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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Clinton News Record, 1942-04-16, Page 6PAGE 6 THE CLINTON NEWS -RECORD THURS., APRIL 16,`1942' ,SOUTHERN IRELAND, GREEN AND NEUTRAL, LIVES IN'O'ON- STANT FEAR, OF INVASION (Continued f,tom page 2) arrived. There was no food. Asked why they didn't come on Friday, the colonel Asad it rained that day, so. they postponed the exercises. Appar- ently the Irish don't realize yet that modern wars don't stop because it rains. But though De Valera may speak of repelling any enemy, the people of Ireland know their danger, and. ad- mit frankly that they themselves are helpless to meet it. talked with two mothers at' the golf course, and ,asked if I thought Hitler was going to attack Ireland. I wasn't very ful. One of them, said she had little boys at` home. 1 they hope - three British third in the s the burin_.. he had n, The What with a ing of it be- mmodate broad The t too ng, in after - d talk d eom- sh vil- young planes s quite He had I don't seppose ;anything as lovely as Adare "just happened:" I suspect that many Earls of Dunraven poured the profits of their Welsh mines into this village. I know that they rebuilt two, of the ancient abbeys, presenting one to the Catholics and the other perous." to the Anglicans. And they laid out' their "demesne" so that there were views down elm -lined streets and past thatched cottages, with honeysuckle growing up the walls. I even suspec- ted that the old thatched cottage that stood directly across the way from the irin .could never have attained that appearance of extreme age and yet be so well kept, without being planned that way. 'The constable a veteran:' of ,the last war, said that 150,000 men from Southern .Ireland are in the Active ,Forces. They slip away to Ulster to see' a football game and for- get to come back. And down in the village pub one. night, Grattan O'Leary of Ottawa, a pure blooded Irishman of the generation in Canada, steeped lore and poetry of Ireland; waxed eloquent in our last night in the oil- lage. He :said that Hitler wa' Cromwell of today, going about ing churches. I aniseed that speech, but I Info* how eloquent Grattan can be and I wasn't surprised that the men of Adare all anxious to en- list at once against this modern de- , stroyer e-,stroyer of religion. The Most Picturesque Village I have said that the village consta- 'ble thought Adore the most beautiful spot in all the world. That statement needs to be amplified.. The bus that took us to Adare drew up in front of a picturesque in Dunraven Arms, the sign said. a tiny hamlet like Adare did inn like that was 'someth a mystery until. I learned that longed to Lord Dunraven and was used in peacetime to acco his hunting parties. New it houses the passengers flying over the Atlantic. In the pages of its register there are many famoat names inn was comfortable and no modern. Its lounge was full of easy chairs' and chesterfields.' Sitti front of a peat fire, waiting for noon tea and cakes, one coul with ferry pilots, with men who knew Bagdad and Singapore and court pare . their airfields with LaGuardia and, Oroyden. Isi that little Irl lage, I was surprised to meet a American pilot, now taking across the Atlantic, who wa familiar with the landmarks of my own little town of Fergus. flown over it often, Record Making Delicate Work; Gold Plated. Heat is necessary to record mak- ing, but' never afterward. A disk starts with a round metal plate, one- half inch thick and slightly larger than the record will be when -fin- ished. It is heated and a thin lay- er of wax flows on to be cooled care- fully and passed on to the recording room. . The sound picked up by mi- crophones and converted into elec- trical energy by amplifiers piped into the room is changed back into mechanical energy and impressed on the thin layer of wax by the cutting head. The waxed plate is put on a machine under a vacuum and the recorded surface•is covered with a very thin layer of gold. It is now a metal plate with a layer of wax containing music cuts and the surface is gold plated. It is put into a copper -sulphate solution for 16 hours and a heavy copper plate put over the gold. This copper -plate is lifted away from the wax and the inside surface is gold with an oppo- site impression of music. The disk is nickle plated, then chrome plated to make the grooves more rugged. It now is ready to be put on a press. Then the label is set in the cen- ter, the ,mass of the formula is put on the disk and it is heated to 300 degrees. The press is closed by hand and opened immediately. The finished record then is ready to play. But before it is played on your phonograph, brush off the carbon dust with a velvet buffer or a soft hair brush like you use on your felt hat. the News in General Scientists 'Hunting' For Four -Leaf