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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1950-06-01, Page 3a Old -Time Secrets Puzzle Us 1' oderns. e., lieeattse we ran fly faster titan bomb was sitting by the fire at his the speed of sound, we are apt to home in Cardiff wondering what think that there are no secrets fate had in ,,tore for him, when known to the ancients that are a gipsy, who had wandered in to hidden from its. But there are, sell something, turned to his fattier, Modern generations have not pro- "Why does the young mail sit. so duced a mathematician the like of aimlessly?" Archimedes. When Afarcellns at- "Ile is blind," explained the r tacked Syracuse, the authorities fattier, and related the story. Implored Archimedes to use ills "I know how to help hint," volun- g•reat mathematical knowledge to tcered the gipsy. "Get some white lielp repel the invaders. Archi. flowers of elderberry. Put them modes despised applied niathe. in a sieve and. pour boiling water — niatics. yet ice applied itis know- over them. When cool, squirt the ledge of levers and pulleys so nater into Ills cygs three times a effectively that lie launched a day." fully loaded ship single-handed; de- The fattier was dubious, for sur - signed super -catapults that hurled geons held no hope for his son. stones weighing a quarter of a ton However, the treatment was tried on the invasion fleet, and cranes till the son complained that the that seized ships, spun them round lotion made his eyes smart. and sank or dashed theist against Months later the gipsv called jagged cliffs. and inquired after the young man. Who knows what wisdom was The father explained what had hap - lost when the library of Alexandria pened. "But that," insisted the was sacked and burned Six books gipsy, "is a sign that the inflam- 'we have of Euclid; what secrets mation is being drawn out." So did those contain that were des- they persevered, troyed. Gradually the son began to see. We hold various theories about Ill. eighteen months his sight was the way in which the Pyramids perfect. were built, how the vast blocks of Iii. Southern Ireland it has bgen stone were hofsted one on top of customary for cottagers to cover the other; but no one knows for their land with seaweed and sand, certain. as fertilizer. But not all sand will do. They first boil a sample with In India there were even better vinegar and, if' it bubbles, use it. mathematicians than either in If it doesn't, the sand is rejected. ancient Egypt or Greece. They Scientists investigated this old cus- designed the great stone pagoda tone before the war and found of Tanjore, tune hundred years that sand that bubbled contained ago. It is an immense pillar -like calcium carbonate, and that if affair rising 216 feet—and crown- boiled with -vinegar,. which con- ing it is a massive -block of granite tains acetic acid, it will bubble. weighing eighty tons. How did it . Calcium carbonate is good for get there? crops. What knowledge did they have Blackleg is a terrible cattle dis- which we do not rtoly possess when ease. But the Irish had a way of they built the 238 -foot Kutab-Minar ininlunizing their cattle. They cut Tower, near "Delhi, erecter] at the off the leg of a cow that died of whim of the monarch as a vantage blackleg and hung it for a month point from which his daughter over a peat fire. Then they cut could view, the holy River Jumna? off strips and inserted them under For eight hundred years it has the skins of healthy animals—pre- resisted sandstorms and violent sunlably without knowing -%vhy. rain; extremes of heat and cold; yet Scientists who investigated the the surface is as perfect as when custom soon realized that this was built. niere"ly a crude way of placing the Many modern ideas are not as pure culture of blackleg cerins in new as we imagine. Iii 1943 it a chloroforined atmosphere, and was announced in triumph that then injecting them into healthy refrigeration is being used in a animals. new shockless, drugless, almost The Romans bored wells to great bloodless surgery. Ice numbs the depths. How, we do not know. nerves that carry the reaction of a They made glass that bent, but hound to the brain and helps to did not break. Their Tyrian purple, prevent shock, which is one of the made from the shell -fish; murex, chief dangers of an operation. Also, has not been matched for beauty. as bacteria are . living creatures, We know that swords made in cold inhibits their growth and Damascus could sever a hair float - spread through an infected wound:" ing in air.. Whether science -will be If we turn back the clock many able to investigate the formula by centuries, we find Hippocrates, the which they were made is doubtful. Father of Aledicine, was using ice There are many such things we