HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1951-04-05, Page 7Sun Could Drive
Factory Wheels
Today, we rely upon coal and oil
for a lot of our power. But neither
of these will last forever; they are
tv tstiug assets. Some day, the sup-
plies will peter out: and we shall
have to use some other source of
energy. That's why we're putting
so much work into Our atone plants,
But atoruie energy is difficult and
dangerous to put to use. It is in-
volving us in endless trouble and
.expeuse Aad Abe minerals that are
used are, like coal and oil, in, limited
supply.
Unused Energy
Yet in the sun itself We have a
huge atomic energy machine that
has been working efficiently for
billions of years. The sunshine that
we see now and again is just as
much atomic energy as the heat
. that scorched Hiroshima.
And it's there in unlimited quan-
tity—all free and waiting to be used.
Even hi temperate climates like
ours, the sun pours a steady stream
of energy on to us throughout the
day. If'• we could harness it, this
would dive- us all the power we
need. It has been estimated that
over an area the size of Egypt
enough sunshine could be trapped to
supply power for the world.
Scientist and engineers have been
experimeuting for centuries to try
and put the sun to work. A twenty
square yard reflector concentrated
the sun's rays on to a boiler and
generated one horse -power at the
Paris Exhibition iu 1818. Others
built in Egypt, Australia and Mex-
ico have raised as much as 50 h.p.
Most of these machines have de-
pended on the concentration of the
sun's rays by large reflecting mnir-
r'ors. A plant of this sort was work-
ing in Cairo before the First World
War.
It was made from a series of huge
mirrors shaped like long troughs
that focused the sun's rays on to
water pipes running down the mid-
dle of each trough. The steam rais-
ed was used to pump water for
• irrigation.
'.L'he capital cost of this sort of
sun engine is liable to be high. But
modern• developments such as the
use of aluminum mirrors could soon
reduce the cost.
Chemists have started using small
solar furnaces of this type to reach
extremely high temperatures. One
furnace was built in Paris in 1946,
using searchlight mirrors to con-
centrate the slt's rays. It reached
temperatures as high as 5,000 de-
grees, and will melt lime or plat-
inum.
But mirrors and lenses for con-
centrating die rays aren't the only
ways of harnessing energy from the
sun. We can convert light directly
into electricity by means of the
photo -electric cell.
We use these in the `electric eyes"
that do all sorts of jobs from count-
ing passengers on trains to making
burglar alarms. But there's no rea-
son why they shouldn't be used on
a really big scale as a way of gen-
erating electric current from the
sunshine.
Some chemicals like Glauber''s
salt have the useful ability of being
able to absorb beat from sunshine
like a sponge soaking up • water.
Then the chemicals will release the
heat again when it's wanted.
A house has already been built in
.America in which the central heat-
ing is done by absorbed sunshine.
Under two glass plates on the roof •
there is a blackmetal sheet that
serves as a sunshine trap.
.'Behind the metal sheet a current
of air circulates, picking up the
Treat and carrying it off to special
heat storage bins containing Glau-
ber's salt.
The chemical liquifies as it takes
up heat from the air stream. Then it
solidifies and releases the heat again
when it's wanted. It's one of the
few houses in the civilized world
where there aren't any fuel bills.
One method of using sunshine
supplies in a really big way is to
short-circut the coal -mine by using
fast-growing plats,
Sunshine Can be packed into tro-
IF home space were sold by the
bag, most of us would rush
right down and purchase a couple
of dollars' worth every payday,
Unfortunately, extra floor area
Is not come by so easily. If high
rentals or building costs are pre-
venting your acquiring it in the
usual fashion ----by moving to a
larger apartment or adding a spare
room onto your home—then you
must resort to planning to attain
those precious inches.
One solution, if your husband is
a handyman or your carpenter
reasonable in his prices, is built-in
furniture. You can utilize one
wall for all the shelf and bureau
space you need, leaving the rest of
the room uncluttered. An addi-
tional advantage is planned stor-
age. You can make every inch
count by planning beforehand just
what you wish to store in each
spot.
For each room, it's usually a
good idea to include drawer space,
open shelves and enclosed shelves.
The framework of this built-in
furniture should be constructed of
sturdy wood. For cabinet doors
and drawer fronts, plywood is a
good choice.
If you are not yet permanently
settled, .you may prefer having
these wall pieces made up into
separate, easy - to - move units.
