will yield 300 pounds of gasoline, 400 pounds of heavier oils suitable for Diesel internal- combustion engines, 120 pounds of lubri- cating oils and 160 pounds of fuel oils. As a rule, about 45 gallons of market- able gasoline can be expected from a ton of soft coal. The second fraction of heavier oils is used in impregnating an- other batch of powdered coal. Among the products of the process is a quan- tity of carbolic acid or phenol, a familiar antiseptic and also a component of bake- lite, used in radio and phonographs. “A difficulty of the process, formerly regarded as insuperable, is the high cost of hydrogen. But Bergius gets a suffi- cient quantity of hydrogen out of the gaseous products of the reaction. Meth- ane, one of these gases, gives four times its volume of hydrogen, when decom- posed by steam. The Bergius process can be annexed to an ordinary gas-pro- ducing plant, converting the coke into more valuable oils and enabling inferior coal to be used. Dr. Bergius was asked whether his process would pay in the United States but declined to commit himself on the ground of his inexperi- ence with American conditions. He ven- tured, however, to estimate that the va- rious oil products could be made here at a cost of about ten dollars a ton.” The full report of the Conference, illustrated and bound like any other volume, may be obtained, postpaid, for seven dollars, from the Carnegie Insti- tute of Technology or from the Scien- tific American. The Sphinx, Recently Renovated, Is Still a Mystery TISITORS to Cairo can now see the Sphinx, probably the most intrigu- ing and universally known monument in the world, as it appeared when first veseous *ydrecerbeas Fuei-gos Plant for separation of hydrocarbons This diagram, prepared by Dr. Bergius, shows a Bergin plant operating in connection with a plant for the separation of hydro-carbons from the gas pressure of about 3000 pounds per square inch. Most of the carbon unites with the hydrogen, giving a complex mixture of gaseous, liquid and solid com- pounds similar to those coming from natural wells. In the case of lignite, a erected. And the huge dimensions and curious contour of the monument is a revelation to everyone. The fact is, says Harold J. Shepstone, we have not yet learned all the secrets of the Sphinx. For example, no one knows why it was

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68 built, or exactly when, or by whose orders. The decision of the Antiquities De- partment of the Egyptian Government to remove the sand which partially en- the monument carry out repair work on neck and happy one. All told, the six months. No doubt archeological un- dertaking would have attracted much wider attention had it not been over- shadowed by other discoveries at Sak- kara and the Pyramids, coupled also with the unwrapping of Tutankhamen and the arrival of his marvelous golden coffin at Cairo. The excavation of the Sphinx lacked the popular glamour of gold and precious objects, for so far it has afforded none of these and it is not likely to do so. In addition to masons and other spe- and the veloped certain was a occupied an important face work such SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 3etween the huge there was a shrine, and here was found an inscribed granite slab, or stela, set up by Thoth- mes IV. According to the inscription, Thothmes, when a young man, went lion-hunting in the desert and rested at midday in the shadow of the Sphinx, paws which even then was half buried in sand. While he slept, he dreamed that the sun god Hermachis, to whom the Sphinx was sacred, appeared to him and told him that he would be a king, and laid an oath on him to dig away “the sand whereon I have my being, which has closed me in on all sides.” The young man came to the throne Thothmes IV, and one of the first things he did was to dig away the sand and re- store the sacred monument. Unfortunately, the last few lines of the inscription on the stela are illegible. This is a great pity, as they evidently as r - cialists, an army of 800 girls and boys were requisitioned to clear away the sand. The latter toiled in gangs. At- tached to each gang was a hired singer, usually a small boy, who chanted over and over again in a high, fascinating voice some such apparently irrelevant phrase as “Dis Maloo ala haloo” (“He spent all his money on himself”), as his fellows passed to and fro with the debris. The Sphinx has been much damaged in the past. Mohammed Ali used the monument a target for his artillery practice. Religious fanatics have tried to destroy its beauty. The legend of chambers of hidden gold in the Sphinx led to violent searchings. A hole six feet deep and two feet across had been hewn in the top of the head. There was a similar hole in the left foreleg. These have now been filled up. The monument was battered by weather, the face crumbling away. Now that the sand has been cleared away, the magnificent proportions of the monument are apparent. It is partly hewn out of the solid rock and partly built up with stone. In fact, it is the largest piece of sculpture in the world. From the toes on the forelegs to the end of its quarters the monument meas- ures no less than 240 feet in length, and stands some 65 feet in total height. From chin to crown the face measures as has some also 33 feet. The mouth is seven and one- half feet across, the nose is five and one-half feet long, and the ear five feet in length. | Left: A rear view of the Sphinx, | showing the con- tour. The con- | struction is shown here July 1927 much the same in the way of cleaning and repairing the monument as _ that which has just been carried out by the Egyptian Government. If anything, however, the excavations have rendered this great piece of sculpture more mys- terious than ever. We are startled by its enormous proportions. We wonder what is really the meaning of this figure of a crouching lion with a man’s head. We know it represents Hermachis, the god of the sun, and that is about all. It is thought by many that a temple stood between its forelegs where the ancient Egyptians came to worship the rising sun, for the monument faces east, standing on a rocky plateau on the very edge of the desert, looking towards the Nile. Despite the battering which the monu- ment has received from the weather and from the hand of man, it still maintains a super-human dignity. It seems to have a far-off, dreamy, weary look. There is a wonderful sensitiveness about the mouth and the general expression of the monument is enigmatical. And these attributes are all the more pro- nounced now that the Sphinx has been uncovered. Right: Removing the scaffolding. Notice the in- scribed stone be- tween the huge forepaws refer to the building of the Sphinx. One gathers, by skipping a few of the gaps, that the monument was built about 3700 B.c. by Kepheron of the IV Dynasty, who built the smaller of the great pyramids close by. But another tablet found, however, would appear to indicate that the Sphinx was standing long before Kepheron’s time, when Cheops, a predecessor of Kepheron, was busy erecting the Great Pyramid. Some archeologists have put the date earlier still. In any case, we know the monu- ment is at least 5700 years old, and probably well over 6000 years. Thothmes not only cleared away the sand which encumbered the monument, but caused all but its head to be en- cased in wonderful limestone masonry about one foot thick. This still remains almost perfect on the legs and lower portion of the body, and, as is seen from our illustrations, greatly alters the pro- portions of the great lion, making the head appear very small by comparison with the forelegs. Thothmes also painted the Sphinx a dark red much of this ancient color still remains on the head and legs. all over, and Thothmes, in fact, did, in 1700 B.c., Geologic Summer School to Tour Canada by Train GEOLOGICAL summer school on 4 wheels, housed in a specially con- structed sleeping, dining and lecture Pullman car, will roll this year from the Atlantic to the Pacific over Canada’s great mineral empire. The trip, extend- ing from July 15 to August 25, will be under the auspices of Princeton Univer- sity and under the direction of Prof. Richard M. Field. As foreign guests, two eminent geol- ogists, Prof. Leon W. Collet of the Uni- versity of Geneva and Dr. E. B. Bailey of the Scottish Geological Survey, will accompany the party of 23, which will include professors and practicing geol- ogists as well as undergraduates and graduate students. By living and traveling in the special car, a new mine or geological site car be visited nearly every day. The Ca- nadian Geological Survey will cooperate in the instruction. trip was made across the United States and the combination of lectures while enroute and field experiences was proved to instruction.—Science Service. Last year a similar be a highly efficient method of eer ee + pm rt July _ N A curré Brité Com} ited ated with El a ca radi the whit bein; high mai! in tl ther char land der tube to § the der tem E for Sch app the Lan and Jr., velc and Lar tion tro] spe and mu: lan wa’ bui be po. 406 do an na fee tic av

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1927 ning that the ling, Ce red nys- | by ider rure pad. the all. iple the the ast, ory the 1u- nd ns to yk. ut mn 1d O- n July 1927 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Radio Notes 69 A Monthly Review of Progress in Wireless Commiinication CONDUCTED BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. New Tube Uses Alternating Current j NEW vacuum tube which derives 4 its energy from the house-lighting current is being manufactured in Great Britain by the Marconi Osram Valve Company. The use of this tube is lim- ited to alternating current, being oper- ated through a step-down transformer without a rectifying circuit. Electronic emission takes place from a cathode, a tiny cylinder coated with radioactive substance, which encloses the filament. When the filament is at white heat, the eylinder surrounding it, being heated by radiation, gives off a high electron flow. This cylinder re- mains unaffected by any small changes in the temperature of the filament, and therefore the electron flow remains un- changed, according to reports from Eng- land. A grid and plate surround the cylin- der in the usual manner of British-made tubes. It takes some time for the tube to start functioning after switching on the heater current, owing to the cylin- der requiring to be raised to a certain temperature before the emission begins. Engineer Predicts Television Receivers ALPH H. LANGLEY, radio engineer who had charge of set development for the General Electric Company at Schenectady for several years, has been appointed assistant to the president of the Crosley Radio Corporation. Mr. Langley already has assumed his duties and will be the adviser of Powel Crosley, Jr., in technical and scientific matters. “The near future will bring the de- velopment of a combined receiving set and television apparatus,’ said Mr. Langley, upon taking up his new posi- tion. “Both mechanisms will be con- trolled by the loud- speaker will be located behind the screen and a turn of the dial will bring in music and pictures simultaneously.” same dial. The Langenberg Station UROPE’S tion at land, operates on wavelength of 468.8 meters. building a new station at Daventry to be known as Daventry Junior, with a power output of 50 kilowatts, on the 400-meter wave. “Britain does not intend to be shouted down in the ether by Germany,” says an English observer. largest broadcasting sta- Langenberg, in the Rhine- 25 kilowatts and a Britain is Canadian Station Uses Special Tubes TATION CFRB, operating on a wave- length of 291 meters, the latest Ca- nadian broadcaster, is located 25 miles north of Toronto at an altitude of 1050 feet above sea level. The isolated posi- tion and high altitude were selected to avoid absorption and reflection of the waves. Two 100-foot masts support a four- wire flat-top antenna, into which is fed power derived from four 1000-watt water-cooled tubes. Two tubes are used as modulators and two as oscillators, forming the most powerful combination in the Dominion. The tubes have been developed by E. S. Rogers of Toronto, and operate directly from the alternating-current house mains. The tubes are of the thim- ble-shaped cathode type, with raw alter- nating current fed to the heating ele- Underwood and Underwood The transmitter of station WVT operates on wavelengths of 600 to 3600 The two large coils in the background are known as harmonic eliminators, which prevent interference with the broadcast programs meters. ments. The plate and grid voltages are supplied from a rectifier, also operating from the alternating-current lines. Two stages of amplification with two low- impedance tubes in each stage are used in the voice amplifiers. The programs are sent to the station over telephone lines from one of the art galleries in Toronto, where accommoda- tions are provided for the artists. United States Leads HE United States, with 733 stations, leads the world in the development of broadcasting, according to an inter- national survey compiled by the Depart- ment of Commerce. There are 340 broadcast transmitters outside of this country, with the foreign stations di- vided as follows: Europe, 164; North America (excepting United States), 85; South America, 38; Asia, 16; Oceania, 28, Africa, 9. Just as there is a boom in radio-station building in this country, the same thing seems to be the case elsewhere, as is shown by the fact that many foreign stations have been projected within the last six months. Stations WGY and WJZ are the most powerful broadcasters in the world. Both are rated with an output of 50 kilowatts, although it is reported that WJZ se!dom uses more than 34 kilowatts. Daventry, England, using the call 5XX, is next, with a rating of 16 kilowatts. Always there persists the rumor that there are several mysterious Bolshevik Russian stations of tremendous power for the purpose of broadcasting propa- ganda, but the largest station in that country noted in the official list is ROW, at Moscow, rated at 8000 watts. As a rule, the well-known foreign stations do not average nearly as high power as the transmitters on this side of the sea. For instance, FL, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, is using only 4000 watts, and MRD, at Toulouse, 1000 watts. The most powerful station in Austria is at Vienna, rated at 7000 watts, and BAV, the outstanding station of Belgium, in Brussels, uses only 1500 watts. Hamburg and Munich lead the sta- tions of Germany with 4000 watts, while the largest in Italy, IRO, at Rome, em- ploys 3000 watts. On the other hand, a much smaller country, Lithuania, boasts of Station RKY, at Kovno, with 10,000 watts. SASF, at Karlsborg, Sweden, is 5000 watts and the most pre tentious station in Switzerland, the Radio-Berne, 1500 watts. Station 2LO in London, than which there is no more famous in Europe, is but 3000 watts. On the other hand, the

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70 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN ood Underwe and Under rod . Sa cen 3 : This equipment, designed by the Bureau of Standards, is for standardizing wavelengths. The harmonic amplifier in this set establishes a standard from which transmitting stations are adjusted accurately Canadian station CKCW, at Burketon Junction, uses 5000 watts, and 2FC at Sydney, Australia, 2000 watts. 30th Canada and Australia have almost as many 1000-watt stations as their mother country. PWX, at Havana, and CZE, Mexico City, so frequently picked up in this country, use only 500 watts. HHK, the Marine Corps station at Port au Prince, Haiti, also heard in this country, is 1000 watts. Argentine of no than six 1000-watt-and 500-watt stations in Buenos Aires alone. Brazil has only a single 1000-watt sta- tion in the entire country, SQIG, in Sao Paulo, as is the case with Chile, which has a station utilizing 1200 watts at Santiago. In all United States boasts two less a single station is listed, which Ameri- can firm and has a power of about 100 watts. The largest station at present noted in Japan is only 300 watts, but Cape Town and Durban, South Africa, each have 1200 stations. but China is operated by an watt Engineer Compares Batteries and Eliminators HERE has been considerable con- troversy of late regarding the re- liability of “B” socket-power units as compared to the high-quality, heavy-duty dry-cell “B” batteries. When the first “B” socket-power outfits were proposed, it was to replace a rather inefficient type of dry-cell “B” battery, and it is a mat- ter of recent history that many of the first socket-power units failed in provid- ing desired relief as regards reliability and reduced cost of operation, according to Ray P. Manson, Chief Engineer of the Stromberg-Carlson Manufacturing Company. “It must not be overlooked that with the improvements in ‘B’ eliminators, the dry-cell ‘B’ battery also has been great- ly improved,” said Mr. Manson. “So today, the comparison must be made be- tween the best heavy-duty dry-cell ‘B’ batteries and the best designs of ‘B’ socket-power units. from the best de- of current supply, factors that enter “When signs in each there are only two into the question. First, there the matter of uniform voltage throughout the life of the ‘B’ socket-power and its rectifying element, as compared to the voltage of the dry-cell ‘B’ battery throughout its active life. Second is the cost of operation of the ‘B’ socket-power unit based on the first cost spread over a period of four or five years, plus re- newals of the rectifying element, as com- pared to the replacement costs of dry- cell ‘B’ batteries. “The first question is one of uniform- ity of operation of the receiver, and if this the deciding question and the ‘B’ socket-power unit correctly de- signed to give a uniform voltage output through long periods of time, then this type of ‘B’ current supply naturally would be given preference over the dry cell which unfortunately has a drooping characteristic, the voltage gradually de- creasing as the dry cells become worn out. “From the costs it will employing a considered class is 18 is standpoint of operating found that on receivers otal of five tubes, the out- be put tube being of the power type, that the largest heavy-duty dry-cell ‘B’ bat- teries will just prove-in from the cost standpoint. Thus, in locations where there are no suitable alternating-current lighting circuits from which to operate the ‘B’ socket-power units, dry-cell ‘B’ batteries can be used satisfactorily on receiving sets up to six or seven tubes, including a power output tube. When figured on a three to five-year basis, the highest priced ‘B’ sockvt-power outfits will prove-in from the first cost and op- erating cost standpoints, and have the additional advantage that the operating voltages will be uniform, thereby main- taining the receiving set at its highest operating efficiency at all times. “This applies to the latest heavy-duty dry-cell ‘B’ batteries and the best de- signs of ‘B’ socket-power units. There is another qualification in regard to the July 19H ‘B’ socket-power unit that must not be overlooked—that is, the keeping of the output voltages down to a _ reasonable level, say 135 volts for the UX-171 power tube. that the rectifying tube or element, as well as the power tube of the receiver, may have comparatively short life, say about one half that obtained when the lower ‘B’ voltage is employed. “This brings out the fact that it is preferable to have a ‘B’ socket-power unit designed to give a uniform voltage throughout a long period of time, than one which starts with a very high volt- age and through overload of the rectifying element, well as over- voltage of the amplifying tube in the receiver, to have a comparatively short life with the same type of sloping char- acteristic to the voltage output, as pro- vided when the dry-cell type of ‘B’ bat- teries are used.” as Radio Business Best in October CTOBER the most productive month in radio sales and June is the lowest, according to a chart compiled by the National Electrical Manufac- turers. The sale of accessories such as batteries, loudspeakers and _ current- supply devices reaches a peak in Novem- ber and then begins to drop off until the low point is reached in June. The chart reveals that sales diminish rapidly in March, maintaining the de- is Herbert Photos This short-wave receiver, built by T. A. Smith, of New York, uses two separate grounds and no antenna. The circuit has received Australia on 10 meters. It uses one stage of radio-frequency amplification cline until the latter part of June, when the upward sweep begins. It is pointed out that better radio busi- ness is expected this summer because of the new regulations, which will minimize interference and restore law and order in the ether. If this output voltage is allowed § to run 180 or over, then it may be found | July H T; acou o} eT: lates ente! TI of t stree will The ceive then tona of t cons ; yur} cati erat laid gine arcl cons A ing is t and cons the its of t side ang ing. loft org: the ee — meg er er or AeRRERIRR ee

