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Zurich Herald, 1928-01-19, Page 61927 Saw Notable • Achievements In Field of Science and Progress Advances in Aeronautics, Radio,, Commercial Chemistry and' lnleering Most Spectacular, But Laboratory Discoveries Are Equally Significant Important Contributions to Biology, Pschyology and Medicine Are Made; Archaeology and Geology Also Yield Up Their Secrets for Man's Edification Transocean Bights, television, coin- revolutionary effects in agriculture ets and earthquakes came to the at- tention of every newspaper reader during 1927, but in the laboratories and other workshops of science equal- ly important although perhaps not so ; use of liver liets in the treatment of spctacular, scientific developments oc i nexnicious anemia. Physicians have curred during tho year which haw just tried out the method with a degree of ended. I success that augurs well for the new Lindbergh's flight from New "Y"ork I mode of attack on a very stubborn to Paris and the succeeding aeronauti- malady. Since liver in the quantities cal accomplishments by civilian pilots necessary to increase materially the using commercial aircraft and engines number of red blood'corpuscles soon designed and built in the United becomes distasteful to the anaemia State: inspired the public with new patient, a search is being made for the enthusiasm and confidence in aerial active principle in liver that produces transportation. The man in the street the beneficial result. now realizes that the airplane has Another hormone has been prepared passed through its adolescence. With- in the laboratory, in manufacturing out new fundamental inventions and synthetically for the first time thyrox- utilizing the developments of years past, aviation has entered into its pro- per expansion. Passenger air lines spanning the na- tion were initiated. Aerial express service,was begun en five routes, in- cluding the transcontinental. More airways were lighted and placed un- der government supervision. Airways maps were' published by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. Installation of radio directional beac- ons and two-way radio communication `between plan and ground upon civil airways were begun by the Depart- ment of Commerce. Television Added to Science. and animal husbandry. In Medicine, One of the outstanding medical de- velopments of the yoar has been the in, the active principle of the thyroid gland. Thyroxin. is used fir treating goitre patients.-. Its production syn- thetically assures a product of abso- lutely even standard and should have th effect of making this important medibament much lower in price. . Man Gains on Epilepsy. Reports from various hospitals indi- cate that man is getting a slight "edge on epilepsy, one of the most ancient afflictions. Abting upon the observa- tion that epileptics deprised of food have few "fits," a group of specialists in children's diseases set out to .ana- lyze the condition of starvation that brought about this favorable reaction. To the speedy communication of This done they preceded to' .work out e spoken end written word that the tele- a diet that would reproduce these con- graph, cable, telephone and radio had achieved in the past the year 1927 added vision by wire or wireless. The demonstration of television in Scotland will take its place beside Morse's first telegraph message, Bell's first tele- phone conversation and Marconi's first wireless communication. Follow- bacillus, believed to be the cause of upon the footsteps of the sending trachoma, a disease of the eye that is' of photographs by wire, television is Very common among American In- a more complex and difficult achieve diens and natives of many of the went, involving the rapid dissection more backward countries of the East. of a ,seen and the translation by a , photo -electric cell of its lights and Treatment of Erysipelas. shades into a varying electric current than can be transmitted, by radio or telephone. Between this experimental demon- stration of television an dits practical utilization there must be that period of development that occurs in any ncr; achievement of science. Last year there was opened for public use the two-way trans-Atlantic telephone service between the United States and England, the culmination of a dozen years of extensive perfecting of the fleet trans-Atlantic telephone con - venation held during the war. The progress in radio, like that in aeronautics, has been largely that of development rather than novel achievement. Electron tubes operat- ing directly on alternating