New Britain Herald Newspaper, January 13, 1928, Page 27

- Aviaters That Semetimes See 2 ‘mamma::m in Four Cencentric Circles, HEN Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh de- scribed at ene of the recent banquets commemorating his pioneer New York- Paris hop, how, 200 miles off the coast of Ire- land, the it of hills and beautiful trees vis- ible thuu:lfh the clouds rewarded his straining tyuihommthhdufeycwumm. “‘But a few minutes later,"’ Colonel Lindbe: continued, “this false land Jl-gmund as quick- and as mysteriously as it come; and I s o e in sigl is was phantom land that betkoned the in- trepid flier on as he viua‘ed his way across the Atlantic, ded another tmuin'{cvhlrm to the long list of Nature's own fakes, m,lurl- ous mirage, created by a combination of hea light and water to trick the eye. Constant com- panion of explorers and weird mystery to the natjve populations it visits more rarely, the mirage, through aviation, has become a less awe- some and a more familiar spectacle. Fliers voy- lfiln‘ through the vast recesses of the atmos- 5 ere -describe mivages such as that which olonel Lindbergh saw, and others that would have filled folk of earlier times with dread. By careful observation, they hiave helped solve many « greund. MIRAGES to FOOL o{' the riddles that surround these remark- Stance, have been known to accompany aviators iu::?frfll::hfinmfi.cbm = » said vistor who served with tlum:‘lnu ufl:‘u‘:‘-"hfld Wu.."vhenw K‘hncmr?olnufluclcut,'l the sun be- ind me and the upper air clear, I a d plane thir mough know it tion of this &Eunnum;cn which-H. C. in Popular Science Menthly. “A mirage,” says Mr. North, “Is caused by ab- normal stmospheric conditions which you your- self can &r:duu. The sheet of water the exhausted traveler sees on the arid desert is an actual image which has been !:od. The s of light comin W h‘:{o be:;?nt from h and a f the sky the Since the sky resembles water in ap- Ppearance the reflection is mistaken for s lake. “Light rays ave bent, or refracted, whenever the EYE they pass threugh layers of alr of different densities or weights,. You have probably ob- served the phenemenen of refraction thousands passing thought. s m& h:l‘;g:y below the ap- nys have from vna: ng your eye. Because wa ave of different weight, T8ys are & their normal ht path and that stick beneath the water appears to “rully is not—a few inches above its jon. “Cool alr, heavier than warm air, behaves like 'nln in the illustration Just g:nn. Rays of passing from one to the are bent in same way. That ylelds the whole explana- mirages. Whenever peculiar atmospheric ons exist that produce air layers of widely rent temperature, things are set for a - £ le, the het sand L) dese! lor example, ot san causes ?.mllo;" layer of fl:unux hot air. 5 air is'normally cool. And the wan- erer perceives distant hr:: that rise above the herison in what Doars to be s Toker but s setonly she o e How Appetizing MEALS Are Now SERVED on AIRPLANES companies in Amer ica will soon have a new problem confronting them. The time is not far distant when they will have Witk welght. such- s facker such & T, will & combination ' chef- waiter be carried, or will the mechanism wipe the grease from his hands and crawl back {?m his enekplthto 3 serve the ngers when the noon’whmbl‘:mf Wwill the company ‘which pioneers with a regular serial restau- Witk ‘aitway i wi way dinl ex- perience wy-nwdm this new department or will the first Job go to a caterer who specializ in _hot meals elivered to the home? M Until planes are built with N more commodious quarters for passengers, in all like- lihood travelers via the air will have to content them- selves with box lunches, Big- er planes will not come un- | the public has become “air-minded” through the success of present passenger services. The 'problem in feeding air- ;hne assengers during this period of transition 'rom the era when the puun*er is & supercargo to that in which he travels de luxe is how to give him the most substantial meal consistent with least possible weight. De;riu shrieks of protest from narrow-minded dieticians, roughage will have no part in the airplane diet, e human conatitution will not be damaged by its omission for several meals the passenger will take b'em.ll':i the Ill;:o 'l"lli(h‘lx elt:'uccnf-rl foods wil called upon 0 There are en {fooda caloric content an C OMMERCIAL afrplane durl ekt and, Doese. il will be inactive and there wi bc'no need u.bufld e which is the work of the foods of high protein. > In fancy one sees the passenger of the next year or two arriving at the airport for sn unin- HE nursery nowadays is to some extent a 300, and it is very desirable that a toy ani- : mal, especially if a dog, shall be able to wag its tail. To meet this requirement, a New York man, Otte R. Starke, has invented a device which, lacking & better word, may be called a wagger. In the body of the stutfed animal is mounted a motor with a £ i oF ¥ ller whirling like the feet. Pulling back and forth drives the vehicle by and sproket chain connected to the p of Air Partaking of & “Plane” Lunchoon, Which P““w.d or'nh'flo.:d s 'l‘rlple-Eind Airplane as It Flew Over Washington, Co