Clovers Hunting four-leaf clovers may not be a silly occupation, after all. It is now revealed that scientists with as many as three college degrees have been hunting them and experi- menting with them for some time. If the four-leaf trait in white clo- ver can be "tied up" with greater resistance against prolonged dry spells or with higher clover tonnage per acre, then the farmers they are trying to benefit will be lucky in- deed. The four leaves can be seen; while these more, practical traits can not, and if these characteristics or other valuable ones can be associ- ated and the plant persuaded to breed true, then the plant geneti- cists will score another triumph over thin soil. Up to date, planting seed from such plants has been no guarantee of four -leafed progeny. On the oth- er hand, you can get large num- bers of plants of the coveted form; if you make stem cuttings 'in the way you make rose cuttings. First, choose a plant having large numbers of four -leaflet Ieaves (some have more than others). You may take a piece of the creeping stem having one node (or buried nitro- gen storage -plant), but it is best to take a cutting with two nodes. Plant it in fertile soil with the proper amount of moisture and these condi- , tions probably will yield more lucky - numbered leaves. Commercial use is already being made of this infor- mation. Quart Milk Without Cost Each. Day Defense Move Declaring that 38 per cent of the first 1,000,000, draftees were declared unfit for military duty, largely be- cause of malnutrition, W. D. Dob- bins, a Birmingham real estate man, is steadily building support for a plan under which every child in the nation, under 14 years of age, would receive a quart of milk each day without cost. The Dobbins proposal, which be hopes to have introduced in con- gress as soon as some difficulties are ironed out, provides for an ini-, tial federal appropriation of $800,- 000,000 to start operation of the plan —which he characterizes' as a de- fense move. Dobbins cited figures showing that 26 per cent of the nation's 45,000,000 school children are undernourished and liable to serious mental or phys- ical illness. He would have the department of agriculture issue "white stamps sim- ilar to food and cotton stamps now being used, with which those un- der 14 could purchase not more than rte Crippled Children Are Aided by Modern Surgery Magic, in the guise of modern surgery and the ancient craft of brace making, is reality to Iowa's crippled and deformed children who have been patients at the Uni- versity of Iowa Children's hospital. Here, under the genius of Dr. Ar- thur Steindler, regarded as promi- nent in this work, -a laboratory has been built that ranks with the na- tion's best in orthopedic work, Here children Who were hopelessly des- tined to go through life with crip- pled arms or legs, or a deformed foot, are walking and playing just the same as their more fortunate playmates. For those who are not, and can- not be completely cured, there is re- lief or permanenthelp of a nature that lessens the burden of a physical drawback that might have kept them away from society as a whole. Dr. Steindler began orthopedic work here even before the children's hospital was built. He commuted to. Iowa City from Des Moines twice weekly to see patients and perform operations. The department was established one quart of milk a clay. His slogan is: "A quart of milk a here in 1919' when the children's day per child will make the cheeks hospital—one &of fou•r state operated of American children rosy 'the pas- hospitals at the university—was con - tures green and the farmers pros- strutted. Whether the cottage was old or not, there were plenty of authentic ruins. The ancient stone bridge over the Maigue river had been there for:- six orsix hundred years or more. No two of its seven arches quite matched the others in size or curvature ,though they had, stood through the centuries. Beside the river, just upstream from the bridge, were the ruins of Desmond castle. I .liked them best of all, In the library of the inn, I found a book with the plans of the castle, dating back to about 1100. From in- side those walls, many a Fitzgerald or Desmond sallied forth to terrorize the country'sid'e, Enough is left' to be _ able to see all the rooms of the old castle, with the help of Lord Dun. - raven's little signs on the wall, and thte use of a bit, of imagination. One rainy afternoon, I climbed to the top of the tower, looking out through the loop -holes where archers once shot their arrows—and ,stories like Ivan- hoe, that I hadn't read since high s:ehool days, came' crowding hack. I. plucked a tiny fern out of a crack in the rock and put it inside an envelope in my pocket. Back home, three weeks later, 1 found it, all died out, but when it was planted again, it grew. 