Science News, Vol 1 (1940s)

[music] at all. [music] A chain of 40 tiny coral islands surrounding a lagoon is Enowit atal in mid-pacific, part of the Marshall Islands freed from Japan in World War II. Now, historic films made in the spring [music] of 1948 and just released show Enoto preparing for heavily guarded and still largely secret tests of new atomic weapons. The test's purpose is to measure atomic effects on thousands of different materials, 30,000 tons of them. Not as at Bikini to prove military effectiveness. [music] In special towers, automatic cameras will record the explosions. [music] There are no newsmen, no foreign observers present as members of the 10,000man task force T leave shore for safety just before the explosion of America's sixth atom bomb. And in a we talk, now the atomic energy commission's permanent proving ground. Robot planes take off for atmospheric measurements. The bombs will not be dropped from the air and control stations. All is ready now. This is bomb number six. A new atomic weapon, not an improvement of an old design. The five bombs set off in New Mexico, over Japan, and at Bikini are, in scientific terms, already ancient history. The flash of bomb number six is seen by shipboard observers. And here is bomb number seven. Seen from a different angle, its death dealing radioactive cloud spreads for miles above the Pacific. This is bomb number eight. [music] An ene's mightiest agent of destruction presents its unspoken and unanswerable argument for peace and for preparedness. [music] [music] In the Egyptian Red Sea Peninsula of Sinai, where hallowed belief says that Moses received the Ten Commandments, is the ancient monastery of St. [music] Catherine, whose Greek Orthodox monks follow an auster and penitential life unchanged since the days of the desert fathers. [music] [bell] In their library are thousands of rare handwritten documents, many of them unread for centuries. Some of them are believed to be portions of sacred scriptures long lost to the world. Now, American experts in their study of these revered manuscripts are examining and photographing one by one 2 million parchment pages in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, [music] Arabic, Aramaic, and other ancient languages. Because of the monk's care, many pages are as fresh and clear as the day they were written. Among the many treasures is a scroll the monks believe is in the hand of the prophet Muhammad. It is documents like this which American scientists are rescuing [music] from the obscurity of the centuries. [music] It's milking time at this ultramodern dairy in Delano, California, [music] and these cows are heading for the barn. A lukewarm spray stimulates milk hormones before the cows move onto a conveyor line where they will be fed and milked at the same time. The conveyor, the invention of dairyman HC Kain, is the latest addition for subtracting milk. A milkmaid attaches standard milking equipment. The rolling line speeds the cows through at 10 ft per minute. The job is done in 7 minutes, and every 35 seconds, another cow steps into line. Less than an hour is needed to milk a herd of 100 cows. The milk is next processed and bottled. American inventiveness sets [music] up a real production line on the farm. [music] A collection of 150,000 original models from the US patent office is sold in New York. This 1876 children's [music] doorway swing, like this scale, which printed both weights and prices, never succeeded. But the washboard became famous all over the world. [music] This chair bed was designed for crowded living quarters. [music and bell] A cabinet bed is a similar idea. The inventor was ahead of his times for double-purpose furniture is increasingly popular today. >> [music] >> Roller skates are pretty much the same in our streamlined age. But this washing machine, invented in 1866, is a far cry from today's push button [music] wonders. A spark catcher smoke stack to prevent forest fires and a modern-looking steamer chair. It's a pity for future collectors that the patent office no longer requires working models. >> [music] [music] >> At Chileain University, Professor Lo Sang Sai introduces his cooperation machine [music] designed for a unique experiment in animal relations. Looks complicated. It's really very simple. Into the first compartment go the rat and George the cat. Tradition says they're enemies, but Dr. Sigh has brought them up together from childhood and they love each other, especially since they've learned through experience that neither of them can eat unless he cooperates with the other. Those two floor plates must be pushed at the same time in order to get at the food. What teamwork and what appetites. [music] Now the two animals are separated. So Joe the rat by stepping on another floor plate lets George the cat into his compartment. Watch them push those food buttons. [music] See, it's easy. Dr. Sai believes that if these natural enemies can work together, then people should be able to cooperate [music] even better. And these happy cats and rats really prove his point. It's Tennessee in the mammoth city built by the government to produce the atomic bomb. American scientists are now working also to use atomic byproducts for medical purposes. The laboratories are still guarded against intruders. Inside, behind protective walls, technicians use wheels and dials to handle radioactive iodine, an important locator of cancerous tissues. Even the camera has to peer through telescopes at the dangerous atomic byproducts. [music] >> [music] >> A selection of a few drops of precious radioactive iodine is picked up by remote control and transferred to a shipping bottle. Intricate machinery will now carry the bottle down a leadlined corridor to the packaging room for shipment to a research center. [music] >> [music] [music] >> A specially designed