Evening Star Newspaper, October 18, 1929, Page 6

FORUM TALK TELLS - OF STUDY OF-RAYS Abbot Discusses Smithsonian Work, Crittenden Edison’s Inventions. The rays of the sun, source of all life and power on the earth, vestigations of the Smithsondan Insti- tution in this field wete the subject of an address by Dr. C. Q. Abbot, secretary of the institution, while Dr. tenden, f of the electri of the Bureau of Standards, discussed the life and inventions of Thomas A. Bdisen last night in the Natipnal Radio Forum arranged by The Star and spon< sored by-the Columbia Broadcasting Co. | Dr, Abbot told of the new work be- gun during the past Summer by the Smithsonian Institution—the study of the effect of the sun’s_rays on plants. He said as yet no man has imitated the “Nfe chemistry of radiation.” Data Long Awaited. “At the Smithsonian Institution we shall first grow some of the well known plants in closed chambers,” he said, “within which we shall regulate the temperature, the humidity, the carbonic ackd gas and the chemicais at the roots. 'With these variables controlled, we shall supply radiation from speciai electric Jamps and measure and ulate . the exact colors or wave leng! and the exact intensities of the rays required to promote ywth. The results as regards stature, f area, blossoming, seeding and gain of dry weight will be funda- | mental data such as the world has long | ‘Waited for.” After this “superficial part of the in- | vestigation,” Dr. Abbot said, it is hoped “t0 learn to imitate the reactions which light, water and carbonic acid nropa- gf in live plants.” “Later, he said, the ithsonian sclentists hope to pursue studies that may hasten the time when will be known about the effect of the sun’s rays upon diseases of the hu- man bodsy. More Than Mere Invention. Dr. Crittenden told of the importance of Edison's invention of the electric , Whose fiftieth annmversary will be celebrated on Monday. He said this golden jubilee ‘“celebrates much more the mere invention of a lamp.” “It 18 a renewed recognition,” said Mr. Crittenden, “of the man whose ge- nius more than any other bas made our industrial world what it is today.” ’ Dr. Crittenden declared that Edison, in his 60 years of invention and de- velopment, “has produced concrete re- Bults whose influence on the life £nd thought of the world we cannot yet comprehend or evaluate.” Dr. Abbot, secretary, spoke in full as ws: Except for the romantic twinkling stars, our light comes directl: directly from th only after it is first raised by the lin clouds or waves from the ocean | this Twenty years ago, Uncle Joe Cannon sald in_the appropriations the House, in his quaint stars, that are so far away that it takes light a thousand years to all abolished mdl.':ctx; “m‘-hf_’mnd mfl‘m never know memglfler- ence, but everythin, on the sun, Sherley, and ‘it o:(ht be investi- fi’.‘h'g" I think this 8 tion is all Probing Sun Rays. 8o we &t the Smithsonian Institu- have been investigating sun rays. One of our observa tordes is on & barren mountain 9,000 feet high in the nitrate and the in-|p ve the : e weather depend on these in the sun? Bummer we have started a new work at the Smithsonian, It is to study the effect of rays on plants. As & bo; p! tains only a-fortieth part of 1 per cent of this gas, but that mere trace i8 in- dispensable to all life. Without it plants could not grow and without plants animals would starve. Yet it 18 not enough to surround the plants with air. They can’ absorb its carbonic acid gas only under the influ- ente of light. Light differs in its ef- fects upon them. Everybody who has admired a rainbow knows that when sunlight shines upon a spray of water the white light breaks up into a band of colors. These run through violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow and orange, to red. Green light seems like dark- ness to the plant. It promotes no growth. Blue, indigo and violet, and to @ lesser extent orange and red rays, are able to set up a matchless chemistry in the living plant leaves, Thereby the simple molecules of water and carbonic acid are converted into the highly com- plex molecules which life requires. Regulate Temperature. As yet, no man has imitated this life chemistry of radiation. At the Smith- sonian Institution we shall first grow some of the well known valuable plants in closed chambers, within which we shall regulate the temperature, the humidity, the carbonic acid gas and the chemicals at the roots. With these variables controlled, we shall