Evening Star Newspaper, February 28, 1926, Page 88

4 THE SUNDAY ITAR, "WASHINGTON, D. C, FEBRUARY 28, 1926—PART 5. Where a Ship, With Decks Awash, Must Fight Desperately to Live Sailing Vessel Encounters Diabolical Winds and Bursting Seas in the Roaring Forties of the Indian Ocean—A Noble Craft, an Indomitable Captain and a Brave Crew—Passi ng the Dreaded Cape of Storms—Hit by a "Rip-Snorter.” Struggling With Fr ozen Canvas on Icy Yardarms—An Appalling Scream Out of the Darkness. Last week Mr. Clements re- counted his introduction, as an ap- prentica seaman, to life aboard ship and to the violence of the sea. His account dealt with the passage of the bark Arethusa— one of the comparatively fow deap- water sailing vessels then afloat —from London to the reglon of the Cape of Good Hope, in a voy- age around the world Many were the dangers encoun tered by the Arethusa and her crew, first in the Bay of Biscay, noted for its storms, and later in the South Atiantic, the realm of gales and heavy seas. Here, in a " wind, while the crew was about in swirling, waist ter in an effort to furl the ail, that canvas was torn to s and blown into the sea. entual the sail was recov- 1d the ship prepared for 1 battles in still more dan- gerous regions. These are de scribed in the #econd of a seri BY REX CLEMENTS. HE Summer of the trades were done with, and we could look forward to a battering off the Cape of Good Hope and a long run through the southern ocean, to the accom- of gales and heav al, our leaky old halfdeck, the apprentices’ quarters, got its fair share of the water t came ahoard The floor was awash and everything we possessed W soaked. Wet through it remalned for three solid weeks. During that time there wasn't a dry pate in the place. Fifteen inches deep, to the top of the threshold, the water swirled and plashed with every roll of the ship Clothes, seachests, bedding—all were wringing wet. We turned into our bunks all standing, to wake four hours garments molst, present_article, the of three. paniment As 1 of turning suddenly out into the raw bitter air was hor- rible and like the stabbing of innumer- able spearpoin no one ever caught cold unknown at sea, the salt salt-impreg- nated air _ preventing continual drenchings from belng more than merely unpleasant. Rounding the cape, we mora anl more te the south'ard. captitin was a firm believer in the fa mous M theories and shaped a great circle course through ng forties. A typical taste of their quality they gave us. With the 45th parallel to the norard, y weather set in in earnest, and we ran t o @ ceaseless accompani ent of howling winds and bursting wa and If the old man had come so far south in the hope of getting plenty of wind, he had no cause to complain. It blew ten furies. We got more wind than we well knew what to do and one night it came on to in a way that the packet-rats ercury dropped steadily il it lookea as f it would fall through the bottom of the barometer. The d tot like plos and needles and in great gusts. The sleet that fell in the driving squalls was not so mueh snow or rain as little splinters of 1ce; it filled up all the corners and in a solid mass that made going oft a hazardous performance. Everything was shippery and one had to break the frozen mush on the rds with numbed fingers to get a rip on the jackstay. x k * 'rmf was a magnificent sight-—an endless of swiftly mov- ing hol and ridges. The might league ards, stretching ov to the on either hand, swept careles the ship, shouldering her a point or two off her course, first on one side and then on the other, and pouring over both rails in such cat. aracts that fr lott the bark looked ke o half-tide rock All hands were kept aloft most of the watch passing extra gaskets round the salls that were stowed and lashing with rovings the heads of those still set It was fine to be aloft above the panorama of that windswept, regal sea. At times one could have shouted at the wild exhilaration of it, but such moments soon ended in a shrieking squall of hall that blotted everything out and left one only able to hang on, buffeted and gasping, with the feeling that one’s ears were being cut off by red-hot knives. The long southern night rolled down on us, with threat of still worse weather, and the bark’s lurchings be- came more and more violent. A hand had been sent to the lee wheel, but it was obvious we were carrylng more than we could stand and at four bells the order v iven to take in the main upper tops’l. The fore was al- ready fast An awful job the sail gave The canvas was frozen and as hard as a ard. It was as black as the pit aloft, ind we almost lost one another on the vard. But it was d at last and the watch sent below, the old man being grimly determined to hang on to h fores'l. Under that and the narro band of the lower topslls we drove blindly all night to the eastward, the watch on deck gathered on the poop and two A.R.'s at the wheel. It was just after daybreak next morning, when the star-bowlines were on deck, that we of the port watch were aroused out of our bunks by a sudden shout “All hands on deck! Out, everybod