Receatly, Wkl Was terrupted flight of some nine or ten hours. He and his few pounds of baggage are weighed. He signs whatever ’.fi" are necessary, Then he Ppasses a table on which, under glass, sre displayed several different duncheons from which he is to make his choice. He selects the one which he thinks will most tickle his te, and & boxed lh‘lmchm .corresponding to the display is handed m. Since education in matters pertaining to diet 15 till n its infancy, it will be hecossary to have sandwiches with white bread to met the demands of the ignorant. But there will be luncheons with whole wheat bread for those who know food values. For those who are “sold” on a meat diet there will be meat sandwiches, minced meats being used because they can be mixed with condiments as taste-teasers and spread the bread more satisfactorily. Butter and cheese will also re as i ients of sandwiches. Both are high in nutritive value, Convenience is another factor which deter- mines the type of meal. This makes bread and meat as & sandwich the obvious thing. Another obvious_component of every lunch {u will be fruit. For this item the banana is highly con- venient, being in a germ-proof package from which it can easily be eaten. Another thing in its {avor is its substantial food value. . WHile other fruits are nearly nine-tenths water, the banana is one-fourth solids. It has more calories per {:und than other fruits and surpasses most vege- bles. In fuel or enerq it exceeds the potato by about 20 per cent. Yor this reason and be- cause it is 80 easily digested it is highly popular with channel swimmers, long distance bicycle racers and lxn'ofeumnul aviators on long flights. What liquids will be furnished with these meals depend |3nm weight and conveni- ence. If vacuum bottles. are prohibited, this rules out hot tea or coffee. Milk makes an ideal drink since a bottle of milk and a banana make what scientists call a perfect meal. The recent velopment of dry ice as a commercial Pproposi- tion makes ice cream a certainty as a dessert. It is also high in food value. ch enger will be provided with paper napkins and will eat directly from his individual lunch box. He will h: n for his ice cream which he will eat from :Z paper container. It will be only a few years, however, before ::n -eluonid l‘lir 'tnnvielelrm ridcni %n ifl; clkhln in e wing of a giant airplane look back upon these early days of passenger service above ?in earth and tell cautious souls who waited for him to blase the trail how “primitive’ conditions were when he first dese terra firma for swifter travel across the empyrean. A BOX for Shipping CLOTHING is the invention of Walter H. Batts, of Grand Rapids, Mich. Being made of stout r stock, it is light in weight, yet stro: and ds.r::le. ltkfl lmlllal dul:n‘gd 1!: lll"‘:; coats, which are placed in the box on hangers. The ends of the box are bent around into engagement with the sides and secured thereto by rivets. A cover, of a length corresponding to that of t : box, (-elmdbymmo a flap which overlies an end of the body of the box and is fastened thereto by rivets. At the .mnm -;::flol ta:bu is & short cover-piecs, hi bya similar flap. When 51. box is closed, the short cover-pioce is shut down, and then the 'lull-lonnl: cover, over A CONVENIENT box for shipping clothing it. Both the short cover and the long one have side flaps to reinforee the sides of the iax Thus both the ends and sides of the box are in effect double-walled. At each end of the box are two slots for the reception of loop-shaped hanger hooks. To these hooks ordinary clothes-hangers are attached, the suits or coats being hung ufin the latter in the usual way when stowed inside the box. The hanger hooks project outside the ends of the box, and are held securely b passing (at each end of the box) a flat m bar through them, the bar having one end bent at right angles to engage the cover as well as the end of the box. oees the trees, and the aky, twice—once by di- rect vision, and n by other rays that would or- dinarily strike the ground but are upward again h* the warm air layer. The last set are the ones that produce the ‘lake’ and its reflections.” Professor R. W. Wood, of Johns Hopkins Uni- versity, constructed an apparatus to produce such a mi in his laboratory. A flat sheet stecl surface is sprinkled with sand to prevent reflection. At one end a mirror, mounted so that it comes down to the level of the sanded surface, reflects the sky to an observer at the opposite end. In front of the mirror a utdbou:ehtin of mountains is placed. When the amall “desert” is heated with Jets beneath it, one can see what pears to be a glittering pool in the sand, in which are re- flected inverted mountains. The gas-heated layer of air near the -vrlu?e, with the cool air above, acts in the same way as the sand-heated l.irpo! 