'Lincoln Also Spoke' In Hanover, Pa., a shaft was re- cently unveiled of Mary Shaw. The name is unfamiliar to most persons, but to her belongs the distinction of being one of the very few persons who had the power of analysis to acclaim- the Lincoln Gettysburg ad- dress ddress, a great speech. While other reporters fell into the mistake of playing up the "orator of the day" and paraphrased a race track expression by adding, "Presi- dent Lincoln also spoke," Mary Shaw, a reporter on the Hanover, Pa., Spectator, reported what Lin- coln said, word for word. Below her likeness is this inscrip- tion: "Her firsthand report of Lin- coln's Gettysburg Address bore wit- ness to its greatness. In her ac- count for the Hanover Spectator she garnered Lincoln's words from his. own lips. She helped the world to. long remember. Her fellow towns- men pay this belated tribute to her courage, enterprise and foresight that we may never forget." There was just one thing in &dare that didn't seer" to fit in the picture. That was the nmrsor house, itself. It dates back 90 years or so, and looks !somethitng like a wedding cake. On the front walls an inscription -which went something like this: "This goodly house was built without sell- Wing; or, borrowing, or going irs debt." And fortunately, I thought the goodly house is well' hidden from view from the rest of Adare. Perhaps, if you're Irish, you know the peon. by Gerald Griffiths: "Ohl Sweet Adare! Oh lovely vale! Oh! (soft retreat of sy'l'van splen= dour! ,; Nor summer sun nor 'morning gale E'er hailed a scene' more softly tender ." Laps Up Blood Some members, of the bat family will eat fruit or bugs. In fact, the biggest bats in the world—the giant fruit bats of Java—have no interest in a blood diet. This is fortunate for the natives, for these bats meas- ure three feet and more across their wings. There is many a legend about the vampire bat, and not all of' these tales are true. One persistent bit of lore is that the creature is a blood sucker. This is wrong. The vam- pire literally laps up blood with a tiny and amazingly efficient tongue. This tongue flicks back and forth at high speed when the flesh of the vic- tim has been punctured and takes up the blood so fast that it seems the eating is done by sucking it up. Labels Help Identify A helpful idea at canning time is to label jelly glasses, fruit jars and other containers with the name of the contents and the date -of prepa- ration. Then it is always easy to identify and select whatever is want- .:d off the shelves. One of the easiest ways is to hold the paper label on the jar with trans- parent adhesive tape which seals tightly at' a 'touch of the finger and requires no moistening. This tape is transparent as glass so the label is easily read and is also protected. against stain or dust. Tape and label are readily removed when de- sired. • Many housewives also label their storeroom shelves in the same way. Facts About Vinegar Vinegar has a long and ancient history as a staple condiment in cookery and pickling. And at this time, it assumes prime importance, when pickles and spice, and every- thing nice, are being canned and packed, and when the directions "bottle and seal" are daily pass- words in the kitchen. In countries of older civilization, where the mild climate favored grape -raising and hence wine -mak- ing, vinegar was most easily se- cured by allowing a natural sour- ing process .to wine, with resulting internationally common "wine vine- gar." But in more northern coun- tries, where neither grapes nor ap- ples grew ' in abundance, vinegar was brewed from barley malt, or, from the malt of other cereals, and thus gave the cook a darker, more beer -flavored "malt vinegar." In America today cider vinegar made from cider or apple juice has become a standard household prod- uct, Uncle Sam Thinks Four- Leaf Clovers Are Lucky You may have wondered why if you. find one four-leaf clover you will soon find another nearby, as likely as not. If these leaves were traced back to their creeping stems they would be found usually to orig- inate ` in one plant. But here is another odd point: .if the whole plant, tremendous roots and all,. were unearthed and separated from other plants it would probably re- veal some leaves divided into three, some into four, and some into five, six, or even seven leaflets. A public exhibit in the patio of the U. S. Department of Agriculture building in Washington will set forth these findings. • But the gospel of clover for luck, beginning ages ago, has long been preached by our agricultural ex- perts. For instance, in 1936 clover - and -prosperity meetings were held in 114 Missouri counties. In that year in Alabama more than 8,000,- 000 pounds of clover and other win- ter -legume seeds were planted. The benefits to the farmer include enriching the soil for subsequent crops when the clover, roots and stubble, or "green