Evening Star Newspaper, December 27, 1925, Page 71

MAGAZINE SECTION he Sunday Sta ILLUSTRATED FEATURES FICTION AND HUMOR Part 5—8 Pages WASHINGTON, D. (., SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 27, 1925. Art Assists Uncle Sam in New Ways of T BY GEORGE H. DACY DUCATION by the printed page and the spoken word In affairs igricultural is being supplanted successfuily by visual methods. educational exhibits which, by their originality and uniqueness, at tract and hold public attention, and in the space of a couple of cigar puffs Pul across their important messa That is the conclusion which Uncle | Bam latterly has reached as a result | of the outstanding efficiency of his} novel office of exhibits of the Federal| Department of Agriculture, Wwhose &cientific demonstrations annually are, Introducing hundreds of 1sands of farmers to new and methods of performing old task of conquer- Inz complicated riddles There are workshops where artisans and artists make lifelike exhibits, remarkable fcal devices, m e panels carry farming's most approved #sages in picture and pantomime. other original ¢ lays which won plaudits from merce's best ductory of agriculture’s newest as o i 5% Jalv e sl the sight-of -eve exhibit 2 Byt fotle sssiiang consummating reformation | e desirable farming practices Neighboring the National Museum | &tands temporary building opposite } Center Market. It houses in one of its b reaching wings the Office ¢ Ex hihits, occupying two floors The &cientific and mechanical staff is not larze—only 35 employes—but what little body in numerical h it counterbalances in the effectiveness of its activities and the countrywide scope of its accomplish. ments. J. W. Hiscox, an enthusiastic heliever in visual instruction and edu « on, is director this project, one of Vashington's most efficient national enierprises The Office of Exhiblts Is acclaimed from Sacramento to Boston, from Min nesota to Mississippi for the effective- | of its achievements. It takes ulture’s latest findinss to every and interstate fair, National | and live stock sh agricul tiral college short courses and con gresses, and to domestic and foreign expositions, and presents the informa tic attractive, condensed form—in 2 form which the ever-moving crowds ©of sight-seers can translate and fix in their memories in few minutes Here. indeed, Is farming's 1raveling show out on its circuit, spreading science’s lessons in m that attracts and sticks—and s results skilled models. mechan which mes and have Bistant which in is A te 48 * % URING the late Summer of 1925 carloads of educa- al exhibits, designed and made rvight here in our National Capital have been speeding about these United States, where they have been mobilized < educational centers at more than 50 leading State, interstate and Nation- 21 expositions. Not one night stands hut one week to 10 days’ showing in large cities. Farmers and their families who use agricultural bulletins tinder for fires, and who have never reacted favorably to the pleas of farming’s press, rub their eves a second time and say to esch other, “Who would have thought it as they study the National exhibits. The germ of new idess Is planted in their minds by Uncle Sam’s scientific show. a zerm which propagates—more likely than not—into the acceptance and util fzation of the new doctrines in the years that follow. Doubting Thomases come in num hers to find flaws and identify faults And, usually, they remain to grow enthusiastic. The human eyes may well be called our educational ante vooms. Convince the eyes and vou have made a success of your message be it the attractive lay.out of a new suburb, the beautiful lines of a model motor car. or the efficacy of im Our agricul and Fall 16 1n proved system of bakinz. tural experts are now capitalizing t importance of eyesight as an educator. The results are gratifying and indorse the employment of scientific farming's latest teacher. The National exhibits are substan tial, durable and adapted for had use and long journeys. They are light in weight, being made principally of com position board, although metal, cloth d wood are also utilized in their con iction needed. Many of these exhibits feature the dovetailing to sether of hinged panels which fold Tack on each other in such a way that a larze model can be packed snuely in a small shipping case. Some f the larger exhibits weigh 1o 1.000 pounds aplece. All of made for