50 Years Ago
- Humans
From the September 2, 1933, issue
URN PATTERNS EXISTED LONG BEFORE URNS WERE MADE Urns, whether for flowers or for funeral ashes, have always had much the same pattern; so much so, that the shape immediately and automatically evokes the name. But that shape existed on the earth long before the earliest neolithic potter smoothed out the walls of the first […]
- Humans
From the August 26, 1933, issue
AN APE FOR A BABY SISTER If it is not possible or desirable to bring up the young human removed from human surroundings–why not test the effects of civilization in the reverse matter? Why not bring up an ape infant in a human home–place him in a human babys bed, dress him in infants clothes, […]
- Humans
From the August 19, 1933, issue
CONSTRUCTION BEGUN ON 80-INCH TEXAS TELESCOPE The giant 80-inch reflecting telescope that will spy upon the stars from McDonald Observatory, to be erected on a peak of Davis Mountains, Texas, is now under construction. A contract for the telescope has been approved by the University of Texas board of regents, and Warner and Swasey Company […]
- Humans
From the August 12, 1933, issue
CONTINENTAL LIGHTHOUSE This is a moonlight photograph of the 400-watt electric lamp on the top of Mt. Washington. When flashed recently in visibility tests conducted by the Mt. Washington Polar Year observers, it was noticed as far away as Boothbay Harbor, Maine, 95 miles distant, and at many other points in New England. Current for […]
- Humans
From the August 5, 1933, issue
A MILLION YEARS OF MAN A million years of the past history of man, as he climbed upward through the stone age, are recreated in exhibits and life-sized models and dioramas just placed on view by the Field Museum in Chicago. The exhibits represent the results of years of research, of several museum expeditions, and […]
- Humans
From the July 29, 1933, issue
ON A SPARKLING SEA The photographer very likely took a more beautiful picture than he thought he would when, flying low over the Canadian Pacific’s Empress of Australia, he snapped the photograph that adorns the front cover of this week’s Science News Letter. The vessel has a gross tonnage of 21,850 tons and her displacement […]
- Humans
From the July 22, 1933, issue
PERKINS OBSERVATORY 69-INCH MIRROR IS THIRD LARGEST Third largest in the world and the first all-American giant telescope, the 69-inch telescope of Perkins Observatory of Ohio Wesleyan University is now in operation. When its mirror was being placed in position just after being coated with silver, the unusual photograph on this weeks cover was taken. […]
- Humans
From the July 15, 1933, issue
LIVELY YOUNG MARMOSETS SURVIVE IN CAPTIVITY Two lively, chattering young marmosets are growing up in San Francisco without the slightest notion of what “rare specimens” they are. They have a very great distinction of surviving birth in captivity. Naturalists say that this type of New World monkey is often born in captivity but usually the […]
- 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 […]
