50 Years Ago

From the June 6, 1931, issue

LARGEST WIND TUNNEL AND TOWING CHANNEL FINISHED Aeronautic research took a stride forward when two outstanding pieces of apparatus for testing and improving aircraft–both the largest of their kind in the world–were officially put in operation last week by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics at its Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in Langley Field, Va. […]

From the May 30, 1931, issue

LIFE IS RARE IN UNIVERSE, ASTRONOMER BELIEVES Life is a rare phenomenon in the universe, Sir James Jeans, British astronomer, assured the Franklin Institute meeting at which he was presented the Franklin Medal, one of Sciences highest awards. I leave it to you to be pleased or not, Sir James said, at a large fraction […]

From the May 23, 1931, issue

TOUCH OF SPRING FEVER MAKES WHOLE WORLD KIN In the spring a young mans fancy turns to thoughts of another nap even more often than it does to amative imaginings, Tennyson to the contrary notwithstanding. Spring fever, that drowsiness and mild lassitude that comes of warmth and well-being rather than of the crabbed winter of […]

From the May 16, 1931, issue

FOUR-MILE-PER-MINUTE WIND POSSIBLE IN NEW TUNNEL An artificial windstorm blowing 240 miles per hour has been found possible in the remarkable wind tunnel recently constructed at Pasadena for the California Institute of Technology. The outfit is a feature of the new Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory. This velocity exceeds the original hopes of the designers. A wind […]

From the May 9, 1931 issue

PYTHON LIKES NEW HOME: LAYS CLUTCH OF EGGS One of the big pythons in the U.S. Zoological Park recently celebrated her transfer to the more comfortable and homelike quarters of the new reptile house there by laying a clutch of 20 eggs. The picture on the cover of this issue of the SCIENCE NEWS LETTER […]

From the May 2, 1931, issue

HOLDER OF PRIESTLY OFFICE CARVED ABOUT 2400 B.C. Good sculptors, those Sumarians who lived in the land around about Ur of the Chaldees 4,000 years ago! This weeks cover picture shows the upper portion of a broken life-sized statue found at the city of Lagash, north of Ur. The features, finely cut, portray a man […]

From the April 25, 1931, issue

FUNGUS BEAUTIFIES SELF WITH FUR-TRIMMED EDGE The picture on the front cover of this weeks SCIENCE NEWS LETTER looks like a fur-trimmed opera cloak for Queen Titania of the fairies, but it is nothing more romantic than a rather common small fungus, Schizophyllum commune, that feeds on dead sticks in the woods. The furry effect […]

From the April 18, 1931, issue

STABILIZER REDUCES ROLLING ON ROUGHEST SEAS Even during the stormiest weather there should be no sea-sick passengers on the vessel that will carry in her hold the 120-ton gyro-stabilizer pictured on the front cover of this weeks SCIENCE NEWS LETTER. The photograph shows the stabilizer on test in the South Philadelphia Works of the Westinghouse […]

From the April 11, 1931, issue

THE PRECIOUS JEWELS IN HIS HEAD ARE TWAIN Did you ever stop to take a really good look at a toads eyes? Just as many a plain-faced person is redeemed from ugliness by having fine eyes, so also does the toad find salvation from his ungraceful form, his abysmal mouth, his warty skin. His eyes […]

From the April 4, 1931 issue

PASCHAL FLOWERS BLOOM ON PRAIRIES OF THE WEST Easter-Tide is remembered in America by two names, one of a place, the other of a flower. When the youth-seeking Ponce de Leon sighted the coast of the New World it was on Easter morning, and accordingly he named the place he had found Pascua Florida, or […]

From the March 28, 1931 issue

PRINCE LION-CUB SPEAKS A WORD FOR HIMSELF Milk-teeth are all he has as yet, and most of his active hours are spent in kittenish play; but let something happen to displease him, and for a moment the lion cub gives a hint of the royal terror that will clothe him when he reaches maturity. The […]

From the March 21, 1931 issue

MUSHROOMS SUDDEN GROWTH FOLLOWS LONG PREPARATION Quick as a mushrooms growth, is the phrase we like to apply to sudden and unexpected developments. An oil town, a stock-market fortune, the reputation of the writer of a hit, are all referred to the mushroom standard of comparison. Yet the mushroom is no creature of magic, not-here […]