smartly! Main hatch has lifted. We rushed out, helter-skelter, in an- swer to the call. The main hatch is the most vulnerable part of the ship and there was not a moment to lose. One big sea would have finished us. The ship was being run off before the wind, with the captain himself at the helm. The second mate was lying flat on the deck to wind'ard with the water swirling over him, hanging dog- gedly on to the tarpaulin to keep the loose hatches in place. Chips (the carpenter), naked except for his shirt, was sitting astride a cor- ner hatch smiting furiously at the wedges with a hammer; while the watch were hastily endeavoring to pass a line from side to side, to prevent the hatches from being washed away. The danger was imminent. If once the hatches had got adrift the seas would have poured down the hold and sunk us in a few minutes. We didn't need telling what to do; we flung our- selves on the hatches, and, despite the green water pouring in on us, held them down in place while two or three of the men hastlly knocked in a few wedges, Well battered and half-drowned as we were, we dare not let go. Old Jamieson, the craggy-festured Scot, past steered | was swept off his feet and burled atgainst the crabwinch. He got a nas- ty gash on the head that stunned him, and Burion, an apprentice, and the steward carried him along ~to the fok's'le. The rest of us got the wedges driven home. The immediate danger was over, and we started to secure the hatch more thoroughly. An old mooring-line was brought along from for'ard under the mate's orders. With this we took a number of turns round and round the hatch- coamings, sweating each turn tight with the “handy billy" and frapping the whole lot together. This served to protect the wedges, but it was a long waist-deep in the pouring seas. Elght bells came and went; the gal- ley-fire was-out; there was no coffes for anybody and the work went on. It was near middiy. before the job was finished and the order given for the watch to go below. All that day and night the storm lasted. Throughout the whole time the old man scarcely left the deck. sionally Le went below to take a k at the barometer, or shelter him- self for a few moments in the com- panion to drink a cup of coffee brought him by the steward. For the rest of the time he stood near the weather rail and watched the sea and the ship. He hardly spoke, and when he did, it was simply to give an order to the officer on watch. Our masterful skipper, T always thought, appeared at hi best in heavy weather. Personally I always felt more comfortable when he was on the poop, and it seemed to me the bark herself behaved better under the direct eye of her commander. He handled her wonderfully. Often, looking at our tiny sea-swept hull, with its towering fabric of spar and cordage, T marveled how a man could drive that contrivance of steel and string acress 5,000 miles of stormy { ocean and find his way to a particular cluster of human habitations on the other side of the globe. A n, and & master one, was Capt. West. Skilled in sea lore and limbed like a Viking, he was no un- worthy descendant of the Devon sea- dogs of old. His powers of endurance were extraordinary. When necessity arose he seemed able to do without food or sleep indefinitely. Grim and gray of face, with drenched side-blown whiskers and in- domitable eves, he would stand for hour after hour through day and night by weather-rail or helmsman, sole master of Lis ship and crew and, tak- ing counsel of none, beat the storm tiend at his own game. On this otcasion he kept the deck for 36 hours. It was the morning of the second day before the weather moderated sufficiently to enable us to make sail, and he went below and left the deck to the mate. This was the worst spell of bad weather we had during the passage. We did not sight the misty tops of but edged & little to the and left that lonely senti- nel of the Antarctic well to the south. Snow and blow of course still followed but every day saw us farther to east and we began to count the days that should bring us to our des- tination. * ok ¥ ok WE boys were keenly looking for- ward to our first foreign port. We began to feel we had spent all our ltves at sea. At least we had learnt a lot since we took our last look at old England. The roaring forties are a fine training ground for sailor- men; not even the North Atlantic can beat them in the matter of gales and big seas. We made pretty good time across the fringe of the great Australian Bight till we were within 300 miles of Kangaroo Island. Then the wind hauled ahead and blew a dead muzzler. For eight long days It hung in the east and constrained us to tack every two hours, beating every inch of the remaining way across the bight. Coming at the end of a long pas- sage, it disgusted everybody. A soli- tary whale came up and spouted nearby, remaining in !lghl a consid- erable time, while we hurled anath- emas at it as the cause of all our trouble. After about a week of tack and “AS THE BARK SLID DOWN SOME FOAM-TOPPED, LEAGUE-LONG SLOPE, THE WATER AHEAD ROSE HIGHER THAN THE FOREYARD.” tack wo sighted the low shores