Make certain, however, that they
match, in height and width in order
to give a feeling of unity when
they're lined up together.
e Tour Storage Space Problems
r1�Y1
Built-in rows of drawers, cabinets and bookcases give this master -bedroom plenty of extra storage
space and a handy counter along the Windows. The same type of built -In is ideal for youngsters,
too. The built-in and valance above it are made of birch plywood.
pical vegetation which grows very
quickly forming chemicals like
sugar in the process, These can
then be used as fuel without waiting
a million years for then to turn
to coal.
Even today, sugar cane used like
this could give us a fuel costing
only about ten times as niuch as
coal. Research could soon bring
costs of this sort tumbling down.
The atomic energy process that
provides the stat with its energy
has been going on for millions of
years. But there's no sign of it
petering out just yet.'
It seems a bit unreasonable, with
all this free energy and power pour-
ing down on us every day, that we
should be going to all the trouble
and expense of hacking out coal
and splitting atoms.
Money diverted from the atomic
research budget might enable us to
harness the power from Old Sol.
"Foiling" the Mice
.'fruit breeding farms are using
aluminum foil in a fashion whicn
produces a new twist to the "Bark
worse than bite" adage, Alice, which
formerly did considerable damage
to the valuable fruit trees by gnaw-
ing at the tasty bark, are finding
pickings thin at the Minnesota ):shit
Breeding Farm,
Aluminum foil, easily crimped
about the base of the trees, is prov-
ing too much for the marauding
little rodents.
The Canadian Grower reports "its
a. cheaper material than hardware
cloth.
A heavy-duty aluminium foil
should be used. The foil can be cut
as it is used and trees 1 inch in di-
ameter require 8 to 10 inches of foil.
On these small trees the foil is
crimped into place. On trees over
2 inches in diameter, it must be tied
and will probably require too much
material,"
The mice probably find it confus-
ing, and not at all amusing, that
their favourite delicacy, cheese, is
in many instances wrapped in alum-
inius foil so 'that its fragrant fresh-
ness may emain intact. This same
foil is the barrier that prevents there
from scoffing the delicate bark of
the friut trees.
It is true that a mouse attempt-
ing to aleviate his hunger at the
expense of a growing fruit tree. pro
tected by aluminum foil, finds the
bite considerably less edible than
the bark,
C "VER TRiell USE SPQNC-rlf
Puss PAPS TO HQL,E SLIP cOVE1\S
IN "1A :`'" .L P HSM FROM
lam L l is
"'ashion Note
Fast Blinkers Are
Most Dangerous
Slow blinkers make the finest
footballers and cricketers, accord-
ing to Dr.. R. W. Lawson of Shef-
field University. Fast blinkers are
more dangerous on the roads be-
cause they have more frequent
black -out periods—fractions of a
second when they are driving blind,
They are poor tennis players be-
cause when they blink they lose
sight of the ball.
Most of us are completely black-
ed out for about ten per cent of
the time we use our eyes. The aver-
age person blinks once in 2.8 sec-
onds. and during the blink out eyes
are completely dosed for sheat
three -tenths of a second,
This ecpiain.< ahs to my of those
family snapshot, ..hos, us tvitlt ori
eyes closed The camera shuttct
may have l.mcn pe 'n for only one -
twenty -fifth of a second or less—
time enough to take our picture
while we were indulging in our
three -tenths of a second "nap,"
The blink is preceded by a move -
:tient of the eyeball which adds
about another quarter of a second
of indistinct or uncertain vision, so
that the average man's sight is un-
reliable for about 20 per cent of the
total time.
Scientists find this embarrassing
when they are collecting certain
physical measurements observed by
the eye. '('hey snake a. special allow-
ance for it in their calculations by
using what they call their "person-
al equation." This takes into ac-
count the length of their own
black -outs."
Fourpence Per Day Keeps
Gibraltar Monkeys Happy
The Rock of Gibraltar turned up
for mention in two widely separated
places a few days ago—on the floor
of the House of Commons and in
the newspapers of Madrid. The fa-
cet of Gibraltar life that concerned
the honourable members of Com-
mons was the well-being of the
monkeys resident on the Rock, a.
type of Barbary ape that has lived
there since the days of.the Romans.
