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ADVENTURES of the POISON SQUAD

by James Nevin Miller

IN THE city of White Plains, N. Y., not so long ago, more than 700 people suddenly were stricken with a mysterious ailment. City authorities thought the case was food poisoning. But just what kind, puzzled them. True enough, it was learned that all the victims had eaten chocolate eclairs, cream puffs or Boston cream pies. However, none of the custard-filled pastries appeared to be “spoiled” although it was suspected that contaminated custard filling might have been the source of the poisoning. Read the rest of this entry »

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Getting a Line on the Aurora

ON A clear, moonless night a diffuse glow or a well-defined arch of pale pearly light is seen low over the northern horizon. Gradually the light grows brighter and presently long beams shoot up in great fan-like sheaves. In ghostly procession they shift back and forth across the sky. Read the rest of this entry »

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Uncle Sam’s Poison Squad Safeguards Your Food Supply

by C. MORAN

Poisoned food epidemics are becoming increasingly rare, thanks to the eternal vigilance waged by government squads of “poison chasers” who relentlessly track down contaminated food shipments. This article tells you how to guard against poisoned food in your home.

“TELEGRAM for the chief,” sang out an office boy, dropping the message on the secretary’s desk. It read: “Twenty people poisoned; two dead. Community fear running high. A fiend must be at work.”
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Tesla was a genius, but he was an engineer, not a scientist.

Faster Than Light!

By HUGO GERNSBACK

IT may come as a shock, to most students of science, to learn that there are still in the world some scientists who believe that there are speeds greater than that of light.

Since the advent of Einstein, most scientists and physicists have taken it for granted that speeds greater than 186,300 miles per second are impossible in the universe. Indeed, one of the principal tenets of the relativity theory is that the mass of a body increases with its speed, and would become infinite at the velocity of light. Hence, a greater velocity is impossible. Read the rest of this entry »

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Inventions Needed in Field of Electrochemistry

An interview with Professor Colin G. Fink
Head, Division of Electrochemistry Columbia University

by Richard H. Parke

“THE young inventor looking for new worlds to conquer would do well to investigate the vast but little-explored domains of electrochemistry. Hundreds of new products and inventions difficult or impossible to discover during the countless ages of the past with mechanical skill alone are today readily possible through the combined power of electricity and chemistry Thus Professor Colin G. Fink of Columbia University presents an invitation — and a challenge—to inventive minds everywhere. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a pretty well reasoned piece, though it would have been so much better if the last line had been: “Ergo, Godzilla”.

We Change But Little

By HUGO GERNSBACK

IT is a curious fact that the average layman has an idea that we change biologically during the course of a few generations.

Nothing could be more erroneous. The changes that take place in the characteristics of the normal human being within the course of such a small time interval— geologically speaking—as 5,000 years, are insignificant.

It should always be remembered that even a stretch of 5,000 years, which we human beings may consider long, represents only a couple of hundred generations; which is much too short a space of time to get any positive results, one way or another. Read the rest of this entry »

VISUALIZING SOUND

Easy tests explain effects that most of us take for granted

Sound is always in the air around us, though sometimes our ears cannot sense it. Often its behavior is puzzling. A train whistle, for instance, seems to rise in pitch as the train approaches, then drop as it speeds away from us. Read the rest of this entry »

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PICTURE HISTORY of the ATOM

by Herbert Kondo

Back in the days of Abraham Lincoln, the atom was a strange-looking thing indeed — a bunch of smoke rings. At the turn of the century the atom took on another shape. “It looks like Saturn, the planet,” said Japanese physicist Hantaro Nagaoka.

If these pictures of the atom seem odd to you, bear in mind that no one has ever seen an atom. Because of this, scientists throughout history have built many atomic models in their attempts to get a better understanding of the nature of matter.
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Bombardment with Heavy Hydrogen Breaks Atoms

THE transmutation of elements, so long hoped for, has been accomplished in the laboratories, with very interesting results, so far as science is concerned; though its practical utility is yet in the future.

Up to a couple of hundred years ago, chemists had hopes of finding some cheap way of melting lead with some reagent, and making it into silver or gold. Read the rest of this entry »

I think we can trace the fall of the English language to this article. Yes kids, it all started with the word “collectingest “.

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MAIL-ORDER SCIENCE

Even atom-bomb experts buy stuff from Ward’s

There is no connection between Montgomery Ward and Ward’s Natural Science Establishment at Rochester, N.Y. —except that they’re both in the mail-order business in the biggest sort of way.

The science museum with the fine, old-fashioned name operates in a big converted Rochester winery. As a mu- seum it’s unique because every one of its exhibits has a price tag; they’re all for sale. Ward’s “establishment” is to the world’s scientists what Montgomery Ward and Sears, Roebuck are to the nation’s households.
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Is There An Ether?

Aid for the Layman Who Attempts to Keep Abreast of the Changing Concepts of the Modern Physicist

By PAUL R. HEYL, Ph.D.

Physicist, United States Bureau of Standards

THE ether had its origin in human need and will last as long as human thinking requires it. Not always in the same form, perhaps, but unchanged in function.

The word “ether” comes down to us from the Greeks, but with their concept we have little interest. The “divine ether” to which Prometheus made his impassioned appeal was merely the rarefied upper air. The ether of physics dates from the time of Newton, who, like all the natural philosophers of his day, was greatly-puzzled by the fact of apparent action at a distance. Read the rest of this entry »

For comparison, when the modern descendant of these atom smashers, the Large Hadron Collider, comes fully online it will accelerate protons to 7 trillion electron volts. They will be travelling at 99.9999991% the speed of light and have an effective mass 7460.52 times what they have at rest. This is so fast that even though they will be making 11,000 orbits around the 27km ring per second, from the proton’s perspective time dilation will make each orbit seem to last about 2 minutes.

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WATCH THESE ATOM-BUSTERS

The new synchrotrons open up prospects packed with thrills.

Anything that you see around you is made of matter. All matter is simply concentrated energy; when it is exploded, as in the blast of an atomic bomb, part of it becomes released energy. That was reasoned out by Einstein years ago; and the venerable scientist’s reasoning certainly has been borne out by the achievements of the nuclear physicists who produced the atomic bomb. Read the rest of this entry »