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The Clinton News Record, 1942-07-16, Page 6'::PAG E 6 LINTON NEWS -RECORD TI URS:, JULY 16, 1942 THREE AMERICAN FIGHTER SQUAD,RO'NS NOW IN BRITAIN'S AIR FORCE Under the American flag, at his R.A.F. fighter station in England, stands Pilot Officer Malta Leon Stepp, of San Jose, California, U.S.A., a member of the second of the three American. Squadrons now flying and fighting in co-operation with the R.A.F. Fighter Command. Early in July 1940, the first American "Eagle" Squadron was formed of competent pilots, who needed only collective training. They were soon engaged in convoy protection work, and then joined in the main activities of Britain's Fighter Command. There are three fully trained "Eagle" Squadrons doing invaluable work on offensive sweeps over the English Channel, over German occupied territory, and on convoy patrol. L, • T' O Ti 3 • E AIR''—THD GIANT 4 -ENGINED; "STIRLING" BOMBER Britain's "Stirling" bomber, the largest four engined bomber in the world, has figured prominently in raids over Germany and the occupied countries during the last year, but details of its unique fcatu:es were a secret until late January 1942. Larger avert than the formidable American -built "Flying Fortress" sub- ,tratosphere bomber, the "Stirling" carries a bomb load of eight tons and, when fully loaded, weighs 30 tons. It has a speed of 200 m.p.h., a range of 2,000 miles and is heavily armoured, its defensive armament including 3 gun turrets. Dimensions: length over 87 ft., wing span 09 ft, height 22 ft. 9 ins. R.A.F. ground staff pushing out a Stirling bomber for overhaul; a picture which gives a good idea of the vast proportions of this aircraft. CANADA'S GROWING NAVY : CANADIAN- BUILT CORVETTES TO GUARD ALLIED CONVOYS Corvettes of the Canadian Navy — small, fast naval craft produced to -counter the U-boat menace—play an important part in escorting Allied convoys. Quickly and easily built and needing a comparatively small crew,; their main armament consists of anti- submarine devices such as torpedoes and depth charges. Canada's 1942 • shipbuilding ,programme, in addition to an. estimated 7,000;000 tons of merchant shipping, will 'i a'oem.. e; con- siderable tonnage of naval craft, including corvettes, destroyers, .. Minesweepers and patrol vessels for the Dominion's fast=growing nam....• Canadian sailors are seen: here loading a T.N,T.-laden depth `. charge into the charge -thrower as a corvette is made ready for its maiden voyage. Note reserves of depth charges snugged down along the deck. hl Mix Paint Thoroug y'' Adequate Diet Is Within, a,"•To-Prevent Uneven Job' Reach of AI1''Persons An owner recently blamed th,•: '!There is no rural community in Paint for a job what was rough and the "United States so poor that "it uneven. --;As a matter of :fact,the-cannot have an adequate diet," Dr. paint that, he used was of excellent •Harold Clark oP' Columbia univer- (quality, and the fault was his own sity recently told the food habits for not mixing it completely. committee of the National Research When a can. of paint is allowed to council. l; stand, as it will on a dealer's shelf, In an experiment. in "aplilied eco - the heavier parts separate from the nomic"s,'` carried on under a grant oil, and collect fn a dense mass at from the. Sloan foundation, the poor - the bottom of the can. Before using, est communities that could be lo - this Mass; must be thoroughly. and `toted in the United States were se- evenly blended with all the liquid.' lected. An attempt was made to For this a second can should be improve the nutrition, of the people at hand, as large or larger than the entirely without the expenditure, of paint can. Much of the paint liquid any money from outside the com- is poured off into: this, and the re- munity itself. maining liquid stirred into the mass Health tests already indicate an remaining in the can. When this improvement in the people, reflect - has been softened, some of the ing a higher nutritional level, after liquid is poured back and stirred in, only five' years of the program, Dr. and this process should', be contin- Clark said. This is -much more ued until the entire can of paint is rapid than was anticipated when the brought to an even consistency. experiment was started. At first it For final mixing,, the paint should was not hoped that much could be be poured back and forth from one accomplished within the span of a can to the other, 'several times. The generation. • paint is then ready for use. In-: Ordinary books on agriculture fail structions on the label'for the pos- to reach adequately the lowest third sible thinning of the paint should of the agricultural population, Dr. be carefully followed. Clark told the committee. In the Varnish does not need• any such southern Appalachian community treatment, for its parts do not seg- described by him, where the typical arate. Great care should be taken- family income is only $35 a year, not to shake a can of varnish, for textbooks and even demonstrations air bubbles will form in it and spoil are often beyond the understanding the final result. of the people, he said. Here's How to Take Dents Out of Wood When a table top is dented by the dropping of a candlestick or other heavy object, the dent can