50 Years Ago
- Humans
From the August 9, 1930, issue
A FISH WITH HANDS A fish of more than ordinary piscine talent is sometimes found in the drifting masses of gulfweed or Sargassum in the great mid-Atlantic eddy. It is only a little fish, a couple of inches long, but it can use its two pectoral fins for some of the functions of hands. It […]
- Humans
From the August 2, 1930, issue
SHOOTING STARS, THE STORY-TELLERS OF THE UNIVERSE Of fortunate rarity are celestial visitors like the huge meteoric mass that dug the famous Meteor Crater in Arizona about 2,000 years ago. This scar on the face of the earth near Winslow, Ariz., is four-fifths of a mile across and 450 feet deep. It is shown on […]
- Humans
From the July 26, 1930, issue
DID THE MOUNDBUILDERS COME FROM MEXICO? Were the Indians who built the mysterious mounds of the great interior valley of our country kinsmen to the Mayas of Yucatan and the other highly cultured peoples of the Mexican plateau? Are the decidedly Maya- and Aztec-like sculptures taken from mounds in the Southeast really witnesses to an […]
- Humans
From the March 11, 1933, issue
GREAT LION OF LA BREA Bigger by a fourth than the proudest lion that walks the veldt today were the tallest of the great lions of California a hundred thousand years ago. Rivaled in size only by the short-faced bears whose bones have been found with theirs in the La Brea tar-pits, they could confidently […]
- Humans
From the March 4, 1933, issue
FISH OF DIFFERENT “FEATHER” OFTEN FLOCK TOGETHER Game herds of the African veldt have long been a marvel to travelers because of the extraordinary variety of animals seen together: zebras, gnus, antelope of many species, even elephants and ostriches, mingling in a wonderful patchwork quilt of moving life. Only lions and other predators are outsiders […]
- Humans
From the July 19, 1930, issue
TWISTER POSES Perhaps the finest photograph ever taken of a tornado–certainly at any rate a most unusual one–was obtained by Ira B. Blackstock, a Western railroad executive, at Hardtner, Kansas, on Sunday, June 2, 1929, at about 4:30 p.m. Mr. Blackstock let the windy monster approach as closely as he dared, standing with one foot […]
- Humans
From the February 25, 1933, issue
ADAM AND EVE IN THE OLDEST CITY In the oldest city that archaeologists have ever explored they have dug up “Adam and Eve” and the serpent. There they are, the figures of a man and a woman, which have been stamped on clay with a seal. They are a dejected human pair, bent, and stumbling […]
- Humans
From the February 18, 1933, issue
OUTWITTING VAMPIRES AND VIPERS When a vampire is a supernatural creature, science laughs at it. But when it is a disease-bearing bat, science sets its disease-fighters to work seeking a way to conquer it. Down in Panama, the disease-fighters of the Gorgas Memorial Institute, in addition to carrying on their regular job of fighting malaria, […]
- Humans
From the July 12, 1930, issue
FISH’S-EYE VIEW A poet once wished for the gift to see ourselves as others see us. An artist has achieved it. Wilfrid Swancourt Bronson, of New York, has cultivated the ability to see things from the fish’s point of view, taking into account the squeezed perspective one gets through the little “window” in the water […]
- Humans
From the February 11, 1933, issue
YELLOW SODIUM LIGHT EFFECTIVE OUTDOORS A commercial application has been found for the extremely efficient sodium-vapor lamp. A highway in Holland is now illuminated with these light units giving off an intense yellow glow; and this light, which makes color discrimination impossible and is devastating to Miladys makeup, is said to be especially desirable for […]
- Humans
From the February 4, 1933, issue
SUPERLATIVE SPLENDOR REVEALED BY EXCAVATIONS IN PERSIA Eastern magnificence that surrounded Persian emperors 2,500 years ago is revealed by excavations at Persepolis. Palaces of the kings are being brought to light there by Dr. Ernest Herzfeld excavating for the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. The sculptured walls arouse comparisons with glories of one […]
- Humans
From the July 5, 1930, issue
POWER PLANT SENTINELS When hundreds of thousands of horsepower traveling with the speed of lightning are instantly halted, you may be sure there will be a grand disturbance. And there is, but all the fuss is confined in steel tanks 25 feet tall and 10 feet wide, filled with oil. Two such tanks are shown […]