manure" is turned under the sod, and providing excel- lent pasture for livestock. In Vir- ginia the regular turning under of one variety of clover for five years increased the annual corn yield from a maximum of 18 bushels per acre to 50 bushels. Similar results in' various states prove that the farmer who plants .clover can grow his, own luck. $200,000 Worth of Worms From Maine Clam Flats Clatnworms and bloodwarms, close to $200,000 worth, will be dug from Maine clam flhts by the time the fishing season generally ends. Harvesting of these species which are sold as an A-1 bait mostly for sports fishermen in metropolitan areas was originally limited to clam flats between Biddeford Pool and Boothbay harbor. Now it has ex- tended to the easternmost bounda- ries and on every clam flat scores of men are making a living digging worms. There are two kinds, sandworms and bloodworms. Nobody knows just why they are called clamworms for there is no evidence that clams feed upon them or that they feed on clams. They are most plentiful, however, in clam flats and that may be why they got the name, Most of them .are as big around as ;a fountain pen and from eight inches to a foot and a half. This ' worm has a horned black head, ser- rated sides like fine saw teeth and may be found at a depth from two inches to two feet. The. captured worms are packed in seaweed or wet mosses about 500 to a box, and are shipped daily by railway express or by motor truck. The shippers received from three to four cents apiece while the fisher- men will pay as high as 10 cents a Worm. One worm may be cut up into pieces an inch long and it is the most effective bait known. New Method for Testing Heart, Told by Doctors How the heart is made to reveal its pathological secrets by the use of saccharin and ether was related to western area doctors by Dr. Hor- ace B. Cates of Los Angeles. The test, he said, is made to as- certain if there is heart failure, which to the medical man means I improper blood pumping rather than, as laymen use it, heart stop- page. Saccharin, or a sugar solution, is injected into a vein of the arm, under this method, he said, and a stop watch held on the patient. The sweet substance must then,' in the normal course of functional! activity, pass through both sides of 1 the heart and the lungs to emerge on the tongue, where the patient can taste it. "In this way we can tell how fast the blood is flowing, with the normal being about 15 seconds from arm to tongue," Dr. Cates said. "This time will go up to 20 or 30 seconds if the heart has failed." But, he continued, the area of disease can be even more isolated by the subsequent use of an ether injection. Saccharin or sugar, being not eas- ily soluble, passes over the whole route from arm to heart, to lungs and to the tongue. But ether, being highly volatile, or easily converted from liquid to gas, is completely volatized when it gets through the heart to the lung, escaping through the windpipe there so the patient can smell it. Identify New Stars Comparison of photographs has brought out of hiding 24 faint little stars, now identified as members of the Pleiades constellation, Dr. Adri- an Van Maanen of Mount Wilson observatory, California, announced recently. Although the Greeks, who named the constellation, called it the Seven Sisters after the Iegend of the seven Pleiades sisters and their mother, who escaped the pursuit of Orion by becoming stars, the group con- tains at least 211 known stars, the astronomer said. The most bril- liant, Alcyone, is about 1,000 times as bright as the sun and some of the newly added are 1,000 times as faint Dr. Van Maanen compared recent photographs of the Pleiades with. plates taken 15 to 19 years ago and identified as Pleiadesians those stars which had changed position in the interval. Blue Eyes Straightest A soldier with blue eyes can shoat straighter than his brown -eyed com- rades, on the average, according to officers of the United States marine. . corps. If this is so it might give this nation at least one important advantage in any shooting war with Japan or Italy. A survey shows that some two-thirds of our marines are blue-eyed. A brown -eyed marks- man, it is said, is likely to be both- ered by shifting lights and shadows or drifting clouds. He may make a , fine score under the most favorable conditions, but his aim tends to ' waver When heat waves make the target dance. Plutonic Stone Quarry Discovered by Chemists Vitamin E Curbs Muscle * Diseases, Claim Doctors I The synthetic production of a water-soluble form of vitamin E, re- 1 cently found helpful in the treatment , of some diseases of the muscles, was reported before the closing ses- sions of the National Academy of Sciences. The new form of vitamin E was described by Prof. Lee Irwin Smith of the University of Minnesota. Natural vitamin E is soluble only