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ly 1927 not be of the Mable power lowed | found nt, as eiver, » Say n the it is ower ltage than volt- the ver. the hort har- pro- bat- SRS RENEE —- mers * mater: July 1927 Latest Radio Studio HE radio studio in the Roxy Theater, New York, represents, as far as acoustical properties, construction and operating convenience are concerned, the latest advance in every art which has entered into its making. The studio is located on the fifth floor of the *building, far enough above the street level to insure that traflic noises will not affect the sensitive microphones. The floor and ceiling have re- ceived special treatment which makes them contribute their share to the fine tonal values of the studio, which is one of the few that has been planned and constructed especially for broadcasting rurposes. The exact plans and specifi- cations of the studio, control room, gen- erator room and visitors’ gallery were laid out in detail by broadcasting en- gineers working in conjunction with architects familiar with this phase of walls, construction. A cross-section view of the broadcast- ing rooms reveals that the studio proper is twice the height of the control room nad the visitors’ gallery. The studio is constructed without pillars or breaks in the wall surfaces which might destroy its acoustical properties. Every corner of the room, including those between the side walls and the ceiling, is a 90-degree angle. Through the middle of the ceil- ing, a square shaft runs to the organ loft, which contains a specially designed organ used only for broadcasting. Above the surface of the studio ceiling, in the Underwood and Underwood This loop antenna at WVT, Army Net Control Station of the Sixth Corps area at Chicago, has a wave- length range of 1000 to 3000 meters loft, the four walls of this shaft consist of shutters, any of which may be opened to any degree, controlling the volume of the organ music which can enter the Studio and the microphone, as well as allowing emphasis to be placed upon any desired portion of the music. SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Harris and Ewing This automatic loop antenna, designed at the Bureau of Standards, turns at a certain number of revolutions per hour, day and night. 71 Thus static and other phenomena may be studied without an operator’s aid The organ is operated from a manual in the studio directly beneath the loft. At regular intervals arcund the walls of the studio are microphone outlets con- nected with the control board. Since many different kinds of music are to be broadcast from the studio, including the work of a large chorus, many more microphone outlets have been provided than in most remote-control studios. Machine Tests 30,000 Tubes a Day N automatic device which tests 30,000 4 radio tubes a day, whereas the most skilled human operator cannot test more than 2000 tubes in a ten-hour day, has been installed in the factory of the West- inghouse Lamp Company at Bloomfield, New Jersey. Furthermore, the human operator is bound to make occasional errors in the work, but the machine seldom makes a mistake. For the pe- riod of several months during which the machine has been in service, its record for accuracy stands at 99.9 per- cent. However, the 0.1 percent error is not chargeable to the machine, but, ac- engineers, to the acci- cording to the defective tubes dental introduction of into the good stock. The tester consists of a revolving disk, about three feet in diameter, which car- ries sockets for tubes on one of its faces. As the disk revolves, the tubes are con- nected successively to terminals which connect them with instruments that in- dicate various characteristics. If a tube is found wanting, it is pushed out of its socket by an electro-magnetic plunger located in the rear of the machine. Tubes that are hopelessly bad are un- ceremoniously shot into a “down-and- out” and sent to the scrap heap; but those that can be reclaimed are laid on moving belts which convey them to operators for further treatment. Per- fect tubes are also placed on a belt and are carried to the wrapping department. The points for which tubes are tested are: short circuits, broken filaments, electronic emission, gassiness, and high and low plate current. Some of these tests involve the use of extremely small currents, and special sensitive relays are employed to operate the ejecting mechan- ism. Each test is a positive one, and each testing mechanism operates to eject tubes in case they should be damaged during the process of testing. Hence, when the machine O. K.’s a tube, that tube is a good one. The machine is arranged to be fed by two girls seated side by side. After it was placed in operation, the fact de- veloped that one of the girls should be left-handed and one right-handed. A search soon disclosed a left-handed op- erator who, for once at least, found ad- vantage in her peculiarity. But, alas! She is destined to lose her job soon, be- cause the machine is being arranged to be fed automatically in order to bring it up to its full productive capacity of completely tested tubes. Varying Wavelength Hi: of copper tubing in short- Wave ‘ransmitting aerials makes it fairly simple for the broadcast station operator to vary the wavelength in an emergency. At KDKA, Pittsburgh, the wavelength may be varied by inserting, a copper rod in the tubing of the hori- zontal counterpoise. The variation de- pends on the distance the rod is pushed in. Rules For Antennas NEW handbook has been the Bureau of Standards of the national code which safety rules governing radio tions. This book is known as “Number 9” and may be obtained from the Superinten- dent of' Documents, Government Print- ing Office, Washington, D. C. The price is ten cents. issued by as a part contains installa-

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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN July 1927 Learning [To Use Our Wings This Department Will Keep Our Readers Informed of the Latest Facts About Airplanes and Airships CONDUCTED BY ALEXANDER KLEMIN In charge, Daniel Guggenheim School of Aeronautics, New York University Bellanca’s Transatlantic Preparations i the opinion of Grover C. Loening, one of the best informed aeronautical engineers in the United States, the at- tempts to make a non-stop flight from New York to Paris are injuring rather extremely sensitive to any openings or projections. For example, an improper application of windshield in an open cockpit may increase its resistance by 50 percent. In the Bellanca, in which both pilots and passengers are entirely en- SPECIAL INSTRUMENTS 23 LBS 365 LBS ets t PILOT anD NAVIGATOR ee GASOLINE 4C0 GAL 2400 Las 4 Showing the positions and weights of the parts of the load that this efficient Bellanca monoplane is designed to carry from New York to Paris than helping the cause of aviation. The non-stop flights are in the nature of “stunts.” The planes are overloaded with fuel to such an extent that they become dangerous, as two fatal acci- dents have already shown at the time of writing. Such accidents have no bearing on ordinary commercial flying with normal wing loadings. But it is hard for the public to differentiate. Whether the Bellanca plane will actu- ally succeed in the flight, or whether the French pilots, Nungesser and Coli, mak- ing their attempt at the time these lines are being written will be first to achieve the crossing, is uncertain. But it is gratifying to see the care and skill with which Bellanca and his associates are making their preparations. The Bellanca monoplane is not an ex- perimental ship. It has been in process of design, experimental construction and test ever since 1921, and is now one of the finest examples of aeronautical con- struction. The untapered monoplane wing, 4614 feet in span and six feet, seven inches in chord has a profile combining fairly high maximum lift with efficiency at cruising and maximum speeds. The supporting structure of the wing, while amply strong, is reduced to a minimum. The struts, which must be there of necessity, are themselves of lifting airfoil section. Because of this, the struts, while offering no more re- sistance than the conventional struts, lift at least their own weight, and prob- ably more, The fuselage is the greatest single item in the parasitic resistance of a nlane. Aerodynamically, the fuselage is closed, there is no body opening or pro- jection to disturb the air flow. The air-cooled engine now offers su- periority in lightness and reliability over the water-cooled power plant. The sole remaining objection is in the high re- sistance of the projecting cylinders, and of the exhaust piping. In the Bellanca, the best modern practice has been fol- lowed in cutting down such resistance. The cowling forms a smooth line blend- ing beautifully into the propeller spin- ner. The two magnetos are covered in by gentle “bosses,” over which the air flows with minimum disturbance. The cowling leaves only so much of the cylin- ders and heads exposed as is absolutely necessary for cooling. The exhaust ring, to which each of the nine cylinders of the Wright-J engine connects, is ex- posed to the air blast—as is proper since the ring must not be allowed to become too hot—but it is flattened into a stream- line section, as are also the exhaust stacks or stubs themselves from which the gases finally emerge. Compared with some of the large three-engined planes, the Bellanca plane looks a little frail. But it is quite sound structurally, and good design has al- lowed the weight empty to be kept low. As an ordinary commercial passenger- carrying craft, its weight distribution is as follows: Weight empty, 1850 pounds; 64 gallons of fuel, 5 gallons of oil and pilot, 579 pounds; pay load of 5 passen- gers and baggage, 1025 pounds. Total weight, 3454 pounds. With the wing area of 272 square feet, this gives a loading of 12.7 pounds per square foot, which is high though not excessive, and a loading per horsepower of 17.2 pounds. The performance as given by the manufacturer gives a high speed of 130 miles per hour, and a cruising speed of 110 miles per hour when using only 125 horsepower and 11 gallons of fuel per hour. . Wide World Acosta, left, and Chamberlain, who piloted the Bellanca plane in a record endurance flight of 51 hours, 11 minutes. Because of his greater weight, Acosta yielded to Chamberlain as pilot for the transatlantic flight eRe a ee a July Wi expe! ever) first tests vario speec dura! the | plane en Vv‘ acros in W gene! whic] sky ; Cle Acost did « frien: pilot grace positi 60 po slim | tanks is ad the fi sonab for I The v empt} lons, poun¢ food : 15 pe pounc dicat« eter, half ; Of as CO! cial ec not bi per si pound namic difficu make the ai the hz At load, | the ft -_——

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1927 nd- in- in air ‘he in- aly ‘X- ist re ne id i1- iD a — PRR July 1927 What is so admirable in the proposed expedition, is the careful way in which everything mechanical is being put into first class order; the exhaustive flight tests to check up fuel consumptions at various revolutions of the engine and speeds of the plane; the marvelous en- durance flight of 51 hours, 11 minutes— the best possible test of the ability of plane and pilots to maintain an unbrok- en voyage of nearly two days duration across the ocean; and above all the care in watching weights. It was perhaps generosity in allowing weights to pile up which wrecked the hopes of both Sikor- sky and Commander Davis. Clarence D. Chamberlain and Bert Acosta, while companions in the splen- did endurance flight, had become fast friends. When it came to selecting the pilot for the transatlantic trip, Acosta gracefully relinquished his claim to the position because his sturdier build meant 60 pounds more weight than that of the slim Chamberlain. The lightest gasoline tanks are used; the equipment selected is adequate but not of excessive weight; the fuel carried is enough to give a rea- sonable margin but no more; no presents for Paris and no luxuries are carried. The weights now stand as follows: plane empty, 1850 pounds; gasoline, 400 gal. lons, 2400 pounds; oil, 20 gallons, 160 pounds; radio apparatus, 60 pounds; food and water, 13 pounds; signal flares, 15 pounds; earth inductor compass, 15 pounds; octant, eight pounds; drift in- dicator, two pounds; special chronom- eter, one half pound; stop watch, one half pound; total 4891 pounds. Of course the plane will be overloaded as compared with its ordinary commer- cial condition. But the overloading will not be excessive, giving only 18 pounds per square foot of wing area and 23.3 pounds per horsepower. The areody- namically efficient plane will have no difficulty in getting up sufficient speed to make a get-away. The first hours in the air will give cause for anxiety, but the hazards are at least reasonable. At the start of the flight with full load, if cruising at 110 miles per hour, the fuel consumption would be heavier SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN than the 11 gallons an hour quoted above. But the pilot may reduce consumption of fuel per mile by flying more slowly. As the plane lightens, the fuel consump- tion will go down. The figure of 11 gallons per hour at an average of 110 miles per hour may therefore be achieved. This, for a flight of 3600 miles, will mean 368 gallons of fuel, leaving a mar- gin of 32 gallons. At the last minute, 73 in the Rhine valley, at a spot where meteorological conditions are particular- ly favorable. It is surprising how quickly students qualify as glider pilots. During the month of September, 1926, the society gave 18 elementary and 11 advanced gliding certificates. Instruction was given on 22 days of the month. There were 450 glides made, of an average “on : 4 a, Wide World The famous ¢glider pilot, Espenlaub, superintending the attachment of his glider to an airplane, just prior to experiments to test the practicability ,of discharging freight from moving planes by means of gliders an extra 30 gallons may be stowed in the cabin in five-gallon tins. There is a fair sporting chance of getting across, or at the worst of landing on the west- coast of France without actually reach- ing ‘aris. A Neat Glider LIDING as a sport has never taken a serious foothold in the United States. In Germany it is being pursued as intensively as ever, and various so- cieties exist which provide their mem- bers with systematic training and sub- sequent practice. One such society is the Rhén-Rossiten Gesellschaft which holds its exercises auf der Wasserkuppe ——__—, B2.BFET + 1 a —- ——- —-— a fn [i a S.IFEET_- ~« 349¢: —— > -——-~ 8.2 FEET——~ _— ~a= a fe 18933 1°81 wo Za at = ™_ > aonb 2% a eae Seiiciecaad — The German glider Segler R 11 is an excellent example of design duration of 30 seconds, or a total of only three and three-quarter hours of glid- ing time. Some of the advanced students finally managed duration glides of some seven and one half minutes. We have never heard of anything as systematic and earnest in the gliding line in the United States. The gliders used by this society are beautiful examples of aerodynamical and structural design. Our diagram shows the Segler R 11 (glider) on which ad- vanced students receive instruction. It has beautiful lines and the most correct and efficient disposition of surtacés. Anyone building a glider could not go far wrong in working on similar lines. Towing Gliders HE Army Air Corps has for many years been experimenting with tar- get gliders towed behind an airplane, to be released for practice shots from anti- aircraft guns. It has remained for a German firm, the Raab-Katzenstein Air- plane Company, to experiment with such gliders for commercial purposes. The airplane hus a cable about a thousand feet in length attached to its fuselage, and this cuble is attached to the front end of the: glider, with a release which the glider }ilot can readily actuate. The idea is to have the airplane act like a locomotive with a line of freight cars, and detach the freight-loaded gliders one by one as they reach their destination. Experiments conducted by the German ace, Kieseler, in the plane, and Espen- laub, the famous glider constructor, in the towed glider, have been entirely suc- cessful, as far as safe release and land- ing were concerned. From the point of view of airplane economics, however, the idea does not seem promising. For the same freight (Continued on page 89)

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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN In the World of Chemistry A Department Devoted to the Advancements Made in Industrial and Experimental Chemistry \ New Slant on the Smoke Nuisance YONTROL of the smoke nuisance must C depend upon the effect of smoke- laden air on health, is to be achieved, according to Dr. Charles White, pathologist of the United States Health Service, who points out in American City, that smoke prevention will be more readily secured if it can be shown that smoke-laden atmosphere has a harmful effect on the human system. The chief arguments heretofore have been for com- fort and cleanliness. Data collected by him show that the city of Pittsburgh has a low tuberculosis death rate but a high pneumonia death rate, an analysis by wards showing that the higher rates occur where the smoke-laden air is den- ser. The number of physicians special- izing in respiratory diseases is higher per capita in Pittsburgh than in Balti- demand- for if success more, showing a greater this type in the smoke areas. The evidence indicates that smoke must be controlled from the viewpoint of its effects upon public health. Artificial Ripening of Fruits and Vegetables HE storing of fruits and vegetables in an unripe condition and then rip- ening them as required by the conditions gf the market, is forecast by Dr. R. B. Harvey, Associate Professor of Plant Physiology and Botany at the Minnesota College of Agriculture, as a result of an extensive research on the action of ethy- lene and propylene on fruits and vege- tables. In the past, ethylene has been used for coloring citrus fruits and by its use it has been possible to make green fruit appear ripe, which was none too proper. However, Dr. Harvey has found that by continued application of either ethylene or propylene, an actually green fruit can be made to undergo exactly the same changes in composition that occur in ripening on the plant. In dis- cussing his results in an article pub- lished in the Chemical Bulletin (Chi- cago), Dr. Harvey says in part: “At the Minnesota Experimental Sta- tion we have now ripened practically all of the important fruits and vegetables of tropical and temperate climates, so that ethylene seems to have widespread application. It is useful in removing excess acidity from early apples, plums, rhubarb, pineapples, and other fruits. It will produce better flavor in musk, honey-dew, and casaba melons. Of the tropical fruits, we may now hope to have a greater share available in the north. The mango, avocado, papaya, custard apple, chayote, jujube, and per- simmon offer commercial possibilities since they may now be shipped in a firm green condition. In Minnesota, during most of the year, quantities of fresh tomatoes are imported, sometimes with the loss of half of the car by the old CONDUCTED BY D. H. KILLEFFER method of heat treatment. Possibly we should look to the advantage of future generations of northern races in having fruits from the tropics available through- out the year as much as to the money saving through decreasing the loss of human food materials. “Ethylene is the most practical gas for use in ripening, although propylene is a little more active and produces a little better flavor in fruits. Propylene is not available commercially at present. Acetylene is considerably more toxic than ethylene or propylene and has an unpleasant odor in the comercially avail- able product. Ethylene can be obtained in cylinders. “A measuring gage can be made by attaching a cal!»rated orifice to an ordi- nary low-pressure expansion valve, al- though there is a convenient valve al- ready on the market calibrated to de- liver a regulated amount of ethylene gas per minute. Other than this simple equipment, all that is necessary is to have a banana room or similar room tight enough to prevent excessive leak- age of gas. This room must be kept at 65 to 70 degrees, Fahrenheit. At tem- peratures below 65 degrees, Fahrenheit, ripening is slow. Temperatures above 70 degrees, Fahrenheit, may be used for some fruits, but rots may develop too rapidly. At 65 degrees, Fahrenheit, only 48 hours are required to ripen bananas from a very green state. “Ethylene is not explosive at concen- trations many times the required con- centration (1-1000). It is practically odorless and not poisonous. No effect on men working in the treating rooms is detectable. The gas has almost ex- actly the density of air and diffuses quickly throughout crates of celery or through loose boxes of fruit. “Ethylene may be used to remove the excess acidity of fruits or vegetables, to remove chlorophy!] from celery or sim- ilar plants, to increase the sugar con- tent, or to remove tannins and other ob- jectionable substances. Tomatoes rip- ened after removal from the vine in winter are liable to be excessively acid, but if treated with ethylene they have a fine flavor, free from excess acidity. Very immature tomatoes down to one inch in diameter may be ripened in six to eight days; more mature fruits re- quire only 24 to 60 hours, depending upon the variety and degree of maturity. It is practicable to ripen two-thirds or three-fourths size tomatoes for the mar- ket at times of high prices. Tomatoes have better flavor when so ripened than those ripened on the vine. This will make it possible to extend the length of the season by ripening immature fruits before the regular season, and also will save fruits caught green by frost. “Celery can be blanched perfectly in 60 hours and has a fine color, sweeter July 194 taste, and less stringiness. A _ single dose of ethylene, about two to three cubic feet, costing less than 40 cents per carload of fruit, is sufficient to produce a remarkable change in the time required to ripen bananas, and to change their color, flavor, and texture to that of fine, ripe fruit. The tannins of the date and of the Japanese persimmon have been more quickly removed than is possible without ethylene. The astringent Jap- anese persimmons were nicely ripened in 50 hours with ethylene, while controk at the same temperature were still very astringent. Ethylene causes a sudden jump in the respiratory rate after its application. Attendant with this in creased rate of respiration, the fruit acids and tannins disappear.” This process has been in practical use for some time with extremely satis. factory results. Carbon Monoxide in Automobile Service Stations INCE the exhaust of an automobile engine contains nearly 615 percent of carbon monoxide, employees of ser- vice stations are subject to a _ severe hazard from carbon monoxide poisoning. Dr. May R. Mayers, of the Bureau of Industrial Hygiene of the New York State Department of Labor, is carrying on an investigation of methods of com- bating this hazard and in the /ndustrial Hygiene Bulletin of the Bureau says: “Various methods are being experi- mented with by the automobile industry at the present time with a view to ridding their service stations of the car- bon-monoxide hazard. The installation of elaborate forced-draft ventilating sys- tems, capable of keeping the air fresh at all times appears to be far too ex- pensive to be practicable in most instances. Instead therefore, managers of service stations are becoming interested in the use of various chemical substances now on sale, which if sprayed, or otherwise introduced into the air are supposed to ‘improve the condition of the air’ Just how this is to be accomplished is frequently very vague both in the minds of the manufacturers of these products and those who purchase them for their service stations. “The Bureau of Industrial Hygiene has been called upon by some of the more intelligent service-station managers —particularly those having a large num- ber of service stations to provide for— for a disinterested opinion as to the efficacy of these measures. One of the chemical substances on the market is essentially a combination of chlorine and formaldehyde which is to be sprayed into the workroom. This is now under investigation by the Bureau. The other chemical substance which is making com (Continued on page 76) July | € a Py SS * Re ore ———_ 4 ene ate ee ae’