and snow to numb limbs before should like to know. Professor operating! Lindner discovered that in the days Since the first world war, plaster of Nebucadnezzar the Babylonians of Paris has been widely used for the immobilization of broken possessed a secret for making solid bones. It was hailed as something beer, called saviq, which they car - entirely new. But the aborigines ried on long journeys. All they of South Australia, the oldest had to do was to drop a brick of living members of the human race, saviq into water; when it dissolved, the result was beer. have encased broken limbs in clay for centuries. Another innovation is the use of tiny clips instead of MAGNETIC CLUTCH stitches for holding together the edges of wounds, But explorers Two General Electric engineers tell us that South American Indians have improved on a magnetic -fluid do the same thing in a different clutch which was origitlally devised way. They collect large ants with by the National Bureau of Standards polverful, jaws. Then they press and which, fhough only six inches the edges of the wound together long and six inches in diameter, is and place ants oil id These able to carry enough power to lift insects clip their strong jaws into a ton 1,000 feet in a minute. Two the edges of the wound, effec- metal cylinders, each able to rotate tively closing it, after which the independently on the same axis, are "surgeon" cuts off the bodies of separated by a magnetic mixture the ants. of oil and finely divided iron pow - Scientists at Cambridge are, nowder. When the unit is energized, the investigating old superstitions be- fluid instantly solidifies so that the cause they believe that many have two cylinders are held tightly to - a sound foundation, Much old lore g•ether. As one revolves its motion has been preserved by gipsies. is transmitted to the other. The Recently, a young soldier blinded clutch is still in the experimental ' at Dunkirk by the concussion of a stage. II V/ bold Arnett I H I TELT PLANTS PROTECT NEW TOMATO PLANTS AGAINST CUT WORMS BY WRAPPING=�. STALKS WITH CIGAR- ETTE PAPERS OR CIGARETtE STRIPS OF OLD NEWS = PAPER — -:-,4 PAPERS. 4dWu° -EMPTY MEDICiNE CAPSULES CAN BE LACQUERED WiTH NAIL POLISH TO HAKE A NOVELTR1N- (� BEAnS , USE CO�i MSTI.l SHADES OF LACQUER. Y "Left It Here Somewhere ..." --- Two bicycle owners appear puzzled as they seek their vehicles arriong hundreds of others wheels took place when cycling fans flocked to the Southern parked in a lot at a racing meet in London. The tangle of Counties Cycling Union International Racing Festival. Predicts Rockets To Moon Within Seven Years 'Time Egerton Sykes, F.R.&.S., is a member of the British Interplane- tary Society, Founder and Chairman of the Research Centre Group. Writ- ing in a recent issue of TitBits he makes the following predictions. Alan's conquest of space, inter- planetary travel, and the commercial exploitation of the vast mineral re- sources believed to be waiting ori the surface of the moon, are among the glittering prizes held out by modern scientists if—and only. if.-. the nations of the worll abandon their dreams of subjugating a few paltry thousand miles of each other's territory and turn instead to the far greater challenge, of the solar system. ' . Even since Jules Verne envisaged travellers being fired in a shell to the moon, and H. G. Wells con- ceived his gravity -resisting material called Cavorite, the idea of visiting the moon has captured the iniagina- tion of mankind. Now it seems to be in sight of fulfilment. Experts be- lieve that a guided rocket, equipped . with robot observers, will make the first tour round the moon and back again within the next seven years. 'Once that has been done, and the recorded data ]las been analyzed, the way will be wide opeii for the most dramatic voyage of discovery in the world's history—the launching of a giant rocket -propelled spacecraft which will convey a human passen- ger to the moon and back. The blue -prints for such a space- craft are already in existence, pre- pared on similar line by both Brit- ish and American scientists. Their translation into the first actual ma- chine will begin only when the gov- ernment of one of the great powers decides to allocate the necessary £10,000,000. That estimate, huge as it is, as- sures that inost of the component parts would be obtainable from existing factories. If they had to be specially built, the cost would be as high as that of producing the first atom bomb, and a similar vast plant would be needed. Not unnaturally, the Germans were first in the field with research. Thea Von Harbou's famous film "The Girl in the Moon," shown in England in the late 1902s, was b9sed on the work of the German Rocket Society, who later perfected the V-1 and V-2 for their assault on