1973

Craters on Venus

“Venus is pocked with craters. This actuality emerges from experiments in which small radio waves were being reflected from the solid floor and had been analyzed by pc at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It displays an region 910 miles throughout in close proximity to the equator, wherever there are a dozen massive craters ranging from 21 miles in diameter to 100 miles. Lesser craters could nicely be present but ended up not fixed. All the craters are shallow—a clue to Venus’ history. They could be the outcome of meteorite impacts in advance of the earth had an atmosphere. Potentially they were being subsequently filled with lava from the inside or erosion on the floor.”

Earth: Alien Zoo or Petri Dish?

“The chance is substantial that individuals are not a person of the most state-of-the-art organisms in the universe. There may be civilizations thousands and thousands of many years in advance of our personal. If ‘they’ are out there, why have we not heard from them? John A. Ball, in Icarus: International Journal of Photo voltaic System Scientific tests, implies that extraterrestrial civilizations could converse with us, but they choose not to. ‘Occasionally,’ he observes, ‘we set aside wilderness parts, wildlife sanctuaries, or zoos in which other species are permitted to acquire the natural way.’ An extraterrestrial species, he speculates, may well take into account humans an organism to be preserved in isolation and purity, a aspect of nature to be noticed. ‘They have set apart the place in which we reside as a zoo.’ F.H.C. Crick and L. E. Orgel, also composing in Icarus, offer an choice principle: that lifestyle on the earth began as a deliberate ‘infection’ of microorganisms positioned here by another civilization. These a civilization would have regarded the earth not as a zoo but as a Petri dish.”

1923

Sunburned Eyes

“The large arc lamps utilized in the shifting-photograph studio, just like the solar, give out extremely-violet as well as seen mild. Arms and face get rapidly accustomed to this, and immune to further burning. But the eyeball is incredibly sensitive to burning, and it does not obtain immunity. The burning is a variety of conjunctivitis. It is curable, but throughout the overcome the client ought to not be further exposed, and the eye is weakened by acquiring been stricken. This malady seems so freely among motion-photo actors that a name, ‘Kleig eyes,’ has been coined for it [after the Kleig light, a carbon arc-lamp]. It seems that the remedy lies in a movie that would function as properly and as fast in a subdued light as the current movies perform in the glare.”

Coast to Coast in 27 Hrs

“Lieutenants John A. Macready and Oakley G. Kelly of the Army Air Services, leaving Roosevelt Subject on Prolonged Island, attained Rockwell Discipline in San Diego right after a nonstop flight of 26 several hours 50 minutes. In accordance to the pilots the regular pace was 93.5 miles for every hour. In the initial stages the airplane was significantly overloaded [with fuel], and an altitude of only 1,500 toes could be taken care of. From Indianapolis to Tucumcari in New Mexico they flew [in the dark] by compass by itself. A single hundred thousand people welcomed the pilots at San Diego. The pilots came down in fantastic problem, despite the fact that neither had slept the entire trip. They state they would have welcomed indications marking cities and other landmarks, especially by evening.”

1873

Oil by Pipeline

“Transporting oil by pipes has been in observe in the oil districts of Pennsylvania for numerous several years. It remains to be decided no matter if the task can be carried out on a gigantic scale. With the discoveries in Butler County, Pa., the strategy of transporting oil via iron pipes, from Titusville over the Alleghenies to Philadelphia, a distance of 260 miles, is now interesting appreciable notice. It is proposed to lay a cast iron six-inch pipe, in a bee line, which at a single locality will be 3,000 feet earlier mentioned the sea degree. Some 23,000 barrels may well be shipped every single twenty-four several hours, at 10 cents per barrel.”

Perpetual Movement For Sale

“J.W.S. writes to say that he has a perpetual motion [machine] in managing purchase, and he will dispose of it for $2,000,000, but if he has to have it to Washington, he will check with $5,000,000. The current fiscal crisis will, we dread, avert our correspondent from obtaining either of the sums he mentions.”