EGGS STAND ON END IN CHUNGKING

New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 314, 29 June 1945, Page 10

EGGS STAND ON END IN CHUNGKING

Scientific Mystery Dissolves War Tension in China N China, as anywhere else, interminable war and insoluble difficulties must break sometimes in a burst of sheer triviality. In its eighth year of war, the Chinese capital last month turned its fascinated attention to the proposition that eggs will stand on end. The controversy eventually involved Dr. Einstein. A full first-hand report on the egg-mystery is given here by "Life’s" correspondent in Chungking, Annalee Jacoby. % % * GGS in Chungking stand on end. They are standing on end on lawns, on walls, on dance floors, and on "diplomatic dinner tables. There is no more doubt about it. Most of Chungking’s population has stood them. Just when this first happened, no one knows. The earliest records of the event are to be found in Secret Kaleidoscope and Know What Heaven Knows, two Chinese books of certain. antiquity but undetermined date. The legend goes like this: one day each year-a day of variable date like the American Thanks-giving-and at a certain hour, winter goes dnd spring comes. This day is called Li Chun or "Spring Begins." For an hour before and an hour after the season’s change, eggs will stand on end. Not everyone in China knows this, mot having read what heaven knows. But one who does is Yang Hsou Chan, an officer of the Chinese Ministry of Information. Mr. Yang is the man behind the current egg boom. Like any father interested in giving his’ children a liberal education, he mentioned that eggs would perform during the first hour of spring. Spring was expected this year at i o'clock on the 22nd day of the 12th lunar month, or February 4. By noon that day Yang’s yard bloomed with standing eggs. Wei Hsiao Meng, aged 12, looked across from the yard next door and told her father, Jimmy Wei, who holds a unique position in relation

to foreign correspondents. He combines the functions of chief censor, trouble shooter, World Almanac and Peter Pan. The Eggs Were Real Jimmy promptly stood more eggs up in his own yard than Yang had stood. Walter Rundle, of United Press, watched suspiciously. Rundle stood several himself and went away trying to remember just what happened between Christopher Columbus and the egg. Next to walk by were Richard Baker and Anthony Dralle, professors in the Chinese government school of journalism. They took turns at balancing with good results. Dralle crushed one egg and satisfied himself that it was raw and unstuffed. Jimmy Wei then moved to a bigger audience on the lawn of the neighbouring Press Hostel. He found newsmen for the most part uninterested since this was a grey Sunday morning which followed Saturday night. Two small dogs were appreciative, but they seemed more hungry than scientific, so Mr. Wei retired to his own yard and stood up more eggs, 21 in all. Several private experiments followed. The eggs were fresh, said those who ate them the next morning. The yolks were not broken nor was there glue on the shells. No wire, rocks, or other supports were: used. The earth was smooth and hard. There was no getting away from it, the eggs stood on end. Several correspondents sent the story to their newspapers. More overlooked

the whole thing. As one explained simply, "Do I want the home office to think I’m crazy?" "What Do You Feed the Hen?" The next morning news came from America that Rundle’s story saying eggs stood on end had been read by Albert Einstein and that Einstein doubted it. But since the books said eggs would stand for only two hours each year there seemed little to be done about it. For the first time, however, the Chungking hen got some attention. Almost every open-front shop keeps a single hen tethered by the leg. Hens live on wooden floors, on gravel piles or in mud puddles. Some wondered if the knowledge that eggs now cost 25 Chinese dollars had not perhaps gone to the heads of the hens, who remember 1939 when the market price for their product was two cents. Three successive residents, when asked "What do you feed the hen?" answered with sincere amazement, Ni hsou wei chi, ni hsih shih mo i-sze? or "What do you mean, feed a hen?" Except for local attacks on Eihstein, nothing happened in the egg line for the next week. The local press said the Smithsonian Institute didn’t believe the story either. Chungking was divided into two camps-those who had stood eggs ‘and those who asked why the first group didn’t just admit they were drunk. Then came word that every American magician knew the trick-that if the egg was shaken until the yolk broke it would stand. Rundle resented the idea that a broken yolk had been palmed off on

him. On February 11 he and Baker asked the hostel’s cook for two eggs. To their joy the eggs stood as well as they had the week before. Being hungry by that time, they boiled one egg and fried the other. They reported that the hard-boiled egg, with its yolk unbroken, also stood on end until they ate it. Official Occasions This revived the whole business of eggs and offered a welcome change from the Communist problem. On February 17 the director of the International Department of the Ministry of Information gave a dinner party. He had ten guests and he gave each an egg. Eight of the ten made their eggs stand upright on the table. On February 21 the regular weekly press conference talked about currency stabilisation, post-war planning, and the Communist problem, then moved to the hostel lawn to $tand up eggs. With 50 people looking on, Wong Wen Hao, head of the Chinese War Production Board and Minister of Economic Affairs, stood up an egg and said it was very interesting. The first eggs to stand. on dance floors were at the home of Martin Gold, of the William Hunt Company. Seventy people looked on at the ceremony. Poles stood eggs, so did Russians and Frefich. Standing eggs did not have the official approval of the U.S, Army until they were mentioned at a dinner given by Dr. Sun Fo, president of the Legislative Yuan. Dr. Sun promptly called for eggs and the next course was delayed while

every guest. tried for himself. Major-. General Albert Wedemeyer, commanding general of U.S. forces in China, showed outstanding ability. Science Had a Theory Most of the Far East was convinced but no one had an explanation. Mystics admitted with regret that the old Chinese legend which talked about the one magic day each year had been knocked cold. A few mentioned lunar influences, but all agreed that even a virile lunar influence would hardly last a ‘month. An expert emerged in the person c Dr. Wang Fu Shih, D.S.C., brilliant young graduate of Munich Technological Institute, holder of several electronic patents. Dr. Wang believed that a scientific explanation could be found for anything. He carried on extensive experiments and arrived at Press Hostel armed with test tubes, eggs, and a theory. The reason, he said, is temperature and gravity. He explained that, according to all laws of mathematics, nothing can be balanced if its centre of gravity is higher than its middle. Likewise nothing can be. balanced on a single point. He then "proceeded to take apart. Einstein. A balanced egg is not an illustration of point contact, said Dr. Wang. He put lipstick on one egg, measured the mark

it left after standing, concluded that the surface of contact is at least two square millimeters. Then he turned to the egg’s centre of gravity. In cold weather the egg’s contents contract. This leaves a larger air space and lowers the centre of gravity. In addition he believes that various parts of the egg have different expansion co-efficients — the runny parts gets runnier and the heavy part. gets heavier. This makes it posible for a heavy yolk to sink toward the bottom, Dr. Wang believes that the egg would stand on the hottest summer day if first chilled in the refrigerator. This particular experiment will have to be done in America, however, where there are refrigerators: It may also be, he adds, that the hen’s food at this time of year contributes to the liquidity of the egg. Liquidity, to sum up, is the secret of it all. Dr. Wang was distressed to admit the exception. He had emptied one shell, he reported, and the empty shell also stood on end. This, he said, was difficult to explain. He was more distressed to learn that the hard-boiled egg, which is not at all liquid, would stand. And when photographers reported that their flash bulbs have been balancing easily for the’ past few weeks, he left to conduct further experiments. And there the matter stands.