in fat and therefore must be adminis- tered by injection in order to be properly absorbed by the body. The fact that the new synthetic form can be made to dissolve in water by the addition of a drop or two of hydrochloric acid, it was pointed out, provides for the first time a vitamin E •which can be taken orally. Studies which determined for the first time the exact wave -length bands in the ultra -violet radiations of the sun which produce cancer of the skin by overexposure were re- ported by Drs. H, P. Busch and B. E. Kline of the University of Wis- consin. It has been known fpr some time that over-exposure to sunlight is an important casual agent in cancer of skin, The high incidence of skin cancer in sailors, the report stated, "has long been known, and nearly 50 years ago 'seaman's skin' was described as a precancerous condi- tion attributable to continued expo- sure to light." • Exploitation of a quarry near Corona, Calif., said to contain a very fine-grained plutonic rock of exceptional purity and hardness, will be undertaken by a Los Angeles group, according to a chemist's re- port. . Ground to various sizes, the rock is adaptable for all purposes where stone, cement or concrete is used, engineers declare. Unlike concrete, It is not a conglomerate of many minerals, the component parts of which may not conform harmoni- ously to change in temperature, moisture, etc., • and break up and crack. Weathering is believed to strengthen its durability. Authority for this analysis is E. A. Bruder, agricultural chemist, Los Angeles. In the survey and labora- tory experiments he was aided by other interested geologists and en- gineers. More than $100,000 is to be spent for mining equipment, trams, crush- ers, grinders, laboratories and other buildings, Bruder declared. Quar- t rying, crushing and grinding costs ! are estimated at 85 cents a ton, and the survey reveals more than 244,000,000 tons positively in sight, he said. The chemist visions use of the rock above and underground for foundations, dikes, wharfs, roads, airport runways and for other con- struction projects designed to last` centuries. 'Ersatz' Rubber There are no illusions about meet- ing our rubber requirements through synthetics alone. The producing of sufficient "ersatz rubber" to satisfy the smallest part of our needs is still in the . dream stage. In 1939 less than 2,000 tons of the artificial product were manufactured, and in 1940 the amount was not.materi- ally increased. It was, predicted that the United States in 1941 would be manufacturing 35,000 tons of synthetic rubber. But we are far, very far, indeed, at this date, from such a goal. And in connection with synthetic rubber the thing to remember is that right now we need not less than 850,000 tons of rubber a year! Even when the thoughts of war were far removed from our minds we needed around 600,000 tons, prac- tically all of which went into manu- facturing 58,000,000 automobile tires and 52,000,000 inner tubes yearly. Seven Out of Fifty Occasionally we see a person with a small . dark disc cin' his ear, and know he is deaf, but for each such person, there are dozens who should have a hearing aid. The dozens who do not have the aid may not real- ize that they have become deaf, as the condition developed so gradually as to : make them unaware of it. Others realize their condition, but are foolishly sensitive about wear- ing something that will help them again catch the full sound of the world's voices. One young person out of '75 has difficulty hearing in church, at lectures, and dinner ta- ble conversation. Among persons over 50, every seventh one has simi- lar hearing difficulty. Date Seed Will Always Originate New Variety Due to the fact that a date seed will always originate a new variety but never reproduce its kfpd, the only way to perpetuate a variety is to propagate its offshoots. A date palm produces at, or near its base, 5 to 25 offshoots or suckers during the first 10 or 15 years of its life. These offshoots are cut from the parent palm when they have devel- oped a root system of their own and are planted 48 females and 1 male palm per acre. The female palms bear the fruit which will mature and ripen only if the flowers are fertilized with pollen from the bloom produced by the male palms. The male flower alone has fragrance, attracting bees, so that it is necessary to collect its pol- len and pollinate each female bloom by hand—a task beginning in Feb- ruary and lasting until May. This is closely followed by thinning and sup- porting the fruit bunches. Later, each bunch is covered with paper pro- tectors to guard against rain—their worst enemy. From September until Christmas the fruit is picked once a week. Inasmuch as all the dates on a cluster do not ripen at the same time, they must be picked individual- ly. A cluster cannot be cut in a bunch like