usually be taken out by a process that will swell the fibers of the wood. For this the finish around the dent should be scraped off so that bare wood is exposed. The dent is then covered by a cloth dampened with ,warm water, which is pressed by a warm—not hot—iron. The steam produced will be absorbed by the dented fibers, which will then swell and return to their original positions. The .refin- ishing of the table top will be re- quired, at least in that part around the dent. Should the wood be actually gouged, so that asomo< of It is re- inoved, the hole that is Teft can be filled with stick ,shellac. This can be had in all shades of wood colors at many large paint stores and from dealers in cabinetmakers' supplies. An old screwdriver is heated to a point at which it will melt the shel- lac, and a little of the shellac car- ried by the blade is then transferred to the hole. If the correct amount of shellac is picked up, the surface can be smoothed by the warm blade; if too much is used, the surplus can be cut off with a razor blade. A job of this sort can be so neatly done that the patch will hardly be noticed. Stephen Douglas Showed His Sense of Humor When Stephen Douglas spoke in the senate he had no sense of time whatever. When absorbed in his „topic, he would talk until he was stopped. One day he had spoken for a cou- ple of hours, when the senator seat- ed next to him tugged at his sleeve. Douglas bent down, and the senator whispered in his ear: "Why not call it a day, Douglas, and come to my office? I have some bourbon there that is 20 years old." Douglas said he wished to com- plete his speech, as he had•only a few more words to say. But the few words developed into a few sen- tences and the sentences into para- graphs, and before he knew it, an- other two hours had passed and he was just getting warmed up. He spoke until the end of the day. When he was finished he sank down in his seat thoroughly exhausted. The senator seated next to him seized him by the hand and led him to his chamber. "Here's the bourbon I was telling you about, Douglas. Try some, it's 60 years old." "My God!" said Douglas wearily, "have I been speaking that long?" Quality by Taste? Some interesting experiments have been made on the Los Angeles cam- pus of the University of California by Dr. Roy M. Dorcus, associate professor of psychology. He has dis- covered that it is difficult to detect so-called "extra quality" (and inci- dentally higher -priced) products by taste. In testing two kinds of coffee, one costing about twice as much as the other, 38 per cent of his subjects pre- ferred the cheaper brand, 51 per cent the more expensive brand and 9 per cent couldn't make up their minds. When two kinds of sherry wine were tasted, one costing 35 gents a quart more than the other, 45 per cent preferred each brand and 10 per cent couldn't tell any difference. In testing two grades of salted butter, 45 per cent preferred the expensive brand, 42 per cent the cheaper brand and 13 per cent made no choice. Bridge No Fad Not so many years ago contract bridge was looked upon by many Americans as a passing fad. They had the notion that the game was nothing more than a new and streamlined version of the older Whist and that it wasn't here to stay. But these prophets guessed wrong and the recent survey shows beyond a doubt that the game is getting more popular all the time and that at least 60 per cent of those who enjoy it are playing as often, or more frequently, than they did five years ago. The surprising social significance of bridge is seen in the fact that both auction and contract players— more than 40 per cent of them at least—play once a week or oftener. Story of Porcelain it was in the 1100s and 1200s that the Venetian traders first obtained the Orientalware brought overland to western Asia, but it was not un- til the late 1500s that the Portu- guese accomplished the pioneer feat of bringing it by water around Af- rica. The Venetians had tried late in the Fifteenth century to make porcelain and experiments were be- ing made in France during the reign of Louis XIV but without success. The story of the Saxon alchem- ist, Bottger, who tried to produce porcelain for Augustus the Strong, has been told many:times. His suc- cess in 1709 has been declared the most important accomplishment of the century in that field. There were many others -in different countries striving for the same result. Even- tually the secret of Bottger's discov- ery became known to other German and French potters. There followed a development in porcelain making that gave the Continent the mastery of this long -sought discovery. Weigh Whiff of Hydrogen, Measurements so minute that they never before have been recorded by man are claimed possible with the micro -analysis gas apparatus con- structed by Dr. Francis E. Blacet, associate ,professor of chemistry at the Westwood campus of the Uni- versity of California at Los Angeles. The delicate equipment is the re- sult of 10 years of work in con- junction with Prof. Philip Leighton of Stanford university, Dr. Blacet said. As infinitesimal amount of hydrogen as one -three hundred mil- lionth part of an ounce, can be reg- istered by the sensitive device, it was announced. Although principal- ly vaitiable' in research work, the apparatus