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ly 1927 single three tS per ‘oduce julred their fine, e and been ssible Jap- pened itrols very idden r its in- fruit ‘tical | satis. LOW “ise sed ir.’ is ids eir ne § he Ts m- he he is nd ed er el July 1927 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 75 ETHYL GASOLINE ‘ CORPORATION a. 9 ernyi I consonsrin | utomobiles have improved but—— what about gasoline ? Ir IS a far cry from the “horseless buggy” of yesterday to the automobile of today. But the first cars and the latest cars are alike in one fundamental respect: doth depend on gasoline for fuel. Gasoline is not a perfect fuel. It has always had one inherent fault. It explodes too quickly (“knocks”) as temperature and compression increase. Carbon increases both temperature and compression beyond the point at which the present day automobile is designed to operate efficiently on regular gasoline. And the full efficiency of the modern motor car and its continued dev elopment have both depended upon the discovery of a “knockless’ ” fuel ‘i After eight years of experiment, General Motors Re- search Laboratories developed Ethyl brand of anti- knock compound, a chemical ingredient which leading oil companies are mixing with their regular gasoline to form Ethyl Gasoline. Ethyl Gasoline is she efficient fuel for automobiles of today and tomorrow. This super-gasoline will give your Te te LRG — -— aes engine a performance such as you have never known. It is available throuchout the United States and Canada . ne . . ce — , °° : and is sold at pumps w hich display the ETHYL” trade- mark. Try it today. € , BRET Eruyt Gaso.tine Corporation, 25 Broadway, New York fe) ETHYL GASOLINE A fermi casoume J} conporarion we = ro REEL See BE —— oe a eae er Sg - : + aes im SE BPRS Ba er Py |

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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN July 19% July 19 —_——_———— — ——— (Continued from page 74) [ : == —_— == = siderable headway in garages and service : : stations is ozone, chemically designated ——} wore ene — as O;. Ozone is generated in the room om a AEN by means of one or more ozone genera- " ac aaa SE RNS tors of varying sizes depending upon the pares, ite. 1) Seed size of the service station. . 1876 i886 1896 1900 “Manufacturers of these ozone ma- ry oe i xa! chines are not all agreed as to its effeet ; . either upon the air of the workroom or upon the men exposed. One manv- facturer in his sales literature points out that ozone or O; is broken down into O2 plus O, and that the one atom of nascent oxygen combines with the carbon monoxide in the air to form carbon dioxide which in the concentra- | tion produced would be quite harmless, (O+CO=>CO,). In this contention he is not supported either by the other man- ufacturers of these machines or by ex- a 167, 133 = 3,070,765 | perimental evidence. That under - 9: - LC | a os - — - hE ditions prevalent in service stations, this reaction does not occur to any appreci- able extent whatever is well established ° s ° ] : scientifically. This conclusion has fur. Milestones 1n Nationa Service ther been independently arrived at and confirmed by experimental work con- , ducted by the Bureau of Industrial Hy- An Advertisement of giene. “ » y the American Telephone and Telegraph Company a —— yt a chines have been installed ‘on approval’ appear to be genuinely enthusiastic about them, however, and claim that they feel so much better and have fewer THERE are twenty-five Bell The number of applica- or no headaches since their installation, companies but only one Bell tions waiting for service, has caused the Bureau of Industrial Hy- System—and one Bell aim including those in new and giene to investigate the matter further. and ideal, stated by President outlying sections, was reduced It has been our experience as a result Walter S. Gifford as: fifty per cent. of an examination of a _ considerable “A telephone service for this A third transcontinental tele- ne of eae ene ~_ cache ae w nation, so far as humanly possible phone line was completed to the nes — ee ol yg eer = a free from imperfections, errors or Pacific coast. Yo ge crag pee perkalll delays, and enabling anyone any- The largest number of miles of the fs ‘elest t tue eecions where at any time to pick upa__ toll wire for one year was added to psychological. On the other hand, the telephone and talk to anyone’ the System—more than 664,000 men continue to insist that they really else anywhere else in thiscountry, miles. do have fewer headaches, and some clearly, quickly and at a reason- The average length of time for ‘claim to have none at all any more able cost.” completing toll calls throughout ' since the ozone machines have been in- The year 1926 brought the theSystem was lowered by thirty- stalled. The carbon-monoxide headache service of the Bell Telephone five seconds. is too real and too intense to be dis- System measurably nearer that A seven per cent improvement | posed of purely by suggestion. goal. Seven hundred and eighty- over the previous year was made one thousand telephones were in the quality of voice transmis- added to the System—bringing _ sion in toll calls. An adjustment Glaucosil the total number interconnected was made in long distance rates HARCOAL and a number of other in and with the Bell to more than amounting to areduction of about things have the desirable property of seventeen and a half million. $3,000,000 annually. being able to absorb huge volumes of many gaseous and liquid materials, as witness the use of a piece of charcoal in the : family ice box to absorb food — his property of absorption, or adsorp- BIG PROFITS “ NEW BUSINESS PATENT FOR SALE an > it is more correctly called, is of your own " y Automobile Oil Filtering Device. Only three parts, none! valuable in many industries, and much °° Mt to replace; reasonable to manufacture. RESIDUE effort has been devoted to increasing —No Competition! CLEANED OUT WITH AIR at any filling station, Tlie adsorptive capacity of charcoals. ty ee ge te Rig ny epee tt-muaicn« en i This has resulted in the development and with actual photographs, how any am- of a whole host of “activiated carbons tory and” aiid upc Rourishing.” meney- TRY OUR possessing very high power of adsorp bie amend i> Waaiies eneian Soda annem tion, and in addition to the activa A for BOOK SERVICE carbons, several types . highly adieu satisfactory method of servicing tires. You tive silica have een eveiope Vv as new at oneshaif the cost. Livtie capital SSPE TET 1S Oe ft eo less te wed be 6 eke of things required: previous tire or garage experience . 2 $ e Saabs as pee ee eae INVENTIONS PERFECTED for which charcoal he ee Send TODAY o gmasins Nest MODELS MADE most recent of these has been , for free book, profits i In a fully equipped machine shop in the Bureau of Soils at Washington Hf i ad Seale Gane fi" Manufacture Dies, Tools, Jigs and Fixtures of Precision as one of the products obtained along . ness. Let us manufacture and act as your factory with potash and other materials = AAU INACNINS | Moore & Co. Sicese' ti’ "|| ereensand, and is called glauconite, TM oe or — (Continued on page 84)

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ly 1927 ervice rnated room SCIENTIFIC Sweet (° july 1927

enera- | yn the ma- effect sult ‘able e to hem 1edi- 1aps was | the ally ome 10re in- ich dis- ich gs he ed

EERE ARETE RPO

AMERICAN sirl graduate Get rid of dandruff Many a girl otherwise sweet, and many a man otherwise charming, is rejected because of loose dandruff (epithelial debris.) Put it up to yourself. Could you really be interested for long in anyone careless enough to permit such a dis- gusting condition? For, after all, loose dandruff is now easy to check, by the systematic use of Listerine, the safe antiseptic. You simply douse it on full LIST

strength and massage thoroughly. Almost immediately you note im- provement. Keep it up several days systematically. We’ll wager final results will delight you. Whenever you have any evidence of dandruff don’t delay treatment. Go after it immediately with Listerine. It puts you on the pleasant and polite side. Lambert Pharmacal Company, St. Louis, Mo. —and dandruff simply do not get along together 77

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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN July 19H Applied Science for the Amateur A Department Devoted To the Presentation of Useful Ideas. Material of Value To All Will Be Found Here CONDUCTED BY A. P. PECK Photomic*ography Made Simple HE writer is one of the undoubtedly large number of amateur scientists who delight in exploring the realms of minute objects that are revealed to us through the medium of the microscope. Here is shown the complete layout for photomicrography. A _ high- power microscope is in the stand; a low-power one is at the right In studying objects and their struc- ture through a microscope, I have often desired a method whereby I could ob- tain a permanent record of the observa- tions. Not being a master of the tech- nique of drawing, the field of photogra- phy seemed to offer the only logical solution. However, the available liter- ature on the subject of photomicrogra- phy stated that elaborate equipment was necessary for the taking of photomicro- graphs. I found that I could not afford such apparatus, so I set to work to pre- pare a system whereby, with compara- tively cheap equipment, coupled with a good microscope, I could produce satis- factory results. After some little experimenting, I found that with the simple apparatus shown in the accompanying photo- graphs, I could take very good photo- micrographs. Several samples of the work done with my equipment are shown also. Aside from the microscope, the essen- tial parts of the apparatus are three in number. First, there must be a cheap box camera, of a type in which the back is removable. Such a camera need not cost more than two dollars. Secondly, a stand for the camera and the micro- scope is to be made. This is shown in the photographs. The third part is a source of light. I used a 100-watt lamp and a thin- walled, globular glass bulb filled with distilled water. The latter is used as a condensing lens for converging the beams from the electric lamp to the microscope mirror. This bulb of water is to be arranged so that it can be moved vertically, so as to make it pos- sible to direct the beams as desired. A fine ground-glass plate is placed be- tween the source of light and the glass bulb. Also, a properly ventilated metal housing should be provided for the electric lamp. The stand for the microscope and the camera is worthy of special notice. It must be constructed rigidly so that there will be no chance of vibration of the camera during exposure. Due to the variations in the sizes of microscopes, no definite dimensions are given. How- ever, the base, sides and top should be The microscope and camera stand with the camera removed. A mir- ror is atranged to show the reader the construction of the top and the placement of the bolts cut from one-inch stock, and securely fastened together with screws, not nails. A properly shaped block screwed to the base serves at all times to hold the microscope in the same position relative to the top. This is clearly shown in the photographs. The square nuts on two bolts through the top serve to help the operator to place the camera in the proper position after it has been removed for the pur. pose of focusing the microscope or in- serting the film. As shown in the mirror in one of the photographs, these are set in slots, so that when loosened, the bolts can be shifted to accomodate the particular camera used. Before attempting to take crographs, the lens photomi- in the camera is A grain of potato starch, magni- fied 675 times and photographed removed, as it is of no use in this work. Then the camera, with the back removed, and without any film in it, is placed over the opening in the top board. The microscope is placed in its positiop on the base, and a piece of ground glass is laid on the back of the camera. The stand should be of such height that the eyepiece of the microscope will be fairly close to the opening of the camera. The farther away it is, the smaller will be the resulting picture. When the light and mirror of the microscope are adjusted, a circle of light will be seen on the ground glass. The position of the camera should be shifted until this circle occupies the center of the glass. Then the nuts are tightened so that camera will always be replaced in the same location. These nuts do not (Continued on page 80) The eyepieces used. The top of each is placed to the right of it. Micrometer focusing eyepiece is shown at the extreme right

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ly 19H e pur- or in n the these sened, 0date ytomi- ra is July 1927 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 4 WT, : OBACCO “THE BEST PIPE SMOKE EVER MADE!” A VAST MULTITUDE OF PIPE SMOKERS in- stantly welcomed and praised Old Briar. Thousands upon thousands claim Old Briar to be «the best pipe smoke ever made.”’ The additional enjoyment, satisfaction and pipe comfort you get out of a pipeful of Old Briar costs but a fraction of a cent more than ordinary Light up your pipeful of Old Briar, Let the ripe fragrance of Old Briar creep up your pipe’s stem. Enjoy every bit of its full, pleasant aroma — its rich body — its extra smoothness. Notice how mild and cool it is — how completely satisfying. Then you will know why this wonderful tobacco continues to win the praise of pipe smokers everywhere. Generations of tobacco culture, years of selecting and of testing the finest leaf tobacco, of scientific mellowing and blending, have gone into the perfecting of Old Briar. IT ALL SHOWS UP IN THE SMOKE. TO DEALERS: Old Briar is sold in Pocket packages at 25c and Humidor boxes at 50c, $1.00 and $2.00. If your jobber has not supplied you, write us and we will send you a supply by prepaid Parcel Post at regular Dealers’ prices. UNITED STATES TOBACCO COMPANY, tobaccos. IF YOUR DEALER DOES NOT HAVE OLD BRIAR Tear out this coupon and mail to: United States Tobacco Co., Richmond, Va. U.S. A. SPECIAL OFFER: To make your first meeting with Old Briar an occasion for utmost satisfaction, we will mail you on receipt of this coupon the regular Old Briar 50¢ humidor box. In addition, we will include one 25¢ pocket package of Old Briar — extra — if you in- clude your dealer's name. Send no money, but pay the postman 50c when he delivers your order. Tear out the coupon, now, while it's handy! Vour Bam... cccccccoccccsvccceseccowccssoccces ‘ Adres. ......ccccccccsccccccesccccccesscosie ter Gd GO. conccsccocascen cieticksnia laa teeta Your Dealer's Mame.......ccccccccccccese aqpegwite - If you prefer—send etamps, money order or check with coupon. SA7

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80 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN July 1927 July 19

C clamp the camera but serve as guides, more @ | Fe | In the actual taking of the photomicro- The Cf J | graphs, the microscope is focused with 9 york, wy MADE FOR THE the eye in the usual way, with the two oct r camera removed. Then the camera, with Place first film in position, is placed against lar nur the two square nuts. With the room in the 1

\ BEST RE RETAIL TRADE in darkness and the microscope light remove Groce Mork Reg US Pot Of ond Foreign Gowntras) turned off, the shutter is opened. Then cular 1 Insist on this red woven label. the —_ - —- sae oj exposure unload Ny a “B.D.” | made, the light turned off, and the alterin; Nothing without itis VD - : \ | shutter closed. Be sure to follow this focus | | sequence, because opening the shutter careful while the light is on will tend to shake ocular the camera and spoil the photograph, done, ¥ Do not move around the room while the replace shutter is open, and be sure that there

O 127

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“B.V. D.” Ei Both parts show vinegar bacteria. Union Suits Shirts Left: magnified 675 diameters. Men’s $1.50 and Drawers Right: 1800 diameters i : Youths’ 85c 85c the garment will be no other disturbing vibration made, Extra large sizes obtainable while the exposure is being made. the n at an additional charge The exposure for this work will vary scope The B.V.D. Company, Inc., N. Y. from 10 to 30 seconds, according to the Wh a = subject on the slide, the strength of the be ph Sole Makers “B.V.D.” Underwear : light and the power of the lens com: be ob bination being used. browr B sss , The foregoing paragraphs deal with partic ie M fl Like ‘B V D 4 est p ordinary photomicrography. However, type | Next to ysel von em : I have recently developed a method of The very sharp focusing, by means of which mentz ’ l it is possible to photograph bacteria, only ATTENTION -PATENTEES Wanted By National Sales Organization using a high-powered microscope. For and this work it is necessary to have an bette: Patents of commercial value financed on For the Retail Hardware Trade ; Pa omg sacar eg royalty basis without expense to inven- |e or more meritorious items for sale in this} Instrument W hich is made so that dif- that tor. Mail models and co ra of patents channel for which ready demand now exists.| ferent eyepicces can be used. You will that oa full details to P an assist patentee or manufacturer fin: incially, also need two eyepieces, or oculars. amou on P if necessary. Give full details in first letter] One, which I will refer to as number | KAMSTONE HOLDING CORP. please. A r 41 EAST 42nd STREET NEW YORK CITY | Box 174, Scientific American, New York City a , " rr. ' ~ CHEMISTS GEARS|/|s Our new catalog listing 5000 chem- | All Kinds—Small > icals, 2500 illustrations Laboratory | oro ae ee aa Se Apparatus and 1000 Books sent on Teas" thmcles eneinee cones eae 5 eipt of 50 Radio catalog (109 of all kinds. Send us ¥< a inquiries. "3 pages), liberal discounts, 10c. Write for Catalogue 20 . S RKS LABORATORY MATERIALS COMPANY Cantase STOCK GEAR wo C37 East 71st Street Chicago, U. S. A. 105 South JeGersen Steet Chicage BECOME A FOOT CORRECTIONIST Experimental and Model Work Fine Instruments and Fine Machinery $3,000 to $10,000 yearly in a business of your own—many Inventions Developed are making it in the New Profession of foot correction pecial Tools, Dies, Gear Cutting, Etc. not medical nor chiropody. Openings everywhere with HENRY "TUHR. Inc. 187 Lafayette | a New York City : all the trade you can attend to; easy terms for license and \ training by mail: no further capital needed, or goods t ee buy; no agency or soliciting. Write today for full details. PI STEPHENSON LABORATORY Human hairs cut’ transversely. rc wane Oe Se pee Left view is magnified 675 di- mm ameters; right 1800 diameters atlo STEEL STAMPS —, nHAVERSACK es - filter Ba scavy canvas, with Cather s ©! one, is an ordinary ocular magnifying METAL CHECKS with pockets, for campers, farm - more - ers, woodsmen. between 10 and 15 diameters. The for STENCILS ieee coo ee __ | second, which I will call number two, Lon \\leree: corres SEALS jest 1927 at sO" cents, Paews| is termed a “micrometer focusing eye- [\ AND FIGURES © SEND FOR wee. high tg ao. nin ts. sad- piece” and can be obtained in two to o NO FICK eaeanee dice, ete, Special circular for 2c stamp. powers namely seven and 17 diameters. of t ‘ ” , 2? z ef ~~ oe | FRANCIS BANNERMAN SONS] ‘Thi. can be purchased without the os

BRIDGEPORT, CONN.