supply radiation from special electric lamps, and measure and regulate the exact colors or wave lengths and the exact intensities of the rays te*l.red to pro- 'he ' resul and gain of dry weight, mental data such as the world has long whited for. 4 ‘This s only the more superficial part of the investigation. We hope. to de- velop spectroscopic methods 0 deter- mine the structures of the 'complex molecules which constitute the sub- stance of livé plants. ~These methods will ‘measure the selective tion of certain rags in the spectrum by the spe- cial groups of atoms which are bricks, as it wete, out of which the highly complicated organic molecules containing hundreds of atoms are curi- ously built. along these spectroscopic lines, * we hope &t length to find out what happens, and to learn to imitate the reactions which light, water and carbonic acid propa- gate in live plants. New laboratories in the basemeént of the Smithsonian Bullding here at Washington are being equipped for the work by my colleague, Dr. Brackett. Others Are at Work. Other investigators are working in fleld. trying lights of different colors and different intensities and different intervals of light and darkness for several years. Dr. Garner of the Agricultutal Depart- ment at Washington is a ‘ploneer in separating the plants into long-day and short-day groups. Cui enough, some plants blossom and only while the days are short, & metely grow to leaves and stature in e, Sbatat |, b pl are exactly op] ::ld can only blossom and seed if the are long. ¥hm ate the sun-loving plants like the nasturtium and sunflower that bend their heads to follow the sun's course from morning till night. desert of Chile. - Neither bird, beast, Nothing unusual about the price, but such very unusual values! Sale of Very $2.35 Fine All-Silk Hose with New French Heels Also medium service weight silks; long silk leg; double reinforced silk lisle top. Every pair guaran- teed to holdgshape and color—and against runs. Colors: Duskee, Mnnon, Almora, Beach Tan, Sun Tan, Gun Metal, Dust Tomarrow at all the Hahn “Stoeking Shops.” 7th & K 3212 14th “Women’s Shop”—1207 F Other plants : may shut up their flowers, like th» morning-glory and primrose, or turn theit leaves edgewise to avold the sun’s most brilllant rays. ‘Tobacco growers along the Connecticut Valley have acres of cloth-shaded tobaceo because tho broad leaves grow more delicately and produce higher priced, grades under rays of less intensity. Men and animals as weli as plants depend on sun rays in mahy ways. The sun maintains the world warn. enough to live in. The sun's past or present action creates all the power we use so freely. Its chemical aetion is essential to make the plants grow which furnish the ultimate food of all animal life. By evaporating ocean water Tt quenches thirst for man, beast and plant. By filling the air with water vapor and clouds it prevents the night temperatures troQ going so low as to extinguish life, Escape Disaster. By & most curious balance of the effects of certain invisible ultra<violet sun rays we just escape disaster. The oxyge of the higher atmosphere i§ in part changed into orone by them. All of the ozone exists more than 25 miles above the surface of the earth. If it were all brought down to the surface it would make a gaseous layer only as thick as a sheet of cardboard. Yet if it were absent our eyes would be blind- ed and our skin scalded by certal business! (4) Boys’ “Gro-Nups,” black. tan or tra quality Wales oxford...$4 & $5 (C) Junior Misses’ tan lizard calf “Mid- vale” pump with center buckle..$5 “HAHN . SPECIALS” Wonderful School Shoes for very little money! Scotch grain—ex-- D. C., FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1929. Left to right: Dr. E. C. Crittenden, chief of the electrical division of the ‘l:r“:I of Standards, and Dr, C. G. Abbot, secretary of the Smithsonian Insti- —Star Staff Photo, invisible ultra-violet sun rays which this gas totally absorbs. On the other hand, If ozone absorbed sun rays just a tiny bit farther toward the visible m trum than it does, we should lose ultra-violet rays which are indispen- sable to prcvent the disease called rick- ets. I think this balance of effeet by which we escape both the Scylla of blindness and the Charybdis of rickets is one of the most extraordinary things I know of. A few days ago Dr. Price of Cleveland greatly interested the dentists' convefi- tion at Washington by some charts tending to show that vitamin D, which is principally found