longevity's service will travel about, many the miles, cross and criss-c: and will visit dozens and dozens important expositions before they are finally returned to Washington for vepair and renovation Over at Alexandria the centralizing exhibits. A workmen repairs and c hibits as they are delivered fro amazoo, Keokuk, Kokomo o! hus. The scope equipment s aj when derstand that tne aicxan house 1s 200 by 90 feet in iuor sion—and the storaze space i well occupied most of the tim PR N the mechanical shops of the De- partment of Agriculture the new hibits first see the light of Experts draw the designs and ex enced mechanics make the models Not_infrequently, a sample modal cardboard is made first of all, to in- s the fundamental value of the proposed exhibit to serve the intended purpose. ‘Then the finished model i Tegun. The composition-bourd frame with its few or many hinged panels is made. The frame when completed is 5 removed to Building F. where the |—than any commercial agencies. In yminters, artists and experts put on,fact, large metropolitan stores have the finishing touches which transform | {requently requested the loan of Gov-| the hinged billboard—if such it may 'ernment exhibits. Uncle Sam only | he called—into « spectacular bbject | occasionally is in a position to acqui- of beauty or demonstration which will | esce to such requests. Ordinarily, alt cause you to Stop, stare and scruti- |the show time of the exhibits is| 5o 1ts story and shIGot Tesson. {booked ‘to capacity when the expo- | Yes, there are predicaments which | sitional and fair season rolls around. arise once in so often in exhibit prepa- | The office of exhibits was born five ration in all other human en- | vears uzv when Congress, convinced de For example. the experts of the need for such an educational | necded small surfaces of artificia] grass |agency, granted a special appropri- | recently to place in e foreground [ation. An annual stipend has been | of an exhibit in which a steer was apportioned since that time and con- | supposed to be grazing and converting | stantly the enterpyise is growing with | srass into beefsteaks. Hunt though the robustness of a voung ostrich. | they would, Uncle Sam's representa- | Previous to the creation of this office, | tives could not find sutisfactory man-|a dozen different bureaus and branches made grass samples for such use. of the Agricultural Department an- Etrange to tell, by the merest chance, | nually prepared stereotyped exhibits they finally found the object of their | for National and State shows. In the quest—where do you think?—in an|main, these exhibits looked like the | undertaking establishment. The arti- | entrance to a photographer’s gallery. ficial grass mats which the undertaker | Pictures were used to tell the story places over the newly filled graveiand explanatory posters told what were just what the exhibit makers|the pictures were supposed to repre- needed. These mats consist of raffia— | sent. These exhibits best served the palm tree products—fastened on a bur- | purpose of stepping stones to the lap base. The grass can be colored ‘ fine and novel expositional material! | as - T}f}: SLIGHTED @ o 750 hem ave They sand coun: is a la ware dep: the force of nine the ex Kal Colum he touring of the en The mechanical Cow, originate o by Uncle Sanm. signing and inventive resources of the office of exhibits is mobilized in pro- ducing the exhibit. There is no bibliography or refer ence library where the exhibit-mak which really tell their wonderful tales model of a cow shown nowadays at an | rear of the exhibit. People were in- | for several nights as a result of the agricultural exposition does not at-|terested, read the posters, and men{{otestate aleplay. . eaia | 3 2 St LR # » % : : is exhibit was in a special| tract the attention which It once did, | who had been milking cows all their | adol hox 4 by 8 feet in surface | with dairying expositions occasionaily | lives for the first time came to under- | size. Painted screens were so arrang. | bringing 1iving cows and sires inte|stand how efficient Bossy elaborates|ed in the shadow box that under cer-| a\ gather to scan authoritative vol. notel lobbies, as they sometimes do.