Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 42, Number 252, 3 September 1917 — Page 8

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How the ALL-SEEING EYE of the "MOVIE" Camera REVEALS the

Begin nmgs THE mystery surrounding the methods by which nature gives . existence to plants and animals has been revealed by the all-seeing ye ot the motion picture camera and the complex subject of life Itself has been clearly recorded on the films. After" nearly two years of experimenting Prof. George E. Stone, A. B., In collaboration with Prof. J. A. Long, Ph. D., University of California, has actually discovered Just how life begins by showing how microscopic living cells multiply and grow. The treatment of the subject by these two scientists Is said to be most simple. With the motion pict ure camera Profs. Stone and Long show that life comes only from life and that all new Individuals arise only from other living creatures of their own kind. Furthermore, they show that there are several processes by which new life can arise and that simplest method is found In those plants and animals which consist of but one cell. A drop of water Is placed on a slide and examined through a microscope. At once is seen a swarming mass of life. These are called protozoans, the simplest of all animals. With a higher magnification one protozoan is observed to constrict in the middle and divide into two halves, each of which at once becomes a new protozoan, and each of these new creatures, in turn, splits up into new cells, until they become so numerous that at last one is made to realize why it seems necessary for animals to die. Next Is shown a microscopic plant, and here the common yeast, used In bread making Is chosen. This organIsm Is one of the protophyta, or onecelled plants, and reproduces by a process of budding which closely resembles the division already seen In a protozoan. After emphasizing the simplicity of reproduction characteristic of these low forms. Profs. Stone and

Just How OYSTERS Are DISINFECTED

THE economic possibilities of making oysters safe to eat are dwelt upon in a recent report of a series of experiments made by the United States Public Health Service. When It is considered, says the Medical Record (New. York), that shellfish thrives In bays and estuaries polluted by sewage, it can be seen what prolific sources of Infection they can be. Typhoid epidemics have often been traced to this source. While the .artificial purification of the oyster does not do away with the esthetic objections to eating an animal fattened in sewage, it does eliminate the disease factor. The purification, it appears, is really managed by the oyster himself, who will quickly wash away all the noxious germs if he is only given the pure or antiseptic water for the process. "It has long been known that there Is a tendency to the self-purification ct oysters when transferred to pure

bills or coins at the moment tne possessor attempts to pass them at a One CENT'S Worth of ELECTRICITY

ONE cent's worth of electricity will do the following things: Operate a sewing machine two hours. Keep six-pound iron hot 15 minutes. Heat electrio curling Iron 14 times. Percolate four caps of coffee, lift 100 gallons of water 100 feet. Give light of 75 candles for one hour. Toast bread for six persons. Operate luminous radiator for eight minutes. Warm baby's bottle twice. ALLIGATORS as THE alligator has graduated into the useful class. At last his sluggish energy has been usefully directed. Recently a 600-foot 12-lnch sewer pipe in Fort Meade, Florida, became clogged with sand and dirt. According to the Engineering Record several sewer-cleanlng contrivances were used and about 1500 was spent, but to no avail. The pipe remained clogged as before. At this Juncture the superintendent of water and sewers secured a small alligator, to wnlch he faatr

of LIFE

Long show that higher and more familiar plants reproduce others like themselves, either from cuttings or seeds. Accordingly the growth of the geranium from a slip Is shown, and the growth of a pea vine from the seed. With the same detail which characterizes their treatment of the plant. Profs. Stone and Long show the methods by which all the higher animals develop. First is considered the sea urchin, and here is shown the interesting process by which the eggs are fertilized in sea water as a preliminary to development Then follows the life history of the beautiful swallow-tall butterfly, from the laying of the eggs to the emerging of the new butterfly from the chrysalis. Next is treated In great detail the life of the frog from egg to adult. Equally complete is the story of the chick from the time the eggs are placed In the nest until the chick picks its way out of the shell. The rat is shown as being typical of all mammals, and these two California investigators make It clear that it is by a similar process of growth and development that the boman being comes into life.

