OCR Text |
Show -- , ; ' v . --i . V . . , , i, . t ...... :A I X: ' . ' , ' i v. o - .... ' . - Hold Court in Sick Room Instead of postponing a civil action, involving a $41,000 Judgment, until one of the litigants In the casJ had recovered from a severe Illness, sessions of the District court were held in the sick man's bedroom for two daysj This novel session was held In Minneapolis, Minn, the sick man being Fred Kreofnky, Intervener In the actloai The complainant In the case Is George Matcham and the defendant, U. R. Iktcher. lVr Is" Wi If Jt h fi 1 1 11 if Mi?n r..x tmr. J4 n v x . v s ? vfft IrI 0o p-x- h--P- wA .' rl PiMrk:S ssiimolb Meg IPi?3acsiJ :J . ) VV5fe Wi ByJOHN DICKINSON SHERMAN the sciences is the American Associa-tion ' 'W ' 1 IV use the word "Impos-- for the Advancement of Science. I L 'Is I, M' J alWe7" This comment liy Its existence means that today the V ' s&"f BB U'r. Charles P. Stelnmetz accumulated fund of scientific knowl-edge K1" . WW 0t the generul subject of is so vast that research is no ' H sct?ntiflc inventions of longer possible on a one-ma- n basis, 'v, rV. tho future and the eco-- and thut among many Nff-tSj- T V noiviic civilization of the workers is of necessity the motto of fT t''!'' '. rr6'-fe- wor:cl a hundred years the day not only among ti 5 Jj froni now is a whole vol- - different branches of the same sci-ence, 1- - fmJ um of prophecy in but different sciences. Aj.d Stelnmetz, In the role of prophet Id even mor Interesting than In his well-know- n part cf electrical wizard. For he Is no dreamer like Edward Bellamy, nor Is be a st like II. G. Wells. On the con-trary, he la a hard-boile- d scientist and electrical engineer, whose motto La "efficiency," whose name Is Joined in the scientific with those of Edi-son and Marc.pL Stelnmetz elimination of "Impos-sible" from ihe tocabulary of the scientist Is startling, because It prac-tically says that phenomenal expan-sion of the use of electrical current In the last generation Is only a start For example: Edison was the guest of honor at a recent banquet In New York In celebration of electricity's fortieth year in the commercial field. By way of aa object lesson Edison's first commercial electric Incandescent light was lighted. . It was of fifteen candle power. Then Edison's latest lamp development of 60,000 candle power wns turned on. During the banquet it was Incidentally stated that In New York state alone fl54.830.000 Is Invested In Edison interests, as compared to the original capital of $78,000. In brief, the first central generating station In this country forty years ago had a capacity of 000 kilowatts, 00 customers, and a maximum transmis-sion of twelve miles. There are now approximately 6,000 plants, generating 14,000,000 kilowatts and serving direct customers, with a trans-mlsFio- n of 250 miles. But this electrical expansion Is only a rtraw showing what way the wind blows. If you are more than fifty years of age you were born In a differ-ent world from this. I myself was out of college when I used the first telephone Installed In a residence In Chicago and heard the first conversa-tion between New York and Chicago. I saw the first motion picture thrown on the screen, I rode in one of the first automobiles, and there are the phonograph, airplane, wireless, nullum, and so on. In less than a lifetime Americans have built np the greatest mechanical nation on earth. It was once thought that with the close of the Nineteenth century there was nothing left to Invent. Now we know that our knowledge of natural forces wns crudely elementnry. Now we know enough to understand that the nge of scientific marvels has Just ar-rived. Te man born now will at fifty be living li n world as different from this as tills Is different from the world Into which nls father was born. An Amei!.n clearing house of all among Science now recognizes as the great-est single work being done today the Investigation of the structure and nature of matter. It pools the Interests of the physicist, chemist and astrono-mer so completely that it has been Set apart under the specific name of "atomic physics" as a common meet-ing ground of these sciences. "Atomic physics" contains things hard for Mr. Everyman to understand. But this may be said: There used to be eighty or ninety "elements," each composed of "atoms" different from those in the other elements. Now we have decided that there are Just two "ultimate particles," tho "electron" and the "proton." and that matter consists of these two, grouped In va-rious ways and numbers to form the various atoms. In short, the different elements, Instead of being funda-mentally different, are fundamentally alike, the difference among them be-ing in the number and arrangement of the electrons and protons in their atoms. These electrons and protons are Incredibly minute. These electrons and protons have been found to be the fundamental units of both matter and electricity. Grouped, at rest an dstable they are matter. Free and ungrouped they are static charges of electricity. Thus matter and electricity are one and the same thing, in different forms and under different conditions. Over this dlscovetf there Is great excitement in the scientific world. The scientists hold that iu atomic physics Is the future of duration. They hope to disrupt the a'.um with large conversion Into free energy. They say that a pint of water, on l.ils bnsis, con-tains enough energy to drive the Leviathan across the Atlantic at full speed. So, when the coul and the oil are used up we shall have a new en-ergy to keep us going, and to perform new wonders for us. Stelnmetz, being a hard-boile-scientist, makes most of his predic-tions nlong less sensatlonnl lines. He says It is a crime to burn coal for heat without saving Its mechanical anil electrical energy, and that soon all coal will be burned at the mouth of thenilne, and Its energy transmitted in the shape of electricity. The same Is true of oil and gas. So, ulso, we have scarcely begun to utilize our hydro-electri- c power. "I cun see," say Stelnmetz, "the whole country using electric