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y 1927 ruides, micro- | with h the , With rainst room light Then osure the this utter shake raph, e the here ae iiemeieendiaiine die ee July 1927 more expensive micrometer attachment. The following process for delicate work, and using the 17 power, number two ocular, is to be recommended. Place the microscope, containing ocu- lar number one, in the stand and focus in the regular way, using the eye. Now remove number one and substitute oc- cular number two. Place the camera, unloaded, on the stand and, without altering any of the former adjustments, focus sharply on the ground glass by carefully turning the upper part of ocular number two. When this has been done, remove the camera, load with film, replace and make the exposure. A ribbed diatom, photographed using magnification of 675 times Once these adjustments have been made, they need not be touched unless the magnification power of the micro- scope is altered. When stained micro-organisms are to be photographed, the best results will be obtained with those stained red or brown, in preference to blue. This is particularly true if a color filter of the type known as K2 is employed. There is a vast field open for experi- mentation in this line. The above is only a very brief resume of my work, and undoubtedly others will discover better methods than mine. To those that take up the work, let it be said that the results will depend on the amount of time expended. Experimen- r 5 ae Photograph of pollen grains from a rose, magnified 135 diameters tation with the time of exposure, color filters and focusing methods will reveal more definite data which can be followed for best results.—Contributed by A. C. Lonert. [We particularly recommend this item to our readers. It shows the true spirit of the experimenter in overcoming ob- | SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 81 Motorists Carry a Basline Autow- line in your car and safeguard your spare tire with Powersteel Autowlock. Both are made of Yellow Strand. Ask your accessory dealer. For Handling Men and Coal Tons upon tons of both these precious commodities are handled daily by power- ful mine hoists—and at breathless speed! Weight and speed combine to give the hoist- ing ropes a severe and strenuous life. ve the highest grade can hold out for long— good reason why Yellow Strand is so widely used. For heavy duty at your plant, Yellow Strand will give the same long, satisfactory service that the miner gets. The strand of yellow protects you. This company of pioneer wire rope manufacturers also makes all standard grades for all purposes. BRODERICK & BASCOM ROPE CO. 843 N. First Street, St. Louis, Mo. Eastern Office and Warehouse: 68 Washington St., New York Western Office: Seattle Factories: St. Louis and Seattle Authorized Dealers in all Industrial Localities Yellow Strand WIRE ROPE BOILER PRESERVER UNISOL” chemically perfect feed-water treatment. Our | new pamphlet on correct methods of treatment should be read by everyone interested in steam plants. Mailed on request. Models Unisol Mfg. Co. Jersey City, N. J.. FURNITURE, |) ‘ ivektene nikisicone Scientific Furniture Finishing, | Decoration and Patching 4 new and authoritative book covering Furniture and Modern Styles; also Furniture Decora- tional. No tech tion (Antique Shading, Glazing, Dusting, Two- . oning, nical training re Polychroming, etc.). Furniture Finishing, Tools, Equip- quired, yet hun dreds of scien ment, Materials, Patching, Special Processes (Lamp | Shades and Bases, Picture Frames, Japanning, Mirror Resilvering, etc.) explained. All fully illustrated. $5.00 postpaid. Send also for FREE CATALOG of over 200 practical } mechanical books. FREDERICK J. DRAKE & CO. Publishers Stacles. Since trade names have been !10€5 So. Michigan Ave. HR844 IDEAS DEVELOPED AND PERFECTED . Experimental work; labor-saving ma- chinery for manufacturers. 20 years’ e aoe rience . ¥. G U.S.A.| > _ Bernard & Heller 275A Water St.. At last a high powered microscope is within the means of all who wish to study, observe and experiment with the vast world of minute objects invis ible to the naked eye. Such fun it is, as well as educa all Period tists are using this instrument Gives enormous magnification and perfect defi nition Send $7.50 for com ete outfit. Send ond ... ecriptive © for emag gee APPARATUS “CORP. Ce ompiete utfit 02 Milton, Pa. Chicago

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82 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN July 1% ) / f Two Bits —the Forty ) C P — Niner was large-minded f As much gold dust as he i picked up between fi y thumb, and once more ” Lt’ s a different story m any mint. Even actual / fold coms are weighed and omitted, the names and addresses ¢ companies that supply microscope special eyepieces, color filters and othe supplies for the microscopist will } mailed upon request. The Editor} Tool Rack RITING in Power, Mr. H. | Wheeler, of Syracuse, New York | tells of a rack of small tools that is ver easy to make and of great value in th their owner is credited with exact weight andexact value, The basis of successful manufacture is FACTS The old colored mammy might produce wonderful table delicacies by luck and guess, but the laboratories of mod- ern business can only operate on facts. Scientific instruments for indicating, measuring and con- trolling temperature must be accurate or they are worthless and can cause heavy money loss. No less essential is such accuracy in the home or hospital, on boat, train or air- plane, when human life is at stake. Tycos Instruments are used wherever it is necessary for man to indicate, record or control temperature. And how they can be depended on for facts is indicated by the fact that men of medicine, science and industry today practically universally demand Tycos. Taylor Instrument Companies ROCHESTER, N. Y¥., U. S. A. CANADIAN PLANT MANUPACTURING DISTRIBUTORS IN ORBAT BRITAIN, SHORT & MASON, LTD., LONDON | aiihials Such a rack is illustrated in | these columns, and the following para |graphs are what Mr. Wheeler has to |say about the arrangement. “A rack made of miscellaneous sizes of pipe straps, as shown in the illustra- tion, makes a handy resting place for |small tools around the engineer’s work | bench. Such tools as screwdrivers, chisels and pliers, may be hung within conven- ient reach. place where it will be on the job when- Tool holder made of pipe straps ever needed. PATENTS TRADE-MARKS DESIGNS FOREIGN PATENTS MUNN & CO. PATENT ATTORNEYS Associated since 1846 with the Scientific American SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN BLDG. 24-26 West 40th St., N. Y. C. TOWER BUILDING Chicago, Iil. SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN BLDG Washington, D. C. HOBART BUILDING San Francisco, Cal. VAN NUYS BUILDING Los Angel-s, Cal. en {) —— Books and Information on Patents and Trade-Marks by Request. Associates in All Foreign Countries. | “To make the rack, nail a piece of one by two inch board about ten inches |higher than the bench. To this strip | nail or screw the pipe straps, one lapping |over the other. Provision can be made | for many different small toois by using | the several sizes of pipe straps.” | Perspective Photographs without a Stereoscope | QQEFERRING to the item on stereo scopic photography in the March, 1927, issue of this magazine, Mr. George P. Sanborn sends an interesting item re- garding the use of photographs pro- duced by the described method, by means of which it is possible sometimes to do away with the usual stereoscope. The system, which the editor has tried |} | out successfully on occassion, is de- ll | scribed in the following paragraphs. It | is well to note that all persons do not |obtain the same effect, and that all stereoscopic prints are not suitable for the work. As a preparatory measure, prior to trying a “double” or stereoscopic print, make two black dots about three inches apart on a white card. Hold the card a few inches from the eyes, and in such a position that a line connecting the dots will be parallel with a line con- necting the eyes. Focus the eyes on an imaginary spot between the two dots Each may have its proper § July | and Soon, two | three whicl half This | acqui scopi Wt mann using striki one | with the in fu be neé be ol W co as I ment ing 1 old f inne esse! Or over tube exac tion othe mad spre over This tube and quic thi an bal —(

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July 197 "esses gf TOSCopeh nd othe will jy Editor) Ss ted in para- as tof sizes ' istra- e for work hisels nven- roper yhen- | e of ches strip ping | nade | sing reo- rch, rge re- TO- nes pe. ied de- 10t all at, es rd ch ne on July 1927 and some distance behind the card. Soon, if the conditions are right, the two dots will appear to coalesce, and three dots will appear—the third one, which is apparent and not real, about half way between the two actual dots. This effect shows that the trick has been acquired and you can now try a stereo- scopic print. When doing this, proceed in the same manner as described for the white card, using a print that has some particularly striking feature. When this feature on one of the prints appears to coalesce with the same part on the other print, the picture will appear to stand out in full perspective. Some practice will be necessary before the best results can be obtained. Counterbalance Weight WANTED an accurate, presentable counterbalance for a ventilator door, as I did not wish to leave my experi- mental assortment of bits of iron hang- ing to the end of the pulley rope. Two old fruit-jar lids and a piece of discarded inner tube from an automobile were the essentials for a neater weight. One end of the tube was tied securely over one of the lids. I then filled the tube with coarse sand until it weighed exactly as much as my trial conglomera- tion of iron. A hole was punched in the other lid, and a hook inserted. This was made of heavy wire with a circular spread below to distribute the weight over the inner surface of the cover. This cover was pushed down into the tube, expanding it to a straight cylinder and closely packing the sand. It was quickly made, “filled the bill,” and I A counterbalance weight made of sand and a piece of inner tube think was just a bit more neat, accurate, and safe than any other small counter- balance of its kind I have ever seen. —Contributed by Frank W. Bentley, Jr. SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN \\\ iva vii \WPSALSADIA VATARAR LTRS MBE UALL dustry. Formachinery construction and parts—automobiles and trucks, powerful tractors, threshers, har- vester combines, implements for the agricultural and the indus- trial fields; and for lines of re- manufacture and general build- ing construction, this 4 Company is the lead- ing maker of high } grade Black Sheets, Ghis Company is the leading manufacturer of Black and Galvanized Sheets Formed Roofing Products Metallic Furniture Stock Full Finished Sheets Automobile Sheets Electrical Sheets Special Sheets for Stamping Tin and Terne Plates Black Plate, Etc. Steel Sheets : FOR EVERY KNOWN PURPOSE==~—2 if WWM EME YW Z “Gg 4 Nw ANNA —\\ = j | \ I BZ il I li | {| I TT ml Ur Uy HEET STEEL—the material of exceptional utility, is rapidly gaining in popularity in all lines of in- Sheet Steel combines service with economy. Tin and Galvanized Sheets, ‘Terne Plates for every purpose. Where resistance to rust is im- portant, as for roofing, siding, spouting, culverts, flumes and similaruses, insistupon Keystone rust- resisting Copper Steel. Sold ii by | leading metal mer- chants. Write nearest ; District Sales office for ft copy of Facts booklet. Chicago Cincinnat! Denver Detroit AMER ICAN St SHEETand TIN PEATE COMPANY General Offices: Frick Building Pittsburgh. Pa. DISTRICT SALES OFFICES New Orleans Export Representatives: UNITED STATES STEEL PRODUCTS Co., Pacific Coast Representatives: UNITED STATES STEEL PRODUCTS Co., New York Philadelphia Pittsburgh St. Louis New York City San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle

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84 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN July 1927 July | In the World of Chemistry Norm . 4 . (Continued from page 76) the I Final Arbiters of What Will Work this source is in a state of rapid develop- — . seleni P F ‘ ment and investigations are being made ngi Production-records settle the question of what will of the efficiency of the by-product, glaue B pypi work in machine development. Production-records a a oe rem ve ¥ , ‘ é ais. ’ ? : , the Cc ©. K. your experiments, or measure improvements In reporting an investigation of the “It . me : subject before the American Chemical m | in mechanism and operating method. Perfected Society, Whittaker and Fox of the§ ™™ design or operation sums up its practical, product- Bureau of Soils state: be us / th di ] f “Glaucosil is the siliceous residue ob- of ds ive value on e€ dial of a tained by extracting greensand with mané mineral acids, preferably sulfuric acid, “nT The acid leach is treated to recover weed potassium salts, iron and aluminum Cane oxides, and fuming sulfuric acid. Glau- in th COUNTER cosil is thus obtained simultaneously § oe with other products and is, in short, not | | The large Set-Back Ret a by-product of the manufacture of pot- ily k elution Counter at right J |ash and other materials from green- ff by s is less than ly actual size sand. The siliceous residue as obtained j The Small Revolution in the we x a tain a a aR e process contains only such salts cent! kone sap “eral as are present in the mother liquor and requ these are easily removed by washing. resu “Glaucosil is practically pure silica, | were The Set-Back Revolution Counter above re- | It differs from artificial active silica in cords the output of the larger machines where the revolu- that it has never been through the gel § é tions of a shaft record operations or output. Counts one stage, unless perhaps it went through § Ws for each revolution, and sets back to zero from any figure such a stage in the geological ages when T' by turning knob once round. Supplied with from four the greensand from which it is derived to ten figure-wheels, as required. Price, with four ran formed It is simply the silica figures, as illustrated, $10.00 (subject to discount.) vas are Pr c the | skeleton of the greensand granule, the any The Small Revolution Counter at left records surfaces of which, both inner and outer, trac the output of smaller machines where a shaft revolution have been cleared off and left in a com indicates an operation. Though small, this counter is very highly active state by the action of the Ree durable; its mechanism will stand a very high rate of acid. It is never in solution, colloidal rept epeed, —- ee a os or otherwise, during its manufacture. B Eng machines. ul subtract if run backward, rice, $2.00. Chemically it is quite active, much more as ¢ There’s a VEEDER to fit every machine—and every need so than any crystalline inert It = cult ° ° a . s yaa -. ; y ; ; © s ys ) in development work. Mechanical and Magnetic Counters— olves re — ‘di pomck rong d . ‘aa sat ? , . Vi . Acids app y leave : the Veeder booklet shows them all. It's your booklet: write— warming — oe J fide : tirely unattacked. che he Veeder Me Co 18 Sargeant St. After a a er yd of the ont con parative adsorption o venzene, xylene, § ilar e + 4 ° 4 ’ Hartford, Conn. carbon tetrachloride and water by it, § nov | . . . | these investigators point out that glau- = |cosil has a high activity and adsorption UNIVERSAL MACHINISTS *‘WONDER” Co!d Pipe and Tubing Benders | | capacity as compared with other similar A and Do Not Crack, Flatten or Crienp the Pipe materials. They conclude from their S 3s nda ri e e r . . Sorte ones \AUTO HANDBOOK Hand and Motor Operated | investigations that the by-product of | Fwo BOOKS IN OnE » ndis pened : te What i eon i ~~ 9 me this new industry will find wide indus- : cal |Draftsmen. ete. im their everyday | work, Pinch’ pipe oe ee 1B cts trial application and compare the satu- pli SJ wortl o yractica reference o 35 2-inch pipe ..... 0 s . . . | | cents 5c contaiue laformation om Carburetors 4 inch bibe te eG e- 3 ration values with those obtained by rat f] sparkplug, Engine and Ignition troubles. | S-inch pipe 2 2 ft BIA Munro and Johnson with aluminum [| sat | Viston and Piston Rings, Angles, Decimals American Pipe Bending oxide and by Patrick and Opdycke on of ultipher reac a icre meter, | . ear * . |] Gears Bolts, Th reat Pipe Fitings, Lester. Machine Co. silica gel. Saturated or nearly saturated lea ng. Weights of Meta ous. Getcnents 6 . J E w ato ttterials. Horsepowers of Steam, Gasoline nce racnct in 32 Pearl St. Boston, Mass. vapors were used in each case. The ap 7 € ytors ontains 56 ta s anc ormules . . . . Price 3Sc prepaid, Send stamps to Shields Engineering & || _| accompanying table gives a comparison pil Publishing Co., Dept. °C’, 3962 Delmar Ave., St. Louis, Mo | || of the three adsorbents under test condi- A PATENTS FOR SALE) — ” | PATENT | po We have for sale four patents, as follows: Relative Adsorptive Capacity of Glau- ch BILLIARD CUE TIPS AND 'cosil, Aluminum Oxide, and Silica Gel we CUE TIP HOLDERS TRADE-MARKS . These have already been in the market and show | | , — : ADSOR BED ve successful progress. Address DESIGNS ee re Carbon oy American World Cue Tip Holder Company || FOREIGN PATENTS Benzene tetrachloride pa 417 South 3rd Street Philadelphia, Pa. | | eT Te Centigrade Percent Percent a MUNN & CO. Glaucosil 25 40.5 61.0 sp ro" “ne weye ide 20 160 29.0 a Am PATENT ATTORNEYS Aluminum oxide 2 0 a eur - Silica-gel 30 24.6 44.9 be | elescope Making Associated since 1846 with the Scientific American | ve | pe The one book that gives all SCIENTIFIC AMER. 726 West 40th St... N. Y.C. Selenious Acid as a Weed Killer the information needed to SCIENTIFIC AMER. BLDG. - Washington. D. C. ANDELIONS and other weeds, . E UIL NG - - - Chicago, I! * construct a reflecting tele- es. . edad which cause the makers of lawns scope at home. VAN NUYS BUILDING - Los Angeles, Cal so much trouble, may yield to a treat- P p ee ; , ment with selenious acid, a derivative 300ks anc > atic y -atents . Price $2.00 Postpaid Bound ‘Trade-Marks by Request of the metal selenium so often ie k IE I Associates in All Foreign Countries of because of its changes in electrica d SC NTIFIC A MERICAN | resistance under the influence of light. e