of Kangaroo Island right ahead late one afternoon. It was our ninety- seventh day out, and delighted we were to see brown earth after so long of endless salt water. As though it realized we had won through, the wind came fair and we ran in just close enough to distinguish the low white cliffs of the island and make sure of our position, then stood away on the opposite tack to round Cape Borda, the headland at its west- ern extremity. We passed the latter during the night, ran up the Investigator Strait and, when morning broke, found our- selves well into the Vincent Gulf and In sight of a small island crowned by a lighthouse and signal station. We spoke the latter, reporting our name and port of departure, and at three In the afternoon sighted a low sandy shore right ahead, with a sig- nal station and a few scattered houses in the background. It was Port Ade lalde, Australia. After more than two months here and at Newcastle, in New South Wales, unloading part of our car and overhauling and cleaning the ship, we set forth for the west coast of South America, setting out in southerly direction As we drove farther to the south we approached realms where it is s rare, as it is pleasant, a thing to be hold the sun. We passed Chatham Island and soon after met with a sc. cession of gales that chased up right across the breadth of the Pacific. Right “roaring forties” weather came down on us with & swoop. I nearly missed expertencing it or any thing else beneath the glimpse of the moon, for in the first blow that caught us I had a very narrow escape. “THE SAIL GAVE A FLAP AND I WAS KNOCKED OFF.” It happened one night. T had laid aloft to furl the main t'gallant-stays'l and, as our custom was, had thrown my leg across it to ride it down. Be- ing pitch dark, the head downhaul had not been hauled properly taut and, before I could get a turn with a gasket, the head shot up the sta the saill gave a flap, and I was knocked off. Instinctively as I fell T threw up my hands and, by what was little short of a miracle, grabbed hola: of | the lower footrope and held it. The jerk almost pulled my arms out, but 1 managed to hang on and, twisting my legs round the stays'l sheet, slid down to the fiferail and so stepped on_deck. It was about the closest shave one could have had. All that night my body seemed on fire, and though I was allowed to stay in my bunk, sleep I couldn't. Lucifer himself ndver fell so {far as, all night long, I kept doing in sudden fits and starts. I turned out next morning, but the wrench had made my shoulders black and blue, and for a few days I was as weak as a kitten and kept on feeling horrible Jjerks at the back of my head. * k% 'EING Wintertime, we not only had the cold to put up with, but dark- ness ag well, and of the two, the lat- L) | maelstrom The wan lckly daylight d a bare 7 hours out of the 24. For the rest of the time we were plunged in complete darkness, a cold, hailsmitten dark- ness, black as the Earl of Hell's riding boots. Day after day the sou'westerly gale stormed at us and we surged through mountainous seas, with snow and hail- squalls beating down on us with dam- nable iteration. We worked and ate and slept In our oflskins. Little use they were, though, for all the clothes we possessed were soaked, and some of the hardier spirits gave up the pre. tense of wearing oflskins at all. Life alternated between wet bunks and wetter decks, punctuated by icy spells alott, with wearisome monotony. The Arethusa s at her best in stormy weather and behaved nobly. At times a flercer squall than usual would lay her over almost on her beam-ends, while the wind’s note rose to a scream and the hissing, hall-whip- ped water swirled in over the lee bul- warks. Green seas like cliffs crashed over the weatherrall and made a | | | of the decks, forcing all hands to jump and hang on for their lives The sea was a wonderful, a magnifi- cent sight. The rollers, high as our foreyard and stretching north and south as far as the eye could reach, were titanle in thelr grandeur. Under the lash of the hurricane squalls the | seas turned to flelds of snow just ked with ribbons of dull green. » no longer seemed to be any urface of the sea as- shanging inclines and the bark's plunges grew larger nd steadler through her very insig- ice compared to those undulating uns of water. It impossi- to estimate their height, but 50 would certainly be no exagge: ble feat tion Az the bark slid down some topped, lea-long slope, the water ah rose higher than the foreyard moment her bows were pointing sky ward and her stern fell Into t! trough, with a mighty wall of water rising up behind. It is a nerve foam- d ext king sight to look astern and see a hissing roller, as steep as the side of a house and as high, rushing toward the ship. Just when it seems it must fall with a cata- clysmic crash and overwhelm her, her stern rises swiftly to it and the foam- ing crest rushes under her counter and surges for'ard, baiancing the bark like # cork on fts crest This storm blew itself out, but for four weeks (he wind hardly ever drop ped below the force of a fresh gale Once a sca broke