bananas. After the fruit is picked, it is thoroughly cleaned, graded and packed under the most sanitary conditions. When Cats Are Sick When your cat backs away from his food, first examine his teeth. He may have an ulcerated or broken tooth that makes it painful to eat, and cats are averse to pain. If you find something wrong with his teeth, have the veterinarian take care of them. If his teeth are all right and he seems well, wait a couple of days for his appetite to come back. Check on him to see if he is constipated and, if so, give him a generous tea- spoon of mineral oil on a flaked sar- dine and follow this with milk of magnesia twice a week. Continued refusal to eat, partieu- larly if accompanied by fever, dull- ness and roughened fur, is a mat- ter for the veterinarian. Of course, cats sometimes become bored with. what they are fed and want a change. Old cats frequently become choosy. In that event tempt them with something dainty and nourish- ing, chicken meat, beef juice, what- ever they fancy. Sometimes a cat's lost appetite is restored by a raw chicken head with the feathers left on but the bill cut off. Status of Danzig A thousand years ago Danzig was a peaceful Polish fishing village, Gyddanizc, at the mouth of the Vis- tula river. Pomeranian dukes cap- tured and fortified the city in 1150 it was returned to Polish domina- tion in 1282. Teutonic knights seized the city in 1308, but their rule lasted only , until 1466 when the territory was returned to Poland. In 1772, when. Poland was partitioned for the first time, Germanyabsorbed the hinter- land but left the city more or less free. But in the second Polish par - tion in 1793, Germany absorbed the city as well. Napoleon restored Danzig to free city status for the seventh change. In 1814 it was returned to Germany and remained a part of the German empire until World war treaties made it Poland's outlet to the sea. 'Bends' Cure Planes soon will fly at heights of eight miles or more—hut medical science has come to the aid of men who pilot planes and whowill be subject to "bends," cramps induced. by such altitudes. Dr. Walter M. Boothey of the Mayo's aviation medicine research laboratory said that 'increased: pre- cautions for the safety of pilots would be needed. Medical science already has de- creed preliminary .decompression of all high' altitude fliers before they take off. New types of oxygen masks have been developed also, he said. A Distillation Points Distillation range tests provide an indication of the volatility of a gaso- line. Volatility should be such that the engine will start easily, warm up quickly, accelerate satisfactor- ily, operate without crankcase dilu- tion and be free from vapor lock, The 10 per cent point in the dis- tillation test is the point at which the temperature shown has evap- orated 10 per cent of the gasoline. This point is used in determining the ease of starting the engine. Low temperatures at this point in- dicate quick starting,. This 10 per cent point is also used, together with the 'vapor pressure, to estimate the tendency to vapor lock. A low temperatuue .combined with a '.high vapor pressure, may cause vapor lock, particularly in warm weather. Savoy Popular Name The popularity of "Savoy" as a name for motion picture houses in the United States traces back to the Duchy of Savoy in France, though it comes indirectly through the theater of that name in London's Strand;; says a National Geographic society bulletin, England's Henry III in 1236 had married a niece of Peter of Savoy, to whom the English king gave a palace on the banks of the Thanes. It- later was the site of the Savoy 'hospital. A theater built in this vicinity was given the name ,"Savoy," and was long the scene of the .Gilbert and., Sullivan light operas: Cleansers Classified; Dry or Liquefying Type Today's many excellent cleansers. are sharply classified into two types: one for the dry skin; one for the oily. Best for the dry skin is thec old a cream -full-bodied but soft, fairly, T fluffy or whipped -to -a -froth. This type of cream usually contains the rich oils that help to counteract dry ness. q Better for the oily skin is the li ueea fying type of cleanser which is trans- lucent and which melts almost at the. a touch of your finger, and cont ins nothing that will add greasiness to a, skin. But the way' you apply a creamis, f important. To cleanse your ace• thoroughly it must be filmed with, Y cream, again and again, until our. cleansing tissue shows no soil.s Auxiliary -aid . to your , cleansing ea cream is your softening cream,. which, according to our teacher, eve ery girl needs to use after shereaches the ripe old age of 20. It's, your best outward defense against Time's unremitting attacks ong smooth skin surfaces. Here again e your choice of a cream deo nds, upon the nature of your skin. If your skin is the dry kind, one, of