How Dazzling

A MONO 10,000 patients at one European military eye hospital, 140 cases ot nyctalopia or night blindness came under the observation of Prof. Birch-Hlrshfeld. In 108 instances the disease was pres ent before the war began, in most of these cases having existed since early youth, but military service seems to have caused greater disturbances than did civil life. In 82 cases the condition was noted first during military service. In nine water," says the Record. "The selfpurification is complete within from a few hours to two days. The modus operandi Is evident when one realizes that the passage of water through the oyster is very large and very rapid. As much as 20 to 50 gallons of water pass through in a day. The passage of food-particles through the Intestinal tract Is quite as rapid. In France, basins of filtered water have long been used to effect this purification, but the cost of this process compared with the saleprice of the oyster renders the method quite impracticable. And indeed, if It is fairly clean, unaltered sea water is better for purification purposes because the food-particles in unfiltered water stimulate passage through the intestinal tract and help to carry through and to discharge the contained colon bacilli. Instead of filtered water, therefore, the usual methods of the chemical purification of water were uti Cook Welsh rarebit in chafing dish. Keep heating pad hot two hours. Heat eight-inch electric stove eight minutes. Operate 12-inch fan two hours. Vulcanize four automobile tire patches. Keep foot warmer hot one-quarter hour. Raise passenger elevator five stories in a minute. Operate electric griddle eight minutes. (Calculating current at 10 cents per kilowatt-hour rate.) Sewer CLEANERS ened a rope. The 'gator was lowered Into the pipe. After a struggle in the unsavory environment he reached the next manhole, dragging the rope after him. When he had traveled one section of the pipe, the rope, to the middle of which knotted chains were attached, was pulled back and forth and the obstructions removed. Following this success, other alligators were used, until at the present time ten are employed for cleaning sewers. They are doing what skilled workmen equipped with modern apparatus have failed to do.

EXPERIMENTS

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Drawing Made from Prof. Stone's Moving Picture Film of a

Protozoan, Simplest of All Single

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Protozoan Divides Itself and Two New Ones.

0 New Protozoans Resulting from Photographing a protozoan in the act of reproducing Its own kind by the simple process of splitting Itself into two parts. Prof. Stone says was a very different feat. It Is a very short Bcene, lasting only 55 seconds, but three whole weeks of watchful waiting were required on the part of the photographer. He had to observe the animals constantly and to be prepared to photograph the division at the Instant it occurred. Microscopic life not only reproduces by self-division, but also by LIGHT cases an injury, followed by hemorrhage. In five cases Intestinal disease and in three cases light dazzling were recorded as being the exciting causes. Myopia was present In 60 cases. It is assumed, therefore, that myopia is a cause of nyctalopia. A hereditary influence was traced in one-third of the cases. Central Vision was approximately normal in 63 cases, fair In 60 cases and considerably disturbed In 17 cases. The fundus was normal In 63 cases; in 38 cases the peculiar pigmentation first described by Augstein was present. lized in these experiments to render the oysters free from colon infection. In carrying out these ' experiments oysters were inoculated with cultures of colon bacilli. "The water was then disinfected with 10 per cent, calcium hypochlorite solution. A considerable purification of the oysters contained therein occurred within six hours, and a remarkable purification within 24 hours."

How COUNTERFEIT Money

SCIENCE has come to Uncle Sam's aid in detecting and preventing counterfeiting with a device recently invented by Capt Thomas I. Porter, head of the Chicago office of the United States Secret service. His machine is especially intended to detect counterfeit made so much like originals tnai The Crosshatching of the Glass Plate Divides the Surface of the Genuine and Suspected Bills Into Similar Squares, Each of Which Can Be Compared in Detail. they defy ordinary inspection, making a special machine necessary for their detection. Capt Porter's contrivance depends on the principle that a counterfeiter rarely succeeds In making perfect original plates for his bills. Somehow or other there is always a slight distortion In some part To the casual eye the products ot the counterfeiter look exactly like those of Uncle Sam. But most plate-engraving processes make use of photog-

to PROVE That

Living Animal Organisms. Each Part Becomes Division of an Original Protozoan. budding. To bring out that fact, the common yeast plant, used in breadmaking, was chosen by Prof. Stone as a motion-picture subject. Yeast cells bud slowly. In order to secure a record of their growth the photographs were made at intervals of Vi minutes over a period of 12 hours. Since they are viewed at the rate of 16 per second, the growth Is witnessed In the exceedingly short space of ten seconds. In the film exhibiting the reproductive processes of the higher and

Causes "NIGHT BLINDNESS"