aboard with such force that the s was dashed as hi the lower top’sl yard—a fuil 70 feat—and drenched the clew of the upperltops’] L A HARD. stormy weather followed us till near the ninetieth meridian, when we nhauled up and steered more to the nor'ard. One dark, moonless night just before we got ciear of the forties,” with a fresh breeze blowing and the ship running quietly along un der t'zallant-s'ls t occurred a most uncanny the mid dle watch, the * watch, as the four hours after midnight is called, that it happened. We of the mate’s watch were on deck—the men for'ard, Burton and I under the break, and Mr. Thomas pacing the poop above our heads. Suddenly, apparently on the port hand, there came howling out of the darkness a most frightful, walling cry, ghastly in its agony and intensity. “Not of overpowerins vol- ume—a score of men shouting to ther could have 1 as loud a hail—it was the indescribable callber and agony of the shrick that aimost froze the blood in our veins We rushed to the rail, the mate and the men, too, and stared searchingly into_the blackness to wi d. The starbowlines, who a moment before had been slecping the sleep of tired men in thefr bunks below, rushed out on deck. Shipwreck would hardiy bring foremast Jack out before he was called, but that cry roused him like the last summons. If ever men were “horror we were. kened by Ivery one raining their that en- i aboard it and came up on deck was listening intensely ayes into the blackness veloped us. A moment or two passed, and then as we listened, wondering and silent, araln that appalling scream rang out, rising to the point of almost unbear- ible torture and dying crazily away in broken whimperings. No one did anything, or even spoke We stood lke stones, simply staring fnto the mystery-laden gloom. How long we peered and listened, waiting for a repetition of the sound, 1 do not know. But minutes passed and still it did not come, and slowly, like men | coming out of a trance, we began to move about and speak to each other again, We heard it no more, and gradual ly, one at a time, trickled back to foc'sle and half-deck. As far as the occupants of the latter were con- cerned, no one evinced any inclination to turn In, and we sat around, smok- ing and discussing what the sound w had heard could possibly be. Nobod slept much more that night, and thankful we were when the gray dawn broke over the tumbling, untenanted sea. Who and what it was that caused it we never learnt. We hazarded a v: riety of guesses, many of them far- fetched enough. The cry of a whale was suggested, but I never heard a whale utter any sounds with its lamount of light given off by each unit throat. Some other sea monster, some- body else thought, that only rarely comes to the surface—but this w more unlikely still. The scream of seals or sea lions on it was, as some imagined. a ship- wrecked boat's crew who saw our lights and in their extremity raised a sort of death scream, or whether, as others asserted, it had a supernatural origin, remained a mystery insoluble. Thirty-seven days out we had our last glimpse of Ccivilization N~ N an island beach was another hypothe- sis—again, the nearest land was 600 miles to the north'ard. Besides, the shriek we heard had certainly a hu- man, If not a diabolic, origin. Whether # - again in the shape of a large bark spooming along under full sail and homeward-bound. We envied her greatly, for with reasonable luck she ought to have been home for Christ- mas. She was steering straight for the horn and coming along grandl. E white ridge of foam curving a from her sharp forefoot—"carrying a bone in her teeth,” as sailors say. We did not speak to her and in less than an hour she was out of sight. She was the first vessel we had seen since leaving Newcastle. There was nothing unusual in that, for Wttle troubled by the fleets of commerce are these wild heights of the Midpacific. Only a wandering wind-jammer like ourselves seeks their fastnesses, and no scrap of land breaks the mighty expanse of ocean between Macquarie Island and the horn. On these wind-swept fields of in- finity the sight of a vessel Is a pleasant experience t» eyes long accustomed to the empty ring of the horizon. In addition to that grace of line and motion, which receives its most per- fect expression in a sailing ship, par- ticularly when running under full sail to a quartering wind, there is a sense of companionship, a flavor of romance, in the proximity of another little world, similar to one’s own, yet inex- orably sundered, that rises for a brief space out of the blue to fade therein again like an apparition from eternity. A few days later, to a three or four knot breeze, we stood in for the land and made the island of San Lorenzo, at the mouth of Callao Bay, just be- fore noon. It was dark before we passed the westernmost end of the island, and, drifting very slowly, came to an anchor in the roads an hour or two later, on our fifty-first day out from Newcastle—not a bad passage considering the days we had lost in the Cook Straits and our slow drift up the American coast. After several weeks spent at Callao in unloading our cargo and at Santa Rosa, where we shipped a cargo of guano, we set sail for home and Eng- land. This involved the treacherous passage of Cape Horn, dreaded by all mariners. (Copyright. 