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The Brussels Post, 1961-02-23, Page 7ISSUE 46 - 1960 .1. TIIEFARN FRONT JokA CHEMICAL PLANT EXPLOSION KILLS 11 - Clouds of smoke billow from giant Tennessee East- man chemical works at Kingsport, Tenn., after one of the plant's building was rocked by an explosion, At least 11 persons were killed and two others were missing and presumed dead. 'Firefighting Craws Vp,TO.Dt rte NO too. many yenr,• alo, life in the rural rygions w.ui eons- tautly fraught with the threat cif fire,' It still is, of course, hut Walls, and methods available once only to urban folks are, now pretty generally used, In- deed, a trained city fireman to- day would probably be most in- efficient if somebody suddenly asked him to put out a country Maw. I saw this happen once-4 really • big. fire concentrated equipment from -many different cities and towns, and the crack engine and, crew from. Central Fire Station in the city of Port- land arrived at full tilt out in the hinterland and was told to pump from a well. They might just as well have stayed at home. 'heir axes- and shovels and men came in handy, but the engine wasn't rigged for our kind of fire, Long ago a neighbor crawled to our place in a blizzard, .be- cause we had a telephone, and said his chimney was on fire. We called, not the firehouse, but the telephone operator, The fire- house didn't have a telephone either, She said she'd see what she could do, and after a time .,she located somebody who Would ring the boll, When the men gathered, they decided the Model 'T truck with its hose lines couldn't push through the drifts. Much later, a couple of men came, wading hip-deep, with buckets over their arms, but the tire had been put out by salt 'thrown on the embers in the stove. - Those days are wholly gone. Winter roads are kept open; and -the newer engines bring at least 600 gallons of water with them. The alarm system. is better. We .still have a "volunteer" com-. pany, but the men keep in shape, are • organized. •well, and are ready to roll promptly. Once, a farm home that "caught" was considered doomed, and the men would, try to save the •barn, times they saved .the cellar, too. But 'today, four or five miles means but a few more minutes, and engines can arrive -with country-fire equipment and stop a blaze as well as they can in the village. Wood fires, once a . violent country experience, have be- FASCINATION - 'India's Ja- waharlal Nehru gazes at "Cra- dle Song," Theodore J. Rozak's work on display in New York's Guggenheim Museum. T h e prime minister, taking a break from his U.N. activities, said he was "perfectly fascinated" by the modern works on dis- play. CROSSWORD PUZZLE ACROSS 1. Toward the sterir, 4, Lawful 9, Or. letter. 12, Confirmation 75. Set Of three 18, Ba2eball club 37. Sacred image 18, :116aVy drink. ing cum 20, Nani 22. liheclaniatkiii Of hleoe4ife 24. Make lade 28. Stilt the Shope 27. That fellow 29. Serthing Medicine 22. 13tibyletiten god 23: AtneriW, 24% Ild.siaMIS eitb , stance 85 Petit/ 88. -Hebrew dry measure 37, Worth', or' respect 'ITpe measure 40. 'Iterisotital stripe Arthtit'S lan' , 42..Altce erriatife 'et. MA0E011401 48.Stora , Oentairier' • 42, ISIO*Lablet berrlef'.. 40. roam gait 81. The. highest intellect 51, La elcIng understanding , lyehems:* 20.Fain mho much less terrifyirn The old method was to as;,eirible as many men ns ‘vith brooms and shovels, nod to heat the !lames as bet they could. Pails iwiped, but oply if waler wm handy, There was 4 tech- nique known as "back-firing' which often proved as destrue. tive as the original blaze, "You started a second fire in the path of the first, controlling its down- wind edge while it: was small, and. then when the two met they burned each other cut. A. shift in the, wind could threw every- thing off and you were worse than before. Very little public praise comes for the professional forest-fire fighter. But he has developed an organized, efficient system which is more remarkable because of the wilderness areas in which he has to move. Maine's woodlands -the biggest unbroken stretches left in the country-are watched all summer long by keen eyes in towers. Telephone lines connect them to other lookouts, and to base stations. Radio is on day and night. Just this summer, a vacation- ing couple were caught on a lake by a stiff, bitter