| milk from her food supply tain lighting they shifted ! from | ,mesand garner new ideas. The edu- Hence Uncle Sam's display cow need. | ™ * T s Tibit carrieq |fOTeSt scene showing an abandoned | cational displays which they make are ed some outstanding feature to act as | Another mechanical exhibit carried | .ympfire into a picture of a consum the direct offspring of originality. »A a silent ballyboo to attract the crowds, | the lesson of hetter breeding and feed- | ing forst fire. The story was told in | rex. ‘of the basie principles of modern Hiscox und company” scratched|ing to increase the egz supply. Sev- | scenes and captions. A breeze fanned [ ,GUertising apply to exhibit prepara- heads und finally selved the conun-|eral automatic hens were made and |the dying ember into a flame. Its|{{or" The exhibit must stop the drum by signing cow anatoray to aid. | adjusted so that. at regular intervals, | sparks ignited the neighboring forest | ciuq ag it passes, and so arouse its A lifesize cow made of composition | they crowed, flapped their wings and |slope. A great fire ensued and de- | cutic ™ o VS T cor “look and | board and paint in the gold and white | deposited eggs in their respective | stroyed valuable timber on the stump. | far1oSiy ThaE i Voo CIREE QOF ST colors of Missus Guernsey was pro-| nests. A sliding bottom in each nest | The final scene portrayed blackened | jnitrost' 0f vour audience duced. One of her sides was then cut | facilitated the delivery of each egg a into a basket below the nest. The debris. This striki hibit t ALl debris. s striking exhibit presents | feeq it an easily assimilative dose of | away and an anatomical circulator the importance of care in handling ¥ tem was modeled into place with a | best-bred hen produced twice as many esgs as her ordinary mates. Natural- : scientific data in understandable | campfires, cigar stubs and cigarette| rubber hot-water bag serving as a 1y, the interested spectators would P - slogan of the office . : butts in fopested regions. lmguega | She 1 heart and fine rubber tubing as veins e 4 | |and arteries. These accessories alone [read the boiled-down explanation of Mr. Hiscox and his associates have liwould not have brought the crowds to | why this hen was the champion, as IT takes a wealth of ingenuity to de- | added color blends and attractive dec- that point. But the heart functioned | printed on a panel nearby. Time dials |~ vise the agricultural exhibits. For by a carefully timed mechanism which |record the season and register the |example, a certain branch of the De- ezg score of each hen. The scientific | partment of Agriculture may wish a | orations to the backgrounds and side- | pumped water as a -simulation of facts of profitable egg production certain feature of its work presented lines of their exhibits. They devel- | oped paneled, boothlike affairs, which | blood. The arteries were rigged up so | that they would contract and dilate | were thus disseminated wherever this |in attractive exhibition form. It | | exhibit was shown. serves notice on Mr. Hiscox. It pro-| screen and support the exhibits proper. | They use bromide enlargements of | regularly as the through them. Forest fires, man-started through | vides all the facts and figures, factors | arelessness in not extinguishing |and features about that particular line cutout figures and brilliant combina- tions of tints. A noted painter of When this mechanical cow was |c cycloramas, Charles A. Corwin, the shown at Syracuse, the exhibit was a mpiives, have led to the building of | of work. The exhibits’ experts survey knockout. Throngs of visitors were |a pair of wonderful exhibits. One of |and study all the data. They consult these was shown at a leading Western [and confer with the department spe- | artist who painted the Gettysburg cy clorama and many others, now works gathered around the automatic cow for Uncle Sam and produces many of | constantly. The cow and her exposad | exposition. The other was exhibited | cinlists. Then they go into executive | the finest of our national exhibits circulatory system drew the mob. The ifi the main building of the Depart- |thinking session. They plan and |Other artists have beeh secured and \new trails in_unexplored territor has a made-to-model rival, a me- |story of how the cow makes milk |ment of Agriculture for some time.