1926.) —_ Light Is Air Gauge. O longer is it necessary for the motorist, getting “free air” &t the gas station, to disconnect the air hose from the tire valve frequently to test the pressure in the tire. An automatic air-meter is the latest device for the gas station, says Pop- ular Science Monthly. The motorist sets the dial at the exact pressure he desires in the tires. ‘When the dial is set, a light, to which the indicator is pointing, comes on. All that is necessary now is to attach the hose to the tire. When the tire is filled to the pressure indi- cated, the light goes off. l 1 | Science Finds Density of Sirius’ Mate; Studies New, Powerful Cosmic Rays BY HAROLD K. PHILIPS. S the cager eves and hands of sclence reveal to our reeling minds more and more of the wonders that are to be found elsewhere in the universe than | on this comparatively diminutive earth of ours, modern complacency as to the sophistication of this highly in- tellectual civilization we have set up begins to weaken, if not altogether capitulate. We find that we have even scratched the surface, after all. er since those dawn days when man slowly groped his way out of stark barbarism to the first stages of culture, the starlit heavens have in- trigued him with thelr myste ated him with their com and awed him with their aces. But, through he has seen and riddles and he universe holding treasur« edge and loveliness far bey limits of the most fanciful tion. If one started out to enumerate the ‘hievements of sclence in the flelds of astronomical and solar research in the past two years some of the great- est advances of recorded time might be mentioned. Hubble, for instance, pushed the known bounda of the universe millions of miles further into space when he proved that the spiral rebulae—"heavenly pin-wheels"—were in truth island uni some of them, at least, as I as our ow so-called, “universe.” Quite naturally had come to regard our little sing everything. story is to deal with only two recent discoveries, and these two because, together, they may—and, of course, may not— have a far-reaching effect on mankind in the s that are to come. They are the successful measurement the diameter and den: the faint companion of the star Sirius by Dr S. Adams, i up knowl- ond the imagina- Galileo, of tho: Walter S. director of the Mount Wiison Observa- tory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and the discovery of new cosmic rays, 1,000 times more power- ful than X-rays, by Dr. Robert An- drews Millikan, director of the Nor- man @ridge Laboratory of Physics at the California Institute of Technol ORY. When it is known that panion star is so dense t inch of it would welgh that its atoms are so crush: that it is 50,000 times d ter, togeth the “Millikan rays,” which ble similarity of origin plercing a sheet of solid le thick, some faint suspicion of the im- portance of further investigating these facts becomes apparent IR ™ was in 1862 that the famous dog star, Sirfus, the brightest star in the sky, was found to have a faint companion. Undoubtedly the scien- tific journals of those days faithfully recorded the discovery, but it is douht- ful if the general public heard any- thing about it for years. The mod- ern press, however, with it§ tremen dously faster facilities for transmit ting news, is still talking about Dr. Adams' successful measurements, but thus far without assoclatifig its pos- sible structural simila with the “Milltkan ray This companion star 1 Sirius as to be vi scope of considerable Although only about a ten-thousandth part S bright, the companion is a third massive as Sirius itself and has three- fourths of the mass of our own sun. These two stars form a great system in_ which they swing about one an- other in an elliptical orbit making a complete revolution in slightly less than this com- it a cubie bout a ton, 1 together nser than wa s so close to y witha tele- sis of the light of Sirius shows that it is a blue star having a ery high temperature, not far from 10,000 degrees centigrade, or nearly twice the temperature of our sun. Its mass and approximate size are so well known that it is quite possible to derive its surface brightness, or the of fts surface. But for many years astronomers assumed that the com- panion of Sirlus, which Is the star we are talking about, must be a rela- tively 'cool star. Only in tmis way, it was argued, did it seem possibie to reconcile its targe mass, which 1s a third of that of fus itself, with its low brightness, which Is only one ten-thousandth of the brightness of Sirius. Stars with temperatures of about 2,000 degrees centigrade are well known in our stellar system, and at these low tem- peratures their surface brightness is, of course, ve low, and the Ilight which these stars give out Is relatively feeble, ; About 10 years ago, however, as- tronomers succeeded in analyzing di- rectly with the spectrascope the lght of