current have eliminated batteries from the Hower receiving sets, the utilization of short-wave .lengths was begun, both in distant point-to-point communica tion and in broadcasting. High pow- ered broadcasting stations, such as the iu0-kilowatt station at Schenec- tady, put in operation during the year, torecart the day when a whole coun- try can tune in on one broadcasting ,station, as we. in Canada did for our July 1st Jubilee celebration, but we needed a chain for that event. Frodeet;on of New Chemicals. ditions and yet provid' nourishment so their patients would not die from starvation. Dr. Hideko Noguchi, of the Rocke- feller Institute for. Medical Research, has the isolation of another germ to his credit. This time it is a small The production of new chemicals and the obtaining of new material from old, familiar substances con- tinued in chemical laboratories and plants. Most important and spectacu- lar were the European researches up- on the liquefaction and hydrogenera- tion of coal to produce liquid fuels re- sembling those obtained from petro- leum. This achievement assures the automobile and other internal cem- bnstion :engines of the future their daily fuel, Moreover, from these syn- thetic products of the new treatment of coal the Germans have found it pos- sible to make synthetic rubber upon what is Laid to be a commercial scale. Further Advances. Electrnplatiiig of rubber from latex, or colloidal solutions Of rubber, was developed upon an industrial • scale. Cornstalks were utilized experimental - Decided progress has been made in the. treatment of erysipelas. Thanks to an antitoxin developed about two years sago by Dr. K. E. Birkhaug, of Rochester, N.Y., this painful inflam- mation' of the skin is on the high road to becoming. a vanquished disease. 1927 Nobel Prize.„ The 1927 Nobel prize for :medicine was awarded to Professor Julius Wag- ner-Jauregg, of Vienna, for his treat- ment of .paresis by inoculation with malaria. This is a culmination of many years of work on the part of this scientist, and by his method of fighting one disease by another many unfortunate sufferers are being saved in various countries of the world to- day. Physiologists continue to add, piece by piece, to the knowledge of how the muscles, nerves and glands operate in emotional expression. Anthropology. No question in anthropology and archaeology has caused more contro- versy than the contention that man existed in the Western Hemisphere earlier than a few thousand years ago, Reports of 'the discovery of ear- ly man in America have been made on numerous occasions in the past, but scientists have been unable .to agree on the authenticity of the claims. New and striking evidence came to light during the last year and it may be that this problem is nearing solu- tion. J. D.. Figgins and Harold J. Cook, scientists of the Colorado Mu- seum of Natural History, have in- vestigated discoVeries of arrowheads and other artifacts showing human handiwbrk. Instead of dating back only some 8,000 to 25,000 years, -the time when most archaeologists and anthropolo- gists say the Indian -came to America from Asia, thole human relics,be- cause of their association with extinct animals and geological deposits of known antiquity, are assigned to the geological period that scientists know as the Pleistocene. That was the time of the great Ica Age; when Northeast- ern America was periodically covered with an immense glacier and when ly as a source of cellulose for paper prehistoric elephants and mastodoms and artificial 'silk. The discovery roamed the land. It was from 25,000 that duralumin can be protected to'1'million years ago. against corrosion by coating with Evidence of Human Antiquity. pure aluminum. An acoustical plaster which absorbs most of the sound falling upon it was " developed by the . U, • S. Bureau of Standards. Methods of making low- cost roads of gravel, sand and clay Were developed. The stentile Moffatt tunnel under James Peak, Col., Was completed, The Welland Canal nears comple- tion, Hodson Bay Ry, developed to a considerable extent and a line sur- veyed into tire Flin Flon properties. Discoveries o4 potashsalts in Texas and New Mexico thick and rich enough for mines were discovered, i while „Britain .proposes to reclaim aamilar salts froth the Dead Sea. Animal and Plant Research. From three localities have evi- dences of human antiquity on the American continent been obtained: Frederick Tillman County, Okla.;' Colorado, Mitchell County, Texas, and Toison, Union County, New Mexico. From all three sites arrowheads have been unearthed