Show iwas this way by LYLE LILE SPENCER 0 western newspaper Newt paper union flying the mail THE T united states stales air mail is flowre by the most intrepid trustworthy pilots in oui country there are about 1000 1600 of them flying more than 13 million pounds of mall mail quickly and safely to its destination each year twenty aye alve years leafs ago americas america s first air mail pilot earl ovington carried the first sack of mail ever flown aloft ills his route was from nassau boulevard gardens to mineola now roosevelt field on long island a distance of 10 miles his ship was a pasteboard 50 horse power buerlot monoplane cap capable able of the unbelievable speed ol of GO 80 miles per hour ovington was forced to carry that first sack of mall mail in his lap because his plane had no baggage compartment part ment when he finally reached mineola Ml neola he found the field so rough and the crowd so large that he dared not make a landing instead he dropped the mail sack overboard standard mall mail carrying aircraft of today are powered with twin motors of 1000 horsepower each capable of carrying twenty one passengers and hundreds of pounds of mail and express they c mise cruise at miles an hour thus covering Oving tons original course in about three minutes it was only through the courage and daring of early pilots like ovington who flew the rickety dangerous ships of their fhelt day that modern american aviation has bee become ome the finest in the world age of rattlesnakes HOW OW can you tell the age of a rattlesnake most people would say by counting the number of rattles on his bis tall tail scientists assert however that this is a very poor method because the snakes adda add a new rattle every time they shed their skins which occurs from two to seven times a year many are the superstitions which have grown up about the custom of poisonous snakes especially rattlers many cowboys say tor for instance that a rattler will never crawl over a lariat or rough hair rope for this reas reason on many sleep out in the open with alth their lassoes lassoer carefully circled around their blankets but a rattler will actually cross such a rope as often as any other kind of snake another superstition which errs on the side ot of safety is that a rattler is capable of biting clear through the toughest shoe leathers but experiments peri ments have shown that while a snakes fangs fanes are very sharp their penetrating power is small this is because a snake usually strikes with its mouth open to nearly a degree angle and thus has very little leverage the leather of any ordinary boot is sufficient to protect its wearer Fbi finally ally there is a widespread mistaken notion about the distance a snake can strike even from a coiled position snakes cannot strike farther than a distance of half their length thus a six toot foot snake could not bite a person more than three feet away and since they must strike at an angle a person is rare ly bitten above the calf of the leg more valuable than silver THE tand HE metal used in making pots and pans today was more valuable than silver a century ago A hundred years from now that queer element aluminum will probably be more common than iron the development of aluminum is one of the outstanding events in recent world history first isolated in 1825 by oersted a dane it originally cost a pound compared with 20 cents a pound to today dayl 1 it was valuable enough then to bs be used as jewelry by royalty napoleon III once gave a royal st state te dinner at which the more distinguished a guests ate from aluminum plates while the lesser lights had to be content with plates of pure gold since aluminum will neither tarnish nor rust is lighter than glass and as strong as iron scientists very early appreciated its potential importance their problem was of finding a way to produce it cheaply and in commercial quantities where the greatest chemists in the world tried and failed a twenty old american youngster charles M hall succeeded in 1860 1866 in a ramshackle barn out behind his house which he used as a laboratory hall found a way of producing pure aluminum by an electrolytic process within a few years he had made millions out of his discovery and raised aluminum to a place among the worlds most important metals but the story of 0 aluminum la is by no means closed even evem today although the earths crust contains more talu aluminum minum than any other metal over twice as much as iron it is still too expensive for many ot of its potential uses |