"As a result of a new development in injection molding, the wooden heel cores of women's shoes can now automatically be given an evenly distributed coating of cellulose acetate approximately 1/16 inch thick. The new plastics-covered heels, which are said to have wearing qualities far exceeding those of any other shoe, will not scratch or scuff, nor will the coating wear off, split, or peel. The improved heels can be made in any size, shape, or style and can be made with either dull or glossy finish in practically every color."
"An interesting new device is simply a giant pillow used to jack aircraft on soft ground or after they have made crash landings. The equipment weighs 220 pounds and comprises a set of three bags and one gasoline-engine-driven blower or compressor. Each bag when inflated is six feet high and can support 12 tons. Even a motorist might at times like to have something of the kind instead of painfully manipulating a conventional automobile jack."
"Preliminary details have been worked out for what is believed to be the first all-welded hospital building in the country. It is proposed that the framework of the new unit, to be known as Kahler Hospital, located in Rochester, Minn., will be designed as a continuous structure of beams and their connecting members. In preparing the specifications, the architects discarded all concepts of riveted construction, which tends to restrict the range of application of certain welding details."
"Activated carbon, a chemical cousin of both diamond and coke, is a powerful tool of many increasing uses, ranging from life-saving service in gas masks to salvage of a host of valuable materials. Activated carbons can be tailor-made to fit various needs, and, according to Drs. Ernst Berl and Walter G. Berl of the Carnegie Institute of Technology, the large, pitted, and porous surface 'is a powerful tool for the adsorption, elimination, or recovery of a host of desirable and undesirable substances.'"
"Looming on the horizons as something that industry has ready for the housewife is what has been called 'automatic dusting.' Actually, it is a part of an air-conditioning system that, by electronic means, removes dust from the air before it has a chance to settle on furniture and hence reduces the dusting chore to a minimum. The 'automatic duster' makes it unnecessary to dust more than once a month."
JULY 1895
"Usually at this season there are calls for colored fires; on account of their poisonous and explosive nature, the utmost care in their manipulation is necessary. In the preparation of colored fires the ingredients, which should be perfectly dry, must be separately powdered and sifted through a hair sieve, and put into well stoppered, wide mouthed bottles until ready for mixing. Sulphur, and the salts of the poisonous metals--antimony, arsenic, mercury, etc.--should not be used in making colored fires for indoor use."
"The richest and most complete bath yet found in the remains of Pompeii has recently been discovered. It is a large building, with sculpted basins, heating apparatus, lead pipes, and bronze faucets. The walls and floor are tiled. Everything is in an almost perfect state of preservation, owing to the roof having remained intact when the city was buried in the year 79."
"The eminent naturalist Thomas Henry Huxley died on the 29th of June 1895, his mind remaining clear to the last. His death now leaves Herbert Spencer the sole survivor of the grand quartet of mental giants, Darwin, Tyndall, Huxley and Spencer, who succeeded in forcing their views regarding man's relations to lower forms of life and to the cosmos, commonly called 'evolution,' upon an unwilling and recalcitrant public."
"The most interesting phenomena of the atmosphere take place in the almost inaccessible parts, but ballooning and mountain observatories have led to some unexpected findings at these altitudes. Namely, many clouds which had generally been regarded as consisting of vapor are composed of minute crystals of ice; also, at different heights the direction of the wind is different, and the temperature does not get steadily lower as the earth becomes more distant, but alternate layers of hot and cold air were encountered."
"Among the ruins left upon the ground by Spanish troops after the 1868 Cuban insurrection were a large gear wheel and a fly wheel. After a lapse of 25 years, a jaguey tree has sprung up between the spokes of the gear wheel. The growth of this tree gives some idea of the Cuban flora and the rapidity with which it springs up and spreads over the ground."
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN July 1995 Volume 273 Number 1 Page 10
Scientific American (ISSN 0036-8733), published monthly by Scientific American, Inc., 415 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017-1111. Copyright 1995 by Scientific American, Inc. All rights reserved. Except for one-time personal use, no part of any issue may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording, nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or otherwise copied for public or private use without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding back issues, reprints or permissions, E-mail SCAinquiry@aol.com.