'I.I\e d,:ull-lt. Tiige bt ot ‘eople who live on or near a of water are almost sure to see a nur:':n on cold Autumn mornings. This, it is explained, is be- oause in the Fall the water retains the heat from the sun throughout the night, and in the morning after a clear night, it will be several warmer than the air. Consequently a thin stratum of adjacent sir iz heated above the normal temperature, giving the same conditions as observed in a desert mirage, If you are near a lake on some erlsp morning, look at objects on the opposite shore, with your eyes not more than three feet above the fevel of the water. Almost immediately you will be aware of a slight quivering of the trees and land- scape, and then some of the objects will seem elongated and appear to dance. The motion is due to slight variations in the heat which bend the light n{n irregularly. The elongation is really an indistinct double image, which seientists know is caused solely by the pranks of the heated air. If you can detect in this elongation one up- right true image and one inverted image, you have seen an inferior mirage. Explorers often see the mountains upside down eye, constructed for vision at great dis- tances. The photograph printed here- with gives & vivid idea of the size of such an eye, though it represents only the object lens ’ TELESCOPE is in effect an enormous How Trees Rid Themselves of Leaves HE popular supposition is that trees shed their leaves in the Autunin because 6f the cold and the strength of the wind. at all to do with to the discoveries of scientists. A the moisture and chemicals which the roots draw from the soil. These, forming vh-thullcd-p,cu to the stem and are carried to the branches, txp and leaves. Each leaf has on it 8 number of pores, which to late the evaporation of . In very hot weather they osed; in damp weather they are wide m ed'l'he giving off olp the excessive moisture lon. In the Winter, when the srcund is hard, the roots find their task iding sustenance for icult one, and naturall: what is provided must not be wasted. To chec transpiration, the tree must rid itself of its leaves, and it does o, but, as science explains it, it does not rely on frost or wind to remove its foliage. It does the job itself. If you look at a twig from which a leaf has just fallen, you will see a scar, semi-circular in shape, with ive or seven dots on it. These dots represent the sealed-up ends of the food-con- ducting vessels, or veins, from the stem to the leaf. "j“‘l’nis ,c;r is mu‘l,e be(l:u th’lul falls, llllw‘d 5 in,” formed a layer of special cells, :orkc;" h\ltenure, is lll’; conn{rumd at the base of the leaf stalk. The leaf then falls by its own weight, the “curtain” forming a complete shield th nd. l"'g'm: &‘;:u"'fi is to 51 iaet of the ves, these cha n r from rreen 1::::;, yellow, or ln:: The greenness of the leaf is due to 3 substancercontained in the cells of the leaves. But as nutriment is withdrawn the sub- stance breaks up, bringing the change of color. i Morgana, the Fameus Mi; r'fi:fliuwlrnnluhmdllr Oneoh fymirage may sTve 8 ed Captain k!?n.vodu :umcnn. ce of a portion of the Ant- arctic which was even without the vange of his telescope. From observations of an high in the air of mountains extending Mount , he eoncluded the Beotie deduction was sroved somceate by L] ncn when in 1911 he made his sensational for the Pole. miles away. As he ced to examine they ne:lx. ing lower and lower until they sank below the horison. Miles of mm" revealed the “bold cliffs” to be only low m: banks until they apparently rose like heris ‘condtion roqaeetly ekt cnall’ c eondition uently makes gppur like huge Tolwldc; or high pinnacles. ‘How a TELESCOPE LENS Is Made of a great telescope. The glass is twenty-six and @ half inches in diameter. o The building of such a telescope is very ex- pensive, chiefly because of the difficulty of ll;:lub the lens with mathematical accuracy. takes time, needless to ullc’:-r mmml' m'lury -ult‘d'mn are lovu”' mtluuun&!n first-class lens-makers in the world, and they conmmand high il St hy [ ;.umvu che: y i ser:efiubh rlm. Even so, after n spent in sdndlng the fenl, volofl.mung its rejection lens shown is for a tale- scope, and was made at Newcastle-on-Tyne for the astronomical observatory at Johannesburg, South Africa. Most of the great to the doos not require the mathematical exactness is indis l"-qnlsla in & refracting lens, be mm tly larger. Necessarily, the lens greater the difficulty rn o] lulk exact. huge reflecting of the Mount Wilson Observatory, near Calif., has & mirror 100 inches in diameter, Carrier and Cover for bined to house the tire completely and in such a way as to protect it against weather and seepage of dust in & device invented by John H. Buffington and Lincoln L. Whiteon, of Holly- wood, Calif. The tire can be easily inserted or removed, snd means are provided to prevent it from rattling inside the carrier. The lower half of the earrier is i which is rigidly fastencd at the rear or Har ol an automobile by brackets. The upper half is in two sections, which are hinged in such wise only to be thrown back in erder to be inserted or taken out, When the tire has been inserted, the twe sections are closed together, com it. The edges of those sections, v‘my in closed position, have flanges, which, ating with_each other and werhp‘l a waterproof and duntgmf Jjoint, edges meet the lower half o op sdge oF tha halt, g of V] hfll ‘t’huen eln'l.“er, l;’ n ainst rain. Eevenud from rattling ld it securely against “ ”v". 3 'wl i il . y ’5 ) il €. J‘) i ,