has been greeted by bio- chemists as an aid in detecting gas absorption within - the human body. Wild: Flower Carries Own' Central Heating .Plant A remarkable Swiss wild flower called "soldan'ella," able to "melt tunnels, through several inches of •solid •ice to let its flowers out into the air and sunshine in the spring, has claimed the attention of Amer- ican scientists. During the spring months.. in Switzerland these flowers may be seen waving over the surface of an unbroken ice field at the edge of the, glaciers as though they were root- ed in ice and snow instead of soil. Actually, the roots of the plant are in the' earth underneath. The flow- ers are sent up through small tubes or tunnels melted through the ice, ;by the heat of the plant itself. Starch from the leaves literally is burned in the plant to make heat. While it is common knowledge that plants breathe, few realize that many plants can"see. Plants turn toward the light, which is as nec- essary to them as it is to ourselves. Some plants, such as the common clover, are more highly developed than might be thought from a mere turning toward` the light. Nearly all leaves act as lenses of such excel- lence that photographs can be, and actually have been, taken using por- tions of leaves in the camera in place of ordinary photographic lenses. In nature these leaf lenses concentrate the light upon the cells in the leaf so as to drink in the life- giving sunlight. Plants growing in shady places, where the light is least have these leaf lenses most highly developed to get the greatest value from it. Tree Devastators Trees completely or partly stripped of their leaves in high sum- mer, or festooned with webs of with- ered leaves, often as big as water- melons, are trade marks of the sec- ond major type of insect tree devas- tators. They are called "defolia- tors," or leaf feeders, and while. there are several hundred species, a comparative few are responsible for the bulk of the damage, namely the gypsy and browntail moths, spruce budworms, hemlock looper, tent cat-` erpillar, white pine butterfly and sev- eral species of sawflies, the last so named because they actually saw a slit in leaves or buds in which to deposit their eggs. As caterpillars, these insects gnaw and kill the leaves, thus de- priving trees of their power to as- similate light and air and manu- facture their food, and so causing death. Vain Search Lying awake in bed one night, the French philosopher, Voltaire, saw a burglar come into his room. Remain- ing motionless Voltaire watched the man as he rifled one drawer after another. Then the intruder stole cautiously across the room and picked up the -philosopher's clothes, draped across r' a chair. As he dug his hands into; the pockets, Voltaire could not restrain a loud laugh., The burglarwheeled about and pointed his gun. "Why are you laughing?" he said 'sharply. "I am laughing,",said the philoso- pher "becase hink it very funny that 'you should come here the darrkness Of'night'to look for -garde- thing gar e- thing;that I an't find in the full light of day." • Theory 'Lost' Moon Once Revolved Around Earth The earth once had two moons— one of which was "lost," but still in- directly has affected life on this planet, according to an amazing new astronomical theory advanced by Dr. Ronald L. Ives, research scientist of the Franklin institute, Philadelphia. Not only has the "lost" moon played a most important part in the past history- of the earth, but its in- direct effects continue to operate now, Dr. Ives maintains. Dr. Ives, physicist and geologist, has constructed a whole new picture of the earth as it was several mil- lion years ago when a second moon decisively controlled many phases of the earth's climatic conditions. In a scientific presentation of his theory, through the official publica- tion of the Franklin' institute, Dr. Ives has called the lost moon "ephemeron." Dr. Ives' investigations of the earth's geological conditions indi- cate that ephemeron revolved around the earth until the Permian age—an epoch in the earth's history of about 150 to 200 million years ago, when giant lizards are believed to have roamed the earth, and dense swampy forests flourished which be- came the raw materials of many a present-day coal deposit. But ephemeron, which was small- er and lighter than the moon that continues to shed its light on us, was destroyed by an astronomical blitz- krieg, under what is known to sci- ence as Roche's law. Insects Destroy Trees How widespread and devastating insect attacks may be in the forests 'and among shade and other trees is made clear by recent reports of the United States Bureau of Ento- mology and Plant Quarantine. The reports say, for example, that 17 million trees were killed by bark beetlesin the lodgepole pine forests of Yellowstone National park and various surrounding national forests in a single recent year. That a ten-year period not long ago, saw the equivalent of 25 years' pulpwood supply—at then current, annual American paper require- ments—destroyed in the trees by bud -worms in the spruce -fir forests of Maine, northern Minnesota, On- tario, Quebec and New Brunswick. Marry Soon or Wait University of California graduates marry at once or wait from six to ten years, according to Robert Sibley, alumni