New Britain Herald Newspaper, October 11, 1930, Page 3

7 UG A I AN O AP A Ll Z N $ N N N\ N To Seek Under the Ground For BN U I N I A M0 e i : | REFRIGERATION ARPARATUS 2 A DA AT A 395021 7 g Gy ——— o Fitn it e USRI % e observatory of Harvard Uni- versity. How he seriously deep into the earth as may be found practic- able, and estab- lish subterranean laboratories along its sides to discover how and when the earth, planets and the stars origin- ated, is described in Popular Mechanics. In testing the heories adv by the 1 g scientists of the world Professor Shapley also hopes to find out how the stars are organized and stributed, the controlling’ _ fac- tors of their movements, lution and ex =nce, the stability of matter and energy and the dimensions of space. “The carrying AlR MUST BE out of such pro- TED BECAUSE | jects,” Pro- PRESSURE or Shapley, gt trice’, 88 s not beyond »fi«i modern engineer- HESEARCH LABORATORY ABOUT | 100 FEET DOWN | the ing skill, and the idea is entirely feasible and worthy of serious consideration by national govern- ments and great organizations in- terested in the ancement of “Such labora- tories would also be of great value in testing the theory that the American continents are drifting a way from the i and continen t h e Americas split away from Europe and Afri at some time in the dim ages of the past and have drifted since to their Harvard University Subterranean L Scientists Could Bodics and Also D of pointing now propo. face’” and “dig in” to solv of distant heavenly bodies. Lockéd only a couj low the su many of the r catest fing the world’s 1 2 minds, according to Shapley, director of the e Z atories 13 deter: mysteries of the earth which Courtesy of A Cross-Section Drawing of the Vertical Shaft Which Professor Harlow Shapley, Director of the Astronom ] Proposes to Sink Into the Earth, With Along the Walls in Which Test the Various Theories About Heavenly e If Reaily Is “Running Down.” nt tele- kyward toward the out- the sccrets present location, there is no reason to suppose they have stopped drifting. Never- thel the drift is so infinitesimal that it is impos- sible to deter- mine accurately* with our present equipmert. But if such a drift is go- ing on it might readily be studied from the bottom of a shaft dug a few miles into the earth. “Installation and maintenance of such a tube will He a scientific adven- ture of great difficulty and expense, but if d on in connection with ing mines and borings, it may mark the coming decade as one of the important epocl at- tempt to understand the earth. “For some years we have Popular Mechanics. cal Observatory of the Universe been “Killing” a Lump of Lead IR JAGADIS CHANDRA BOSE, the East experiments have “minds,” interesting inves Indian sci proved ations force.” Metal w a long time past that from “fatigue.” The stee railroad car may suddenly snap, ¢ that the steel brittle is found rystalline and tinual jarring. Sir Jagad: t the fatigue of me! from galvanometer te metal resembles musc sensitiveness grows le vepeated irritation. More wonderful still, he ha = fected by stimulants A dose of bromide that meta and by nar puts the human b much of its normal The parallel veen metals has been c A large dose of o human senses, but a s { them more active, Me¢ same W cotic makes irritable SN More mar syl animals, cau be % % Z %Y % % 7 metal more, ammmn . that recently concluded s on through dosc of bromide of potassium istered to a block of tin mak sitiveness. rried even f um deadens all dose ma velous still, me “killed”” by poison. A various used the galvanometer i its and less under hown ¢, and a small dose of a nar like piece of metal in a healthy condition nken and tested and shown by the zalvanometer to be in full vigor. Then it was treated with a dose of a violent poison, oxalic acid. At once there nodic flutter, then the signals vn by the galvanometer grew more and more feeble, until they almost died aw A powerful antidote was ap- plied, and slowly the metal began to recover and to record again. A rest given and, in a little time, the tal that had been poisoned returned to full activity. . When the experiment w: gnals thrown It was taken It was no al had been Jagadis varied the trying other metals, but the result was the same. ministered in time, vevived the life of the metal, but if the poisoning continued too long the metal could not be revived. It was lead! It appears t metals as used in knives, pens, motor-cars and the like— are dead, or, at any rate, in a state of coma caused by the severe treatment, the enormous temperatures and pound- which they have su ed. The iments of Sir Jagadis open up a ity that_man may be able to make use of live metals in new ways. familiar with