and in 27 cases there was a deficiency of pigment In the majority of cases the visual field for blue was considerably nar rowed, especially in subdued light; 33 times for white and blue even in ordinary daylight, and 28 times there was a reduction of more than 30 per cent. Blue spots on a gray background remained invisible to the nyctalopes after half an hour of rest in the dark longer than to the normal eye. A five-point adaptometer, devised by Prof. Birch-Hirschfeld, proved to be of great value in the examination of these soldiers. It was found that in the nyctalopes the Irritation threshhold frequently is higher than in the normal eye, in many cases following slight disturbance of adaptation, and that the adaptation may be diminished with a normal irritation threshhold. In 92 cases both types of disturbance were present. They occurred particularly in the older patients with fundus changes and a reduction of central vision. Forty-nine patients were under observation for several weeks; in only eight cases was there any marked Improvement and six of these were recent cases. Prof. Birch-Hirschfeld emphasizes that it is imraphy at one stage or another. The images of the bills must pass through a lens, which passage is sure to distort them. Though the distortion is slight, minute comparison with a good bill reveals the defects. The new machine is designed to make the work of comparison easy. The detector consists simply of a or other material having a rough surthick wooden frame about ten inches or a foot square. On tie top surface, brass edgings are provided ' which hold In place a large plate of glass this being divided Into squares about one-fourth of an inch apart Several glass plates are provided, each with a different set of rulings suited to the fineness of the bill undergoing test Beneath the glass plate are two thin oblong metal plates faced on their ,opper surfaces with blotting paper face to which a bill will readily adhere. These metal plates rest side

MAN Is MYSTERIOUSLY LINKED

To Explain the Development of Life Prof. Stone Invented a Special Camera and Glass with Which He Photographed Butterflies in the Act of Laying Their Eggs.

more familiar forms of plant life a Rltn nt pwnnfum was nlnntrl On photograph was made every six hours. On the screen a growth is shown in one second which actually required four days. Most plants, however, develop from seeds, and the seeds, in turn, origlnate In the flowers of the parent plant. To bring out that fact. Prof. Stone made photographs and diagrams of the sweet pea to show how possible to make a definite prognosis in these cases after a single examination; therefore it is greatly to be desired that these patients re main under observation for several weeks, preferably in a hospital The treatment consists, in the main, of increasing the resistance of the patient by the administration of tonics and protecting the eye from the light. Reduction In visual acuity and definition of not more than onefourth does not incapacitate the patient for military service, but he should be kept under observation all SEARCHING SCIENTISTS no longer regard the sun as a monstrous ball of fire, burning in the manner of grate fires at a temperature of several hundred thousand degrees Centigrade. Great as is its mass, it would be consumed with comparative rapidity if such combustion were taking place. The temperature of the surface of the sun has been determined as about 6000 deg. Cent, Is DETECTED by side beneath the glass and are provided with handles at each end extending beyond the glass. By means of the handles the bills may be shifted around under the glass at wilL In using the machine a good bill is placed on one of the oblong metal plates, and the supposed counterfeit on the other each adhering to the blotting paper upper surface of its respective plate. The ruled glass is then placed down over the metal plates and their accompanying bills, and held in place by the brass edgings at the side of the contrivance. The vertical lines on the glass are numbered serially from left to right The horizontal ones are divided into two sets, each designated by similar groups of letters. The user of the device merely slides the metal plates around (using the handles projecting beyond the glass at each end) until, say, the upper left-hand corner of the good bill rests beneath a certain point of the cross-hatching on the glass, and the remainder of the bill is correspondingly lined up and square with the rest of the crosshatching. Similarly the operator brings the upper left-hand corner of the bad bill to rest beneath the proper point of the lower section of the ruling afterward likewise bringing the other parts of the bill into agreement with the rest of the squares. All this, according to a contributor to Popular Science Monthly, has the effect ot placing a good bill and a bad bill squarely before an observer, and because ot the cross-batching on the glass, ot dividing up the surface of each bill into similar squares, each of which may be compared in detail. As Is readily evident, it the bad bill Is distorted In any particular, the defect will immediately become apparent under such close scrutiny as this eectlonallzing into small squares makes possible.

the pollen grains from the anthers fall on fh Btlerrta. and thrA Tiroceed

to grow and send out tubes. The tubes work their way down through the coarse tissues of the style until they reach an ovule. Then the whole process of fertilization is revealed how the fertilized egg cells become peas while the pistil of the flower becomes the pod which surrounds and shelters them. Profs. Stone and Long say that of the time by the army surgeon, and he should not be subjected to night duty of any sort. Only In exception al cases is nyctalopia considered as an adequate reason for granting a pension. Nyctalopia is not regarded a specific disease. Many factors are operative In its production. As a rule, the acute form is .easily differentiated from the chronic sporadic form. In the production of the acute form, loss of blood, emaciation, faulty nutrition and poisons play a role. Light dazzling usually Initiates the attack.

for SUN'S Source of HEAT

far too high to permit the formation of most chemical compounds, without which the production of heat by combustion is impossible. Such a temperature decomposes nearly all compounds into their elements and prevents their reuniting and the consequent production of heat. Astronomers are by no means certain,, how fhe sun's heat Is produced. One theory I3 that it is due to radio-activity, another that the energy to keep up the radiation could be supplied by a relatively microscopic contraction of Its volume. The latter suggestion is not wholly satisfactory, as it implies that the age of the sun is only about 17,000,000 years, or less than that of the earth. As to the structure of the sun there is also doubt; but the Inner portion may be spoken of as the nucleus and the outer portion as the atmosphere. When the outer layers of the atmosphere get relatively