One member of the Commons in-
quired, with some apprehension,
whethef those monkeys are its good
health, tvhether a daily subsistence
allowance of fourpence per monkey
is sufficient for them to thrive on
and whether, perchance, their num-
bers have increased,
t
The Rock, monkeys and all, has
been held by the British since 1704.
when a British admiral, acting on
his own responsibility during one of
the minor wars of history, grabbed
it. Instead of reprimanding hila,
Queen Anne gladly added it to the
string of British possessions The
British saw it for what it was: a
it covers the western approaches
of the Middle. Sea it is one of the
key points of the world. The Moors
took it in 711 and, like the British
a thousand years later, fortified it
as heavily as they could. .L'he Span-
ish took it back in 1309. Th; Moots
retook it in 1333. The Spanish got
it back in 1462 and hired the best
engineers in Europe to snake it im-
pregnable, yet the British. with
Dutch help, took it easily in the
summer of 1704. The Spanish be-
sieged it in the aututuit and again in
1726, 'Frons that time on they have
always hoped to get it bail..
ri a a‘
In 1779, while Britain :vas busy
with trouble over here, the Spanish
set out to besiege the place in ear •
nest. That siege lasted, with more
or Ics•s continuing intensity, for four
years. It was rather a series of
watchful attempts to cut oft all
supplies :from the Rock along with
occasional bombardment and sharp
combat to rout the British out. Two
or three time British ships managed
to get throtighi to relieve the Rock
and to brine wpplle, to the he-
s'i;ged. .At other time: thcp tvet'
near starvation, scutvy and threat
of nttttiny. In 1782, with the gar•
raison still hotting out. the Spanislt
planned one great combined attack,
with specially built ships, "fortified
six to seven feet thick, with green
timber --bolted with cork, iron, •antt
raw hides r' i"1:' and bombproof on
top." On the north, the Spanish
side. were rows of net- batteries.
In the first hours of the attack
the British gunners on the Rock
could do nothing with the green
timber, the cork. iron and rawhides.
With time on their hands, the artil-
lerymen had done some experiment-
ing and now began to. answer the
Spanish free with one of their Own
inventions — red-hot shot. That
saved the British on the Rock. By
11000 of the next day every one of
the Spanish ships was blown ttp
or burned.
Since then, and particularly in
recent decades, the British have
fortified the Rock with about as
much metal as it could carry hidden
deep in the limestone caves and
rarely seen by any visitors. Aliens
need a permit to live on the Rock.
The Governor of this Crown colony
has about 25,000 people to care for,
along with the many Spaniards who
come from the "Lines," the Spanish
town just beyond the Rock, as day
'laborers and go home at night. The
Governor also has to look out for
those Gibraltar monkeys. For what
was probably back of that query
on the apes' health on the floor of
the Commons was ancient supersti-
tion, and an odd place it was for
that to turn up. There has long
been a legend that as long as the
apes remain on the Rock the Bri-
tish will keep possession of it.
The Colonial Secretary, Mr. Grif-
fiths, in whose keeping the monkeys
are, handled the query with fitting
dignity and competence. The mon-
keys, he reported with appropriately
solemn mien, are doing well on
their foto-penny subsistence allow-
ance and there have been no com-
plaints from any of them. They are
enjoying excellent health, • With
some modest satisfaction Mr, Grif-
fiths added that the monkeys, who
were twenty in Aumber at the end
of the war, are now thirty.
I -fere is the Secret
It's not a matter of luck but
good judgment when it comes to
buying and planting or transplant-
ing shrubbery, plants, trees and
such things.
There is a great variation in
prices and there is even a wider
variation in quality, Good healthy
stock is green, pliable, moist and
equipped with sound buds, but not
in leaf. It is only with such stock
that one can be "lucky." When
purchased, good stock will be well
wrapped to keep in moisture and
keep out the air, especially about
the roots. The buyer should make
sure he keeps it that way.
If not ready to plant immediate-
ly the stock should be "heeled in";
that is, planted in a shallow trench
with soil pressed firmly about the
roots and over the lower part of
the stern,
In planting permanently, set a
tittle deeper than previously, spread
roots out well, cover firmly with
a fine, rich soil, water generously,
then tramp down hard. A small
tree or shrub' should have more
watering for the first few weeks.
Trees should be tied firmly to a
stake for the first year. This will
give the tiny, new roots a chance
to get firmly fastened in the new
location. 'Without these fine roots
which absorb food, the stock will
die of starvation,
#N. n
These Go First
In most cases there is one corner
of the garden which dries before
the rest. This is the spot to plant
the very early things, hardy vege-
tables and flowers that can go in the
ground just as soon as one can get
out and dig. Frost and snow later
on will not hurt these, and so:me
of them must make their first
growth while soil and air are cool,
Aritong the vegetables in this
category will be radish, leaf lettuce,
spinach, early onions and the har-
diest of the garden peas. Of course,
this refers to first plantings only.
Main plantings should go in later,
and final plantings after that, With -d'
vegetables it is important to string
out the plantings so that the har-
vest will be equally extended. All
the vegetables mentioned can be
planted at least three times, a fort-
night apart, and some like lettuce
and radish, carrots, beets, beans.,
etc., can be planted at intervals
right up to the first week in July.