in close association with extinct animals. In various protions of the world re- Searches into the past of the human race continued. The Italian govern- ment undertook the excavation. of Herculaneum, overwhelmed in 79 A.D. by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvitis. Digging among the ruins of Pompeii brought to light new houses coutain•, ing art trettsures and wall . ,paintings of great interest. The researches on the effect of X- New light on everyday life of the tars lit the breeding of 'animals and knights who set out to recapture the, plants opened up unexplored vistashi tonib of Christ frorne the heathen was the field* of evolution, genettes and revealed by study of a crusader's ma - i iltyelit lea, and inay eventually have tle in Palestine. Previausiy, unknown KEEPING BABE IN TRIM If he did •the tarns chores during the winter feud at a little wouldn't need to call for help, Babe Ruth --training, $. seae less Ibn eea TRY THIS ONE ON YOUR HILLSIDE Complete control of direction is necessary for "Ski writing"—Try your Cand—or feet. r Mesopotamian kings who ruled 5,060 years ago were discovered at Ur of the Chaldees. A Sumerian temple to the Earth Goddess, built more than 5,000 years ago, was unearthed in the buried city of Kish. A temple to the Egyptian war god Montou, built at about 2200 B.C.,; was found in Egypt, revealing the existence of a hitherto unknown king. Mayan Frescos Found. Magnificent frescoes by ancient Mayan artists were discovered at Chichen Itza in Yucatan. Important ruins of a prehistoric civilization that bridges the gap between the Pueblo 'culture in the Southwest and that of the more advanced culture of the Az- tecs and Mayas in southern Mexico were investigated. Astronomy. • • An important astronomical event was the total eclipse of the sun on June 29, visible in England and Nor- way. Good observations were obtain- ed of this phenomenon by British and German astronomers, although the American party in Norway was pre cloudy weather. vented from observing the eclipse by The first easily observed comet that has appeared in some yearsarrived as the year was ending, bringing the total number of cornets observed dur- ing the year to ten. The bright comet that recently attracted attention was df covered by an Australian amateur eAned Skjellerup, on December 3. The Pons-Winnecke comet, which made one of its sexennial visits to the, earth's neighborhood, was detect- ed on March 3 by Dr. George Van Bies- broeck, of the Yerkes Observatory, Williams Bay, Wis. It came within 3,500,000 miles of the earth on June 27, closer, with one exception, than any comet in the past. Three other periodic comets were observed. The Grigg-Skjellerup comet was dis- covered ., on March 10 by Dr. George Van Biesbroeck. Cchaumasse's peri- odic comet was observed on its return on October 4 by Professor Van Bies- broeck, and possibly by Gerald Mer- ton, of the British Royal Observatory, a little earlier. Encke's comet, a 'peri- odic visitor, was found on November 12, as it came near the earth again, by Professor George Van Biesbroeck. Flood Brings Problems. The 'great Mississippi flood remind- ed the public of the great difficulties of confining and civilizing such a great stream of water, and engineers, • as a result of the floods in both the Mississippi Valley and New England, urged the necessity of fundamental re- search in hydraulics upon an exten- sive scale to better understand how to control and keep within bound the floods . that are sure to' occur from time to time. • Since the earth is still unquiet and growing, as it were, earthquakes oc- curred as they have in past years. A great earthquake on May 22, in the Kansu province in interior China, was announced to the world on the follow- ing day by Science Service, in co- operation with the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey and the Jesuit Seismological Association, though it was not for many weeks later that actual reports from the de- vastated region reached civilization. Other severe earthquakes during the year that were immediately located by the co-operation of these three bodies included those in Chile, April 14 and November 14; Japan, March 27; Alas- ka, October 24, and California, Novem- ber 4. Forgive and forget sounds well, but most folks are more for getting than for giving.—Wall Street Journal. li4.0 "ADAMSON'S ADVENTURES"—By O. Jacobson. 