the companion of Sirius, and the surprising result was found that the spectrum is almost identical with that of Sirius itself. The observations were necessarily difficult because of the intense brightness of Sirfus and the nearness of the two stars, and for these reasons the famous 100-inch re- flecting telescope at Mount has been found to be the most suc- cessful instrument for the investiga- tion he similarity Sirius and its companion mers decided, ‘“necessarily implies nearly the same temperature and sur- face brightness. If the surface bright- ness of the companion, however, ap- proaches that of Sirfus we can ac- count for the relative faintness of the star only by assuming a very small and this, in turn, must necessitate extraordinarily high den- sity for the material composing the star, since we know that its mass—its weight—is large.” The only alternative to this view, it seemed, appeared to be that a star can give a spectrum similar to that of a star of high temperature and great surface brightness and yet be relatively cool. Astronomers have never found any good reasons to be- lieve that such stars exist, however. Immediately the remarkable alterna- tive explanations here enumerated raised the question in the mind of an English _astronomer, Eddington, whether the theory of general rela- tivity would not provide a means for deciding between the two. of P ¥ accordance with the theory | relativity a large mass of matter like the sun or a star should produce a slight displacement of the lines in the spectrum which it ra- diates. This displacement is di- rectly proportional to the mass of the star and inversely proportional to its radius, So in the case of the sun the displacement Is very small because the sun is a comparatively large Wilson | of the spectra of| astrono- | study of these powerfal beams. But it is interesting to make some com- parisons and then consider what might result. The scientist, of course, will never hazard a guess. He wili theorize about some things, but ask him to predict what practical ap- plication a new discovery wi'l have, and he will immediately begin to talk about the weather, provided it isn't the weather you have asked him about. Via carefully selected detours, however, it is occasionally possible to piifer some of the thoughts that are running through his mind. In the first place, so far as it is known, no person is yet sure just what “Millikan rays” are or whence they come. Dr. Millikan discovered them possibly a year ago and an- nounced them to the world for the first time in a paper read before the annual meeting of the American Academy of Sciences at Madison, Wis., early last November. Thelr announcement created a sensation among scientists. Dr. Millikan described them as “high frequency rays of cosmic origin.” From somewhere out in the great spaces of the universe they bom- bard the earth ceaselessly—invisible. yet a thousand times more powerful than the X-ray, so strong that they can pierce 6 feet of solid lead. So it can be seen that what these cosmic projectiles might do bewlilders the imagination, if man succeeds in har- nessing them to his uses as he has the oray. AT the best, these wandering of the tmagination are a long way from “home,” and it must never be forgot- ten that all are well insulated with that indefinite word “might.” The dis- coverer of the rays will not even go o far as to say what “might” come of his discovery, but he has at least ex- cited tremendous interest among his o PERHAPS IT IS ANOTHER UNIVERSE AND NOT A “CELESTIAL PIN-WHEEL.” body. If the companion of Sirtus, however, with a mass nearly equal to that of the sun, has a very much smaller radigis—| more compact, in other words—a large relativity dis- placement might be expected. Measurements of this displacement have been made by Dr. Adams at Mount Wilson, with results which are in striking agreement with those pre- dicted by Prof. Eddington. They in- dicate a radius for the star of only about 12,000 miles When combined with the known mass of the star this| requires a mean density about 50,000 times that of water, or nearly 2,500 times that of the heaviest clement known on the earth. “Under such conditions,” sald Dr. Adams, in writing from Mount Wil- son of the discovery, “matter must exist in a state which we cannot as vet imitate in our physical labora- torfes and in which the normal atoms of matter are crushed or deleted of their rings of satellites far beyond our present experience.” By this same computation, broadly speaking, it could be found that a piece of the companion star only a cubic inch in size would welgh a ton by our meas- ures. But what has all this to do with the “Millikan rays”? Some of it nothing; I fellows of research, and at the pres- ent time several important {institu- tions are carrying forward investiga- tions that “might” develop some still more interesting matter in the fu- ture. An informal introduction to Dr. Mil- likan is not improper about this time. He is one of the best known physi- cists in the world and in 1923 was rded the Nobel prize in physics for ing and measuring the ultimate electric