heavy lead shipping case is used. The case is checked with a geer counter to make sure that no dangerous atomic rays can escape. [music] The case is weighed and a final warning is pasted on it. [bell] [music] At a medical research center, the death dealing iodine will be used to prolong life. [music] Because iodines find their way to thyroid cancer tissues, radioactive iodines can be used to locate such areas. The patient drinks a highly diluted solution of the radioactive [music] iodine, which gradually becomes concentrated in the cancerous tissue. A geer counter reveals the location, increasing the chances of effective treatment. >> [music] [bell] >> Explosions rock Sicil's mighty Mount Edna, shooting flames high into the air and spewing forth a burning stream of lava. The villagers living on its heaving slopes watch the boiling river of molten rock move toward their homes. The volcano erupts periodically every 6 years, but the present explosion is the worst since the 1920s. Terrified peasants gather together their belongings and flee. [music] The on-rushing stream of lava is 20 ft deep and almost half a mile wide. A religious procession from one of the villages in the Lavis path goes forth to pray for deliverance, hoping that divine intervention will save them from [music] the angry mountain. [music] Overlooking the city of Washington is the legislative center of American life, the US capital. As our country faces important challenges at home and abroad, the new 82nd Congress convenes. It shows many changes among both Republicans and Democrats. New faces include Democratic Senators Clements of Kentucky, Smith of North Carolina, Hennings of Missouri, Pastori Rhode Island, Monron Oklahoma, Smathers of Florida, Senator Russell Long of Louisiana, and veteran Tom Connelly of Texas Senate Foreign Relations Chairman. Ernest W. McFarland of Arizona is the new Senate Majority Leader. Senator Lyndon Johnson of Texas is Senate Whip. House leaders are Majority Leader McCormack of Massachusetts, Speaker Raburn of Texas, and Jay Percy Priest of Tennessee, House Whip. New Republican senators are Carlson of Kansas, Dirkson of Illinois, and Butler of Maryland. [music] Carlson, 12 years a representative, now a freshman senator. Former Congressman Dirkson [music] defeated Senate Majority Leader Lucas. Butler upset veteran Millard Tidings. Top Republican senators Milikin of Colorado, Taft of Ohio, and Wary of Nebraska now lead a party which has cut the Democratic Senate majority to only two votes. The workshop of these men, the Capital Building, has since [music] Washington laid the cornerstone in 1793, been continually rebuilt and repaired to meet the needs of a growing democracy. Last year, Congress moved out for the latest repairs. The work is complete as the 82nd Congress convenes in 1951. Speaker of the House Sam Raburn and Republican House leader Joseph W. Martin open the new session. Raburn, whom fellow Congressman of both parties hold in highest esteem, takes office as speaker. Now in his 20th term in Congress, Mr. Raburn enters his sixth term as speaker of the house, breaking the record set in 1825 by Henry Clay. With the reinforced Republican minority changing the voting lineup, the House Chamber itself also has a new look. But the famous portrait of Washington and the Webster plaque, familiar to tourists, are still there. President Truman makes his first appearance in the completely refurbished chamber of the House. Before a joint session of Congress, he delivers his annual State of the Union address. The president asks for strength and unity at home and abroad as he speaks from the rebuilt stand. noticeably different from the great white marble rostrm from which he last addressed Congress. In its brave new surroundings, the 82nd Congress [music] buckles down to strengthen the nation under law for peace or war. [music] A traditional treat for the physics students at the University of Toronto is Professor John Satalie's annual lecture on the properties of liquid air. Professor Satalie, 70, head of the university's physics department, is near retirement. But his science circus, famed throughout Canada, is as exciting as ever. Here's the subject. Air turned into liquid at a 300 below zero temperature. That's mighty cool. But the good professor doesn't mind at all. He's been doing this sort of thing for a generation, and he's still at least as sprry as any of his pupils. [music] The demonstration begins innocently enough with the professor dropping a few odd objects, a banana, an egg, and so on into the super frigid liquid air. He prefers fresh eggs. Now, a couple of daffodils from the professor's garden, followed by a chunk of rubber tubing. Though the accent is on fun, there's a straightforward scientific reason for each move. This contraption is designed to show the pressure possibilities of liquid air. When the liquid air grows warmer and becomes a gas again, it expands rapidly. A fact which delights the professor and which he [music] doesn't want his class to forget. Now the liquid air is expanding and blowing up the balloon. Now let's see those daffodils. And here's the rubber tube. Shatters like glass. [music] Very interesting, professor. But what about that balloon? [music] When the professor turns to pyro technics, things really get wild. An open jar of liquid air gradually becomes almost pure oxygen and highly inflammable. >> [music] >> It's rugged playing Professor of Physics as John Satell plays it, but Toronto students generally remember what he's taught them. [music] What's this? A flying jeep? No, it's a submarine one. At Marineland, Florida, the Army's jack of all trades goes underwater and news magazine cameras go along with it. The Jeep's motor breathes through a snorkel snorter extension whose ingenious valve system keeps water out but lets air in and releases the exhaust. These