Britain. That Society has recently been re- formed and, in addition to the Brit- ish Interplanetary Society, there are a number of Rocket Societies in the U.S.A. A typical blue -print for a space- craft designed to take a crew of two to the 1110011 and back shows a seven -stage rocket powered by liquid fluorine, hydrapine and other fuels, and fitted with ejection cylin- ders to enable the seven parts to be jettisoned one after another during the journey. It is 352 feet long, seventy-four feet round, and weighs over 19,000 toils. In its nose is the return vehicle, a supersonic glider weighing iio more than ten tats—a mere twenty-five feet long with a wingspan of fifteen feet. The reason for this fantastic con. trast in size between the two craft is that, until we can devise some simpler ,and less expensive method of shaking free of the earth's grav- ity, an enormous amount of force is needed to start the rocket on its journey. On the return trip the trav- ellers will have the earth's gravity to assist them. And what of the physical effects on the first moon -travellers, of being ejected at 360 m.p.11. on a journey of 240,000 miles? Unless the strain of acceleration when the rocket is Iaunched can be offset by the use of inflated cush- ioning inside the cabin and the use of drugs, they would almost cer- tainly "black out" for perhaps the first three hours. They would be entirely dependent on the pressure apparatus and humidifiers to supply them with compressed air. They might encounter the danger- ous effects of cosmic rays beating on to the rocket with no external atmosphere to cushion them. Once clear of the earth's sur- rounding atmosphere, of a height of fifty miles, they would be flying through perpetual night in which the stili, lacking any atmosphere to diffuse its rays ,is no brighter than a large star and daylight ceases to exist. Just what effect on the heart, digestive organs and other bodily functions the falling off of the gravitational force of the earth would have, nobody yet knows. Assuming, however that the ex- plorers succeeded in landing on that barren satellite, they would be more dependent upon their own resources than any two living creatures have even be;n- in history. Wearing their electrically -heated suits, never without their portable oxygen supply and air -compressors, they would hrve to go to work to build some form of shelter and grow atmosphere -producing plants before any serious study of metal and min- eral resources could be undertaken. The hazards are incalculable but not, I am convinced, beyond man's ingenuity to overcome. And once the outside edge of the earth's at- mosphere fringe has been penetrat- ed, still further journeys, of 240 days each, to Mars and Venus wifl be planned. One not -far -distant day the world will wait, tense with excitement around its raidio sets and television screens, -for news of the first two moon explorers. Despite the dan- gers, such is the pioneer spirit of man that every Rocket Society has already the names of thousands of volunteers whose ambition in life is to take the first step in man's conquest of space. BIG METEORITE Australia's half -mile -wide Wolf Creels Crater was blasted out by a meterorite, Dr. Edward P. Hen- derson told the Geological Society at its last meeting, The big !tole was found in 194% in the Western Australia wilderness by three Am- erican geologists who were pros. pecting for oil by plane. The crater has a diameter of 2,800 feet at the bottom and a depth of 150 feet. The meteor that made the crater is the second largest that ever hit the earth. The biggest struck in Ari- zona. Queer L.awsuiito A claim for $25,000 which .grew out of the complaint o£ a man about the small amount of ice cream he got in a cone recently came before an American court. The man thought he hadn't had his money's worth, and said so. The ice cream seller stied him for disorderly ,conduct and the man was fined $10, whereupon the seller him- self was sued for $25,000 on the grounds that the dissatisfied custo- mer'suffered a recurrence of heart trouble and. damage to his reputa- tion through the incident. He capped this claim with an- other one for an additional $7,500 for mental anxiety caused by riding in a police van, loss of earnings, and medical expenses. Some claim—some conel ' People sue other people for extra- ordinary reasons, and sometimes judgment is given in their favor. There is a case on record in which an American jury, trying a man for grand larceny, was sent to a hotel to spend the night. Next morning they returned to court and found the man guilty. Two days later, the court received a bill from the hotel for a long list of articles stolen by the jury! A settlement for an undisclosed amount was announced at Stafford Assizes in all action by a