energy supplied to it by a network of inter-connected generating stations like a railroad system, so that the widest possible econonlc distribution may be obtained." Then, whej everything Is electrified there will be no smoke In the cities, and no conflagrations. The heating and cooling and ventilation of building will be done automatically by eieo trlclty, he says. "Meuns may, and perhaps will, be developed," he says, "to send out en-ergy broadcast by wireless, Just as we now broadcast speech, and to pick up this euergy anywhere. This will be dependent on our ability to prevent waste of the energy when not being used. At present, radio waves are absorbed In spnee as they travel out-ward from the generating source. Elec-tricity is always at our service at the end of a wire. The generating ap-paratus keeps on going, but tin current Is not used until the consumer closes the switch. The energy, however, is not wasted. Once we are able to work out a similar system for wireless we can have broadcasting stations con-stantly supplying energy for every need, ready to be picked up as occa-sion requires It. "Now as to atomic energy. I may disagree with the form of the pres-ent theories, but the underlying fuct of the great store of atomic energy of radioactive substances Is undeni-able. Were we able and If we shall be able to harness this energy, we should have a force beyond anything known before In terms of power. Now, the discovery of how to utilize this energy may come at almost any time, or It may never come If there are In-herent reasons why the energy cun be given off only nt one definite rate, never faster or slower." But don't think for a moment that Stelnmetz, Just because he prophesies along reudlly understandable lines, has no imagination. The other day, In a public address in New York, ha mnde a prophecy like this: The future of the human race rests with the "biological engineer," who may enable the world to support many times Its present population by pro-ducing "energy corps" after coal gives out, and by feeding the human race drectly on nltrogen-flxlnj- : The bncterln and other mlcroscop leal plants and animals take the ni-trogen from the nlr and hand It over to plants, which hand It over to cattle or furnish It directly to man in the form of seeds. There Is tremendous waste In each of these steps. It may be possible for the biological en-gineer, he said, to cross and recross bacteria and other nitrogen producers until he has produced a strain which may be used directly as food. And with this prophecy from Steln-metz who ;hl doubt that a new age of ntarvels Is upon us? CAN YOU DO THIS? I I m () George Christensen of New York Is gifted with remarkable muscle control. He can write with either hand or foot and is shown In the picture writing with both hands and foet simul-taneously. One-Ma- n Vessel to Tour World William Roland and his makeshift sloop-rigge-d vessel, scarcely . larger than a rowboat, with which he will attempt to circle the globe. Built on th , mudflats at Los Angeles harbor, the vessel resembles a submarine rathet than a sailing ship. The old sailor- has tolled for threa years ti "completf bis little vessel. It is tl feet long, 7 feet wide and 7 feet depyv SKIPPER OF LEVIATHAN Capt. Herbert Hartley, master of the S. S, Magnolia, has Just been named as commander of the United States line steamship Leviathan, formerly the Vaterlnnd, which Is to go Into commis-sion sometime thU summer or early fall. Captain Hartley gained fame In 1017 when he commanded the St. Louis, first armed passenger vessel to defy the German admiralty and sail through the barred submarine tone. Horseback Radio Set the Latest 4 It took John Osborne, a well-know- n Philadelphia business man and membei of the Riders and Drivers' asosclation. to devise the horseback radio. Oaborni created a stampede on the bridlepath In Fairmount park the other day by ap. peariug on his horse completely equipped to receive radio messages. DECORATED FOR BRAVERY W-l'- J J - Miss Dorothy J. Smith of Law-rence, L. I., one of the few women to receive the decoration of the American Cross of Honor, awarded her for suv-In- g the life of Edmund Lawler from the Hudson river at Nyack, N. Y. Spectacular Feature of War Game rkxv ' V .... - if gL ' vA'P? ' if iSMlMMll Destroyers laying down a smoke n'lef i.s liu-- j oen iiilo uctioo during mnteuvers at the Panama canal. The j' of the ne w und uitmbera ol congress were present. densest population in the world. At the moment It should come to approxi-mately 14.000,000. If New York state were as densely peopled it would have nearly 00,000,000 Inhabitants, while the United States would on the same basis have 140,000,000. Fxcliane. Egypt's Area Egypt has an urea of about 350.000 square miles. The bulk of '.be country consists of Inhospitable turn1, and des-ert. Practically t' e only settled por-tion consists of a very narrow band of cultivated territory on cr.ch side of the Nile. The Nile vu'ley nnd deita, the only settled portion of Egypt, have an nivn f 12.2-- 0 squaie miles, almost tne-fourt- h th size of New York etats Vblf fcarro- -r area contakes the days of James I the poor people of Knglnnd made fairly good bread from barley, and rye bread, which is . darker than bread made from whent, Is extensively tuude In northern Eu-ropean countries which are admirably adapted to the growing of that grain. Probably the most unusual substance ever used for making bread wus em-ployed during the siege of Paris by Henry IV. Because of a famine the soldiers and Inhabitants of the city made bread from the bones taken from tombs and charuel houses. Many Breadmaking Materials. The Irish make potato bread, and In Iceland codfh are beaten Into powder and made Into bread. In some countries rice, which is not so nutritious as wheat. It tct In the A Quick Recovery. BInks Look, here comes Wllklns down the street. Jinks 1 thought be broko one of his ribs In the basketbnll game last night I guess tliey called In a sur-geon to operate on hlin. BInks Oh, no, they went down to the butcher shop mwt got a spare rib fr bit |