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4---DlJNSTAN TiMES, MONDAY, APRIL 30, 1934.YEAR OF SCIENCEgreatIiroving feat ! perfection of televisionrf _•ENORMOUS ACTIVITY-» J.*■ lt;r in* ■- ' iA -S' -•*.. rT-. - - - -4 r xDISCOVERIES IN PHYSICSFOURTEEN HUNDRED MILESMR J. L. BAIRD'S HARD STRUGGLE-ITRIP OCCUPIES FOUR -MONTHS- m £•*. , GROWING KNOWLEDGEtir• ■ ' i ■ • •■ The state of science is in remarkable contrast with that of other human affairs. Development has never beenILL-LUCK AND SMALL PROFITA net profit of £5 was made by AirNorman Geran, of Cloneurry, for his enterprise in rounding up 10Q head of v rtua.to.' uBTwvpuwu. «.v — — — brumbies (wild horses) at Cloneurry,/. more rapid.-. • During the last two years j Queensland, recently, and droving the entirly new regions of research have . outlaws about 1,400 miles to Adelaide '. been discovered in physics, chemistry, i n w.’+u ««iv -- and. biology. ■ The leading scientists A are . surrounded by a bewildering nuro-/: ber/of problems inviting immediate in-[By Thevojb Allen, in 4 John o’ Lon-don’s Weekly-,’]—ivestigation- (writes the scientific correspondent . of the 4 Manchester Guard--•1 * • . P \ian' ). . ... ../The present social disorder is mti-0 mately connected with this riot of dis-• eoreryv' as the; application of science to agriculture has, in the absence of ade-quate social direction, helped to precipitate it.^'Within the last ten or fifteen years the advances in agricultural I science have been such that the world’s * , capacity for food and, organic raw mate-/ rial; production has been doubled. Sir 7/ Danial Hall writes that the recent pro-gress in power machinery has increased /. the' efficiency of large-scale farming toY ^a degree not yet appreciated, o The //{proper employment of power machinery requires a wealth of directive skill and■ ;:-a technique ' of. ;national organisation / which only began to be attempted, dur-ing. the war. Sir Daniel Regards the T Soviet planning as a generalisation of ■//• this tendency, and considers the possi-/ bility of its success is so good that only / drastic improvements will enable agri-A cufcufe in other countries presently to// compete with it. ’/.While an Amerieanprofessqr of agriculture complains that five million pigs .// weighing less than one hundred pounds and ;two liundred thousand prospective ’ mother sows ‘ are to be slaughtered to /restore A national prosperity, Danish // scientists are introducing central heat-■ ing into pigsties, because pigs require ‘ Y.20Apier cent, less food-if kept warm: artificially, and the cost of the extra food is more than that of the _ central : -J.heating. After this ingenious achieve-'/ meat the Danes are • haying to turn / many of .their pigs“ into soap*. because - new.. British' laws have limited their /market; for bacon. The British Min-::7 ister of Agriculture has offered incen-■ tives to pig-breeders,’ and within a fewY months is already complaining of a-/plethora of pigs. *:.•through Hooded country, with only a fourteen-year-old boy to assist him over the greater part of the journey.The trip occupied four months—two months longer than Mr Geran expected—and when he had disposed of the horses he bought a dilapidated four-cylinder car for £35 and returned to Cloncuny in seven days, free of troubles, as recompense for his persev-erence in the trials of his droving exploit.The arduous task of running down the brumbies was undertaken by Mr Geran, with Mr J. Lidster, of Cloneurry, and the three O’Keefe brothers, of Quamby, in the Cloneurry Ranges, where between 1,000 and 1,500 wild horses of good stock have bred in “the East fifteen years. In a month they secured 200 by chasing mobs as far as 30 miles in a day, the hunters preserving their own horses by taking turns in the chase as the mobs were headed and turned to a prearranged point.Three days in a yard helped to subdue the outlaws, and at Quamby they were drafted into two mobs of 100 each, one of which was taken by Mr H. Johnston for droving to Adelaide and the other by Mr Geran.RACE BETWEEN THE DROVERSA race between the drovers started from Cloneurry at the end of February, Mr Geran being accompanied bj' Mr Lidster and Jack Lawlor, a fourteen-year-old boy of Cloneurry. Mr John-DISINTEGRATING ATOMS.