miner who was struck on the head by a cricket halt hit for six on a cricket club ground. The defence stated that the plain- tiff was hit on the head in a public road by a cricket ball "which was most magnificently hit for six and cleared either one or two pavilions, according to which side of evidence you accept. Defendants feel he suf- fered great misfortune and are glad to make amends." Not long ago, a sensation was caused by a case in which a pian who stepped off the curb into the road without looking was ordered to pay $9,000 damages for causing the death of a pillion rider. In giving judgment, the judge said that lie thought when the pedestrian step- ped off the pavement bib mind was on something else, and he dfd what people often do when hooted at— he did not 'Stop, loot: and listen—but hesitated and then went on. The pedestrian was in the wrong and there was no negligence proved against the motor -cyclist. A few hundred years ago, it was quite in order to sue animals and . insects. Complicated laws gov- erned the misdoings of such wild creatures as rats, locusts and cater- pillars on the assumption that, as God cursed the serpent and Christ the fig -tree, so the Church had legal jurisdiction over both the animate and inanimate in the entire field of nature. In 1445, for instance; a crop - eating beetle was sued and a lawsuit started which was to last for 42 years. The plaintiffs, the Commune of St. Julien in France, finally agreed to give up part of a fertile district to the exclusive use of the insects, "'6 illialrni" Drops To ,seventh Place The favorite boy's name for babies born last year was John, Favorite girl's name was Ann or Anne. Order of popularity is officially given as follows for boys! John, I?ichard, Peter, David, Charles, Michael, William, Robert, Christ- opher, James. For girls; Ann or Anne, Mary, Elizabeth, Jane, Susan, Afargaret, Sarah, Caroline, Jennifer, prances. William And 'Mary Richard climbed from fifth place in 1948 to second in 1919, while Tony (Anthony) fell almost to the bottom of the list. Among the girls, the first six were the same last year as in 1948. Mary is always within the first three places. From the very earliest times the word has held shay as the commonest female name, nr, e.oubt because of the Christian reverence paid to the Mother of Jesu..,. The drop to seventh place of William is remarkable, for tltrougn- out the centuries, this name has tied lvith John more than any other in popularity. There is a marked tendency in the U.S.A. for parents to name their children `Duke," "Icing," "Prince," „Earl," "Bishop," "judge" possibly in the belief that their fore- fathers must have borne those titles. The truth is that these names can be traced back to the actors who appeared in the roles of kings, .sluices or princes, and the rest in the Mir- acle Plays of the Middle Ages. Playing the same part in every play the actors become known to their friends not by their real Christian name, but by the name of their stage character. In the U.S., it appears that there is no legal objection to parents christening their children with the most outrageous names they can think of. There was a court case over t'lte christening of twit daugh- ters ICate and Duplicate. The cler- gyman refused to perform the cere- mony, so the mother sued him. An- other case occurred soon afterward when a parent wanted her twin sons christened Peter and Repeater. Sensitive Stars Film stars are notoriously sensi- tive about their own names. The ones with which they were christ- ened often are considered not to be "box office" so they change them. Here are some examples, real names first; Frederick Austerlitz, I'red Astaire; Claudette Chauchoin, Claudette Colbert; Mary A•iagda- lene von Losch, Marlene Dietrich; Pauline Levy, Paulette Goddard; Archibald Alexander Leach, Cary Grant; Charles Edward Pratt, Boris Karlofi;; Frederic Alclntpre Bickel, Frederic March. Witness: When I said a fool and his money are soon parted my wife said, "Turn out your pockets." Strange Carving Discovered In the Jungles of Southern Mean ico lies a huge, 15 -ton stone head, believed carved at the begin- ning of the Christian era by an ancient people. This reproduc- tion, nolo on display at the •American Museum of RTatural History was trade by Dr. Gordon F. Ekholm, right, after the mammoth carving was discovered by Dr. Matthew Stirling, left. The, original stone measures nine feet high, six feet.wide.' and 20 feet in circumference: JITTER Ey, Arthur Pointer .SKIINCro IS DANGEROUS You CAN Gb WiTH4 i i ME TO THE WINTER FOR BEGINNERS. 1A IND, POLL far NNl M Ii ti . THA`]' ISIINpp1M UF?. SPORTS CARNIVAL IF YOU'LL BE CAREFUL r - WHERE ARr- a r, 2 �`"�C,`C.\� v t� ' iso: -^�'^ � � �,.-•..,�,-,.. , � /i w ..: °•., � � - i y�l � . � ' act / �v,d,�� / y A