wind, They went ashore to wait it out, and, kindled a fire to dry their clothes and make a lunch. They were not on an "authorized campsite." Fifteen miles away on a mountain a forestry warden spotted their smoke instantly, telephoned to a camp on the lake and said, "Thirty yards south of Gunner's Brook there's smoke; will you investigate?" The camp owner jumped in his boat, pull- ed the string on his motor, and was at the spot just as the kin- dler stood up with the burnt match in his hand! It turned out all right, the in- cident didn't cause any trouble -but it shows how quickly and accurately the fire wardens can spot a blaz• So much less fre- quently nowadays, a woods fire will rage out of control. A lightning strike will usually be subdued before it has gone many feet-by wardens coming with portable 'pumps by boat and truck over woods 'routes that they have previously agreed upon. Just lately a woods fire burst up in "Township 17," far up in the Maine wilderness. Needing help, the local wardens got it by radio, and a helicopter hovered to coordinate the attack. Bull- dozers are common in lumber operations now, and it was, easy to converge several-not only to push bush undergrowth and strip out barriers, but to cut roads so pumpers and tanks could get in. Any oil or gasoline transport, in an emergency, can become an auxiliary fire tank. A farmer's spray tank on a trac- tor can get over fairly tough terrain with at least a couple hundred gallons of water. So it didn't take long to organize a defense against this blaze. But it was a dry time, and the rich compost of the woodlands gave the fire a chance to burn deep into the ground. Such a smoldering blaze can burst forth again after you think you've licked it. The job of the fire- fighters was to contain the blaze in as much an area as possible, and then wait for rain: They did, and it rained a few nights later. Meantime, the Great Northern Paper Company had moved in units of a portable lumber camp, and were feeding and housing 100 men in relays. This savage, fearsome, uncontrolled fire thus turned out to involve merely a couple hundred acres or so, and in spite of its potential it will go into the records as a minor in- cident. It could have swept furi- ously across the whole northern end of the state, and 25 years ago it would have.-by John Gould in the Christian- Science Monitor. Leaded Gas Ruins Outboard Motor; Save that motor! advises the outboard motor indo,:try. And incidentally, your wallet. Use of °leaded gasoline is the greatest single cause of out- board motor problems," says Carl Kielthaefxr, president of the Niekhaefer Corporation of Fend du Lac ,Wis., Mercury out- board motor manufacturers, Speaking to the nation's boat- Mg press at the presentation of Mercury's 1881 line of outboard engines, Mr. Kielchaefer caution- ed boat owners that leaded fuels are designed especially for the four-cycle, high compression en- gine where the gasoline and oil are not blended. As octane rat- ings move higher to meet the re- quirements of modern highways, lead compounds are added, to gasolines to control the rate of combustion. When used to operate the two- 'cycle outboard engine, both regular and premium leaded gasoline build up deposits on the spark plugs causing failure, This may also lead to costly teardown of the engine. As lead deposits build up on the insulator tip and on the electrodes, eventually the plug is short circuited. This prevents ignition of the fuel-air mixture, which in turn leads to wet foul- ing due to accumulation of un- burned fuel on the electrodes. Projecting flakes of carbon also may become red hot and ignite the fuel-air charge before the spark occurs, causing pre- ignition, The two-cycle outboard en- gine does not call for a high- octane fuel. A white gas, urges Mr. Kiekhaefer, even one with a low-octane rating will assure happier boating with fewer en- gine breakdowns. Often an outboard owner, hoping to clean out a dirty, fouled engine, will add high- priced automotive detergent oil to the gasoline. This compounds the damage to a two-cycle en- gine, writes Charles E. Dole in The. Christian Science Monitor. Automobile engine oil contains a dilution inhibitor which resists mixing of the oil with the gaso- line and with combustion pro- ducts which are formed in the combustion chamber and escape past the piston rings into