• —v .. . •. »■'''•.The • activity in experimental physics v is- immense and probably unequalled in / history. • There have * been other / great periods, but in none have so many workers been .engaged.. . Two lines, or rather vast highways, of research dom-inn to the scene—the study'of the structure, of atoms and the investigation ofston had a larger outfit. Each party' ’el was striving to* reach the Adelaide March sales first and to avoid arrivingon the same day.at places where there was a yard large enough for only onemob. ,In crossing the Georgina River at Marion Downs, Mr Geran was leading in the race, but it was to his disadvantage, for lie'was held up by rains for five days while one of the 'largest floods known in the liver rose, and the waterway spread over 14'miles of country. His rival did not cross the river, and was able to take another trackj which enabled him to reach Adelaide m time for the sales.Pushing on, Mr Geran had to make so many detours in the flooded country that he almost doubled the 80 miles from Marion Downs to Bedourie, 390 miles oht from Cloneurry. There a horse; fell on Mr Lidster and broke Ins ankle; and as it was impossible to obtain medical aid by aeroplane on ac-John Logie Baird, the inventor of television, sou of a Scottish minister at Helensburgh, Dumbartonshire, was handicapped from the outset of a remarkable career by poor health and frail physique; but ho developed an early passion for making things, including a minor telephone system, electric light plant—driven by a water-wheel worked from the main and using accumulators made from old jam jars—and an automobile of sorts. This last appears to have been a. marvel of juvenile adaptation, for the inventive schoolboy—Mr Ronald F. Tiltman explains in a well* written biography, 4 Baird of Television ’—“ purchased an ancient and dilapidated tri-car for £4 10s, and this was patched up with the aid of friends and rushed through the streets of the borough to the great annoyance of the neighbours, who christened the antiquated automobile 4 Young Baird’s Reaper and Binder,’ owing to the appalling; noise made bjT its rattling chains and ramshackle mechanism. This car was not a good economic project, as it so frequently had to be pushed home, but it provided plenty of excitement for Baird and his young companions,”INVENTOR OF BOOT POLISH ANDSOAP.Starting work as an engineering apprentice, young Baird became a restless inventor of all manner of things. He designed an undersock, manufactured it in a Glasgow attic, and sold it to chemists. He marketed a boot polish, went out to Trinidad and set up as a fam manufacturer—to the delight of the millions of insects who swarmed into his boiling vats—then, back to his home country, dealt in Australian honey, coir-fibre dust (for coconut matting), and finally 14 Baird’s Speedy Cleaner,” a new variety of soap. He was about to form a combine with a rival manufacturer when he fell ill and had to retire to Hastings for the sake of his health. At thirty-four Baird felt he was broken and finished. He was actually on the threshold of the discovery which was to bring him worldwide fame, for it was in a small attic over a shop in Queen’s Arcade that he resumed his schoolboy experiments with selenium cells,- the genesis of his subsequent success.BITS AND PIECES.In this little room the first crude experimental television apparatus was assembled on a washstand. An old tea-chest purchased fbr a few* coppers formed a base to carry the motor which. the nature of the cosmic rays. Among thefloods, Mr Geran Mrseveral new figures, that of Profes- ^ Gaffney, the licensee of the Bedoune sor E. ’0. Lawrence, of California, is iTTMoi f#1T 30 vears. and Con-/ particularly striking. He is thirty-two years 'old, and has perfected a new type of apparatus for disintegratin atoms. - He has,; in fact, constructs ■■'the - first atomic motor. He obtains.■ atoms of immense speed and energy by / steadily accelerating them round a cir-eular: magnetic field. The speedy of the atom/is increased by repeated electri-:cal impulses, as the armature of an electric motor is accelerated by repeated•- magnetic impulses,L:Professor Lawrence. has succeeded _ in '•accelerating atoms to speed which e gives them an energy equivalent to -several .million electron-volts, and he ■■- may produce atoms of twenty or more / million volts, v He has already obtained } a large number of new results by accelerating various, atoms to high speeds . and using them as projectiles to bom-bard other atoms.The developments of cosmic-ray re-search' could not be more wonderful./ Fundamental -observations, have been made on-them’ in a Zeppelin over the / North Pole, in deep mines, in the Andes, the .