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aly 1927 ry evelop- ig made » glau. Similar of the 1emical] of the lue ob. with > acid, § ‘ecover ninum Glau- § eously short, f pot- zreen- | tained | Salts r and shing, silica, ca in e gel ‘ough when rived silica , the uter, in a ’ the vidal ture, nore dis- nple en- ‘om- ene, it, lau- tion ilar neir of | lus- | itu- by um on § ted “he son di- ide s, is ts 1 July 1927 Norman W. Stover and B. S. Hopkins of | the University of Illinois report on a recent investigation of the action of selenium and tellurium compounds on fungi and bacteria in ZJndustrial and Engineering Chemistry, and add to their remarks these pertinent paragraphs on the control of weed growth: “It would seem probable that, under normal weather conditions, selenious acid in a concentration of 0.005 normal could be used as a spray to check the growth | of dandelions in lawns and yet not per manently injure grass. “The results of similar work on othe? weeds may be summed up as follows Canada thistle was killed by spraying in the late fall with 0.02 normal seleni- ous acid, whereas summer spraying did not prove successful. Burdock was read- ily killed by 0.02 normal selenious acid by spraying in mid-summer. For plan- tain and pigweed, selenious acid in con- centrations of at least 0.05 normal were required to actually kill the plants. The | results of experiments on poison ivy, were not definite.” Waste Sulfite Liquor as a Spray Material | HE waste liquor from the manufac- | ture of sulfite paper pulp is one of the largest single wastes of industry, and any possible use for it immediately at- tracts attention. The latest suggestion comes from C. S. Fleming and J. H. Reedy of the University of Illinois who report, in Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, successful tests of its use as an insecticide and fungicide for agri- cultural use. Their process consists in saturating the liquor with hydrogen sul- fide and using this as a spray after the chemical reactions have had time for completion. Such a solution is very sim- ilar to the standard lime-sulfur spray | now widely used. A Test For Pin Holes in Metal Coating OME time ago in this department a description was given of the so- called “ferroxyl” corrosion test. The ap- plication of this to practical purposes is rather difficult, and recently, in conver- sation with Professor Edwin M. Baker | of the University of Michigan, we learned of a more convenient method of | applying this test to the detection of pin holes in electroplates on iron work. A solution is prepared of two grams of potassium ferricyanide (red prussiate of potash) and ten grams of salt (sodium chloride), in 250 cubic centimeters of water. Strips of filter paper of con- venient size are saturated with this solu- tion and dried. These strips of filter paper can be kept indefinitely for use. To detect faults in nickel plated work, a strip of this paper is moistened and | spread carefully over the sample in such | a way that no air bubbles are retained beneath it. Pin holes show up within a very few minutes as blue spots on the paper. These spots are permanent and | after drying the paper record of them | can be preserved for reference. | Alcohol For Diluting Gasoline OLLOWING the precedent set by France, the Italian Government has decreed that all gasoline used in that country must be diluted with alcohol. SCIENTIFIC 1 A A nn ‘ i TT [| i . : it i i il * | ill ly AMERICAN paoRe POWER ) por reupic’ Overhead Valves For many years Wisconsin en- gineers have specialized on over- head-valve motor design. They knew it was superior in theory— and they have proved it superior in practice. To the overhead-valve principle is largely due the surpassing per- formance of Wisconsin Motors— their famous “More Power per Cubic Inch’’—their notable econo- my of fuel and oil—their long life and low service costs. Wisconsin Motors—Four or Six, 20-horse to 120—will do a better job for you than any comparable motors—whether you power with them a truck, bus, tractor or construction machine. And we stand ready to prove it. May we send you the facts and figures? Wisconsin Motor Mfg. Co. Milwaukee Wisconsin ee an i ri te i i tt a | 85

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48 Sixteenth St., RO Send For This Motor And Make This Test Any manutacturer ol who trically driven devices can reduce or eliminate vibra- tion in his product has a distinct sales advantage. \i- bration causes noise, bearing trouble, arcing an °° . 1 , the life of the product. In Dumore motors vibration i eliminated by removing antagonizing weight from motor armatures on a specially Conse- motors are de signed lac hine. quently Dumore in dynamic or running balance. They run smoothly, quietly and without perceptible vibra- tion. ‘The bearings stand up. These facts can be demon- strated in an out and %ut comparison. We want you to S€e and fe [ the ditference be- Dumore and motor tween a universal gardless of make). any other (re- Write us on your own letter- head and we will send you a stock motor on memo charge. When the motor arrives lay it On a level surface beside the motor you are now using, run hem both at working speed, and, remembering the harm- ful effects of vibration, draw youl own conclusion DUMORE Dynamically Balanced Universal Motors WISCONSIN ELECTRIC CO., Racine, Wis. ) SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN July 19% THE EDITORS MAIL designed and these columns. tails of the machine as furnished by the inventor. A Helicopter N interesting photograph of a heli- 4 4 copter which one of our readers has built, is reproduced in We print below some de- Editor, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN: My helicopter may now be termed a partial success. On a recent test, [ had some hard luck with it, strip- ying the transmission gears. This happened when I opened the throt- tle suddenly, and the machine had just started to rise from the ground. I am now changing the design of the wings, and will install a larger motor, whereupon I have great hopes ‘or further success. The following paragraph gives some of the details of the present machine: A Lawrence 28-horsepower motor is employed. The wings are of the Spad type, measuring 25 feet from tip to tip. The fuselage is 23 feet in length and the entire machine when empty weighs 750 pounds. Yours very truly, Leo Ortego. Alexandria, Louisiana. Used in Sermons! UST now, when anti-evolutionists are banging away at science, it is rather refreshing to receive word from a clergy- man that he is using the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN for obtaining ideas for use in sermons. A Jesuit priest in a remotely located parish writes us as follows: Editor, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN: “It has been some years since I have come across the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN in our Jesuit Colleges, Marooned here on a small island, and in a small parish residence, one has little chance to have many books for reading. What is found in your magazine may come in handy by way of illus- trations in sermons, conversation, et cetera. I was agreeably surprised to find that the magazine had increased considerably in bulk. Sincerely, Rev. A. L. Maureau, S. J. St. Mary’s Church, Star of the Sea, Key West, Florida. Venerable HE SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN was founded in 1845 and is therefore read by life-long readers of all ages Some who “formed the habit” years ago still keep it up. Here is a letter from an octogenarian who expects to read our pages 21 years more. May he be able to do so! Editor, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN: I will be 83 years on the 29th of January, 1927, and after that date— should I live to be as old as my This helicopter is another result of man’s ambition to rise straight up in the air. Some details of it are given in the text above July 1 gra tha I eo = =] ~ | Nt gr: by a Dodg teach mean: thing’ a — sis

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y 1927 | July 1927 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 87 — grandfather Coombs was, I will then = | 7 be 104 years old, or 21 years older ' than I am now. I was told by reliable parties who ; knew my grandparents, the Clark and Bryant families, that my grand- i father Clark and his wife lived a

lifetime of a hundred years each, near Damacotta, Maine, and raised twenty children—all healthy. I would ask, why have the healthy Christian men and women quit raising such families nowadays? C. E. Clark, Boise, Idaho. the World’ Greatest Truck Makers use DAYTON STEEL WHEELS ; j 3 ive 2 rears . a P. S.—If I should live 21 years No. 1 Strength 4 more you can count on me sending . my subscription of four dollars in With present day loads and speed of motor trucks, advance every year, because I would strength—brute strength—is an absolute necessity in a truck wheel. While the electric furnace steel (from which Dayton Steel Wheels are cast in one piece) is important, the secret of the great strength of Dayton Steel Wheels lies not like to miss a single issue of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN. Science Teacher Makes Home-Made

; Telescope in the patented Dayton design. The tests and ex- N these columns we reproduce a photo- perience of the Dayton Steel Foundry Co. have proved — graph of a reflecting telescope made certain — —— — construction that are now ; hye s ysics instructor in the Fort | accepted as fundamental. se is i by a phy " Ss ins ~* Snap | Dodge, Iowa, High School. science = feighens who can thus demonstrate by | 45 Patents Owned by Dayton : means of their own handiwork that the | Practically every major improvement in steel wheels things they are teaching are real instead An Bast Medel Borten has come first in Dayton Steel Wheels. Not less than I ; Steel Wheel 45 patents are owned by the Dayton Steel Foundry IC Co., embodying among other features the broad 2S. sweeping curves of the exclusive Dayton hollow-arch d, : construction. ne Tr . . . — he weak spot in a steel casting is where the crystals formed by the cooling metal join at right angles. ~- Therefore the ideal design for strength is one in which S- the blending of the hollow spokes and rim in wide n, sweeping curves renders formation of crystals con- tinuous and of uniform strength. This has been _ accomplished in all Dayton Steel Wheels. z 3 out of 5 Steel Wheels Made Today are Daytons : Cases are on record where trucks were demolished in ., , train wrecks, yet with their Dayton Steel Wheels coming through undamaged and ready for further service. Seske fi Wheel Chat’s the kind of strength you find in the patented ven Spoke Near ce Dayton Steel Wheel. Brute strength is just one of the 1927 Model vs :

~ -_— reasons why 3 out of every 5 steel wheels made to¢ day are patented Dayton Steel Wheels, Specify them. ‘

‘ore ; es, Deliveries are timely and steady ago m } THE DAYTON STEEL FOUNDRY CO.,, a eee ee Dayton, Ohio » to \ ye sent request to <i manufacturer fleet 4 wt rs an ; thers in & \ ter 7 ~ Dayton D ayton

The Mark of a Good Wheel 7 7 STRENGTH « LIGHT WEIGHT + TIRE ECONOMY * DURABILITY » ACCESSIBILITY » APPEARANCE j ; a = spend Spring, Summer and $2 . : AGENTS 500,, PROFIT WHY NOT fait catiernie Vattcraten, Mr. Bloxom and his reflecting tele- GUARANTEED GOLD LEAF LETTERS kinds for collections. Some worth $1 t 27 cacn. Simple ; scope, made from cardboard tube For sore front and office windows. Anyone can put them Sond 19 conte (not stamps) for my heswated Freapes and a rigid music stand METALLIC LETTER CO. 440 N. Clark, Chicago us berenR. SINCLAIR, DEALER IN INSECTS, By i Dept 36, Box 1424, San Diego, Cal. Maal

”

of mere “book science,” must surely in- | . . : spire their pupils with enhanced inter- Ice Making and Refrigerating est in their studies. Writes Mr. Bloxom: Machinery Corliss & Poppet Valve Engines Sees ela NEW PRODUCTS WANTED

oes: SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN: amma cade Many of our clients have unused plant and facilities T} — , = } » @ a. puibeten ent upon request for manufacture and sale of new products i oan aid My pee ra : ber THE VILTER MFG. CO. Phew wet. cennaidar teaee: enti and ales wi j ‘ i€ escope Na ing, succeet ec 899 Clinton Street Milwaukee, Wis. are row being manufactured unsatisfactorily : tel producing an interesting little \mong products wanted are Electrical devices; te escope at an extremely small ex- a = und those using small motors; products for machin« Avs a Ww shops or foundries, especially malleable or grey iron pense, and one that I find very use- LEARN WATCHWORK pg scales; refrigerating devices; agricultural or other in ; _ , —_ wy * plements railroac equipmen rouse hol« products ul in the study of astronomy and K Soe tekde coimaniing 4 aced eolae dnt com Opportunities also for products not in the foregoing optics in my science classes. services always in demand or you can classification start in business for yourself. At Write Division of New Products

The mirror was cut from ordinary plate glass and is four and one half BRADLEY INSTITUTE THE SHERMAN CORPORATION inches in diameter, having a focal ee eee Engineers length of 44 inches. The tube con- sists of rigid cardboard formerly oa Horological Dept. H, Bradley Poly - technic Inst., Rocks, Ill., for our 31 Milk Street, Boston latest catalogue " ae

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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

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a=. Dv

Pronounced Si-MONDS SAWS FILES KNIVES STEEL

Ff SRI SS SSS SESE St SSSI mI Ne Y I ds04 1927 i . . e | Uy . P Die i Simply Selling Service i 7) y) “4 | ‘ H it A LLL your securities should be care- i [y) . ° . Mu I fully examined at regular intervals and ul U ae , = " rY) It changes made where advisable. UW Py We have no securities for sale and are, 7 7 therefore, in a position to give dis- 4 nN interested advice. mM La Lal ny — ~ = . a I As custodian of securities we give il q _ . e mr | this important service. LJ mil 42 | Our Officers will be glad to explain Aas m7 Fr) , details to you, ue o mil on | ede i" i} aa | As as F f } | Mortgages Mf one ‘t j ranifer Agent or ‘Registra SOT 5s | = -— ahs thi, | __ilm “= 5 - = l CENTRALUNION TRUST COMPANY 1 ‘ { | \ LJ i OF NEW YORK i ii | 80 Broapway, New York i vl | PLAZA OFFIC! 42npn ST. OFFICE LJ LJ Fifth Ave. & 6oth St Madison Ave. & 42nd St. a ull 7 | ol i u (apital, Surplus and Undivided Profits over 45 —NGllion Dollars LW " Wember Feperat Reserve System Uj

= a —

ples of their vagaries in various forms,

July 197 used in shipping rugs, and all other parts are equally light. Notice the floating eye-piece arranged to be turned to different positions at leisure. Notice also that a labora. tory clamp and a bent red give hints of an equatorial mounting, The telescope quite portable, weighing only 9% pounds complete, It might be interesting to the amateurs to know that a tiny glass bead picked from a lamp shade and glued over the pin-hole served to diffuse the light from an unfrosted light globe for the purpose of test- ing the mirror according to Fou- cault’s plan. The SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN is do- ing much to encourage the study of science in the schools, and though this telescope is very modest in di- mension, I have personally profited, both directly and indirectly, from the experiment. I began the pro- ject on a rainy day, not convinced of its wiles, but retaining the idea that sunshine might change my plans. Clear skies have strengthened my plans; I hope to build a ten-inch telescope soon. Lend my encourage- 1S ment to the amateurs. Very truly yours, H. Lynn Bloxom. Freak of a Storm

TIOLENT storms in various sections of the country frequently leave exam-

Here is the record of another, to de One freak result of a storm as sent us by one of our Texas correspon- nts: Editor, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN: I am enclosing a picture taken in Rocksprings, Texas, shortly after the tornado of April 12, 1927. Showing as it does the velocity of the wind that would crumple such steel—and also showing the freakish prank of the wind in not harming the wooden poles so near it—I believe that you will be able to use it. Very truly yours, Robert W. Jacobs. July 192 Lez ( load, th towing be grea single < of the t to be g1 of a sl pay loa Unles to disc proves | perimer “stunt.” WwW" a of the climb ; speed, diminis same ti —_——

a Thi the pell is | the di slipstr sistan: which Hit! confin: pitch could duced but or practi pitch | The Paris, allows variec fore mech: briefl; difficy would termi vided side « with prope necte carrii worm whee out ¢ of th

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ily 19% July 1927 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 89 other Y 6 rT - ; e the Learning to Use Our Wings to he (Continued from page 73) S at bora- load, the air resistance of an airplane give § towing a string of gliders is likely to iting, be greater than the air resistance of a ‘able, single aircraft. The structural weight . of the towing combination is also likely class to be greater than the structural weight and of a single airplane carrying the same d to pay load. sted Unless the convenience of being able test- to discharge freight without landing Fou- proves to have great advantages, the ex- periment is likely to remain just a clever do- “stunt.” vy of ugh | di- Propeller Design ited, sae , : P . bai rom HEN an airplane is climbing, it is Dro- advantageous to reduce the pitch d of of the propeller, since the speed on the chat climb is much less than at maximum ans, speed, while the revolutions per minute my diminish only a few percent. At the nea same time it is advantageous to increase igze- Non-Skid Hi-Type A Powerful Truck Tire— The heavy non-skid blocks of rubber, stand out and assure a strong hold on any surface that will support the truck. The traction units are joined together by submerged ribs which stab- ilizethe wholetread, giving maximumcarrying capacity and insur- ing long mileage. Built onthe Firestone patented brass plated steel base—assuring highest quality throughout. Call on the Firestone Service Dealer for performance facts about Non-Skid Hi- Type Tires, and details of the complete Truck Tire Service he offers. MOST MILES PER DOLLAR i | slipstream velocity and the parasitic re- sistance of those parts of the airplane which are in the slipstream. AMERICANS SHOULD PRODUCE THEIR OWN RUBBER Horney Siririlons duced with a moderate degree of success, allows both pitch and diameter to be ‘tions xam- rms, This diagram is a cross-section of the hub of an adjustable pro- peller for airplanes. The action is described in the text below ee ee ene the diameter, since this diminishes the THIN (0) 8) a F-¥o, Hitherto, inventors and designers have confined their efforts to varying the | = : pitch only. Propellers in which pitch | FOR f MEN G BRAINS | but on the whole it has been found more | COLORED PENCIL practical to design mechanisms in which -~MADE.AT KEY WEST- iodal . pitch could be varied only on the ground. FOR FALL BUILDING Makes fine lines The invention of M. G. Rouilleit, of Get for could be varied in flight have been pro- Paris, recently describe i Les Ailes, 9 Figurin 1 ge le ss yg Ho ‘| Home Owners’ Hand-Book} | cRcKit, a By A. C. Lescarboura ° nt a gee on the ground, and may there- $2.65—Postpaid Underscoring per doz n- | ‘fore be of real value. The working SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Blueprints, mechanism shown in the sketch is rather |— etc briefly described, and the sketch itself is 4 dificult to understand completely. It Would appear that the airscrew blades terminate in a cylindrical part, 1, pro- vided with an inner thread. The outer side of this cylindrical piece is provided With grooves which connect it with the Propeller hub, 3. The spindle, 2, is con- hected with the hub by a cog, and also carries a worm which is driven by a Useful to everyone f & S SS ) Colors Blue Purple Pink Red Brown Lt. Blue Green Orange Lt.Green White Yellow Maroon Write for Catalog an worm-wheel. By turning the worm- FREE TRIAL OFFER a At dealers or write direct Wheel, the blades can be moved in and 16a American Pencil Co., 217 Fifth Ave.,N.Y. out at will with simultaneous variation tt Makers of the famous VENUS Pencils of the pitch. |