unit—the electron. The elec- tron, of course, is one of the parts of an atom. It might be noticed that his discovery of the mysterfous high-fre. quency cosmic rays brings into play once again the atom. As we have said before, Prof. Milli- kan refuses to theorize about the rays; he would prefer to wait a little longer, when, possibly, he will no longer have to theorize. But the interesting fact now is the possibility that their origin is so similar to the condition of mat- ter as it seems to prevail on the com- panion star of Sirius Astronomers are already turning thelr telescopes on this strange fellow of the firmament and the physicis are carrying along researches in their physical laboratories accordir discoverer of the rays professes dis- belief that they will ever be lashed Hossibly none of it will ever afeet thed to the service of mankind. L} “These rays are o minute.” he ex- plained to an interviewer, “that it does not seem probable that they ever can be controlled or directed for any useful purpose. The conception to which this find leads is almost too powerful a stimulus to the imagina- tion. I have no doubt but that the physicists will be explaining all kinds of telepathies with fts aid. “Let that be as it may; I am merely presenting the simple, experimental s believed that the rays" result from the capture of the negative electrons of an atom by the positive nucleus of the same atom. Every one knows, of course, that an atom consists of a positive nucleus with a number of negative electrons circling around it. It is somewhat Iike a miniature_reproduction of our solar system. Just as the planets are circling around the sun, so the electrons circle around the nucleus. LegTslator Abroad. (Continued from Third Page.) “Millikan went West with the rifle and the ax,” a missionary told Senator Howell, “but the Englishmen come out here wil the tennis racket and the golf club.” At Nairobi, for example, the Senator found 3,000 white residents mostly living in the hills, and convenient to two excellent hotels were five tennis and other sport clubs and two well maintained golf links. When the Howells dropped down to Portuguese East Africa they went to Rhodesia, and to Johannesburg in the Trans and to the famous Kimber- ley mines. All through this section were the gold and diamond mines. They were amazed at the huge piles of “tailings” mountain high—just a big ledge of rock sloping down at an angle of about 45 degrees. Five bil- lions of dollars were taken out and there is estimated to be more than as much yet to come * Kok ok we come to the other Senator Howell's trip. y a desire to learn what America’s shipping venture looks Ike through forelgn eyes and to get a close-up, personal impression of the merd opportunities ahead of the United States, the Senator and Mrs. Howell traveled in Italian, Du inglish and American cargo ND now phase of Actuat Summarizing his observation nclusfons, Senator Howell sa | Shipping Board here is not an fsolated |example of shipping losing money. have been making no money any throughout the world—it has been a struggle. English shipping has the lowest ebb that it has een for a long time. For instance, n 500-ton, very ordinary specification eighter, cost in London during the war about $140 per deadweight ton. and la v we could buy that freighter for $38 a ton. And we sold all of those 18 ships plyidg betwean here and the Mediterranean for about ton, providing that 25 per cent should be paid down and 10 per cent of the balance every year. So now we have them paying about 57 cents per ton a year on account, while the deprectation is $2 per ton a year. ‘Congress has refused to bonus these shipping companies, but the ad ministration is doing it by saying ‘Here is a ship worth $40 a ton. We will_give it to you for $7.50 and pay us 57 cents a year—we will not even :|~‘]: you to pay the cost of depreci atfon.’ “My whole impression is that we are not making a real endeavor to establish a real shipping business. Wa e running it just about as you would expeet a corps of officlals to run a department store which was in the hands of a receiver and about to be closed out. “What 1 wanted to do was to go on these cargo boats, sit around the table with the officers and talk shop. In our nearly 20,000 miles, we mads most of the distance on shipboard and spent about 100 days aboard. “My conclusions are this: We are running this shipping business as if we wanted to get out. We are not running it with the idea of buflding. We are «imply pulling the bricks out of the wall, instead of putting them in the wall. And you know what sort of effect that has—how long a business is likely to last under such conditions.” - Why Shoulders Ache. 'YPISTS and musicians often get pains in their shoulders, which they diagnose as neuritis. Dr. John B. Carnett, professor of surgery at the iversity of Pennsyl vania, says the pain is caused by a deposit of lime salts that accumulates between the shoulders and arm bone on account of constant friction. @nee this deposit is located, declares Dr. Carnett, the curative treatment i8 Zfound (o be extremely simples v »