director. Of the men, 28.7 per cent marry within a year of graduation, the per- centage for women being 34.2. Dur- ing the second year after receiving diplomas 12,6 per cent of the men and 12.7 per cent of the women mar- ry. Between the sixth and tenth year the• percentage for men is 21.2 and that for women 20.4. The average family of an alum- nus or alumna is 3.9 persons. This compares with 2.58 for college grad- uates \throughout the country and 3.61 for all families. The average age of U.C. alumni is 37.7 years. • - `Barrage Tir' During the great war of 1914-18, the French used the phrase "bar- rage tir," meaning "barrage fire," for rapid continuous artillery or machine-gun fire. concentrated On a designated area. Very soon any concentrated fire intended to retard the enemy or; to shield advancing troops came to be called a barrage. In Britain "barrage" is generally pronounced "bar-azh," with the first syllable accented, while in America it is generally pronounced "ba-razh," with the accent on the second syllable. A small captive balloon used to support Wires or nets as a protection against sir ' attack " is known *as r barrage balloon. Monoxide Gas in Auto Mishaps Being Studied A plan to : solve a "problem that pas long troubled investigators of automobile accidents -how large a proportion of; crashes involving the driver is due to carbon monoxide— was revealed recently by, Coroner -A. L. Brodie and his new toxicologist, Dr, Raymond D. McNally, both of California. Carbon monoxide is fatal in'suffi- cient quantities -as it is produced, in the exhaust gases of automobiles, Coroner Brodie explained, but no one knows how many accidents in which the driver is reported to have fallen asleep at the wheel ere due to faulty exhaust pipes that cause milder degrees of carbon monoxide poisoning. No scientific study has ever been made of the problem, as far as Dr. McNally could recall. An expert in such types of poisoning, he said he welcomed the study as one of the major tasks of his post. To carry out the plan Coroner Bro- die issued an order that samples of blood from all drivers killed in acci- dents that are not adequately ex- plained be forwarded by coroner's physicians to Dr. McNally for analy- sis as to carbon monoxide content. He also plans, he said, to make an effort to get a new spectroscopic' de- vice, recently reported from Ger- many, according to Dr. McNally, that will tell how long previous to the examination• the victim was ex- posed to the deadly gas. Such a study; said Dr. McNally, would provide a sound basis for an educational campaign among auto fists as to the danger of carbon mon- oxide leaking from a broken exhaust into a closed car. New Drug Aids Fight ' On Ailments of Heart'. Discovery of a new drug, which, it.. is believed, will ,play an important. part in man's battle against the No. 1 cause of death, heart disease, was related recently at a meeting of 200, prominent western doctors` under. auspices of the Los Angeles Heart; association. The speaker on the new drug was. Dr. William D. Evans of Santa. Bar- bara, formerly resident at the Los. Angeles County hospital and now an, officer in the U. S. army medical. corps. Digitalis, which is a crude drug. extracted from the fox -glove plant, is difficult to assay correctly and therefore has to be administered slowly—over periods of . from 24 hours to three days—by swallowing, he pointed out. "While it has saved thousands and; thousands of lives since its discov- ery about 1750, we always have the problem of correct dosage be- cause we cannot be certain of the• strength of the particular tablets, nor' of the patients' ability to take - it, ' he stated, adding: "Now with Lanatoside C. isolated, identified and crystallized from the. old crude digitalis, we have a heart stimulant that can be _weighed ac- curately, we know all the tablets will be -the same, and that, despite this added safety, it has almost all the good properties of the older drug." The main factor of importance, he• pointed out, is that Lanato'side C. can be given intravenously, thus reaching full effectiveness in 10 min- utes, while digitalis has to be given carefully over the much greater period. Super -Tunnel Bored to Drain Valuable Mines Since gold and silver were dis- covered at Cripple Creek, Colo., in 1891, almost 400 million dollars in ore has been extracted from, the mines there. However, in recent years activity has been slowed down and some mines have been closed by water seeping into the shafts necessitating expensive pumping operations. To drain the mines and make it possible to drive them still deeper at low cost, the Golden Cycle cor- poration, one of the leading opera- tors in the district, two years ago started digging a tunnel, 10 feet wide and 11 feet high, through the solid granite that prevented natural drainage. Alter boring beneath the mountains a distance of more than six miles, the two -million -dollar project was holed through two years ahead of schedule as a result of specially designed machinery, round-the-clock operations, and bonuses "to workmen for extra fast ' progress. Called the Carlton tunnel after -the late Carlton brothers who formerly owned. the Golden Cycle, the 32,000 - foot bore has already 'dried up one mine and the water leve] is drop- ping in a