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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN July typ July, 19: The Heavens in July || Build Your BY PROF. nee an a Ph.D. | ( House

‘Ma O eve! Hoy cop! RAMMED pe son: EARTH The The old Pisé method 2 By whichoriginated in South- 3 : ‘ = ern France, differs from 3 In , ~ 3 mal the Adobé of our South- . wri : : tere west in that no special ay “ie , : ing. soil is required but almost | cha nitr any earth that has not tll The yi too much sand or too | much clay, can be tem- ‘ | pered for this method. i “a “ ; ' Pise is practically im- } No pervious to moisture and | Eee. 0 is low in conductivity of At 11 o'clock: July At 9 o'clock: Aug. 7. reat a At 10% o'clock: July 14 At 8% o'clock: Aug. lf E. | heat or cold; growing At 10 o'clock: July 22 At 9% o'clock: July 30 At 8 o’clock: Aug. 22, . 5 The hours given are in Standard Time When local summer time is in effect, they ; harder with age until in must be made one hour later: 12 o’clock on July 7, ete. ' Wi some cases it becomes of NIGHT SKY: JULY AND AUGUST \ the consistency of the The Heavens the sky. With even a small telescope Tra hardest stone. N our star map this month, we find her half-moon phase 4s easy to see. — ) twe the bright star Vega almost over- Mars is an evening star like th} is f head. Below it, to the southeast and others, but is getting pretty well down | cent - | high in the sky, is another bright star, He sets about 9 P.M. and looks about} mal «cs > | Altair, flanked by a fainter one on each *5 bright as the Pole-star. a | time | side. To the left, due east and high up, Jupiter is past quadrature, and is due} som south about 5 A.M. in the middle of th} D. 1 is the constellation Cygnus, sometimes : me 2 : : . month. Saturn is in Scorpio and wel 4 called the “Northern Cross,” and looking “. 1 4} ; U ; MODE RN it ISE much more like a cross than the south- Y!S!dle ali the evening. gees

ern constellation of that name. Its Pisces, and is in conjunction with Je BUILDING | brightest star, Deneb, looks a little piter ia the Sth, being 38 degrees ners RA | fainter than Altair, and much inferior Of him. This will make it easy to pitt B ; ‘ to Vews, but it is in reality very much the planet up with field-glasses. ‘ By Karl a Ellington brighter than either, and would alto- The moon is aa her first quarter a i gether outshine them if it were not ex- © P-M. on the 6th; full at 2 Pee T $2.65 Postpaid | ceedingly far away in space. the “eg in her last quarter at 10 AM he Farther to the left, and still following = the Zist, and new at 1 P.M. on ti for the Milky Way, we find Cepheus ane oo FD agen the — per 5 by : ° , “ar ene 3 os tte 3s egg eg 9th, and farthest away on the 6th. i Describes in detail the | Se te me et ee During the month she passes near ¥ history of Pisé, the kind | meda. The Great Nebula in the latter — yng yeni Neptune a : . shin a = ya .: 7 enus on 1e znd, Saturn on the th, | of soilmixturemost adapt- wr pee &, acti A a oo Uranus and Jupiter on the 19th, Mer | able, and all the tools itself, if equally far away, would prob- ee ‘<" the 27th, Neptune om ial ee sicily ee ably be visible only in the most power- _, nae beneael sae mer on the same ry Pal tnloceamen. lay. 1ere are therefore no less than The anyone to build. —— ee ten planetary conjunctions with the by n ; J mse e moon this month, while last month there , 4 rhe Planets were only six. of 1 Mercury is an evening star until the Saturn is occulted at this conjunction, ship S i ifi 20th, when he passes through inferior and the occultation is visible in the Rud c1ienti = conjunction and becomes a morning star. United States. As seen from Washing- m Venus is an evening star, and at her ton, the planet disappears at 4:30 P.M American best, being at her maximum apparent and emerges at 5:31. Unfortunately, distance from the sun on the 2nd. She this happens in the daytime, so that @ does not set until after 10 P.M. and is’ good telescope will be needed to see thef JL by far the most conspicuous object in phenomenon. —

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sly 197 ug. 14 99 SCOPE, | > the down. about s due f the well is it 1 Je north pick or a I. On 1 the » the neat and 10th, Mer- > On same than the here tion, the ing: P.M. tely, at & SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN July, 1927 91 Our Choice of Recent Books | TOMB OF TUT-ANKH-AMEN, VOL. II. By Howard Carter ‘Man is but a child matured,’ for we all love stories of adventure, particularly treasure trove. No fiction, however, has ever approached the prospecting, unearthing and inventory of the find in the Theban hills in 1922 by Lord Carnarvon, Howard Carter and our own experts of the Metropolitan Museum, Mace and Burton. The first volume, of which a few copies are still available, carried through the preliminaries to the opening of the inner sealed door of the sepulcher. The present volume records the fabulous treasure inventoried and preserved during the short third and entire fourth sea- — ieee Hien — i a —s sons. Most interesting appendices describe in detail the mummy, the various materials found, the floral wreaths and the analysis of various items including some of the methods of preservation and handling. The Macmillan Company, ELEMENTS OF CHEMISTRY By H. N. Holmes, Prof. of Chemistry, Oberlin, L. W. Mattern, McKinley Tech. High School. In the words of the authors, “Interest is the salt that makes a student knewledge thirsty. This book has been written with the avowed intention of first capturing in- terest and attention and then leading on to scientific think- ing.” To stimulate proper continuity of thought, related chapters have been grouped together, as for instance, air nitrogen, ammonia and nitric acid, etc. The Macmillan Company. $1.95 Postpaid. $5.20 Postpaid. REWINDING SMALL MOTORS By D. H. Braymer and A. C. Roe There has been a need for practical information on wind- ing procedure for fractional horsepower D.C. and A.C. motors, such as those on portable drills, grinders, auto- mobile starting motors, ete. This practical man’s hand- book meets the need in a most admirable way with as little technical information as required to understand the procedure indicated. McGraw Hill Book Co. $2.65 Postpaid. MOLE PHILOSOPHY By C. J. Keyser, Prof. of Mathematics, Columbia. No book that we have listed along the line of what one may call humorous philosophy, has had the popularity of this author’s “Thinking About Thinking.” of certain precipitates of experience and meditation.” reader by its human conclusions, Prof E. P. Dutton & Co. WIRELESS PICTURES AND TELEVISION By T. Thorne Baker Tracing carefully the ground of advance during the last twenty years, the author establishes the basis upon which is founded the remarkable television demonstrations re- cently accomplished. Simple diagrams and few formulae make the text understandable to the layman. A _ very timely and pertinent issue for those who wish to know something of the fundamentals of this development. D. Van Nostrand Co. $2.65 Postpaid. RADIO TELEGRAPHY AND TELEPHONY By Rear Admiral S. S. Robison, U. S. N. Commander S. C. Hooper, U. S. N. Lt. Commander T. A. M. Craven, U.S. N. The fact that this is the seventh revised edition will vouch for the authoritativeness of this manual which is used by Naval A thorough consideration of basic principles. U. S. Naval Institute. Radiomen. $5.50 Postpaid. WHALE SHIP BOOK By J. T. Higgins The distinguishing details of old time whale ships shown by numerous sketches, without dimensions, and photographs of various models. Detailed scale drawings of the good ship Alice Mandell are pocketed in the inside back cover. Rudder Publishing Co. $4.15 Postpaid. He now adds another volume which he describes as written “to purge my mind With a mind keen for analysis and a humor that holds the Keyser lists himself among the few who can write to the heart of things. $3.15 Postpaid. PRINCIPLES OF PETROLOGY By G. W. Tyrrell, Lecturer Geology, University of Glasgow A concise and novel treatment which covers the whole field of rocks in a way especially suitable for students. Modern views built on the underlying basis laid by the older gen- eration of petrologists and a wide range of reading refer- ences will recommend this work to those who have ac- quired an elementary knowledge of the science. E. P. Dutton & Co. $3.40 Postpaid. SILVER CITIES OF YUCATAN By Gregory Mason A personal narrative of the Mason-Spinden expedition tell- ing with an unusual degree of interest the many adven- turous incidents which were a part of this important scien- tific expedition. Illustrated with good photographs of the interesting “finds.” G. P. Putnam’s Sons. $3.65 Postpaid. STREAMCRAFT By G. P Holden A revised edition which covers many of the fine points of making and repairing flies, together with an extended con- sideration of tackle and gear of all sorts. Colored plates also illustrate many varieties of trout flies. D. Appleton & Co. $3.15 Postpaid. For Sale by SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN July 1927 (Commercial Property News A Department of Facts and Notes of Interest to Patentees and Owners of Trademark Rights CONDUCTED BY MILTON WRIGHT Exaggeration is Excusable Bip the Federal Trade will get you if you try to deceive the public is well known. But what if you merely exaggerate the qualities of the produets you are selling? That, the courts be- lieve, is a time-honored custom with which no fault can be found. The recent experience of Ostermoor and Company is a case in point. The Ostermoor trademark is a picture of a mattress with one end open and layers of cotton felt billowing up to a height of what looks about three feet. As a matter of fact, instead of looming up to a height of thirty-five inches or more This type of exaggeration is permissible in trademark registration when opened, an Ostermoor mattress expands only from three to six inches. The mark has been in use about 30 years and more than 4,000,000 dollars has been spent in advertising it. The Federal Trade Commission called the use of the mark in advertising misrepresertation, falsity and deception amounting to un- fair competition and ordered the com- pany to stop using it. The case went up to the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. “The time-honored custom of at least merely slightly puffing, unlike the clear misrepresentation of the character of goods, has not come under the ban,” Judge Mack finds. “Concededly it is an exaggeration of the actual condition; in- deed petitioner asserts that it is not and was not intended to be descriptive, but fanciful and, as such, the subject matter of valid trademarks. “It is unnecessary to determine many questions sought to be raised, among others, whether the proceeding is in the public interest, in the light of the fact that petitioner does less than 1 percent of the mattress and cushion business of the country, that hundreds of competi- tors use similar advertising pictures, that petitioner and its predecessors have established a high reputation and have always fulfilled their guarantee to make good any complaints, or to what extent the use of otherwise valid trademarks in unfair competition may be forbidden. The determination of validity or inval- idity of the picture as a trademark, be- cause fanciful or merely descriptive, is not within the jurisdiction of the Com- mission or of this court in this proceed- The sole inquiry here is that of competition against the public ing. unfair interest. “In our judgment, this pictorial repre- sentation of the process of manufactur- ing Ostermoor mattresses and of the materials used therein, even though ex- aggerated as to their characteristics, cannot deceive the average purchaser and the record is practically bare of any evidence of actual reliance upon the puff- ing exaggeration of qualities. There is no basis for the finding that ‘substantial numbers of purchasers had been misled and deceived by the grossly exaggerated pictorial representation.’ “Finding no evidence of unfair com- petition, the order of the Commission is annulled.” The picture on the Ostermoor trade- mark, incidentally, is public property, the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia having so held several months ago. Old Claims in New Applications AN one take an element of this patented invention, an element of that and an element of a third, put them all together and get a new patent on the new aggregation? No, unless, of course, the various fea- tures work in a new way in the con- trivance. The mere fact that the device will accomplish better results than de. vices which went before will not justify the issuance of a patent. So Lewis Fine has discovered, whose application for a patent on a_ vehicle wheel construction has been denied an appeal by the Patent Commissioner. In refusing a patent the Commissioner says: “The applicant has submitted, in con- nection with his brief, a showing of how the various strains to which a con- struction of this character is subjected in use are resisted. The fact is noted by applicant that all his features are not bound in a single anticipating structure and that, in consequence, each of the devices of the prior art is open to some objection. “It may be said that the applicant has done no more than pick out from three patents, two to Putnam and one to Simmons, the three features which appealed to him as possessing the great- est mer: niting them in just the Patents Recently Issued Classified Advertising Advertisements in this section listed under proper classifications, rate 25c per word each insertion: minimum number of words per insertion 24, pany each insertion. ] maximum 60. Payments must accom- Official copies of any patents listed in this section at 15c each; state patent number to insure receipt of desired patent copy. Pertaining to Aeronautics PROPELLER.—For airplanes, rotated by means of the reactions effected by passing a fluid medium through the blades, or by the use of an internal combustion motor. Patent 1626424. W. W. Paget, 3121 Bayo Vista Ave., Alameda, Calif. AIRPLANE LAUNCHING AND LANDING AP- PARATUS.—Including a platform which is capable of elevation to an appropriate height for facilitating the launching and landing of aircraft in restricted places. Patent 1625,- 020. F. G. Diago, Box 1972, Habana, Cuba. AIRCRAFT.—Having lifting apparatus which causes the craft to ascend after the manner of a helicopter, and a second means for causing the translatory movement of the Patent 1625646. F. Geddis, c/o Mrs. craft. C. Groves, 371 5th Ave., Brooklyn, N. Y. Pertaining to Apparel COMBINED CORSET AND BRASSIERE. — The parts so connected as to present a substan- tially uniform appearing garment, each gar- ment functioning independently, the corset acting to hold down the brassiere. Patent 1625664. J. J. Kispert, c/o I. Newman & Sons, 17 Oak St., New Haven, Conn. METHOD OF PRODUCING APPAREL ORNA- MENTS.—Such as frogs and like garment fastening having a plurality of loops formed from a continuous strip without crossing of the corded braid. Patent 1624805. A. Ros- enberg, 152 E. 3rd St., Brooklyn, N. Y. GARMENT ATTACHMENT.—Adapted for use with wearing apparel, for removably secur- ing a fountain pen or the like, within a pocket, by means of a resilient clip. Patent 1621826. P. T. Burtchaell, 630 4th St., San Rafael, Calif. CorseT.—Partly made of elastic material, and particularly cut to provide means for preventing the upper front portion project- ing away from the body. Patent 1623031. Blanche Carvelli, 311 Pacific Bldg., San Francisco, Calif. REMOVABLE HALF-SOLE FOR SHOES.—With clamping means adapted to be snugly fitted over the edge of a permanent soie which will look and wear as an ordinary half-sole. Patent 1627465. A. S. Simko, 92 3rd St, Passaic, N. J. Chemical Processes sara é _ ee PAINT ComposiITION.—For coating walls of brick, stone or concrete, and for protecting timbers of any kind. The composition com- July 192' way the single w “Ther or comb the ager in the o! “While tion of 1 [am aw: limits th be prese: deed, th the prio’ in a sing a given the prod “Tt we construct heretofo1 has mere of his de in the w “As te patents, heen mac jis not en You OU n chine functions misunder illustrate iners-in-( of Green shutter f already | was take of the cl: by the C ‘Tt is cannot is accomplis chine, but or instru is to be | a machin function, itself anc be invent same fun A N one States the last 2 were an products ; ponderant and assoc Our to 1906, wit and cont: lise, were imports o! ilent of ing an ex of 989,00¢ Last y« ment of ( pletely re to 3,623.0 ports of 6,689,000, balance o: R HE F are en neckties 4 recent | Supreme

