DR. FRANK CRANE'S DAILY EDITORIAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 166, 4 October 1927, Page 14

DR. FRANK CRANE'S DAILY EDITORIAL

A NEEDED INVENTION (Copyright, 1927) rpHEY say the law of supply and demand is operative in inventive circles aswell as elsewhere. In two fields especially invention is needed. Thomas Edison is said to be working almost exclusively on some plan for synthetic rubber. This is a rubber age, and the extensive use of automobiles has enormously increased the demand. Whoever would invent some way to manufacture a cheap substitute for rubber would not only make a fortune himself, but he would greatly benefit the world. There seems to be no reason why some substa.nce cannot be manufactured that will replace rubber, to a degree. Chemists have invaded the perfume and flavour field and the dye and coal tar products have given us dyes that are remarkable. It is said by some that flavours and odours can be more successfully manufactured by the chemists than they are by nature. If the chemist will do like work in the field of rubber he will be rewarded.

Another demand is for the control of the weather. Sir Oliver Lodge the other daiy said that there was nothing in the way of man’s controlling the weather. The fog remains the worst enemy to transportation, whether the ocean liner, the railroad train or the airship. Fog is the sailor’s greatest enemy and it is the airman’s greatest enemy. You cannot do much successful navigation unless you are able to see your way. When not only the path but the stars are blotted out and you are compelled to bowl along say at 100 miles an hour in impenetrable obscurity it is dangerous business. Just how man shall overcome fog conditions it is impossible to say, but it is certainly a challenge to the inventive genius of man. Wtio ever will discover how to change these conditions or to adjust himself to them will lay humanity under an immense obligation. The meteorological reports are surprisingly accurate. Most people regard the weather man simply as a good guesser. He is not. He bases his predictions upon facts and reasons according to established meteorological laws. Weather predictions have a high average of accuracy. The conditions on the Atlantic are baffling. Fog banks are common along the Newfoundland coast and the winds on the Atlantic are capricious. It is probable that Nungesser and Coli came to their doom and were vanquished by the weather. .