From the February 20, 1932, issue

LIGHT FLOODS MONUMENT FOR CELEBRATION

Science and engineering are aiding the Washington Bicentennial celebration, for they have just joined hands to illuminate in a very realistic fashion the famous obelisk that is named for the father of his country.

The striking photograph of the shaft and its reflection in the Lincoln Memorial pool shows how well the job has been done. By the combined use of floodlights and searchlights, the angular outline of the monument has been preserved, even under the glare of intense artificial illumination.

TREATMENT WITH HEAT AFFECTS QUALITY OF OPTICAL GLASS

The difference between valuable optical glass of the kind used for submarine periscopes or expensive binoculars and inferior glass is just a matter of a few degrees of temperature, it appears from a report of Dr. A.Q. Tool and L.W. Tilton, of the U.S. Bureau of Standards, made before the American Ceramic Society at its annual meeting in Washington.

These scientists have found that very exact control of temperature during the annealing process has much more to do with the quality of glass than has been previously thought. They have shown that an inferior piece of optical glass may possibly be reclaimed by reannealing, or tempering with heat, at exactly the proper temperature.

SENSITIVE ELECTRIC EYE COUNTS LIGHT QUANTA

An “electric eye” so sensitive that it can detect the ultraviolet rays from a lighted match at a distance of 30 feet has been developed by Gordon L. Locher of the Rice Institute.

This ultraviolet-light detector, which will find many scientific uses, actually counts the individual electrons liberated by the effect of light on the surface of a photoelectric metal. It is similar to the cosmic-ray counters that have been demonstrated to several scientific audiences throughout the country. Like them, it is hitched up to an amplifier and loudspeaker so that the liberation of each electron can be heard as a click.