in milk and butter, has a maximum percentage in the dairy products of June to October in the north temperate zone and is much re~ duced in those of other months. This vitamin is essential to a propef supply of calcfum in bodily functions and par- ticularly to preserve the teeth from de« cay and disease. Dr. Price showed charts which indicate that lack of cal- clum-supplying_food in the months when vitamin D is so scanty in dairy products leads to the running down of human vitality and increases sickness and mortality, culminating in March. He maintains that it is not Wintér as a cold period, but Winter as the cause of depletion of vitaminh D, which leads to sickness, and that if the dairy ucts of Summer, which contain these substances prodticed under the vivify- Quality Added to Novelty A group of five of our better grade boys’ and girls’ shoes. of how much we put into our juvenile shoe Striking examples (B) Junior Misses’ “Gro - Nups,” new sports oxford with Kiltie tongue. Sizes 214 to 6..$6 (D) Moccasins — healthiest and sturdiest shoes for children 10 grow . up in— £3.50 to $4.75 (E) Extra quality dress or play oxfords for girl or small boy. Patents, tan or black calf or tan grain leather. “Gold Spot” soles. 8 t012...........$3.29 Spartan Sizes 7th & K 3212 14th prod- | 1ssued to ing sun are preserved and eaten dur- ing Winter it i8 unnecessary to g6 to or Southern California, ‘except for pleasure, 5 Cure for Rickets. Ultra-violet rays of wave length less than 3,050 angstroms are curative of rickets, as we have said. Ordinary win- | dow glass excludes them, which is the reason why special ultra-violet glasses are now made. However, 6 little light comes deep inte a room, unless in di- rect sunbeamis, that the transparent | glasses are of little value unless the patient is close up to the window. Some of the fats and oils otherwise useless are rendered curative of rickets if rayed upon by these ultra-violet rays. It has been observed, indeed, that to ray one part of an animal will activate the fats and oils of this class throughout his sys- Cod-liver oil is the standard rickets medicine, but the cod would develop the right kind of a liver if He was kept under window glass I do not recollect to have heard. In recent years sanitarfums have mul- tiplied whose emphasis is laid on ray- therapy. Ultra-violet and infra-red raying apparatus are marketed to sup< plement solar radiation. Although great improvement in many cases has arisen from ray-therapy, the subject fs far from having that precise experimental basis that is needed. 1t is, indeed, al- most as empirical as the old herb doc- tor's practice. conservative medi- cal men express doubt whether it is so much the rays as rest, air, good food, regular life that léad to the improve- ment noted. Also some doubt if ray ctires are permanent. ‘We hope at the Smithsonian to be able, after we gét our plant experi- ments well along, to co-operate in the effort which is beginning in several laboratories to make fundamental studles In this fléld. In other words, we hope to hasten the time when, the other variables being controlled, sci- ence will determine which rays, in what intensities and dosages, are surely useful to cure certain diseases. We Another Hahn Special “Master Style” have preferred to take up the plant problem first, because, so far as we know, plants do not get mad or wor- ried or receive bad news or stay out too late eating indigestible food. Hence the variables to be controlled with them are, as we believe, mostly obvious ones, and at least not 'so obscure as in the case of human diseases. Dr. Crittenden spoke in full as follows: On June 10, 1929, President Herbert Hoover lald the corner stone of the great building which is to be s center for the far-reaching activities of the Department of Commerce. In that cor- ner stone were placed documents in- tended to illustrate not only the work of the department, but also a ‘ew out- standing . accomplishments of the in- dustry and commerce of our time. Among these the electric lamp had the unique honor of being doubly repre- sented, for the Patent Office chose Thomas A. Edison's patent of January 27, 1880, &5 one of ten notable jatents to be included. while Postmaster Gen- eral Brown contributed postage stamps commemorate the fiftisth an- (Continued on Seventh Page.) ——— heel. You don't need to “Scotch” to see the wonderful value in this— and all other Hahn specials! Glorifying Themselves! 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