DEVELOPMENTS OF SCIENCE.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17127, 23 April 1921, Page 15

DEVELOPMENTS OF SCIENCE.

CONTROLLING THE WEATHER. AERODROMES AND TOGS. » j (FBOM OtTE OWN CO»MSH>NDENT.) i LONDON, March 11. I As chairman at a lecture on Wireless Telephony, Colonel Craig referred to the very important effect that science had on modern war, especially the artillery side of it. Tlio lecturer, Mr H. F. Trewnian, Chief Instructor of the Electrical Bianch of the Ordnance College, Woolwich, made very clear the various steps sine© 1838, l by which man came to the knowledge that oscillations communicated to the ether by an electric current could be transmitted and. pir-ked up again, and how the sound waves made by the human voice could be translated into electric waves, and then translated baclc again into audiblo sound waves after being carried great distances. It was no longer correct, he pointed out, to speak of wireless telephony as in its infancy; the needs or the war had forced it to a rapid growth. There was still much to learn, but very much had been achieved. Audible wireless telephony was a fact; directional receiving of messages_".vas a fact; it was possible for the receiver to tell the direction from' which messages came, though directional transmitting was not yet achieved. A submarine could be directed by wireless and also a marine torpedo. To guide aerial torpedoes by wireless was a certainty of the near future. « Trans-Ocean Talks. Developments 4jf a sensational character in connexion with wireless telephony forecasted by a demonstration -which. Professor A. N. goldsmith, who is in charge of electrical engineering at the College of the City of # New York, is i'ust credited with having given. The 'rofessor first moved a switch, and a motor began to hum beneath a mega-phone-of resonant .wood. He then adjusted three needles on a dial on the contrivance, and the master eavesdropper of the world began to work. The listeners heard the command from the megaphone: "All right. New York. Listen." / The voice was that of the chief radio operator on tho steamship Gloucester, which recently established direct wireless telephone connexion between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans with the entire breadth of the continent between. When the voice of the Gloucester's operator was heard, the vessel was -somewhere bsyond Sandy Hook, but the sound of its gramaphone. playing a popular song was as audible m the laboratory as if the instrument had been in the room. Even the imperfections on tho record were detected. When the concert was nearing its close, the Professor moved slightly two of the needles on the dial, throwing out the localiser and the amplifier, which are important parts of the invention. The next instant tli© clear strains of music were merged into a jumbled murmur, ■which was a conglomeration of all the wireless gossip to bo caught in the air adjacent to New York. Next" he adjusted the localiser and tho amplifier to the wave length of tho great wireless station aft Nauen, Germany, and its sharp crackling note 'burst into the room, untouched by all noises through which it passed, all this being eliminated by the localiser. A'lhe time is not far distant," he said, ''when any telephone subscriber will be able to reach ships at sea, or possibly even telephone subscribers at the other side of the ocean." Ho explained that the reconfc progress in wireless was duo to the audion, a vacuum. tube somewhat resembling in shape an ordinary electrict light bulb, invented by Dr. Leo do Forest, and since improved by many other experimenters. It is known -as an amplifier, and can take very feeble speech or signals and raise them to extremely loud tones. .

I The Great Obstacle to Air Control. Lecturing on "The Artificial Control of .Weather," Sir Napier Shaw held out little hope that by the application of know ; n physical processes anything could bo done to overcome the obstacles to control, which have-hitherto proved | insuperable.. It was the vastness of the volumo and mass of the air affected j which had proved the. great obstacle, and any new physical process, to be sucr Lcessful, would have to arrange for a great economy in the energy required, or give access to supplies of energy whjch wero not now available. The clearness of fo<r from aerodromes would . be a matter of. obvious utility, and even [ urgency! if it could be performed. It had been suggostod that aerodromes might be permanently cleared of fog by local heating. Talcing tho drift at two miles an' hour, it would take about 12' tons of coal an hour to clear an aerodrome 400 yards wide of a BOftfog. and might run up to 400 or 500 tons an hour, as an outside figure* to meet ordinary contingencies, using electrical distribution. The problem was about 'the Bame as trying to raise by a fow degrees the temperature of tho top two inches of the Thames within a'given, area when the tide had just begun tb ebb, Perhaps it would not bo impossible with unlimited funds and coal, but if the plan was to be tried it should be On a small brook first. At the moment, he kept an open mind about the possibility of clearing an aerodrome by. electrical discharge. Industries-Lost by Ignorance. - "Science and Patriotism" . was tho subject of an address by Sir Richard Gregory to members of the British Wo-, men's Patriotic League. He described' as the true scientific patriots those who made it their business to see that the results of scientific work here wore properly applied here —that such a condition of mind was stimulated and fostered as would ensure the development of the knowledge gained in'this country, and not leave it to other countries to benefit by our originality. It wus an undisputed toct that as regards originality and great discoveries" tnb" British" scientific men were supreme, but full advantage had not beeir taken of that fact owing to the ignorance of the politicians and th.; indifference of the general community. . The... capacity hitherto had not been applied, so the German and other nations had benefited. There had not been people in this couutry with sufficient scientific acumen to boo* the.'-possibilities of our own scientists' work.' Scientists asked only for means to publish their/discoveries "to the whole- world, yet all the grant they "ot from the Government UIOOOV I ' annum, wlnlst fif *y tiraes as much was spent on stationery used in the House of Commons. If .wo had in Parliament representatives who had not sixpenn'orth of science among the lot of them, and valuable industries were i lost owing te proper attention not being given to- profitable scientific discoveries, "the community would bo to. blame for electing incompetent men to the House. > I The Broken Heart. ■