|formulate. They scheme and con- They have to devise and experiment. |chanical cow which Uncle Sam ex- | from her blood supply was told in‘ One of the largest stores in Washing- | trive. Something is amputated from \ ton then borrowed this exhibit and |one plan and added to another. Ulti- trained. However, most of their nainting is over bromide enlargements. They have delved far deeper into the 'hihited at a recent nationn! dajry v | terse phrases and sentences—simple e m-tter of exhi its hed e, N The ze—printed on panels at the attracted great crowds to its windows mately, the amalgamation of the de- When the final oil-paint finish is s X1H added to such assignments, the panels water coursed | any shade desired, as raffla takes vari-| which now is made and circulated by ous dyes. | Mr. Hiscox and his corps. Traditions or .precedents in model- PR making? There are none. Mr. Hiscox and his talented assistants are blazing 'HE historic horse of the ancients <h Wonderful Educational Exhibits Madc in Washington Are Shown to Five Million Spectators—Skilled Mechanics and De~ signers Make These Spectacular Models—Motion, Light and Bright Colors Attract People’s Attention—Sixteen Carlonds of Exhibits From Department of Agriculture Shown at Fifty State and National Expositions and Fairs Recently. Spilled artists and mechanics making Government exhibits s TJelling sciences story in piclures : ng 9 2 | exhibit. lv. Light motion is also effective. Three-fourths of the Federal exhibits ire now based on the use of light and motion. Rotating signs, cutout fIg ures moving in grooves, and smail & models of machines and im plements are used as is necessary The cutouts are made of composition hoard reinforced with wooden strips. Iingers of men and women and the cars of live stock are backed with heetiron strips which are linked to the hody of each figure. Each figure is mounted on a wooden base. It is <0 arranged that it looks lifelike when the spectato- stands away at a little distance. During the d Uncle Sam's ts are displayed 100 fairs, shows exceptional ideshows™ have muny as eral and vondert Dractic tion form inked ordinarv 12.month pe- agricultural ex- approximate- expositions the tourt shown at_as »sitions, ate, Fed iree vears ago Amerfcan «nd methods in ex was sent to Brazil, where amonz the most popular e hibits at that exposition. Prepara tions are now being made for another extensive group exhibits, which vill be wn seville, Spain, in 1927, at a ernational expos tien. The sume Uncle Sam will f'”'[ A meritorious collection of ex hibits to Ottawa, Canada. to be Showh At an international poultry congress which will convene there. Th~ national Department of Agri ture leads all the other Govern- anches in the volume and all excellence of its educationa! The Bureau of Mines and e Bureau of Standards use mini: ture models and exhibits to “sell” seientific conc the al public. The Interio Department, also, on occasion has 1tilized exhibits effectively. Naturally, the Smithsonfan Institution and the onal Museum teem with miniature models and educational _exhibits. Time was when the Patent Office wa the depository for hundreds of thou sands of curious models of pending or pproved inventions. The War and Departm: have utilized ex. in some of their publicity Seeing is believing” even today, it was when this expressior first coined. Man may read vrl_~ of pages and M n to in nerable speeches hy fluent orators nd vet not be convinced. But if, in short interval of a minute or so, see and feel the sub- either the odds he can be con of thinking. And the zreat intrinsic value zed education. Say it in vis m in easlly translatable santomime or ures these days if would aspire to gain a large ence and to increase vour ranks wishers and conver can not stuff a man full of st.itistics which he will remember and vecall. Dry facts and figures will never draw a crowd while the motion ctures are in progress just around he corner. Similarly you cannot for mechanical elephant suc ssfully as an att-action for a sterec typed display of nev irrigation meth But 4 modil of an irrigation set down amidst a dry-land ng district with the waters from the ditch regularly flooding over the thirsty flelds—this is the scientific message which the irrigation farmer understand and ret into in eased crops and =r profits dur 1z potential seusons. The Office of Exhibits with the mo. tion picture laboratory of the Depart ment of Azriculture e steps in our zovernmentul efforts to disseminate the findinzs of sclence in more effec form throughout the United These sight-of-eve demonstra are briefed stories of agricul- ture’s conquests; true stories which defy contradiction, which override argument, and which gain adherents on