^tropica, in the stratosphere, and at the bottom of Lake Constance. v. Englishmen. Germans, Americans, Rus-r sians, Dutchmen,. Belgians, and others have made contributions of first-rate ; /importance. The existence of cosmic rays was first guessed by 0- T. R. Wil-/son in 1900, and the evidence became . more probable after Goekel had shownY daring balloon ascents that the rays be-/ come more intense at high altitudes, v As the rays presumably came into the “ earth from all directions, observationsY at a wide variety of places on the Z;eai*thrs surface, and above and belowit, became desirable. Besides the personal ascents of Gockel, Kolhorstor, Pie-• card, and others, free balloons bearinrecording instruments were despatcheto a height of sixteen to eighteen v miles. : ,Some of the most brilliant of this ; work ..was done by Regener, of Sftutt-/ gart, whose apparatus was designed to remain at an approximately constant temperature, even though ascending toregions where the temperature is minus : ,70deg. ■ 0.^ J. Clay, of Amsterdam, v also made important observations during voyages from Holland to Java. Hediscovered tbe rays were only three-quarters as intense on the Equator as• in the higher latitudes. His results ’ were confirmed by world-wide expedi-tions organised by Professor Compton, /of Chicago, - /■' f•, A • few weeks ago Kolhorster an-nounced that he bad detected the rays m a saltmine a depth .equivalent J to half a mile of water... The penetrating rays such as X-rays or radio-. v active rays are .absorbed by layers of v water a few inches or fractions of an Yinch thick;./What are these ray^s that /can penetrate half a mile of water? ■/The. fact that they are less intense at the Equator suggests they are bent by the earth’s magnetic field Z and are therefore particles. KolhorsterHotel for ’ about 30 years, and Constable W. Laurie had to set the broken bone as well as they could. Eight weeks were spent at Redourie waiting for suitable conditions for a resumption of droving.ADELAIDE SALES MISSEDThe March sales in Adelaide had been missed, and, while Mr Geranrealised that he might as well give the horses away there, he decided to continue the journey with the boy to assist him.* A stage at Maceaddies Lake, which is ordmarily nine mileslong, had to be negotiated by a roundabout route of more than 60 miles, and Birds villa was reached, 100 miles awayfrom Bedourie.Droving night and day over long dry stages then had to be undertaken. Nearly 30 hours were spent continuously in the saddle, travelling 70 miles over country- in which there was no feed or water, and Mr Geran had to send the boy miles ah!ad to get a few hours’ sleep.The next forced droving was more than 30 miles over a plain on to which the Georgina flows in countless channels, and through the famous Lignum swamp area, where the best of bush-men are unable to find camps from which they have been.away only a few hours.ANOTHER TRY TO BE MADEFurther trials were experienced in fording 10 miles of flooded country. Over tlie later stages in sandy country sandstorms were a constant cause of anxiety, Mr Geran and the boy having to ride around^ the horses to “prevent their stampeding while the stormsraged. -in,The horses were trucked by rail 350miles from Maree to the sales at Sad-dleworth, near Adelaide, where in June they averaged £4 8s 2d a head, and netted Mr Geran a profit of £5. Mr Johnston had obtained an average of £10 a head at the March sales,44 That is the luck of the game,” said Mr Geran, as he announced his intention of rounding up another mob of brumbies for the Adelaide sales next March. “It will be my second trip,and I will know the country so much better that 1 should be able to do it comfortably. I will not take so many as 70 saddle horses next time, as the heavier typen seem to bo in demand at the sales.”rotated the exploring disc; an empty biscuit box housed the projection lamp. Scanning discs were cut out of cardboard, the mountings consisting of darning needles and old scrap timber. The necessary lenses were procured from bieycle shops at fourpence each; his electric motors were really fit only for the scrap heap. The whole. conglomeration of bits and pieces, says Mr Tiltman, “ was precariously held together with glue, sealing-wax, and odd lengths of string. Over, under, and all round the apparatus ran an amazing tangle of wires—wires of all sizes, tj^pes, and colours, beside which a modern telephone exchange would look simple A friend who called in this room shortly after the apparatus was collected together told me that the general effect on entering reminded him of Heath Robinson