EMERALDS Are Most Costly GEMS

IN the mind of the average person the diamond Is regarded as the most valuable of precious stones, but as a matter of fact large flawless emeralds are a great deal more costly than diamonds of similar size. Jewelers say that one of the considerations that makes tnese rich green gems so high-priced, if perfect 13 that they are seldom free from flaws. According to the Smithsonian Institution good diamonds are worth from $250 to $400 per carat according to purity and 6ize, whereas an emerald varies from $350 to $500,

The FIRST "Wireless" MESSAGES

AT the battle of Ishtib a Bulgarian cowherd sigr. ailed news to his military countrymen relative to the po&iiion of the Serbian battalions by moving five cows about In various ways on the top of a hllL The Basutos, by the way, practically - anticipated "wireless telegraphy" in a crude fashion. That Is, by striking heavily on a huge drum of goat skin, whicn is placed on a special spot, another Basuto at a

With

a SINGLE Living CELL they found the problem presented by the higher animals to be very difficult. With these animals life begins In a fertilized egg celL The first animal experimented with was the sea urchin, close relative of the starfish. On the screen, two eggs are shown, bombarded by millions of life-producing germs. The fact that the fertilization of an pniTpni egg is revealed to be fundamentally the same process as that previously witnessed in the plant indicates, scientist say, the essential similarity of the reproductive processes In the animal and vegetable kingdom. In. every case fertilization is said to consist in the fusion of two specially organized cells. After fertilization, the cell resulting from the union proceeds to divide Into many cells, which finally coloniio Into what Is then an embryo. The section of Prof. Stone's film which depicts the life history of a butterfly Is said to be full of dramatic Interest. For i picture Prof. Stone used one of the "swallow-tail" variety famous for the yellow and black of Its body and Its "eye spots" of red and blue. A mother swallow-tan Is shown cm the screen laying her beautiful creamy-white eggs on the sweet anise. "Four days later on tne screen only a minute later," explains. Prof. Stone, "a small black caterpillar emerges from one of the eggs. It feeds. In order to grow. It sheds Its skin and emerges with a new and ' more beautiful one. Another period of feeding intervenes. Now It Is revealed spinning a silken loop and at- i tachlng itself to a firm support. Then the marvellous process ot skin-shed-1 ding is unfolded. A chrysalis has j been formed. For many months this hangs motionless. Then, as the film I unreels, it suddenly shows signs of seconds on the screen it bursts open and releases a limp, curious innt -with crumoled wines. This is the new butterfly." In a similar manner Prof. Stone reveals and explains other life processes those of the frog, the chicken and the rat. Biologists assert that Prof. Stone's experiments prove beyond doubt that man himself Is mysteriously linked with a simple protozoan in the beginning, and that the process of growth and development is the same in all the living universe. cooler they sink to a lower level, their place being taken by hotter layers, thus actuating a continual circulation of the sun's atmosphere. The weight ot an average cubic foot of the sun is only one-quarter that of an average cubic foot of the earth. The density of the sun being so i small, it has been concluded that it '' can still continue to contract getting i hotter all the time Instead of cooler as is popularly supposed. It is estimated that the great glowIng surface which the sun presents to the earth, even considered as a fiat disk, has the enormous area of 685,750,000,000 square miles, each square foot of which emits the tremendous amount of about 12,500 horsepower. The radiant energy received on the surface of the earth at noon on a clear day is estimated to ! be about 5000 horsepower per acre. t ine quantity or this solar heat per unit area, which arrives In unit time at the outer surface of the earth's atmosphere is called the solar constant the price increasing- rapidly with size. lawless emeralds weighing more than four carats are said to be practically priceless, but diamonds ot t that size are worth only $1000 to $2000. i Another factor that Is said to con-1 tribute to the high price ot emeralds J is that they are hard to Imitate and, ' unlike some green stones, retala their color when heated and when subjected to artificial light It is claimed that this latter fact makes them particularly desirable for evening wear. distance can gather the purport of the message by piecing his ear close to the ground to catch the vibrations; and then he, in turn, passes the message on. Of course, given suitable climatic conditions, the military heliograph can transmit messages over enormous tracts of country, and the record is probably held by an Englishman, Capt. Sadler of the 6th dragoon guards, who, by this means, succeeded in South Africa in sending a message direct a distance of 130 miles.