short’ notice, whereas old style cxtension methods required months nd to accomplish similar re at and vears been h Iin =h in A new way lies pic long use a ods ditch 1es. ions vears Testing Resistance. LTHOUGH the impression that balloon tires cause a considerable < of power in the automobile seems to have become quite widespread, the ureau of Ntanc according to Scientific American, monstrated as the result of an investigation that the ing resistance of balloon tires is only slightly higher than that of high-pressure cord tives, and is sub. stantially lower than the rolling resis- tance of high-pressure fabric tires As Detween balloon tires and pressure cord tires, therefore, smooth roads. there is = slight diffe | ence in gasoline consumption in favor [ the cord tires. This difference may decrease, or disappear altogether, on rough r This is due to the ten- dency of halloon tires to reduce the losses of energy brought about by ver- tical movement of the car body. While a blanket statement cannot be made that a change from high pres. sure to balloon tires to reduce the | increase in rolling resistance, as the | difference between the two types Is comparatively small and individual alloon tires may show a higher or a lower rolling resistance than indi vidual high pressure tires, as a class, on tires have a greater rolling | resistance than high pressure cord, the difference depending upon the in ion pressure considered. In the absence of a recognized stand- ard for inflation pressures, compari- sons are made on a basis of 30 pounds sguare inch for balloon tires, 45 pounds for 3';-inch cord, 50 pounds {for 4-inch and 60 pounds for 5-inch cords. On this basis the average roll- 1z resistance for high pressure cord tires is 11.8 pounds a thousand pounds created at low outlay raxle load:; for balloon tires, 13.5 Artificial light boxes at various | pounds, and for fabric tires (except points in the exhibit panels have aided | the 3';-inch size) 17.1 pounds. materially in improving the effects.i Thus it is seen that the gain in Daylight screens are used frequently | cushioning which is known to result in exhibits placed in dark corners in' from the use of balloon tires is ob- exhibition or exposition buildings. An | tained at an increase of 1.7 pounds in automatic stereopticon, used in such ' rolling resistance. If, on the other cases, permits of showing a series of hand, the road is rough, the balloon educational pictures as a part of the |tire favors a reduction in the loss due specified exhibit {to ;gtrx nhso(x"hfid by szrinlgs and Unclé ® Sam " has: resorted to the|#nubuers, caused by a vertical move. legerdermain of the carpenter shop MeNt of the car body. and the magic of the designer’s office in compounding some of his exhibits. | For example, means have been per-| fected so that from one to four scenes ' J'HE third eclipse expedition to . c can be superimposed in the same | the United States for Sumatra to limited spice, one after another. | observe the total eclipse of the sun on Three of these scenes can be painted | January 14, 1926, has salled on the on ordinary window screens. placed at | President Harrison from San Fran- regular intervals between the front of | cisco. The primary object of the ex- the set and the rear wall, where the | pedition will be the measurements of fourth 'scene is reproduced. The lights, | radiation from the solar corona by in each case at the lower edge of the means of vacuum thermocouples, and screen, are so arranged and manipu- | photometric studies of the color and lated that the sequence of four pic-|brightness of the corona by photo- tures is shown, true to life, In a single | graphic methods. The apparatus, con- This effect is secured by |sisting of a specially modified reflect- capitalization of the fact that when |ing telescope of 20-inch aperture with standing outside a screened window of | radiometric and photometric acces- a darkened rocm, you cannot see in-) sorles, left Boston on the President et when inside the room, the|Harrison on October 7. The party screen is scarcely noticeable when gaz- | will establish headquarters at Ber ing out throuzh the window. koelen on the west coast of Sumatra. Motion is invaluable in exhibits.| At Benkoelen also will be located the Mechanical motion 1s used large- expedition from Swarthmore College. To: s T like oil paintings. are more dur- ble than water-colors and have been Vlliclipse Party.