the emollients that are rich inoils. helps to keep it soft, pliant and more, resistant to lines or furrows. But where the skin already has a good. re supply of oil, one of the emollients with astringents in it can do much to keep down the shine. You can get double value from, any of your creams or emollients it you will always apply it with brisk, upward massage motions, using your hands symmetrically. Leaving. your emollient on overnight is good, but there is no more advantage to be gained from a heavy mask of cream than from an almost invisi-' ble film, a New Invention Muffles Static; Army Buys Some A revolutionary radio receiver that is said to eliminate all interfering noise to an unprecedented degree. has been perfected by Karl E. Pier- son, Los Angeles radio engineer, Army tests indicate the receiver. has solved the problem of efficient communication between military planes. "The new receiver," according to. Dr. Lee De Forest, "father of ra ! dio," brings in programs and sig- • nals through static which even the most advanced of modern receivers fail to make intelligible." PIerson, the inventor, is chief en- gineer of Pierson :De Lane, Inc., of Los Angeles. His receiver, in its preliminary form, he revealed, first proved its possibilities at the time of Amelia Earhart's last flight, "I'm now at liberty to say," he explained, "that I definitely did pick up signals from the Earhart plane after it was down." The government has ordered some of the new receivers and Pierson ex- pects eventually to manufacture them for public use in his Los An- geles factory. Tung Oil Dr. David Fairchild of the U. S. department of agriculture first in- troduced the tung tree to California In 1905. Tung culture remained on a small scale and experimental lev- el for 25 years, chiefly because man- ufacturers could obtain all they needed from China. But in recent years the 'acreage of tung planta- tions in this country has been greatly extended, and today about 175,000 acres in southeastern United States have been planted in tung trees. 01 this area only about 50;000 to 60,000 acres are in full production of the oil-bearing fruit. In 1940 the United States produced 5,000,000 pounds of tung oil, but imported nearly 100,- 000,000 pounds. Defrost Often For economy of operation, defrost often; frost thicker than a quarter - inch acts as insulation, increasing operating costs. Cool all cooked foods before storing is another thrift hint. For'quick defrosting turn the current off, removing ice cubes from freezing trays (they may be tempo- rarily stored in a bowl), fill trays with hot water and replace. This causes the accumulated frost to melt quickly, after which the ice cubes may be returned to the freez- ing trays and the current turned on again for normal operation. Automatic Gear Shifting Harold E. Churchill, automobile engineer, predicts motorists soon won't need to know there ever was such a thing as a gear -shift lever. Ultimately, he believes, the engine itself will shift gears automatically without the attention or knowledge of the driver. This automatic change in the gear ratio will occur whe demanded by the speed and pull o the engine. As a matter of fact, ac cording to Churchill, this type o shift already has been built an' tested, But the engineer admits h is not fully satisfied with the results For example, he says; the mecha nism in its present form sometime upsets drivers due to a very fre quent automatic shifting in heav traffic. But it is only a question o a year or two before such problem will be solved. Records Are Delicate Phonograph records are delica and sensitive. A collection can a lifetime thing if a little knowleda is added to the desire to posse - and keep. The records made toda are pressed from resins, either na ural or synthetic, while they a plastic. Various fillers are inco porated to give the mass body a control. These fillers increase -t wear resistance, but they can't i sure against bad treatment. Th are made of slate, various clay metal oxides and silicates, all in relatively coarse form and impar ing surface noises. One manufa turer uses pulverized marble, b the usual formula contains shella resin, manila gum, calcium carb nate, sienna filler, bone black a carbon black. Thanksgiving Day Since 1621 Thanksgiving day h been designated by community lea ers, village mayors, and finally governors, but the first national.o servance of the day followed t proclamation of George, Washin ton from his New York headqu- ters, October 3, 1789, at the reque of both houses of congress that h as President,'' "recommend to t people of the United' States a day public thanksgiving and prayer, be observed by acknowledging wi grateful hearts the many signal f vors of Almighty God, especially affording them an opportunity ,peac ably to establish a form of gover merit for their. safety and hap, Hess."