001.1... qt4! Rea Neve , You ' R 'PNOTo oe " v eg oa soma ewe seuvenlR4, •. Nearly The Same Thing As Married, s Floating Dock . Of 50,000 Tons .For Singapore Structure Will Be Towed 8,500 Miles Through' Suez and Indian Ocean HEADS TONNAGE IST. Builders of Great Lakes Grain Carriers Construct Largest Number The new 50,000 tons floating dock for the Singapore naval base, built to the -order of the British Admiralty by Messrs. Swan., Hunter & Wigham Richardson at their Wallsend -on -Tyne' yard, has just been finished, and will shortly start for its base. This firm, which has built nearly every new ves- sel for the Great Lakes this yoar, has shownthe greatest building figures for the ,year, overtopping all other shipbuilding yards for the amount of tonnage constructed,, many grain car- riers arriers contributing to this total.• Power Installation. The new dock is regarded as a great engineering feat, the construction of the whole of the immense structure, built in seven sections, having occu- pied only 10 months. There remains still the electric light and power in-' stallation to be fitted, but otherwise, the dock is ready for operation. The contract is then by no mean' finish- ed as the work must• bo delivered at Singapore, and the passage of a little over 8,500. miles, through the Sues Canal, and the' Indian Ocean must be .safely negotiated. Altogether 20,000 tons of steel have been used, while an average of 140,- 000 rivets, during ;the busy part of September, were driven home. The total number of rivets used amounts to 3,500,000, according to the esti- mates. Thee first section was com- menced in January last year, and was completed on July 15. The second and third sections were then rushed and launched in order to make room in the slips for the rest. It is stated that the inside of the dock is suf- ficiently large to take six Trafalgar Square Nelson monuments, lying down, placed end to end, while the huge Cunarder Mauretania can be com- fortably housed with thirty foet to Spare at how and stern. The builders have now the reputa- tion eputestion of having built the largest num- ber of floating docks for any one firm in the world, and have delivered them safely over long distances. They Wilt a 12,000 ton dock for the Spanish Government and delivered it to the owners, after a tow of 6,500 miles in 11 months. Another dock, of. `7,000 tons, was towed a distance of 11,000 miles, through the dangerous Magel land Straits to Callao, Peru. Other floating docks built by this firm in - elude a 33,000 ton dock for the Brl. tish Admiralty and one of 11;000 tons, built in 7 months for Stettin. A National Theatre St. John Ervine in theeLondon Ob- server (Ind.): (Tho fund for the erec- tion and -endowment of a national theatre in, Lontlbn has remained at the same figure for sometime). It is true that the distribution of money is nee longer what it wasbefore the war, and that many persons without much - mind or culture are now rick who, prior to the war, were very properly sweeping the streets or engaged in some similar occupation exactly suit- ed to their abilities. These people, when they take an interest in the theatre, aspire only to finance the pro- duction of musical comedies or re- vues.... Mr. Masefield once hoped to see in England rich men with a sense of style. The hope has not peen fulfilled. The Freemasons London Truth (Ind. Lib.) : We in England only know 'the Masons as an eminently respectable body of law- abiding , citizens, • chiefly occupied in eating good dinners and supporting deserving charities. Their secret, whatever it may be, is rather a sub- ject for incredulous pleasantry than for serious apprehension. Quito obviously they are the last people in• the world to give even the most ner- vous Government a moment's anxiety. But in Latin countries it is another story. There the Masons have habit- ualy cultivated secret political activi- ties, often of a Subversive andalways of an anti -clerical character, ee A Fair Offer, (' ar:. adabeen apprehended by the sheriff for chicken stealing. Being without money, he spent the time, be. tween his capture and the hearing of WS case in the gaol. When his trail came he was without Witnesses or lawyer, and also without friends who could vouch for his hole esty. The judgo soon discovered this and Said: "Sam Jackson, you are in' custody of the law. The State , provides coun., sol for those who lack it; I thereby. appoint these twb gentlemen present in court to defend you: Have you any- ,thSam, who7rhad been looking very ,4phappy, brightened. "two lawyers, yo' 1;Ionah!" ho ex- ,elaimed. delightedly, and then, with an engaging Ow. E '11(0,1 .1 hare settee-, thing to sity,' yo' Ikonah—it, it ain't up• sewn' the, law, can't 1 Swop 'off enc' of dem iawydre ,for ?a vettnetiS t" . .