I Dr. J. Strickland Goodall, the heart specialist, lecturing yesterday before :llie institute of Hygiene expressed the opinion: "IVie is no doubt that a broken heart is a physiological possibility, "and does actually occur, apart from tho many cases on. record. in. fiction." I have seen an animal rupture its heart through joy. Some tone ago I became interested in this subject, and decided to look Into it. Hie result is that I have been able to work out the mechanism of tho broken heart. It is nearly always joy, and not grief, that kills a person." . . ■ Then Dr. Goodall described what happens: "A violent emotion causes a chemical substance to Ik; poured into the blood, which .stimulates tho nerves

trf tho ; heaii. The blood vessels are contracted, and the heart has to beat, against a powerful resistance, and very .often, breaks itself in the attempt.; There are many minor degrees of heartbreak. When you get a pain oyer your heart it may mean the actual rupture of a few fibres.'', _■■-,.., -Keep, Your Temper, The ordinary, emotions of everyday life; Dr. Goodali said, product much more wear and tear of the heart thaft the ordinary work: In.a recent expertl meut, in which he had incited a man to rage, j-he.found that the action of the maji's .heart-had increased from its noimai effort c/f 152 foot pounds per minute to 224 foot pounds. When one, iidulged m a very violent emotion, one not only increased the work of- the heart for the time being, hut caused it. *to he overworked for some considerable time.afterwards. In order to get tlte accurate size and form of the healthy heart ho had X-rayed a large number of students of the' Middlesex Hospitalsome years ago, and he had como to tho conclusion that the average transverse diameter of the heart, in a .fit man, thirty years of age, was about 51 inches. As onegot older tho-'heart tended to become wider, apdbc-th form and size varied with age. In a child the heart was more conical and relatively larger than in the adult. ■' Moreover, a ohild's heart differed in position from that of an adult, and was usually irregular, in action, speeding up. during inspiration and slowing down : during expiration, the slowing down process being sometimes so marked that the heart almost stopped-heating. This was actually the sign of a healthy heart in a child; the sounds closely resembled those from an adult heart, the muscles of which were diseased, and for those reasons children wer» being continually taken to the doctor whetr tliere'was no cause for alarm. To keep the heart healthy 'there .must be sufficient exercise, adequate < rest, and adequate nutrition from a proper supply of blood and nerve. On looking over cases of sudden death, which he had noted during twenty years, three things impressed him most: The fact that emotion killed more- ''heart cases" than hard work; the large number of doctors who died suddenly; the large .number of people who died at-railway stations. Nature's Bulwarks.. Important experiments-in relation to the blood pressure of tho human body at different periods "of life are being carried out by an eminent medical

specialist associated with a London hospital. His object is to obtain definite data as to the nge at which the arteries develop . weakness under blood pressure in individuals of varying physique engaged in a- variety of occupations. "The question of blood pressure is receiving .particular attention at the moment," says a London doctor. "Medical" men are'realising what an important: bearing, it has on general j health. The whole of one's life is really a fight against blood pressure. The arteries are our bulwarks, and tho pressure is constantly attacking them. Diseases.of various kinds help the attack by 'weakening' or , by- rendering brittle the. walls of our defending arteries. We "can,- however,- assist the defence by moderation' in diet .-and especially, in alcohol, by the wise arid discriminifting uso/'of exercise, by control of our passion's and of our Many so-called sudden deaths, most of the. strokes that tragically deprive an active man of ppwer, generally represent tho. final triumph of blood pressure over.artcrv, With every/beat of tho heart .Wood is forced against tho walls of the arteries. . Let- these walls ho brittle in one place or soft in -another, the: Weak-spot gives way. Such a'spot may be-in the brain,-whore the artery, lying in soft material,- lias no outside support. The weak spot bursts with tho pressure that it cannot withstand!" • -\

Now Nature Erects its Scaffolding. !

Professor Keith says that man's prenatal history was imperfectly known in Darwin's time, but nil the facts ho cited have proved true. Gill arches are formed at one stage of the human embryo, the heart for a, 'tinw is a simple tubular pump as in fishes; the arms and legs appear first iis flattened" ilipper-liko buds, and for a brief period there is, A free projecting tail. Professor 'Keith describes man as the "skyscraper", of the animal world, and says as sboiras tho foundations are cut a''builder runs, up his raking scaffolding, and mounts aloft the , lattice-work cranes which'arc to feed the Workmen's hands. That is exactly what Nature does; as. soon as the germinal foundation of a human frame is laid sha spends all, available building material in. fitting up a'senffolding to supply, the embryo with nourishment and shelter. • One of tho most remarkable discoveries of recent [years relates to man's embryonic scaf-? folding. "It has b'eu found'that only (four living* . animals' throw up an I embryonic scaffolding exactly identical in build and design to that of man, - "These four animals tfre the gorilla, chimpanzee, brang, and gibbon—tho group known as anthropoid apes. This iu only olio of ;a multitude bf facts which are hard for aiiti-Dnrwiniam to account, for. They have also to explain why monkeys have a scaffolding which is fundamentally the same as that of man fcnd the anthropoid -ipcs, but differs in details. They have also to account for the fact.that lower still amongst primate animals—in .-•ertain types of lemur—the monkey form-of scaffolding is foreshadow**!. Up *.o the end of the second month man and ape pass through identical stages- it is notuntil the end of the second month that the most experienced embiyologfst.can tell apo from man, so alike are 4ho embryos. Animals- more distantly related to man in'structure break away' afc an earlier stage." Referring to the brilliant work of Francis Mnitlnnd Balfour—"Air. A. J. Balfour's most gifted brother"—in unravelling the embryological history of the shark tribes, particularly of the dog fish, Professor Keith hoped no one would suspect embrvologrsts of iiiving man a shark as a remote ancestor; he admitted, however, that it was open for sharks to allege; were they so minded, that some distant ancestor of man had borrowed a areat deal from a remote ancestor of theirs.