the crankcase. This same dilutiOn in- hibitor makes the oil resistant to mixing with gasoline in the two- cycle engine, which is essential for the proper lubrication and functioning of the engine. The result is a layer of oil at the bottom of the fuel tank with gasoline at the top and an in- adequate mixture of gasoline and oil in between. Start the engine and what happens? With the fuel pickup at the bottom of the tank, the engine smokes exces- sively at first, burning much of the oil that is in the tank. Then, as the engine receives almost straight gasoline, it overheats and the engine may be scored. High-priced automobile en- gine oil also contains metallic detergents to inhibit varnish formation and piston ring stick- ing. This is all very well for the four-cycle engine. In the two-cycle engine the metallic detergents enter the cylinders above the pistons and form deposits when they come in contact with the hot spark plugs, pistons and combustion chambers, The result? Scored metal and fouled plugs. The preferred outboard oil, according to the industry, is re- fined fromparaffinic base crude, blended with organis, not metal- lic detergents. With anywhere from $150 to more than $1,000 invested in an outboard engine, why risk cost- ly repairs' through careless choice of fuels and oils? Many outboarders complain that white fuel is not available at their marina or In their area of the country. Demand it, the industry says. 'Where there is a demand, the oil industry will meet it, Last year the multibillion- dollar boating industry in the United States filled up their tanks to the extent of 490,000,000 gallons of gasoline and 25,500,000 gallons of oil, Japan's WinIcie Doll Fever Is Spreading Japan's latest fad took over that country Wier than Asian flu: The subject' An inflated black plastic "clakkodhan" (eMbrace- able( doll that (embrace- .-,.. its to its oWner With stubby little arms. Now the "dakkochan" or Winkle boll is being copied over here. Likened to a baby Martian, the doll hag loving cup ears, a red '0" of h mouth and a little plastic skirt. Its Wink is en illusion that otirS, With every change in-the` angle at which light hit lb Plas" tie and cardboard eyes. An Indian botanist has hit upon a revolutionary and inex- pensive method of solving In- dia's persistent food shortage. He asserts that soft music broadcast for a few hours daily to growing crops can increase their yield by as much as 100 per cent. The shrill ringing of an electric bell can jerk the seeds to germinate faster just as that sound might jerk a person out of sleep. But an overdose will result in the plants wither- ing away. * 4, These are the, conclusions of Prof. T. C. N. Singh, head of the botany department of the An- namalai University, South India. The professor's assertion is no idle boast. It is backed by 10 years of intensive research on the 'reactions of a variety of plants to music and sound waves. Professor Singh's claim is also backed by agricultural officials of Pondicherry, the tiny French settlement (now part of India), on the east coast of. South. India. For the past two years, the Pondicherry administration experimented with Professor Singh's technique to grow paddy and other crops at a state-owned farm. The results were astound- ing - the crop yield increased from 28 to 61 per cent and the yield of straw went up as much as 75 per cent. * * Professor Singh first got the idea of trying music to acceler- ate the growth of plants from reading Hindu epics and histori- cal records. The epics speak of the Hindu deity Krishna playing the flute in the Brindaban gar- dens, 70 miles south of. Mysore (South India). As a result, the gardens blossomed. The Mogul poet, Tansen, so history narrates, had such a great mastery of music that he once sang an entire garden into bloom, before his eyes. * * * Peasants in many parts of India still observe the custom of harvest and sowing festivals when they sing and dance to the tune of music and drum beats amidst their fields. While the simple villagers have no Idea of the significance of these festi- vals, the professor feels that their origin might in some way be connected with the effect of music on the growth of plants. Soon after his appointment as head of the botany department of Annarnalai University, Pro- fessor Singh took up his experi- ments in earnest. He filled his