The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 1920. SENSE AND MECHANISM.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3472, 28 April 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 1920. SENSE AND MECHANISM.

. With which is incorporated “The Taihape Post and Waimarino News.” '

I It would indeed be a dull and monotonous life if mankind awoke everyl ‘morning to go through the day in‘ just the same way as its predecessors Iwerespent. In our issue of last Fridaythere appeared an X-Ray article headed “Seeing through the Impenetrable,’f a title that. is somewhat il‘logical as it implies that the impene-J»-trable isnot impervious to man’s lvision when aided by the invention lot Professor Rontgen. It seems that ‘in’ his pride,v.tinctured with arrogance, {man is prone to over-rate -his senses and under-rate mechanical possibili-_l ties, for. here we have the. nlechanical| eye looking through such things that the human eye cannot penetrate, discovering deta-ils of the structure of a bomb, ascertaining the life of a tree, unravelling the heterogeniety or’ metallic and other bodies without inany way damaging their structure, leaving the sight sense of man hopelessly outclassed. It is said that the wind is xisilble to pigs; whether that is true or false man has no means of a-scer-taining, no pig having yet been able“ to satisfy him fully on that point_ Although no indignity to _man may be more than doubtful from 'the pig’s superior power of vision, man’s eyesight. in its highest known development, is nowhere [in seeing into the hidden myslteriesv hf things, compared with the X-Rays. Of course those mechanical rays are restricted to mechanical uses, and therefore lack intelligent penetrati-0-n of things that are subject to man’s power of vision, but this fact I only intensifies the wonderment at ‘what appears little less than miracullons. As all readers of scientific pubilications are aware, Rontgenfs discovery has been developed and improved until it has become of indispensible. use in mechanics and in fictile and textile manufactures, ‘to say nothing nf its extended use in surgery. in diagnosing diseases, and in locating “internal obstructions. It is a consid-{ {erable aid in ecouomising human life ‘in various ways; it permits of flaws ‘in castings and in wrought giietal ‘work being discovered before they ieuter into the assembled motor enlgine, aeroplane, steamship and other lnotable inventions, into Contact with which much human life comes. Therefore, it will -be seen that although the sense of sight in man has not developed with his inventive genius, that inventive genius has been equal to all the demands put upon it. Man ’s power of vision has not become stronger or more acute, but man has pressed into his service an aid to his vision which permits inventive genius to continue without unduly jeop-

ardising human life. With his X-Rays man can look right through what ever! substance he -puts into his new in-i ventions; he can discover flaws and‘ faults if there be any, and he can‘ thoroughly satisfy himself that the aeroplane motor he builds is sound in‘ every respect. Man is not limited to his own power of vision, thereis in nature, it seems, the power to accomplish much more wonderful things than manfs imagination can. at present conjure up, but the time hag not yet arrived for the discovery of methods of usinghthem to 'm‘an’s best advant-_ age. * ‘