MORE DISCOVERIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 May 1940, Page 6

MORE DISCOVERIES

A SHOE THAT IS DIFFERENT. Every day some discover/ is made or invention created, and in 1939 we heard of the following: Mr John Gruber, of New York City, has created a shoe. It looks like any other shoe, but it feels different. As its wearer walks a breeze fans his toes for his footwear is air-conditioned. Inside each shoe is a leather covered insole fixed to a strong spring extending the length of the foot. There are holes on the insole which allow it to act as a sort of bellows, giving much comfort to the wearer.

Mr D. J: Dreyor, Senior Fruit Inspector of the Union of South Africa Government tells us that acetylene gas is now being used for ripening fruit. Peaches, oranges and other fruits are ripened quickly and tomatoes have been ripened completely ten days before the normal date. Working with plums, which he placed in an atmosphere containing acetylene, he found that the plums ripened in five days. Mr Boris Fingerhood, superintendent of the Israel Zion hospital at New York forecasts a new era in surgical teaching. A television set lias been installed in a building 300 yards from the operating theatre, and here students and nurses can watch delicate operations which are being performed. Normally operations can only be visible to the surgeon, his attendant staff, and one or two privileged spectators. During the televising the doctor gave a “running commentary” explaining the operation, and thereby giving the "viewers” a better insight into surgical work than if they had been actually present.