Among the hardy flowers will be
things like cosmos, marigolds,
pansies, sweet peas and anything
else listed as very hardy in a Ca-
adian seed catalogue. Some of
these are so resistant to frost that
they sow themselves and come on
as volunteer plants in the spring.
Some of them especially sweet peas,
must be planted just as soon as
possible in the spring if they are
to make proper growth before the
hot weather checks thein.
The Newest Version.
Guild's garden print,
of the shirtwaist look . . Fashion
with taiored toll and draped ;skirt.
YVN N'ri4 YAt i tiiA a Alsbat, sll
Gar iN THE WAY S$' THtl eooM AND
S1Wrarr ovens Anel.. .
A 1,10A
N "filar*
AM r SEF W
o TId1N 6:717:
,S rf m' t i<eg.
4.�AM tui
tt'.wwvur,
y Arthur Paiutetp
QS. ea
er:
al
1
•
St
irlya
}
zliad,:
• BY -
s� HAROLD
A)INETT
T • • •---
C "VER TRiell USE SPQNC-rlf
Puss PAPS TO HQL,E SLIP cOVE1\S
IN "1A :`'" .L P HSM FROM
lam L l is
"'ashion Note
Fast Blinkers Are
Most Dangerous
Slow blinkers make the finest
footballers and cricketers, accord-
ing to Dr.. R. W. Lawson of Shef-
field University. Fast blinkers are
more dangerous on the roads be-
cause they have more frequent
black -out periods—fractions of a
second when they are driving blind,
They are poor tennis players be-
cause when they blink they lose
sight of the ball.
Most of us are completely black-
ed out for about ten per cent of
the time we use our eyes. The aver-
age person blinks once in 2.8 sec-
onds. and during the blink out eyes
are completely dosed for sheat
three -tenths of a second,
This ecpiain.< ahs to my of those
family snapshot, ..hos, us tvitlt ori
eyes closed The camera shuttct
may have l.mcn pe 'n for only one -
twenty -fifth of a second or less—
time enough to take our picture
while we were indulging in our
three -tenths of a second "nap,"
The blink is preceded by a move -
:tient of the eyeball which adds
about another quarter of a second
of indistinct or uncertain vision, so
that the average man's sight is un-
reliable for about 20 per cent of the
total time.
Scientists find this embarrassing
when they are collecting certain
physical measurements observed by
the eye. '('hey snake a. special allow-
ance for it in their calculations by
using what they call their "person-
al equation." This takes into ac-
count the length of their own
black -outs."
Fourpence Per Day Keeps
Gibraltar Monkeys Happy
The Rock of Gibraltar turned up
for mention in two widely separated
places a few days ago—on the floor
of the House of Commons and in
the newspapers of Madrid. The fa-
cet of Gibraltar life that concerned
the honourable members of Com-
mons was the well-being of the
monkeys resident on the Rock, a.
type of Barbary ape that has lived
there since the days of.the Romans.
One member of the Commons in-
quired, with some apprehension,
whethef those monkeys are its good
health, tvhether a daily subsistence
allowance of fourpence per monkey
is sufficient for them to thrive on
and whether, perchance, their num-
bers have increased,
t
The Rock, monkeys and all, has
been held by the British since 1704.
when a British admiral, acting on
his own responsibility during one of
the minor wars of history, grabbed
it. Instead of reprimanding hila,
Queen Anne gladly added it to the
string of British possessions The
British saw it for what it was: a
it covers the western approaches
of the Middle. Sea it is one of the
key points of the world. The Moors
took it in 711 and, like the British
a thousand years later, fortified it
as heavily as they could. .L'he Span-
ish took it back in 1309. Th; Moots
retook it in 1333. The Spanish got
it back in 1462 and hired the best
engineers in Europe to snake it im-
pregnable, yet the British. with
Dutch help, took it easily in the
summer of 1704. The Spanish be-
sieged it in the aututuit and again in
1726, 'Frons that time on they have
always hoped to get it bail..
ri a a‘
In 1779, while Britain :vas busy
with trouble over here, the Spanish
set out to besiege the place in ear •
nest. That siege lasted, with more
or Ics•s continuing intensity, for four
years. It was rather a series of
watchful attempts to cut oft all
supplies :from the Rock along with
occasional bombardment and sharp
combat to rout the British out. Two
or three time British ships managed
to get throtighi to relieve the Rock
and to brine wpplle, to the he-
s'i;ged. .At other time: thcp tvet'
near starvation, scutvy and threat
of nttttiny. In 1782, with the gar•
raison still hotting out. the Spanislt
planned one great combined attack,
with specially built ships, "fortified
six to seven feet thick, with green
timber --bolted with cork, iron, •antt
raw hides r' i"1:' and bombproof on
top." On the north, the Spanish
side. were rows of net- batteries.