at his best.”THE FIRST TRANSMISSION.Yet, early^ in 1924, Baird succeededin transmitting the flickei’ing image ofa Maltese cross over a distance of two or three yards™the first image lie had ever seen by television. Mr Will Day,*a London cinematograph proprietor, acquired a one-third share in his invention for £200, thus enabling the experiments to continue. In August of that year Baird transferred his apparatus to two attic rooms in Frith street, Soho, The following year Mr Gordon Self ridge, jun., became interested in it and arranged demonstrations at his Oxford street store, paying Baird £25 a week. Then came Baird’s blackest period.He worked in abject poverty, roamed the streets in threadbare clothing, with his socks showing through the sol6S of old boots lie could not afford to have repaired. He called at several newspaper offices and tried to arouse interest in his invention, butwas regarded as a crank- “ It seemed that in all London nobody had anyreal interest in television,” remarkedcalculates- that- the particles penetra-1 ‘ « n __1l 1______times seemed to emit particles of a positive charge whose mass could be estimated. The estimates showed these particles wero about two thousand times lighter than the hitherto lightest known positive particle, and were, in fact, positive electrons. Blackett established this discovery conclusively.Then it was realised that Dirac hadMr Tiltman. ”... Things were now so critical that at last Baird could not pay the small rental of his two attic rooms, and to save himself from sheer starvation he had to realise a few shillings by the sale of vital, parts of his apparatus. His work stopped.” It was resumed only when relatives in Scotland, learning the true facts, came to his assistance.THE OFFICE BOY CALLED IN.Shortly after that—011 October 2, 2925—Baird experienced the greatestthrill of his life, lie put “ Bill,” adilapidated ventriloquist’s doll, in front of the transmitter in one room and saw its image on the receiving screen in the other. Television at last I— after nearly two years’ disheartening struggle against adversity. He tore madlv downstairs. William Tayiiton, an office boy working on the floor below, was rather surprised to have burst in upon him the 44 inventor fellow ” from the floor above, with a shirt open at the neck, ancient flannel “ bags,” carpet slippers and no socks, and an amazingly tangled shock of hair over his eyes, now starting out with excitement. In a flood of excited broad Scotch this apparition tried to eouvev some urgent reason why the4 1 J 4 *1.8lad should come upstairs immediately. Baird put the boy in front of theting deep into the salt mine have an energy of 100,000,000,000 volts, Tlie swiftest particles that can be expected of - even Lawrence’s. apparatus wouldnot be more than 30}000,000 volts. Hence the cosmie rays offer a source of atomic projectiles, as Lord Rutherford has pointed out, of as yet quiteunapproachable energy, and the effects of .their impacts on other atoms should reveal much new knowledge concerning atoms. The tracks of swift particles connected with cosmic rays were first recognised by Sfcobelzyn, of Leningrad.calculated in 1930 that such a particleExtensions of his researches, especially by .Anderson, Kunze, and Blackett,have ' provided astonishing discoveriesm I ah. 1_ «... I *■ T4-1might exist, but neither lie nor any other had dared to believe that lie had discovered a -fundamental unit of Nature by more calculation.It is now believed that positive electrons are an important constituent of cosmic rays and of all tlm material of the universe. 80 during the last twelve months one of the chief constituents of all the material in the universe lias been discovered. The science of astrophysics is still staggering under the shock. It is now industriously investigating the role of tlie new entity in the constitution of the stars, Tlie discovery of new forms of _ hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon is opening equally ■lAmnrlrrJiln ill CltrllGr direoCENTRE OF TRADESOLAR ANLONDON PRE-EMINENTANCJEN'LAST YEAR A RECORDTlie* Port of London established a new record last year, handling over58,000,000 tons of shipping, but it isnot only in this respect that the portis pre-eminent; in the handling of inward and' outward cargo London sets a standard of efficiency such as no other port can equal, according to Captain A. W. Pearse, representative in Australia and New Zealand of the Port of London Authority.Captain Pearse, who spent flie summer months in England last