50 Years Ago

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 […]

From the March 14, 1931, issue

NEW WELDED PIPE LINE CARRIES WATER TO SAN DIEGO On the front cover of this weeks SCIENCE NEWS LETTER, the cameraman has caught two electric arc welders tying in an important section of a 19-mile-long steel serpent, 40 inches in diameter in some places and 36 inches in others, that will carry water from reservoirs […]

From the March 7, 1931, issue

CANYON DE CHELLY NOW NATIONAL MONUMENT A famous canyon of the West, with ancient Indian ruins under the shelter of its thousand-foot red walls, has been given the status of a National Monument, by an act of Congress recently signed by the President. This is the Canyon de Chelly in Arizona, with its tributaries, Canyon […]

From the February 28, 1931, issue

CAMERA CATCHES RATTLER’S SINISTER BEAUTY Photographing a rattlesnake is not the idea most of us would have of a healthy outdoor sport, especially when it is necessary to stand almost on top of the coiled and angry reptile to get a really good picture. But Walter E. Flowers of Spokane once let his picture–getting enthusiasm […]

From the February 21, 1931, issue

WHAT BABIES THINK ABOUT What are baby’s secret thoughts? Babies understand what is said long before they are able to speak, psychologists have discovered. Wherefore, parents are reminded to think before they talk in front of even very young infants and to count to 10, or 110, before indulging in a family tiff while the […]

From the February 14, 1931, issue

SMALL CHANGES OF SUN’S HEAT CONTROL WEATHER ON EARTH The sun when it radiates heat and light to Earth also broadcasts information that can be used to foretell the weather here on Earth. Dr. C.G. Abbot, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, after more than two decades of solar observation, announced today through the medium of […]

From the February 7, 1931, issue

LITTLE WATERWHEEL DOES BIG POWER JOB Fortunate are those countries that have small rivers falling rapidly, rather than huge, slow-moving streams. Electricity can be generated for these nations easily and cheaply. To make electricity for Korea from the 2,000-foot fall of a mountain stream will be the life work of the Voith impulse water wheel […]

From the January 31, 1931, issue

ROBBER FLY MASQUERADES IN BUMBLEBEE’S CLOTHING The villainous-looking hexapod that glares at you from the cover of this week’s SCIENCE NEWS LETTER is as bad a citizen as he looks. He is a robber fly, who should by rights be called an assassin fly, for his practice is to pounce upon other insects in the […]

From the January 17, 1931, issue

AN AMERICAN ROMANCE IN STEEL AND STEAM Things mechanical offer the photographer an unlimited field for the exercise of his talents, and the locomotive–romantic and symbolical as it can be made–is especially attractive to him. On the front cover of this week’s SCIENCE NEWS LETTER, Photographer Rittase of Philadelphia has chosen the Boardwalk Flyer of […]