SCIENCE NOTES

Hokitika Guardian, 26 February 1927, Page 4

SCIENCE NOTES

(By Science Service). WHO INTRODUCED THE POTATO? “The legend that Sir Walter Raleigh first introduced the potato into England belongs to the category of the story of George Washington and the cherry tree,’’ says Dr William E. Salford, botanical expert of the United States Department of Agriculture. The early history of the potato, this botanist maintains in the annual report of the Smithsonian Institution just issued, is obscured by conflicting stories. many of which must be relegated Lo the sphere of romance. Sir Francis Drake is another legendary potato hero, who is said to have brought the nourishing tuber to England front his numerous wanderings. But it is well known to scientists that the variety of potato popularly called Irish did not exist in Virginia, when white man first came to this country, but had its origin in Peru As a mutter of tact, no one knows just who it was that first brought it to Europe, or when it ■was Introduced To tjiat Continent, declares Dr Salford. There is evidence that it was growing there by the beginning of the 17tlt century : but it was cultivated in private gardens merely as a botanical curiosity for many years. Research among early documents shows that it was probably carried from Peru lo Spain as an example of one of the food plants ol the New World. It was cultivated extensively by the early inhabitants ol Chile and the Incas. The story goes in one ancient record that many Spaniards amassed enough ol this world’s goods, from carrying quantities ol the lowly potato to the mines at Potosi for food for the miners, to enable them to retire to their native peninsula and live in prosperity. SMOKE DANGERS.

Dangers to health and properly Irotu smoke in large cities are manilold. and are inadequately handled by smoke ordinances, it was pointed out recently hv H. B. Meller, chief of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Smoke Regulation. at a meeting of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, at New York.

Smoke irritates the sensitive membranes of eyes, nose, throat, lungs ami the digestive tract, he said, ft increases susceptibility to diseases affecting those parts of the body, diminishes the human working capacity, and may hasten premature decay. It lots ;i verv important efleol on the penumonia death rate. Its effect on buildings is obvious. It is costly. Pittslnirgh annually nays out millions of dollars for the privilege til being known as “flic smoke city.’

Smoke ordinances are not uncommon at the present time, but they arc inadequate to cover the dangers lroiu smoke. Mr Mcllev said. Ordinarily they regulate only the dense type ol smoke, which is actually less injurious than the light and invisible smokos. In controlling dense smoke, the ordinance cuntml only the tar deposit, which is hut a small percentage ol the products of combust am. lhe more dangerous products, silt h as lino coke particles, ash. iron, and sulphur oxides are omitted with light or invisible smokes, and no attempt is made to regulate them. Manufacturers and railroads are responsible for the greatest amount of the dense smoke emitted in the cities. They have co-operated with siilbke ordinances satisfactorily. I In* tiling now is to control the other types of smoke. The small heating plant is the real problem, it was pointed out. for ii is scarcely ever regulated. Simple firing methods, such as the use of coke, would do much to better conditions. PIANISTS’ SECRETS REVEALED. How study of .player piano rolls w ill give the set ret of the marvellous effects produced by the great pianists was demonstrated at Philadelphia. by Dr Guy M. Whipple, dileetor of National Intelligence Tests, I ••■fore the American Association for the Advancement, ol Science in session there. Comparison of rolls of the great players with the original score will indicate just where and how they deviated from the score to obtain their effects. Such analysis holds great possibilif ies tor piano students and teachers. Dr Whipple said. He pointed nut thill, although the player piano is so perfected that the artists themselves admit the accuracy of the reproductions, the piano roll does nothing lint control the time relations or the intensity of the piano hammers or the pedals. Hence inlepretatimi is all a matter of time and intensity. “You strike a key at a certain time with a certain force, hold your finger there a. c. rtaiu length of time, push the pedals down at a certain time, and lot them up at a

certain time; that’s all the mystery there is about the piano playing of the great masters of the keyboard.” Dr AVhipplo declared.