year, ls visiting each of the main ports of the dominion, and is now in Dunedin.41 The new Tilbury landing stage is a fine acquisition to London’s passenger traffic facilities,” said Captain Pearse. “It can handle the largest J vessels even at low tide, when there is a depth of 37ft of water, obviating the necessity for docking.”MANY- PLEASURE CRUISES.Included in the tonnage handled last year was an exceptional number of liners engaged in pleasure cruises, lie continued. No fewer than eighty-seven vessels left on various tours, mainly to the Mediterranean and Baltic Seas (the Norwegian fiords constituting a great attraction^ Iceland, and the West Indies, British ships dealt with practically the whole of the traffic, which had become exceedingly popular in recent years.Referring to the manner in which the port is controlled, Captain Pearse said that the Authority consisted of a board of twenty-eight members, elected for a period of three years and acting in an honorary capacity. No dividends in the ordinary way were looked for, and once the low fixed interest on tlie £40,000,000 worth of bonds had been met, all profits went towards a reduction in rates and to improvements, the port being run on purely co-operativelines.SPECIALISED EMPLOYEES.Everything regarding the handling of inward and outward cargo was done in the docks, where the 26,000 employees included specialists in ail sorts of goods. Merchants were relieved of an immense amount of expense and responsibility. The Authority received all produce from the vessels and rendered all the services required in the course of the marketing and delivery of goods. Weighing, tareing, grading, surveying, sorting according to quality and condition, blending and many other operations were performed by the Authority’s employees. Samples representative of the bulk goods were drawn, and so great was the trust placed 011 dock samples that they formed the basis of large-scale transactions without the buyer or the seller ever seeing the goods. Merchants therefore had no need to take their goods away until the latter had been solcl. Since 1925 the Authority had made reductions in port charges, which were saving users of the port approximately £1,000,000 per year, notwithstanding that wages were 70 per cent, higher than before the war.Referring to the dry summer experienced in England last year, Captain Pearse said that the Thames dropped to an exceptionally low level, but this did not affect the seventy-mile stretch from Teddington to. the Nore under the control of the Port. Authority, as the water in this area was purely tidal.PROSPERITY IN THE SOUTH,l'fc was apparent to Captain Pearse til at the depression is lifting in England. Conditions in the south, he said, were particularly good, and there was no doubt that London and the southeast of England constituted the most prosperous part of the country. In practically every city the slum problem was being resolutely tackled, and many slum areas had already disappeared.London was still the financial ^centre of the world, he said, and exerted a magnetic power in international trade. Bills of exchange on London were the currency of the world’s commerce, and the smallest shipper of produce could hypothecate Ins documents in London 011 the best of terms. Both exporters and importers could make more advantageous financial arrangements than in any other market.44 Tlie London market attracts the largest number of buyers,” said Captain Pearse. “ All goods that enter it can find a buyer, and producers who can ship their produce to London know that their sales are assured, and, in the long run, at the best prices. This is particularly so as regards New Zealand’s primary products. There seems to bo more money in the south to-day than ever before. Hundreds of new industries have sprung up in the Home counties since tlie war, and Southern England, particularly the Greater London area, is at present the richest section of the British Isles.”Stressing the importance of London as a selling territory, Captain Pearse said that within twenty-five miles of the docks there was a population of nearly twelve million people. The annual army of tourists made London their headquarters, and all the fashionable seaside resorts bought fchcir requirements in the city. About twenty million people lived within economicreach of the metropolis.When Octavh Augustus—cnteideath of Julius rounded by a ring. Whereb; “ The gods gavlt; of the troublOu Impressive ev server, phenom are perenialiy alarming, to tl Hal os have bei