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1927 . the fea- con- Vice de. stify hose 1icle an In ner con- of con- cted oted not pure the ome ant rom one lich pat- the ach om- sure NA- ent ned .08- use 1 a ent San ial, for act- 31. San ‘ith ich July 1927 way they have been used before in a single wheel. “There is not believed to be any new or combined result present but merely the aggregate results that were obtained in the old structures. “While applicant objects to the cita- tion of three patents against his claim, [am aware of no adjudicated case which limits the number of references that may be presented to anticipate a claim. In- deed, the selection of old devices from the prior art and the placing of them in a single or unitary structure may, in a given case, go on indefinitely without the production of anything patentable. “It would seem the applicant in his construction has not combined the parts heretofore found in separate patents but has merely used them as separate parts of his device to accomplish the functions in the way revealed by the prior art. “As to the claims copied from the patents, it is not believed any error has een made in the holding that applicant js not entitled to make them.” You Cannot Patent a Function OU may obtain a patent for a ma- chine, but not for the machine’s functions. This well-settled but often misunderstood principle of patent law is illustrated by the decision of the Exam- iners-in-Chief in denying the application of Green Carlton Hosch, whose improved shutter for a measuring machine chart already had been issued. An appeal was taken from the rejection of some of the claims. Quoting a prior decision by the Commissioner, the Reerd says: “It is well-settled law patent cannot issue for a result sought to be acomplished by the inventor of a ma- chine, but only for the mechanical means or instrumentalities by which that result | is to be obtained. One cannot describe amachine which will perform a certain function, and then claim the function itself and all other machines that may be invented by others to perform the same function.” A Complete Trade Reversal the balance United one respect, at least, in States has lost its trade the last 20 years. were an important exporter products; now we have become ponderant importer of lumber, pulp wood and associated materials. Our total forest-products exports in 1906, with the exception of furniture and containers holding other merchan- tise, were 2,640,000,000 board feet; our imports of wood products were the equiv- ‘lent of 1,651,000,000 board feet, leav- ing an excess of exports for that year of 989,000,000 board feet. Last year, according to the Depart- ment of Commerce, our trade was com- pletely reversed. Our exports amounted to 3,623,000,000 board feet, against im- ports of wood products equivalent to 6,689,000,000, thus registering an import balance of 3,623,000,000 board feet. of forest Round Ends for Neckties THE Franklin Knitting Mills, Inc., are entitled to a monopoly in knitted neckties with round ends, according to ’recent decision by the United States Supreme Court denying a petition for Two decades ago we | a pre- | SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN prises 80% filler, 10% calcium sulphate, and 10% sodium silicate. Patent 1625815. J. W Lowman, c/o J. Rink, Lafayette, Ga. PROCESS FOR THE PREPARATION OF CUCUR- BOCITRIN.—A drug produced from the of “Cucurbita Citrellus” or watermelon, the product being efficacious for the reduc- tion of high blood pressure. Patent 1626321. I. S. Barksdale, c/o Health Dept., Green- ville, S. C. ToBacco WAx AND PROCESS FOR PRODUCING THE SAME.—Which comprises bleaching the tobacco in water at a temperature below 212°, F., for 48 hours; the substance ex- tracted is fire-proof and usable as an in- sulation. Patent 1624155. S. Amster, Red House, Ky. seed PROCESS OF AND APPARATUS FOR CONDENS- ING, TREATING AND WASHING HyYDRO-CARBON Vapors.—Apparatus for condensing, treat- ing and washing hydro-carbon vapors, in which water is given a whirling movement and the vapors introduced thereinto. Patent 1627431. C. L. Freeland, Bristow, Okla. Designs DESIGNS FOR WOVEN Fasric.—Patent 72- 487. E. Meyer, 39 Worth St., New York, N. ¥. DESIGN FOR A DreEss.—Patent 72501. M. Siegel, c/o Franklin Simon & Co., 38th St. and 5th Ave., New York, N. Y. DESIGN FOR A BELT FOR PERSONAL WEAR.— Patent 72432. I. Leibovitz, c/o S. & L. Belt Co., 105 Wooster St., New York, N. Y. DESIGN FOR A COMBINED BATHROOM FIXx- TURE.—The inventor has been granted two patents, 72543 and 72544. J. H. Balmer, 259 Plane St., Newark, N. J. DESIGN FOR A Dress.—Patent 72531. M. Siegel, c/o Franklin Simon & Co., 38th St. and 5th Ave., New York, N. Y. DESIGN FOR A STOCKING.—Patent 72365. R. F. Friedrich, c/o Weber & Friedrich Co., 16th St. and Hunting Park Ave., Philadel- phia, Pa. DESIGN FOR A PRINTED FAasric.—Patent 72378. J. H. Mack, c/o N. Lowenstein & Sons, 40 W. 23rd St., New York, N. Y. Electrical Devices Low-Capacity Fuse.—In which the fuse wires are connected in a manner to provide good electrical connection, effecting a quick break when the fuse operates. Patent 1626105. E. V. Sundt, 4527 N. Ashland Ave., Chicago, IIl. ELectric SWITCH.—A combined clock and switch, which will automatically close th electric circuit of an automobile parking light at a predetermined time. Patent 1624120. J. E. Springer and R. A. Harry, 2837 Pressbary St., Baltimore, Md. FuasH Licut.—Which employs a generat- ing means operable by a spring motor, con- trolling the speed within defined limits for increasing or decreasing the intensity of the light. Patent 1624686. R. J. Smith, c/o The Bat-Les Lite Co., 8 Hubbert St., Al- bany, N. Y. Fuse PLuG AND ReEcEPpTACLE.—Constructed to preclude the introduction of a metal con- ductor such as a penny, or metal strip, be- tween the lower and central contracts of the plug receptacle. Patent 1624030. R. H. Williams, c/o United Electric Co., 314 Ful- ton Ave., Evansville, Ind. COMBINATION TERMINAL.—For electrodes of electric apparatus, whereby a spring ter- minal may be readily mounted on a carbon stick and held firmly in operative position. Patent 1627447. J. J. Mucher, 285 North 6th St., Brooklyn, N. Y. RHEOSTAT.—Wherein mercury or other 93 a writ of review by the Gropper Knit- ting Mills, Inc. The Franklin company had won its suit for infringement of its design patent for an “ornamental de- sign for a knitted necktie” which tends to prevent the end of the tie from be- coming unraveled. Originally the suit was dismissed by the District Court for Southern New York, on the ground that the patent was invalid for lack of novelty and inven- tion. The Circuit Court, in reversing this decision, held that in a design pat- ent it is immaterial if the design is hidden from the eye of the wearer. It was on the claim that a design must be visible that the Gropper Mills sought a review of the decision. The Patented Bouillon Cube D ID it ever occur to you that a little bouillon cube is a patented article? Not only has it been patented, but the Federal District Court for Southern New York recently has held that the patent owned by the American Kitchen Products Company is infringed by cubes of meat and vegetables manufactured by Steck and Steck. “The great number of prior patents disclose that those schooled in the art had been seeking in vain to effect what the inventor finally accomplished,” says Judge Bondy, in writing the opinion of the court. “The cubic unit rations at once became commercially popular and | apparently supplies a larger demand. Four million cubes have been made and sold by the plaintiff since 1909 and royalties amounting to a very substan- tial sum have been paid or credited to the inventor under the patent in suit. The defendant urges the lack of inven- tion in view of prior disclosures. None of these, however, discloses the same ingredients, the same process and the same product as plaintiff’s. “In reply to a letter written by the plaintiff, January 12, 1912, giving notice of the infringement of plaintiff’s patent, defendant’s attorneys did not deny in- | fringement but stated that they doubted the validity of the patent. “In 1914 the plaintiff brought suit against a most resourceful infringer. Its prosecution was delayed because it was impossible to get the testimony of necessary witnesses in Germany during the war. On May 3, 1921, a decree in that suit was entered on consent, sus- taining the patent and holding it in- fringed. “On July 22, 1921, another suit was brought against another infringer who likewise consented, October 5, 1922, to a | decree sustaining the patent and holding it infringed. “On February 14, 1924, suit was brought against the defendant. There is no proof that defendant changed its position or was prejudiced in any way by reason of the delay in bringing suit against it. Under the circumstances, the court cannot find that plaintiff was guilty of such laches in delaying to bring action against the defendant as to deny it protection. “There is no evidence that the defend- ant did use the ingredients specified in the patent in suit substantially in the way described in the patent, and that the product sold by it was the same as plaintiff’s product.”

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4 current conductive liquid serves as a current edium between a resistance coil and a conductor Patent 1625703. E. H. Bobo, 431 Bobo Ave., Ranger, Texas. connecting n Of Interest to Farmers CALF-WEANER. sisting of flaps inclined at ar with means con angle, readily inserted in the calf’s nose, and fastened in place without harming the calf. Patent 1626090 G. M. Krauss, Rock Eagle Route, Lingle, Wyoming. GARDEN CULTIVATOR.—In which the ground digging tools are disposed in trolled by the left hand, and the operator or operated two sets, con- right hand, of simultaneously. Patent 1625829. S. W. Shaw, Galesburg, Kans. IRRIGATING HYDRANT For farm irrigation, adapted to supply and control streams of water to any desired number of field fur- rows. Easily taken apart for cleaning. Patent 1624317. C. E. Crownover, 549 Ladd Ave., Portland, Ore. Designed for use in ordinary test tube in which the scale is so in- may be easily read. Patent Gilles, c/o Evapometer Co., EVAPORATION METER. ircubators, using an a holder upon scribed that it 1625310. R. L. Fargo, N. D. Moisture GuIpE FoR INCUBATORS.—Which serves to provide the operator with a direct und accurate reading, showing the rate and amount of evaporation actually occurring. Patent 1625420. C. T. Patterson, c/o The Moisture Guide Co., Springfield, Missouri. GRAIN WASHING AND DRYING MACHINE. Wherein the grain is thoroughly washed, polished, aerated, tempered and dried, so as to be properly conditioned for milling pur- Patent poses, without breaking the grain. 1624831. D. Geddes, c/o Ingeneiro de Mo- linos Harineros, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mex. SPADING Device.—Adapted to dig into the ordinary earth with due pressure, but when striking a stone or obstruction, the spade will be released to prevent its breaking. Patent 1624610. O. A. Matson, 5351 N. Paulina St., Chicago, IIl. Of General Interest VANITY-CASE-COMPACT HOLDER AND CATCH. Wherein the holder may be formed as a solid or divided ring, with bent portions presenting a corrugated surface for grip- ping a compact. Patent 1626413. a Kendall, 118 Market St., Newark, N. J. WINDOW CLEANING Device.—Especially adapted for cleaning outside surfaces of window panes, one type being used for the washing operation and a second type for drying the surface. Patent 1628593. M. Hayes, 180 Sterling Place, Brooklyn, N. Y, MARKING Device.—Which enables’ the operator while wearing a skirt to evenly mark on the same a line indicating a pre- determined distance from the floor. Patent 1626440. R. Wasserman, 57 W. 124th St., New York, N. Y. BatH Mit.—Constructed for bath and shampoo use; having two compartments with a hose connection for a constant supply of water. Patent 1619180. A Benussi, 445 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn, N. Y. FLUSHING TANK.—Which is extremely quiet in its operation, designed for places where water pressure is low; may be installed after the tank is set. Patent 1625311. N. J. Gondolf, 703 State St., New Orleans, La. ATTACHMENT FOR BEVERAGE MIXERS.—Hav- ing means for modifying, when required, the temperature of a beverage either prepara- tory, subsequently or during the mixing op- eration. Patent 1623535. C. Ferguson, c/o especially Marine Hospital No. 43, Ellis Island, N. Y. | 248 Whitney SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN DisPpLaAyY EASEL AND TRAY.—With clamps adapted to support articles, such as cutlery, pictorial indicating the and representations particular piece of cutlery to be placed therein, from the tray. Patent 1625647. G. C. Gillan, c/o The Ontario Knife Co., Franklinville, N. Y. PACKING GATE VALVES.—Such as are used in connection with water and gas mains, FOR which will be practically self-packing, and will facilitate in the making of repairs. Patent 1625698. W.H. Barton, 30 Park St., Montclair, N. J. the collapsible type, CANOPY HoLper.—-Of which may be conveniently transported in very small space, and easily placed in op- mosquito net- Ne lson, 264 erative position to 1625673. V. P. support a ting. Patent Lexington Ave., New York, N. Y. SEDIMENT TRAP FOR BOILERS.—Which may be readily attached to new or old domestic boilers, allowing the sediment to be trapped in a storage chamber and readily removed. Patent 1625709. F. Conrad, 109 Elm Ave., Bogota, N. J. CONTAINER.—Provided with a mounting and hanger to be positioned at a convenient height for supporting a glass container, so that liquids may be readily dispensed there- from. Patent 1624830. R. F. Emsley, 4228 Wooster Road, Rockey River, Ohio. PNEUMATIC FPap.—Particularly designed as a saddle pad, collar pad or the like, func- tioning to afford a cushion between the har- ness and the animal, to ease strain. Patent 1624807. J. A. Schinner, P. O. Box 222, Greenville, Ohio. TABLE.—Carried by a single standard or pedestal, and provided with means for ad- justing the top to insure its positioning in a horizontal plane. Patent 1624770. R. J. Stuart, c/o Clarence J. Drake, Market and Cannon St., Poughkeepsie, N. Y. FILLING TREE CAVITIES AND THE FILLING ITSELF.—Which will fit tightly against the walls of the cavity, be proof against destructive insects, and provide an affinity to the characteristics of the tree in its natural expansion and contraction. Pat- ent 1624820. G. Van Yahres, Rutland St., Westbury, L. I., N. Y. COMBINED COVER AND STRAINER.—Having means whereby it may be readily associated with or disassociated from a _ utensil, and adapted for use with utensils of various sizes. Patent 1624745. F. W. Kuhnast, 1537 St. Lawrence Ave., Bronx, N. Y. METHOD OF NURSING-BOTTLE HOLDER.—For supporting a bottle from a carriage, bassinet, or the like, whereby the same may be readily shifted to various positions, and eliminates manual holding. Patent 1624695. A. Tuf- enkjian, 1373 Boulevard, West New York, N. J. POLISHING COMPOSITION.—Comprising fine- ly divided zine dust, pumice and oil, espe- cially adapted for polishing and graining metal surfaces, and photo-engravers’ plates. Patent 1624783. A. B. Fisher, 16 Steuben St., Brooklyn, N. Y. LOosE-PoWDER CONTAINER.—In which the powder is held about a central opening and directed thereto by the depression of a diaphragm normally closing the opening. Patent 1624874. S. S. Radley, c/o Evans Case Co., No. Attleboro, Mass. Gyroscopic STABILIZER.—Employed in con- junction with the mountings of instruments, such as headlights, searchlights, cameras, or the like, for holding them relatively sta- tionary. Patent 1621815. C. E. Schueller, 908 Ordway St., Berkeley, Calif. WINDOW-SASH ATTACHMENT.—In the form of bars running through guide means on the lower sash, whereby the upper window may be raised and lowered within conven- ient reach. Patent 1620817. H. Huyard, St., San Francisco, Calif. July 197 Hair-Wave Coms.—Having hair-engaging members which co-act to produce a _ nove urrangement of waves, the strands being grouped in piles. Patent 1624757. G. B, O’Connor, 691 Bergen Ave., Bronx, N. Y. HEADGATE.—Adapted to effectively contro] the passage of water to the mains and lat. erals of an irrigation system, and firmly held to prevent displacement. Patent 1621, 748. W. Murdock, Deeth, Nevada. DISPENSING CABINET.—In which the dis. plays are so placed that the comparatively old supply will be presented for vending ahead of the latest supplies. Patent 1621, 971. R. C. Curtis, Box 184, Martinez, Calif, HAIR WAvVER.—Whereby a double wave in the hair can be very readily produced, which gives a perfectly flat marcel wave effect, in a minimum of time. Patent 1618144. YM. Banach, c/o Raven Beauty Shop, 2664 Grand Concourse, Bronx, N. Y RECEPTACLE.—Which can be stamped out of sheet metal, the edges being formed into a bead free from recesses or roughness, thus rendering the device sanitary. Patent 1624- 273. D. C. Murphy, Box 626, Scobey, Mont. HAM PRESSER.—Whereby a piece of ham may be conveniently inserted into a_ two- part container and compressed for subse- quent cooking, the container and press be- ing easily disconnected. Patent 1624808. G. W. Scholten, 708 Linn St., Muscatine, Iowa. Do_tt HeEap.—Having a series of tufts, simulating hair around the head, which in combination with the surface ornamentation, give the impression of a pickaninny. Pat- ent 1627511. R. A. Hope, c/o Averile Mfg. Co., 143rd St. and Wales Ave., New York, 2 BirD PerRcH.—Easily placed in_ position against a support, and easily removed for cleaning; constructed with smooth surface, preventing injury to the bird or his feathers. Patent 1627448. C. W. Mueller, 1089 Sun- mit Ave., Jersey City, N. J. MEANS OF FIXING ARTIFICIAL HAIR Dress ON NATURAL Hair.—Which may be used in dressing either long or short hair, consist- ing essentially of a wire spiral, of thin steel, of low pitch and short diameter. Patent 1627469. E. Syptroth, c/o Gustave Sattler, 12 W. 50th St., New York, N. Y. SAND-BLAST RELIEF-CARVING. Whereby flowers or other configurations may be carved on stone by sand-blast to produce a substantially life-like appearance METHOD OF in relief. Patent 1627456. G. R. Philip, c/o Cross Bros. Co., Northfield, Vt. LINE-DRYING ATTACHMENT FOR FISHING tops.—Which may be easily attached to a rod for drying the line as it is reeled in, thus preventing water dropping on the hands or clothes. Patent 1627514. L. Kraemer, 6 Hancock Rd., Homefield, Yonkers, N. Y. CIGARETTE HOLDER.—Capable of being sup- ported on a finger of the hand, permitting the free use of the other fingers without dis- coloring the fingers. Patent 1627463. M. J. Russak, 7033 Link Court, Maspeth, N. Y. COLLAPSIBLE TENT SupPORT.—For the ordi- nary form of three pole tent, including a pair of uprights, and ridge pole occupying 4 minimum amount of space when not in use. Patent 1627546. W. S. Ryerson, Edmonds, Wash. HAND BaG.—Of the envelope type, so con- structed that there is no danger of losing small articles no matter how carried, pro vided the flap is in closed position. Patent 1627496. E. Elias, 38 W. 32nd St., New York, N. Y. GAS-MAIN StToprper.—An assemblage com- prising a collapsible frame having a dia phragm, adapted to be passed through am opening in the main and then expanded Patent 1627502. P. Goodman, 523 Atlantit Ave., Brooklyn, N. Y. July 1 STE! tinuou dange! F, A. York, Raz and si: condit use. Mills —_—_—_ ELL! and o ean be manne c/o Q Erie, | CoM elemer as a | angle 241 E. Com ily ap miliar plicabl F. D. | Too! used i chisel, wrencl 435. Mass. STAT VICE.— wall, | ing th tion v Barret OIL paratu and m agains orifices McClos Wat culates wardly being « bustior Shaffer SIGN highwa mounte of illu H. Hu M VENI ing th inserti« ing m Patent Novelt; LUBR a greas in its « vice is 162647: New Y CoLu which straigh with a 162524’ land A Port Wheret tomobil without chassis E. 112t