house and garden with potted plants and experimented with a variety of musical tunes to ob- serve the plants' reactions. First, he started with seeds. After a series of experiments he sue- needed in speeding up the ger- mination of seeds by "exciting them" with shrill Sound waves. He sowed a variety of seeds in different beds - paddy, mustard, pea, coriander, and others. A shrill-sounding electric ben, installed nearby, was then rung continuously for 30 Minutes each day. The seeds Sprouted in one, third of the time it. norinally took for similar "unexcited" Seeds to germinate. Professor Singh's next task was to find Out hots far music could accelerate thegrowth and yield of the plants. Re started With playing various Indian 'Intl-, sical tunes to the seedlings. Overdose of music resulted in many plants withering. Plants bombarded with sound waves from different tunes remained unaffected as far as their growth was concerned. But if one par- ticular tune was played for a brief period each day, the plants responded rapidly through fast- er and healthier growth. Their yield also showed a proportion- ate increase. * * The professor had to experi- ment with several tunes before hitting upon the right one suited to each plant. He calls this technique "musi- cal dosing" of the plants. "Dosed plants with the right type of music" became more lush and even changed structurally. Thus Mimosa Pudica (sensitive plant) was found to grow twice as fast when it was serenaded with a 25-minute daily dose of soft vio- lin music continuously over g four-week period. The seeds sprouted in half the time if similar violin music was played nearby. The most effective tunes in these experiments were Indian classical ones played on the flute, violin, and veena (Indian vioe lin). o * o The plants also reacted vigor- ously to dancing. The professor found that if a dancer performed an Indian classical dance, with its stamping, clanging, and rhythmical music, the plants' growth pattern and yield in- creased in the same way as "musically excited" plants. Professor Singh made one of his students perform "Bharata Natyam"-a particularly color- ful and vigorous form of Indian classical dance-before a group of potted plants for 30 minutes a day for a few weeks. The re- sults were exceedingly gratify- ing, he said later, writes Sharokh Sabavala in The Christian Science Monitor. He later branched out into large-scale experiments under actual field conditions of his dis- covery. Loud-speakers were in- stalled at strategic points In growing fields of paddy and other crops and each day record- ed soft music was played to the plants in brief daily doses over a period of three to four weeks. AS a result the plants grew faster and their yields showed an increase of 28 to 60 per cent, compared to crops in neighboring fields. * * • Protester Singh explains the secret of his technique thus: The sound waves produced by musical Vibrations bombard the plants' cell walls. This disturb- ance tends to agitate the send, live protoplasm and nucleus contained in the cells arid causes them to react in ways that ac- eclerate their normal and cus- ternary growth, * * The adoption of Professor Singh's technique by the Pondi-. cherry agricultural officials al- ready has proved successful, but Del agrietiltUral experts are still rather skeptical. They have new invited the professor to carte to Delhi and demonstrate the effectiveness of his method at the Capital's Agricultural He- adardli Institute, It Will take another two years 1,2fore the experiments in Delhi can be completed. Should they prove a success, Indians would have really hit upon a sure way of solving their food shortage. The government already has indicated that it would adopt the technique on a mass scale to increase the food yield, provided the Delhi experiments succeed. All that the government need do, apart from the normal sup- ply of chemical fertilizers, is to provide a village with a set of records of soft music and install a few loud-speakers at strategic points in the nearby fields. The peasants can easily play the music each day during the ger- mination and growth period of the crops and then wait for a bumper harvest. These Wagon Trains Weren't So Tough! Alexander Majors, born in Franklin Co unty, Kentucky, brought his young family to western Missouri in 1835, farm- ed for a decade, then