50 Years Ago
- Humans
From the July 8, 1933, issue
THE NYMPHS’ FLOWER Serene, cool, immaculate, the water lily floats beneath the summer sun, where the big flat drops of water shine like silver coins on the round, flat leaves. The water lily has been the delight of poets of all ages and peoples. Of moralists, too, who like to reflect that all that superb […]
- Humans
From the July 1, 1933, issue
SEVEN MUMMIES FROM TEXAS CAVE BROUGHT TO SMITHSONIAN Seven mummies preserved apparently by natural dryness of the Texas cave where they were buried, have just been received by the Smithsonian institution. The mummies shed new light on the prehistoric cave dwellers of the Big Bend region of Texas whose cave shelters have been explored in […]
- Humans
From the June 24, 1933, issue
LIGHTNING Lightning, most awesome of the spectacular forces of nature, has yielded some of its mystery to science. But not all. We no longer credit it, as did our ancestors, to an angry Zeus or an impetuous Thor. Since Ben Franklin flew his adventurous kites, nearly two centuries ago, we know it is “made of […]
- Humans
From the June 17, 1933, issue
STRATOSPHERE SHELL PREPARED FOR NAVIGATORS The little metal sphere that will be the stratosphere home of two men and scientific instruments for a few hours next month is rapidly being completed (SNL, May 27, ’33, p. 323). It is pictured on the front cover with Dr. Jean F. Piccard emerging at the unfinished vertex of […]
- Humans
From the June 10, 1933, issue
BRAINLIKE STALAGMITES FOUND IN MARYLAND CAVE Stalagmite deposits shaped like human brains have been found on the floor of a newly discovered cave in Mount Etna, near Beaver Creek, Md., about 60 miles from Washington. James H. Benn of the Smithsonian Institution staff, who was detailed to make a geological investigation, brought one of them […]
- Humans
From the June 3, 1933, issue
TWO MECHANICAL MEN EXPLAIN BODY’S MECHANISM Mechanical men reveal to the visitors of the Century of Progress exhibition the physiology and chemistry of the human body. The famous transparent man, manufactured in Germany, as a life-sized display of the vital organs of human anatomy is a central exhibit in the medical section of the Hall […]
- Humans
From the May 27, 1933, issue
CRYSTAL WONDERLAND You can see all these things through a microscope, as scientists and laymen have been seeing them for many years. But the way into this Lilliputia of the waters is being made even easier for you through the amazing artistry in glass of a worker at the American Museum of Natural History in […]
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From the May 20, 1933, issue
LARGEST X-RAY TUBE BEGINS TO BATTLE AGAINST CANCER The mightiest weapon yet to enter the war against cancer was put in operation at the Mercy Hospital Institute of Radiation Therapy of Chicago. It is a new, 800,000-volt X-ray tube that, operating on a current of 1/100 of an ampere, is estimated to emit radiation equal […]
- Humans
From the May 13, 1933, issue
RISING SILENTLY TO PROTECT NATIONS TIME Almost as silently as you view the new domed building in the cover picture, this all-steel structure is rising at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington. There is no hammering of rivets to fray the nerves of humans and upset the accuracy of the delicate Naval Observatory clocks that […]
- Humans
From the May 6, 1933, issue
AMERICAS FALCON POSES AGAINST PERFECT BACKGROUND Rarely is a perfect bird photographed against so perfect a background as the duck hawk, or American falcon, shown on the front cover of this issue of the Science News Letter. The photograph is by Dr. A.A. Allen of Cornell University, and the magnificent cataract plunging in the background […]
- Humans
From the April 22, 1933, issue
SPARKING PROCESS STUDIED WITH LICHTENBERG FIGURES What is an electric spark made of, is the question partly answered by the brilliant whirligig figure on the front cover of this weeks Science News Letter. The picture is one of several hundred made during research of Prof. C. Edward Magnusson of the University of Washington, Seattle. Prof. […]
- Humans
From the April 29, 1933, issue
LEAVING THE NEST While dredges grappled with her sister ships twisted girders and soaked fabric in the watery Atlantic grave off Barnegat Light, the Macon took to the air. The front cover presents the new queen of the skies as she appeared before being “walked” from the huge Akron air dock for the first trial […]