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y 1927 raging novel being G. B, be ontrol d lat. firmly 1621 dis- tively nding 1621, Calif, ve in which ct, in M. rand 1 out | into thus | 624, Mont. re ham two- ubse- s be- 4808, tine, os ufts, h in tion, Pat- Mfg. ‘ork, 2 me ition for face, hers. }um- =] ra lye] w n ocean d i Sist- teel, f tent tler, | ING. ions ince ilip, oa f hus } ic July 1927 STEAM TRAP.—Wherein the water is con- tinuously discharged from the trap without danger of steam escaping. Patent 1627271. F, A. Burrows, c/o F. A. Burrows Mfg. Co., York, Pa. Razor CASE.—For use with various styles and sizes of razors, and is adapted to oil and condition the blades when they are not in use. Patent 1615396. C. D. Lorenz, 616 Mills Bldg., El Paso, Texas. Hardware and Tools ELLIPSOGRAPH.—By means of which ellipses and ovals of various sizes and proportions ean be drawn or inscribed in an accurate manner. Patent 1626430. A. C. Sanders, c/o Quality Engraving Co., 12 W. 9th St., Erie, Pa. COMBINATION LEvEL.—Wherein two level elements are used, to act at various times as a line level, a surface level, and as an angle finder. Patent 1624684. E. W. Smith, 241 E. 25th St., New York, N. Y. COMBINATION LockK.—Which may be read- ily applied and readily opened by one fa- miliar with the combination, particularly ap- 1697409 1627462. plicable as a chain lock. Patent F. D. Rohmer, 401 Valley St., Lewistown, Pa. Toot.—With means whereby it can be used for several purposes, such as a cold chisel, an ordinary wrench, a_ spanne: wrench, or for engaging nuts. *atent 1627, I Hooben, 349 Bay St., Taunton, 435. J. A. Mass. STATIONARY-WASHTUB COVER FOLDING DE- vice.—A flexible element anchored to the wall, having a hooked member for retain ing the cover of a washtub in raised posi tion when in use. Patent 1627476. J. H. Barrett, 312 E. 93rd St., New York, N. Y. Heating and Lighting Om BuRNER.—Comprising a vaporizing ap- paratus partly filled with oil, and heated, and means for discharging compressed air against the oil vapors which pass through orifices for ignition. Patent 1622797. F. McCloskey, Box 562, Colorado Springs, Colo. Water Heater.—In which the water ¢ir- culates through an inner tube and back wardly thro an outer tube, the latter being disposes the hottest part of a com- bustion ch Patent 1625286. me Se Shaffer, 286 Fox St., Aurora, Ill. Sic6n.—Particularly adapted for use on highways and at intersections roads, mounted on a post and having irality of illuminated sides. Patent 16 7 A. H. Humphrey, Box 54, Salem, N. Machines and Mechanical Devices VENDING MACHINE.—The arrangement be ing that a package is vended fter each Insertion of a coin, the coin shifting a lock- ing mechanism as the device i rotated. Patent 1626429. J. Ruoff, c/o Hampton Novelty Co., 83 Worth St., New York, N. Y. LUBRICATING APPARATUS.—Functioning as a grease cup, which may be entirely manual In Its operation or semi-automatic. The de- vice is simple in construction. Patent 1626478. W. R. E. Nohse, 144 E. 17th St., New York, N. Y. CoLLapsInG Om Dritu.—For well drilling, which with its associated parts will drill a Straight hole and effectively flush the hole with a hydraulic jet while drilling. Patent 1625247. B. J. and E. R. Dudley, 797 High- land Ave., Piedmont, Calif. PORTABLE HONING OR LAPPING MACHINE.— Whereby the cylinders of any standard au- tomobile engine may be expeditiously lapped without removal of the engine from the chassis. Patent 1624636. H. Strand, 1327 E. 112th St , Cleveland, Ohio. SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN THREAD TIGHTENER.—Adapted for use with buttonhole-sewing machines having automa- tic thread cutters in which the shears, after cutting, are swung sidewise out of the cloth pressure apparatus. Patent 1624898. A. Hennig, c/o Messrs. Fehlert, Loubier, Harm- sen and Buttner, S. W. 61 Belle-Alliance platz 17, Berlin, Germany. CONCRETE, MORTAR AND PLASTER MIXER.- Including an oscillatory drum in which are provided staggered grate rods and vanes ad- the which will result in a stronger mixture with manual effort. Patent 1624705. G. W. Adams, 807 Build- Exchange Bldg., San Antonio, Tex. jacent walls, less ers Four-CYLINDER DRAWHEAD. — For high draft with special weighting of the top roll- ers situate in front and behind the pair of Patent 1624815. E. Toen- Elliot, 246 Friedrick Strasse, 18, drawing rollers. niessen, c/o A. Berlin S. W. HOISTING-ENGINE CONTROL.—Which auto- matically shuts off the hoisting engine power and applies a mechanism when the skip or cage in a mine shaft exceeds a pre- determined speed at either of its limits of travel, and an electrically actuated signal for informing the operator. The inventors have been granted two patents, 1624260 and 1624261. J. W. Lilly and H. H. Logan, c/o H. H. Logan, Duro Metal Products Co., 2649 N. Kiidare Ave., Chicago, II. Germany. brake WELDING Ma- between FOR introduced confronting rela- heating the 1623563. Bak- TorcH MECHANISM CHINES.—Adapted be two elements disposed tion, supported torch elements confronting elements. Patent C. L. Stancliff, 1005 Oregon St., East ersfield, Calif. to in LAMINATED PACKING AND METHOD OF Form- ING THE SAME.—As utilized in packing cups for pistons or plungers, avoiding the crin- kling, stretching and ravelling of threads on the finished product. Patent 1625508. R. H. Thorne, Williamsport, Pa. ; Om Wett Pumpe.—Which possibility of sand settling upon and ing the outer periphery of the stationary plunger, and provide an unobstructed dis- charge. Patent 1625230. C. B. Thurston, Box 222, Oildale, Calif. the scor- eliminates VIENNA-ROLL-FORMING MACHINE.—Wherein for rapidly feeding device, forming the dough in manner, and then ejecting the prepared roll. Patent 1625649. C. Gott- fried, 538 E. 72nd St., New York, N. Y. are the desired means dough to provided forming For the gen- particularly LIQUID-MIXING APPARATUS. eral mixing of two liquids, but for mixing milk of lime with sugar juices, in a raw sugar plant Patent 1625592. E. T. Conant and L. S. McLane, Honomu, Territory of Hawaii. BAILER DumMp.—For use in sinking deep oil wells, in which bailing and dumping op erations may be optionally carried out a device associated with the valve dart. Patent 1625686. S. A. Rutner, 84 Amsterdam Ave., New York, N. Y. SAFETY FEED MEANS.—Which may be readily applied to washing machine wringers an article be fed to the rollers without injury to the hands. Patent 1627- 191. W. Doellnes, 743 Bergen Ave, Jersey City, N. J. APPARATUS FOR VACUUMIZING and ING CANS.—The machine to ture the sealed cover, withdraw the air from the can and the opening with solder, ready for shipment. Patent E. Lindstrom, 17 Tehama St., cisco, Calif. to to cause SEAL- operates seal San Fran- METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING COMPOSITE MOTION PicTuRES.—By the use of a pair of objectives of different focus and a mirror or a miror silhouette. Patent 1627,- 295. E. Schufftan, Kaiser Alles 79a, Friede- nan, Berlin, Germany. by punc- | 1626291. A. | 95 PLUNGER Pump.—Especially suitable for use in pumping chemical sprays for fruit Will stand heavy duty and con- trees, etc. tinuous operation. Patent 162299. F. T. Costello, Box 487, Vacaville, Calif. Prime Motors and Their Accessories Oi. REFINER FOR INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES.—May be readily attached to a standard engine, and has means for heating the oil that it may more readily flow through the filter. Patent 1624957. C. E. Lilley, 5320 Brookside Blvd., Kansas City, Miss. Motor.—Of the multi-cylinder type where in the piston rods operate cams carried by oppositely disposed shafts, a rotary move ment being imparted on the downward move Patent 1624269. e. St., San Fran- ment of the pistons. Marchetti, 735 Montgomery 735 cisco, Calif. MOoTIVE-FLUID GENERATOR.—A heat gener- ator and engine, both being so combined as to constitute an engine unit, resulting in a rigid economy of fuel. Patent 1624464 M. E. Bigelow, 1356 So. 6th E. St., Salt Lake City, Utah. Medical and Surgical Devices SURGICAL APPLIANCES.—Which will not only hold the tissues of a wound, but will tie a ligature on the tissue, the operation being performed with one hand. Patent 1625602. H. G. Gould and K. D. Obenshain, c/o H. G. Gould, McKinney, Tex. OBSTETRICAL INSTRUMENT.—For use by vet- erinarians in facilitating the birth of an- imals, particularly pigs, insuring immediate delivery without danger, or injury, or undue suffering. Patent 1626149. E. O’Dell, Cen- tral City, Neb. M usical Devices Reep HoLper.—A comparatively stiff struc- ture with flexible means for holding saxo- phone reeds against accidental injury by twisting or bending when carried in a pocket. Patent 1625651. F. Gretsch, c/o The Gretsch Mfg. Co., 60 Broadway, New York, N. Y. Railroad and Their Accessories RAILWAY-TRACK CONSTRUCTION.—Including for supporting rails in special rela tion that they are securely held against spreading, sinking or other movement, with out the use of wooden Patent 1625288. R. L. Spencer, Greenfield, Ark, means so ties. REVERSING GEAR FOR LOCOMOTIVES.—Adapt- ed to be connected with the reach rod of a locomotive, and can be operated manually with ease, but prevents accidental retro grade movement. Patent 1625364. J. B. Holland, 923 Hollins St., Baltimore, Md. RAILROAD SWITCH.—With means for facili tating the throwing of the switch points to either of their set positions and main taining them firmly although jyieldingly. Patent 1626752. B. H. Patrick, Box 82 Mount Gay, W. Va. Pertaining to Recreation RACKET Strinc.—Formed by binding the strands of twisted gut with fine wire, pre- venting material swelling, and providing a wearing surface beyond the outer surface of the gut. Patent 1624720. A. M. Dritz, 258 5th Ave., New York, N. Y. TARGET GAME.—An apparatus having a figure simulating a baseball player with a bat, the bat carrying target elements which are to be struck by thrown balls. Patent 1624765. W. C. Schmeh, Main St., Park Ridge, N. J.

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56 General Reading In Science Readers of the Scientific American frequently request us to outline for them a course of general reading in science—not merely atextbook course, but one made up of semi-scientific, semi-popular books bearing on the various branches of science. From our reading of the past two or three years we have culled a ‘list of twenty. Whether these are actually ‘‘the best books’’ or not is, of course, largely a matter of opinion; in our opinion they are the best. Each of these books has attracted considerable note in the world of science, they are all authentic and quite suited to readers of the Scientific American. Bragg—'Concerning the Nature ot Things” (the atom, etc.) Caldwell and Slosson $3.15 “Science Remaking the World” 1.10 De Kruif “Microbe Hunters” 3.65 Hale—The New Heavens” 1.60 Jennings—*‘Prometheus: Biology and the Advancement of Man" 1.10 Shearcroft “Matter, Man and Mind” 3.15 Slosson—‘*Chats on Science’ 2.10 Slosson “Keeping up with Science” 2.65 Ward—"“Evolution for John Doe” 3.65 Wiggam—"Fruit of the Family Tree’’ (eugenics) 3.15 Wiggam—"The New Decalogue Science” 3.15 Abbot “The Earth and the Stars” 3.15 Luckiesh “Foundations of the Universe” (the atom, etc.) 3.15 McFarland “Fighting Foes too Small to See’ (microbes) 2.65 Russell—**The A B C of Atoms” 2.10 Russell—‘“The A B C of Rela- tivity” .. 2.65 Schmucker “Man's Life on Earth” 2.40 Shapley “Starlight” (astron omy’) 1.10 Slosson—"Easy Lessons in Ein stein” 1.50 Lull—*“The Ways of Life’’ (evolu- tion) 3.15 We can furnish any of these books at the prices indicated SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN July 1927 INDEX TO ADVERTISERS SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN JULY, 1927 D Bee Demell Ciisdiccccvccdsceiss &9 M Sign Lette Riis was nwck eda deed &7 can Pipe B x COicccsccee &4 W ME BOR cckceciccusunectvawscieseceus 8 \merican Sheet & Tir > eee 83 M RF tine dantnaseeeeaannageunededss %6 American Telephone & GO. csiscons 76 I & 82 American World Cue Ti; ( &4 Nestle R t Fusing ( 76 I s Bar 1 S re N ( 6 I 4 1 & I € CT ec ceeveee a” er eee 8 Packard M Car Company Cover Bradley Polytechnic Institute &7 Sroderick & Bascor Ror ( g Schwerdtle Stamp Company & B. V. D. Company, In 8 Scientiic Apparatus Corp.. &l rr 87 Shields Engineering Publishing Co.......... &4 } Central Union Trus ( é monds Sav Steel Comp Chee it k Ge WW § Simond aw & Stee MPGRB iss cescevesse 88 & . Cig 99 Jar es Sinclair cvieseesanehebes eeeeeees 87 S K F Industries, Inc...............Second Cover | Stephenecs Laboratory .cccccccccesesecccs 8) Dayt Steel F 1 MP ccccaneces &7 WwW Dd Pries . I r Instrument ( panies &2 i J. D BECO. eee seeeeeereeeeerens el I en Rolle Bearing C pa 2 } | ( ( Manufacturing ( ny 81 l Ss Tobac« ( i 79 I & I \ ‘ Ma 1 ng ( I 4 Ele ( I ( Vilte M: i ng pa 87 ge dD. W ice and ( POP cccscceee 89 M I Ele c ¢ iT Ni ’ M = W iscons M Manufact ZT COicccsscver 8&5 P ( Ange ( He PR io céventsickecseststincdasaesannenee & SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY Munn & Company, 24-26 West 40th Street, New York IRSON D. MUNN, Presider IHN P. DAVIS, Treasurer ALI ORSON D. MUNN, Edit ALBERT A. HOPKINS Lot Pror. HENRY NORRIS RUSSELI LOUIS S. TREADWELL, Vice-President AN ( HOFFMAN, Secretary and Advertising Director EDITORIAL STAFF J. BERNARD WALKER, Editor Emeritus ALBERT G. INGALLS KATRINE A. CAMPBELL S. TREADWELL MILTON WRIGHT PROF. ALEXANDER KLEMIN A. P. PEcK CORRESPONDING EDITORS H. Drepericus, Prof. of Experimental Engineering D. H KILLEFFER, Associate Editor Industrial Cornell University. ind Engineering Chemistry. Orrin E. Duntap. IR Editor of the New M. Lucktiesu, Dir., Lighting Research Laboratory, York Time itional Lamp Works of General Electric ( Nela Park, Cleveland Sat JUSHN *h.D.. G Research Labor: 2 . i. Dusmman. & Laborator D. T. MacDouGaL, Director, Laboratory for Plant Morris Fisuspetixn, M.D Editor of the Journal Physiology, Carnegie Institution of Washington. oe Association and of — Roy wW. Miner, American Museum of Natural eet a Histor > GK rT f ivil ngineering hig , Ral qs J. Foce, Prof. of Civ Engineering, Lehigh RUSSELL W. PorTER, Optical Associate, Jones and ——— Lamson Machine Company EON A. 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Illustrated articles must not be reproduced without written pef- cents a copy. Scientific American,"’ Registered United States Patent Office. PRINTED

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87 8 76 84 { \ PRINTED IN U “The supreme com bination of all that is fine in motor cars” Nature abounds in beautiful and harmonious color com- Color: binations. The birds, the flowers, the sunset skies, set perfect examples—and point the way to brilliant color schemes all in perfect taste. Yet what artistry is required in the selection of shades and tones to satisfy the modern vogue for color in motor cars! Packard has a special Board of Color made up of men of long experience and artistic judgment. These men create the standard color combinations which charm the eye in such wide variety on today’s Packard Six. And they advise on the special re- quirements of those who buy the Packard Eight. Whether Six or Eight is your choice you may be as sure of the charm and good taste of the Packard’s color scheme as you are of its last- ing beauty. For Packard lavishes as much care and effort on the unusual processes which preserve the car’s color and finish as upon the selection of the shades which will appeal to Packard’s discriminating clientele. Nothing finer is offered anywhere in the world than the enduring brilliance of Packard cars —long in life and long in beauty of lines and finish. PAL K AAS 2 AS K T E MAN S.A... BY ART COLOR PRINTING COMPANY. DUNELLEN, N. J. WHO Owns ONE

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Julien Charles Tournier In the life program of Julien Charles Tournier, public recognition had no part. He began as an instrument maker in Edison’s laboratory. His forty-five years of service to electricity were completed in the same work, at the Schenectady plant of the General Electric Company. He invented and contributed improve- ments to switches, sockets, fuse-plugs, and attachment plugs. He might have retired, had he so chosen, and lived in comfort; but his love for electricity was his life, and he was content. GENERAL ELECTRIC From a painting, © by Gerrit A. Beneker ] We publish his picture as a tribute to him and because he typified the thousands of men and women who have dedicated their lives to electrical development. The world will never know their names. They have no craving to be known. But their devotion is something quite beyond the interest of men in ordinary business. They deal with a power of vast usefulness. Within the ranks of the General Electric Company are many such men. Their } spirit is the best assurance that elec- tricity will year by year find more and better ways to serve.