ventured on a trading expedition to In- dian villages up the Kaw. The profits enabled him to buy six wagons and trade down the San- ta Fe Trail from Independence, Missouri. The trip established a record - he was back in ninety- two days, with a five-thousand- dollar profit. The feat was the more remark- able because of the work rules used by this soft-spoken giant. There is no record that Majors ever attended school. Yet he had learned to read and write flu- ently, and heredity had blessed him with eloquence plus the will to live in harmony with convic- tions. Methodist circuit-riders and Baptist lay preachers were organizing the massive frenzy of camp meetings in Missouri. A generation later, Alexander Ma- jors might have turned to the "cloth" and become a revivalist. Instead, he used the Bible as his "highest court" for ethical de- cisions and business judgments, and developed eloquence by studying it. So, in astonishing contrast to the frontier's harshness, Majors ran his freighting enterprise with Calvinist discipline. No work or travel was permitted on the Sabbath. Every employee must sign a pledge that read: "While I am in the employ of A. Majors, I agree not to use pro- fane language, not to get drunk, not to gamble, not to treat the animals cruelly, and not to do NDAY SCI1001 LESSON By Bay, 4, Barclay Worre4 t1.1), *:ee of 6:cE T16t 4 ilfeniory le0n1:e tks j,ord, because be bath beard my voice and OlY PuPpileationsq, r$alin should16 We withhold criticism of that person, who, having ex- perienced great answers to pray- I er, appears very effusive in his expressions of gratitude to God. We don't want to be like the Pharisee who found fault with the woman who washed the feet of Jesus with her tears, wiped them with the hairs of her head,' kissed His feet and annointed thee; go "Thywith faith° bath savedinent.oh 4eteus; go in peace." Luke 7:50. The writer of our lesson had been in trouble and sorrow. Some physical affliction had brought him low, He prayed' earnestly and was restored to health again. He was very grate-- ful. He said, "I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord," A severe illness has proved blessing to many people. We are humbled. We realize our own frailty. When we pray we find that God is merciful. That should and usually does excite our sense of gratitude, We make pro-' raises of loving service to otut Lord. Some pay these vows and, sorry to say, same do not. The Psalmist said, "I will pay my vows unto the Lord now ing the presence of all His people.4 He was not ashamed of hie Benefactor. Indeed, he wantec the people to know what great things the Lord had done for him. Those who serve the Lord should boldly take their stand for Him, We are called to be witnesses. Illness is an experience of the spirit as well as of the body. We can never be, the same after it, Some are embittered. Their atti• tude is, "Why should this happeri to, me?" Why shouldn't it? Thl world is a place of thorns and suffering. Look around and bs thankful hat nothing worse has happened to you. Many are drawn closer to God through pain. I have had that experience. Only through suffer. ing was God able to get my ate tention and finally enlist me to take up my cross and 'follow Him. I thank God for all HIS ways with me. I love Him. anything incompatible with tit. conduct of a gentleman. I agree, if I violate any of the above conditions, to accept my dis• charge without any pay for my services." The pledge signed, and camp fully filed, Majors presented tt each new hand a leather-bound Bible, and later, as his business developed, a copy of his crisp, learned "Rules for Wagon Mas. ters." Upsidedown to Prevent Peeking DOWN 1. Function 2. Instead of 3. Prune 4, Behold it. Wane 6. Cud-chewing mammal 9 Small coin of 82. Infant't Sault, Sainte napkin 10. Sault Sainte 25. Subsiding Marie 37. Large tank it Tavern 38. Steal 13. Transported 40. Farm building a specified 43. Lebo! 44. Actor's part 40, Christians M. Appointed to arrive 48. Constituting whoI way 14. Tip 19, Old Joke 21. Nervous twitching 22. Swiftly 23. enemy 50. High in of the Jews Gpido's scale 25. Berne with 62, Ch*aradter In patience "The Faerie 27. Salutation Queens" 7. Craftsman 28, Church official 53. Pigpen S. Note, of the 30. Umbrella part 15. Palm, lily scale 31. Extended 61. 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