tests have a practical purpose. All new Army Jeeps will have waterproof engines and ignition systems to run through water up to their windshields. Trucks too go underwater at nearby Rainbow [music] Springs, Florida. The new Army Ordinance Truck, the Rio Eager Beaver, takes to water like a duck. The driver breathes with an underwater lung. And the truck's motor, like the jeeps, uses the same snorkel snorter arrangement to keep going underwater. The 2 and 1/2 ton truck, officially called the M34, has been designed for heavy duty work, including submersion. It can stay underwater for as long as 4 hours with the motor running. It'll be especially useful in amphibious landings and river crossings, as in Korea. Oops. Where'd all that water come from? [music] Some railroads go from coast to coast, but this one, although it's in perfect operating order, never gets away from home. [music] It's the Union Connecting Railroad, probably the largest zero gauge model railroad in the world. The UCR is owned and operated by the New York Society of Model Engineers. The society includes doctors, lawyers, advertising men, almost everybody except railroad men. They've been working on this system for 25 years and they don't call it finished yet. [music] [music] It takes a 100 man hours of work for each foot of track. [music] The UCRR on a scale of a quarter of an inch to a foot duplicates actual railroad operations even to round tables and handcars. Part of our history and of our daily lives, railroading has a powerful lure for most Americans. [music] >> [music] >> In these unassuming buildings at Chalk River, set in a corner of the Ontario bush country, some of Canada's top scientists are bombarding the atom in a $5 million atomic pile, the most powerful of its kind in the world. Inside a huge concrete cylinder, billions of neutrons move at speeds up to 10,000 m/s, producing new materials that even now are radically changing the 20th century world. One such product is the Cobalt 60 isotope on which Chalk River administrator Dr. Da [music] Keys and his assistants are working. The Cobalt 60 isotope is an important factor in peacetime radiography for X-ray pictures and studies of the sun. And the Chalk River plant is the only one which can produce such cobalt. Much of this work of course is secret and cannot be photographed. Although the plant can be converted to war needs and has helped speed the Hbomb in American plants, [music] the Chalk River atomic pile is planned for peace, producing aids to agriculture, medicine, science, and industry. [music] Their [music] [music] significance almost forgotten in the memories of man are the mute, mysterious wrecks of past civilizations. This is Balbeck, a magnificent ruin in southern Syria, more than 20 centuries [music] ago, as important and sophisticated a metropolis as our New York and Paris today. The temples of Balbeck are a riddle to scholars from the modern mechanized world. Today, no one really knows what engineering techniques put these stately [music] buildings together. Some of their single blocks of stone weigh as much as 200 tons. Valbeck's origin is unknown. Bal, to whom the whole city was a monument, [music] was a mysterious deity of the near east associated with a son. The Bible [music] contains denunciations by Hebrew priests and prophets of the idolatry of Bal and his lesser gods. When the Romans conquered Syria, they took over Balbeck's gods, giving them Latin names and developing the great temples. Arabs, Egyptians, Crusaders, Mongols, and Turks besieged and paged the city. Its temples became Christian, Mohamadan, then pagan again. [music] Finally ravaged by an earthquake, Balbeck was abandoned. Its remaining inhabitants, having long forgotten the skills of their ancestors, moved into mud huts, leaving Balbeck her gold and jewels looted, her altars shattered to stand solitary and flororn, her crumbling magnificence, an object of wonder and mystery to the traveler and [music] the scholar. >> [music] >> At Climax, Colorado is the world's highest observatory. Here, 11,000 ft above sea level, Dr. Walter Orur Roberts and Mrs. Roberts ski to their unique job of probing the cosmic unknown. In this Harvard College Observatory, Dr. Roberts studies the sun's surface with the aid of a coronagraph, one of three in the world. The coronagraph [music] by imitating an eclipse of the sun makes visible the sun's edges normally unobservable. Through its use the quality of radio reception [music] greatly affected by sun disturbances can be forecast. Amazing motion pictures photographed through the coronagraph by the Mcmath Halbert process show the violent motion of tremendous solar upheavalss called prominences. Crimson hued clouds of gas rise to a height of a 100,000 miles. [music] With the face of the sun blocked out by the coronagraph, tremendous erupting arches are clearly seen. [music] Scientists work to unravel the mystery of the sun and its influence upon the lives of us all. [music] [music] At White Sands, New Mexico, special movie cameras are fitted on the side of a rocket as Army and civilian scientists [music] photograph the Earth from the highest altitudes ever attempted. These amazing pictures of the Earth are taken as the rocket shoots upward at 4,000 mph with unbelievable smoothness. At 75 mi, the camera can see a million square miles of the Earth's surface. The river is the Rio Grand. El Paso lies by the bend in the center. At a record altitude of 135 miles, another camera shooting through a circular aperture shows 24 states at once. Its fuel exhausted and trailing smoke, the 5 and 1/2 ton rocket [music] begins a dizzily spinning spiral descent and the camera catches a weird panorama. Such experiments foreshadow new horizons of science, new modes of travel, new information about the stratosphere, and a new view of the world in which we live. [music]