the fact that the earth’s rotation is slowing down, that the day is getting longer, and that the moon is gradually receding from the earth about seven feet per century and our observations tend to show that our universe is running down, too. The sun is losing m at the rate of about 4,000,000 tons a second, and all the other stars are radiating their matter away at rates proportionate to their magnitude.” Laymen may not have noticed any change in the length of the day, that is, the twenty-four-hour day, but, accord- ing to Professor Shapley, it is length- ening at the rate of one-thousandth of a second a century. That may not be a fact for-anybody on earth to worry about, but the astronomer con- siders it a most important and myste- rious phenomenon, indicating the earth HE grandeur of the poet Dante’s I immortal story of his visit to hell, and of the souls of the his- torically famous and infamous damned who were being tortured there by ex- posure to the torments of the ex- tremes of ice and fire may never be surpassed. The modern scientist’s only comment upon the scene it pictures is upon the poverty of the omniscient imagination which would employ such altogether ordinary temperatures to produce the desired effects. The scientist has liquefied air by cooling and compressing it and allow- ing it to expand repeatedly. The prod- uct is a pale blue liquid which re- sembles water from a distance but has a temperature of —310 degrees. In comparison, a cake of ice is literally red hot. By a similar process applied is running down, and it naturally sug- gests the question of whether or not the universe also is running down. In Professor Shapley’s opinion, the by-products of such scientific boring into_the earth would amount to an in- vestigation of the commercial. possib! ity of tapping and utilizing the earth’s internal source of heat and a better knowledge of its mineral wealth. Connected with this problem are the perplexing wabbles of the earth, which are responsible for latitude variations. The earth’s poles wabble and wiggle to such an extent that astronomers now cannot predict in advance where the pole will be at any particular time. Ultimately they hope to be able to do so, and underground laboratories of the kind proposed by Professor Shap- ley, it is believed, would help to solve this mystery. ¢ |Extremes of HEAT and CO]LTD—} to helium he has produced a tempera- ture below —458 degrees or less than 1 degree above absolute zero, accord- ing to the Scientific American. On the other hand, going up the scale, he can burn a mixture of or- dinary illuminating gas and air in a blast lamp and obtain a temperature of 2700 degrees; with an oxy-hydrogen torch, 3600 degrees; and with an oxy- acetylene flame, 6300 degrees. The latter will cut through a quarter-inch steel plate with about the same ease that a hot knife goes through a cake of butter. Then in the electric arc he can produce temperatures which are limited only by the resistance of the furnace itself as it melts and break the circuit, the highest temperature so far being about 9000 degrees, or more than half the estimated temperature of the sun. Pointers for Bridge Players The Toy Figure of a Man Used to Indicate the Player Whose Deal Comes Next. The Device Shown Below Is Specially Designed to Enable a Card Player to Work Out Different Problems of the Game. N playing bridge with the customary two packs of cards, a question often arises as to who is the next dealer. To obviate uncertainty and dispute on this point, a Philadelphian, Samuel F. Williamson, has hit upon the idea of using on the bridge table a small toy figure, which, when placed in position, stands with one foot on the table and the other on a pack of cards. When the pack has been shuffled by ayer opposite the dealer, in the nner, the toy man is stood upon it, his right hand extended and pointing to the person whose deal comes next. The toy man cannot be made to stand up unl his elevated foot is supported by a pack of cards. Hence a neglect to place him in proper position is sure to attract immediate attention. Specially adapted for working out bridge problems is a contrivance pa- tented by Baruch B. Ma: York. Tt provides four tra to fastem them in place, have narrowed ends that are inserted beneath cr strips of leather secured to a squa trays are for the four bridge hands, and the cards are repre- sented by rectangular pieces of cellu- loid, each card-piece having a “tongue” that fits into a slit in the fabric cover of the tray. Each card-piece bears a number (or letter, as in the case of kingsend queens) and, in one corner, an indi- cator of i it. There are blank card- pieces with which to k&p tally of the number of tricks taken by