number of others. The water removed is to be sold to farm- ers in Colorado's Arkansas River, valley. Geologists estimate that there is from 3 million dollars to 13 million dollars' worth of proved gold in the lower levels of the field and in addition several new ore veins were uncovered during the digging. Trick Baby Chair When a baby fell from a high chair, incurring a broken back that resulted in death, the child's father decided to do something to prevent such tragedies. He has invented a chair -table in which a baby asserted- ly may be left safely for an indefi- nite period. A friend has just pur- chased one of them. It looks like a low white bridge table with a hole cut in the center. The baby's head and shoulders protrude from this hole while he sits on a swing seat that is equipped with an adjustable foot rest. Straps confine babies who have reached the crawling stage. Tipping the chair -table over is im- possible and it easily can be moved about on casters attached to the legs. The whole thing can be folded and kept in a closet. At any time it can be converted into a table by removing the baby seat and fitting it into the hole, in the top. Tinted Nails for Baby Paint baby daughter's fingernails bright red to cure her thumb -suck- ing habits is the advice offered de- spairing parents by Dr. Richard H. Norton of Boston. Feminine vanity—even at three or four ,years, he told the Massachu- setts Dental society, is aroused by colorful nails. Dr. Norton says the experiment was tried on his grand- daughter and that "the child was delighted and has not put her fingers in her mouth since." Before that, he said, the family had tried a number of evil -tasting sol tions without success. u Bomb Shelter—No Roof When Dr.. Carroll De Courcy of Cincinnati made plans for a new home last summer, he, decided he might as well put a bomb shelter in while he was at it. So while the rest of the house went up, workmen poured concrete walls for the shelter adjoining. It needed a good strong roof, of steel reinforced concrete. But the Office of Production Management had oth. er uses for the materials and 'now Dr. De Courcy has a roofless bomb shelter. National Anthem Wasn't Used for Many Years. Did you know that Samuel Fran- cis Smith, author of "America," wrote that famous national song for. no particular reason and that the manuscript remained unused in his portfolio until it was sung at a Bos- ton Sunday school celebration? "The exercises of that event were on the Fourth of July, 1831," says Charles Goodspeed, noted rare book dealer, in his fascinating reminis- cences, "Yankee Bookseller." "The• words of Smith's poem which in- cluded a fifth stanza (the third in order) were first printed on a sheet for use at the meeting," explains. Mr. Goodspeed. Only six known copies of this sheet, the first printing of "Amer- ica," have turned up so far and, of course, they are very valuable. "It is odd that we should have three national songs," adds Mr. Goodspeed. " 'The Star Spangled Banner' is carelessly spoken of as our national 'anthem.' Not even the congress of the United States can, in correct usage of the word, make an anthem out of it. It is, in fact, a martial ode to the flag. Smith's 'America' and 'America the Beau- tiful' by Katharine Lee Bates are hymns, each appropriate to its oc casion; 'America' is suited for gath- erings where patriotism is combined with religious and ancestral feeling, while Miss Bates' beautiful lines, more modern in sentiment, are ex- pressive of a national spiritual unity. 'The Star Spangled Banner' is formal, official, tear -inspired." ' Taking No Chances It's getting so a jailer can't feel safe even with a wall around the yard, Warden James Doody, idly gazing over the 63 -acre, stone -walled lawn of the Joliet penitentiary, noticed how frequent were the areas of smooth, unobstructed turf, and was struck by an unhappy thought. He called John Wilson, superintendent of a school of aeronautics near here, and asked him to look the place - over. "Sure thing," said Wilson. "A small plane could land in one of those patches 800 to 900 feet square and take off again with a passen- ger." "Not one of my boys," said Doody, who followed up with orders that as, soon as possible telephone poles and cables are to be set across the mid- dle of every one of those eye-catch- ing, wide-open spaces. Have Word for It U. S. Army drivers in the quar- termaster corps have a vocabulary all their own. Some samples: Armstrong starter—crank handle. Beach' her - coast to parking, space. Broke to lead—needs to be towed in, Bull o' the woods -convoy com- mander. Boom wagon—ammunition truck. Cowboy—reckless driver. Dig-out—to speed up the engine. Hot foot—one who rides his clutch,. Killer—truck with no brakes. Rubber bands—tires. Catching Rats A New England trick for catching, rats was used by George Steele, a clam -digger of Sebasco, Maine. When the big shore rats infested• his big pile of clam shells for bits. of meat, Mr. Steele took 25 or 30• giant clams and - put them in a row near low -tide mark. The hun- gry rats would stick their, snouts inside the opened shells, thealert clams instantly shut the shells, and the rats' noses were caught fast. No amount of struggling got them free, and the incoming tide�drownedl the trapped rodents. _•_,