In the first hours of the attack
the British gunners on the Rock
could do nothing with the green
timber, the cork. iron and rawhides.
With time on their hands, the artil-
lerymen had done some experiment-
ing and now began to. answer the
Spanish free with one of their Own
inventions — red-hot shot. That
saved the British on the Rock. By
11000 of the next day every one of
the Spanish ships was blown ttp
or burned.
Since then, and particularly in
recent decades, the British have
fortified the Rock with about as
much metal as it could carry hidden
deep in the limestone caves and
rarely seen by any visitors. Aliens
need a permit to live on the Rock.
The Governor of this Crown colony
has about 25,000 people to care for,
along with the many Spaniards who
come from the "Lines," the Spanish
town just beyond the Rock, as day
'laborers and go home at night. The
Governor also has to look out for
those Gibraltar monkeys. For what
was probably back of that query
on the apes' health on the floor of
the Commons was ancient supersti-
tion, and an odd place it was for
that to turn up. There has long
been a legend that as long as the
apes remain on the Rock the Bri-
tish will keep possession of it.
The Colonial Secretary, Mr. Grif-
fiths, in whose keeping the monkeys
are, handled the query with fitting
dignity and competence. The mon-
keys, he reported with appropriately
solemn mien, are doing well on
their foto-penny subsistence allow-
ance and there have been no com-
plaints from any of them. They are
enjoying excellent health, • With
some modest satisfaction Mr, Grif-
fiths added that the monkeys, who
were twenty in Aumber at the end
of the war, are now thirty.
I -fere is the Secret
It's not a matter of luck but
good judgment when it comes to
buying and planting or transplant-
ing shrubbery, plants, trees and
such things.
There is a great variation in
prices and there is even a wider
variation in quality, Good healthy
stock is green, pliable, moist and
equipped with sound buds, but not
in leaf. It is only with such stock
that one can be "lucky." When
purchased, good stock will be well
wrapped to keep in moisture and
keep out the air, especially about
the roots. The buyer should make
sure he keeps it that way.
If not ready to plant immediate-
ly the stock should be "heeled in";
that is, planted in a shallow trench
with soil pressed firmly about the
roots and over the lower part of
the stern,
In planting permanently, set a
tittle deeper than previously, spread
roots out well, cover firmly with
a fine, rich soil, water generously,
then tramp down hard. A small
tree or shrub' should have more
watering for the first few weeks.
Trees should be tied firmly to a
stake for the first year. This will
give the tiny, new roots a chance
to get firmly fastened in the new
location. 'Without these fine roots
which absorb food, the stock will
die of starvation,
#N. n
These Go First
In most cases there is one corner
of the garden which dries before
the rest. This is the spot to plant
the very early things, hardy vege-
tables and flowers that can go in the
ground just as soon as one can get
out and dig. Frost and snow later
on will not hurt these, and so:me
of them must make their first
growth while soil and air are cool,
Aritong the vegetables in this
category will be radish, leaf lettuce,
spinach, early onions and the har-
diest of the garden peas. Of course,
this refers to first plantings only.
Main plantings should go in later,
and final plantings after that, With -d'
vegetables it is important to string
out the plantings so that the har-
vest will be equally extended. All
the vegetables mentioned can be
planted at least three times, a fort-
night apart, and some like lettuce
and radish, carrots, beets, beans.,
etc., can be planted at intervals
right up to the first week in July.
Among the hardy flowers will be
things like cosmos, marigolds,
pansies, sweet peas and anything
else listed as very hardy in a Ca-
adian seed catalogue. Some of
these are so resistant to frost that
they sow themselves and come on
as volunteer plants in the spring.
Some of them especially sweet peas,
must be planted just as soon as
possible in the spring if they are
to make proper growth before the
hot weather checks thein.
The Newest Version.
Guild's garden print,
of the shirtwaist look . . Fashion
with taiored toll and draped ;skirt.
YVN N'ri4 YAt i tiiA a Alsbat, sll
Gar iN THE WAY S$' THtl eooM AND
S1Wrarr ovens Anel.. .
A 1,10A
N "filar*
AM r SEF W
o TId1N 6:717:
,S rf m' t i<eg.
4.�AM tui
tt'.wwvur,
y Arthur Paiutetp
QS. ea
er:
al
1