all ages, yet1transmitter. No result. , He hadmoved out of focus to avoid the intensely bright light and heat. Baird,in desperation, offered him half a crown to “ stay put,” and his recognisable image appeared on tlie screen.Thus Taynton, for a fee of half n£i crown, became the first person in history to be seen by television. He is at present employed by the Baird Television Company.T11 January, 1926, the apparatus was demonstrated successfully to members of the Royal Institution. Soon after that Baird, while walking down the Strand, ran into his former rival in the soil]] business, Captain Oliver George Hutchinson, who became hisbusiness manager and brought fresh rapitul into the venture. A move was made to Motograph House, oil Leicea-w nnunrn. nn office bov engaged, andPUBLIC RECOGNITION.The rest is a matter of scientific history, Television across the Atlantic, television from the Epsom Derby to a cinema at Victoria; now, almost daily broadens ting from the B.B.C., and the Baird system supreme in Germany, France, and Italy, while iii the U.S.A.it was chosen for broadcasting, although subsequently vetoed by the Federal Radio Commissionnever been re leg logue of eomnn still popularly Nature, abnor The old ehroniel spietious exampwith awe and wchroniclers still Since the wo versify of me otherwise, it is that in meteoro embraces all tin suiting from th tion (but not lt;ice crystals in t light is general!; but artificial li. halos. The cry.1; production are flakes, hexagom gular in system in their details.Halos occur : forms. Some en others appear el tain definite anf speet to the sou rings or arcs, ■ Some are prisms white. Some ai common, and s rare. Some, have never beer In cold dim. often laden witT which produce ! server. Sir Do seeing them in frozen moisture Of all the n halo family oil-what we have 5 ent strangeness 1 average citizen-still a subject c The big white or the moon,” is :It is as well-kno mon as the ott pfcndage, much coloured, which . . ; the tendc Which the mot Moving thro’ Anti which scien is formed in waf halo. The two 1 confused in pop The halo jtist mon place sighthe views it witl interest on accoreputation as-a supposed to foi necessarily a wi of bad weather, mgs is that a bi the direction frt rain will come ; * ber of stars ins the number of d arrival.If,, however, ywhat this ring will not get the pect. He will 1 a sign that the the moon shinesPrognosticating or from any otl weather folk Jon business. Cirros out in front 0: depressions, but that ft halo fore merely one of tl acterises as “ ; foundation.” T broken ring and wholly fanciful,MOCK SUhThe big ring called the halo to its angular r or no colour, luminosity. Th more common ai solar ring nsua tion. of the casui are dazzled by glasses are an and other halobright solar hal spectral colours inner margin an and can bo so C£ general interest Mock suns a halos, and ther classified accord former are of tothough certainare white. MT enough to be weather proverb poem, written b set to music bjless, it is probahuman beings 1 and they were to our forefathe: 111 the annals and early model Mail rice of Sraised the siegApril, 1551, bee of three suns in as the days of A suns were belie weather, and th atmospheric cha the lives of men tributed to ther Mock suns a: same height ab real sun, and a they lie there i white circle, 0 which passes tl parallel to the!_• ^,1,1 \,i *.» a. - — -- ■■ i j. j v 1 tvf v 1.1.VSuccess, Mr Tiltnum emphasises, has m0ck-siiii r]llgf) not changed Baird fundamentally. I'1 corresponding 1 1926 “l’sat beside him on a dusty hj llt ; ccl\]ed \light is called 1 Extending v luminary therecolumnar streak pillar, or 1110011-be. This pillar colours, but nn light of sunset.bench in his modest workroom and accepted from him a cup of tea with the feeling at the time that he eoiild afford to provide it. ^ In 1932 his cm whirled me out to his country house, where I enjoyed a dinner perfectly served, from the cocktails to the cof-Ho everything sends h.ippHy, Seo^|^«re su€ 1 tish grit triumphed over adversity, it has done all through history. Thedown-at-heel crank of Boho becomes the pioneer of an invention with nn-*. Due told possibilities for the future. A 1 ,rtriumph of patience, the story of which cannot fail to inspire everyone whoeffect,displaywhen so of the i of the ' is the eircmnzc high jn the hca circle—or perhw
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Clyde Dunstan Times
Clyde, South Island, NZ
Mon, Apr 30, 1934
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