each hand. Pulverized POISON to Protect HE potato bug was originally an obscure insect, unknown to fame, native to the highlands of Colorado, where it fed on a weed belonging to the potato family. When that part of the country had begun to be settled, and crops of pota- toes were grown, its big opportunity arrived. A bountiful table was thereby spread for the insect, which, with un- limited food thus provided, proceeded to multiply at a fabulous rate. From Colorado it marched eastward in vast armies, crossing big rivers and lakes on chips or whatever else would tloat. All along the way were potatoes Secrets of the Stars Ihe New ro-Pilot Which Governs the Course of a Vessel by Automatically Controlling the the Rudder. “ROBOT” Is Ship’s PILOT | HE ship’s officer in the accom- panying illustration is looking at the face of a compass, to note the course his vessel is pursuing. It is a ‘“‘gyro-compass,” and the appa- ratus, mounted on the deck of the ship, is called a “gyro-pilot.” The af- fair is a kind of robot, a “thinking machine.” The main portion of it houses an ap- paratus which indicates the the vessel. i ship are two or more of these gy compasses, for observation. They are electrically connected, by wires, to a gyro” located below decks. this master-gyro that governs the ship’s course, by controlling the rudder. If the rudder has a tendency to turn wrong, the m trically connected with it, corrects it, so that the predetermined course may be maintained. Pivoted on the top of the com face is a yoke that holds a magnif; glass, which, if desired, may be sw down into a position suitable for scan- ning the face of the compa: How “Animal” Hides Are Now Made Nearly Eight Hundred Feet Long! HAT modern science has again improved upon nature in a new field of activity is revealed in the announcement of commercial pro- duction of gigantic animal “hides” nearly eight hundred feet long. | Each of the huge hides contai leather equivalent to seventy-fi in the case of a cowhide finisl hundred and seventy-five sheep in the sheepskin group, or one thousand and cighty snakeskins in the snakeskin groups. The new product is a development resulting from scientific research in the conservation and full utilization of raw waterial. Skins and hides have been utilized by man in hundreds of ways since cave man days. But in modern mass production their use has been limited, and simultaneously been made unduly _expensive, by the natural shapes of hides. Only a portion of each hide provides the uniform quality of leather which industry requires. ~The in plenty to feed upon. In a few years it reached the Atlantic seaboard, where the ocean stopped its further advance. But 1t swarmed aboard ships at sca- ports in such numbers that hatck i to be closed. Plenty of people remember alarm caused by the potato bug a century ago. It was feared there might be no more pot: only remedy known was ars son, in the form of pari was sprinkled by hand tato plants. Arsenical poison it is economically a T upon the po- till the cure, but effectively used Newspaer Feature Seivice, 1958 L R i B A I I 1 1 PO A1 B 111 ensmi snm balance always has been largely waste. In the production of the new leather may be utilized. N er or hide cuttings are chen mechanically reduced to th fiber in a homogeneous state. stage of the process the tanning ele- ments are introduced so that the leath- er is really tanned in the fiber. The leather is then re-hided and produced in the huge “‘super-hides.” Rubber Necktie T is not much of a *“stretch” from “rubber necks” to rubber neckties. A French manufacturer is now making neckwear of rubber, which is claimed to be attractive and practical. Sheets and threads of rubber are woven together to make a material re sembling either silk or cotton at will. Any color scheme may be used upon the rubber ties, which are made both in bow and four-in-hand shapes. They are easily cleaned with soap and water. the POTATO by the " help of mechanical devices st of these is the one shown in the ture, which, it is drawn over the s by horses or by a tractor, dis- ributes poison dust in a cloud The pulverized poison is tank on the ve! discharges pipes at t panded no of the du eve animal [n- this rried in a icle, and a blower fan it through a number of e rear, terminating in ex By this means a cloud is thrown far and wide ato leaf receiving a coat of th in minute p: When the eat the poisoned ves the in sccts die and the potato crop is saved from its enemies. The Poison Dust Is Carried Tank on the Vehicle and Spr on the Plants by a Blower Fan Throush Tubes That End in Expanded Nozzles. Yo AN VNN 7 i L W, %, b o (862 i “ 4 o s 2 I i oz Z A s s iy NI I I BRI 1030 T v e o 22 2 = G, i . MWWIMMMWWMWWMW e