AMERICAN WONDERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 307, 28 December 1922, Page 3

AMERICAN WONDERS.

SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENTS. LOOKING THROUGH THE EARTH. IRRIGATING THE DESERTS. (From Oar Own CorreeponeenV SAN FRANXTISCO, November 21. Some striking scientific developments have been reported lately in New York and other United States cities, but undoubtedly one of the most alluring was that announced by Dr. Nicola Tosla, the eminent scientist, creator of numerous electrical systems and appliances nowused throughout the world, who stated that man will soon be able to look right through the earth. The renowned scientist stated that a New Yorker will be able to sit in his office and talk to his business associates in Australia or China, and as he converses he will observe the gestures, the facial play, of the man at the other end of a wireless telephone. "I have invented a machine," said Dr. Tesla, "fashioned after the human eye. which will perceive objects in their true shape irrespective of distance and intervening obstacles." He mentioned that George Bernard Shaw in his strange play of the future, "Back to Methuselah,' , pictures an eye machine similar to the one described, but Shaw saw it as a contribution to life in the dim future. Dr. Tesla sees it in use within a few years. Television is the word used to describe the new science, but it bears no relation to the transmitting of photographic impressions by wire or radio. Dr. Tesla said the first two stages in creating television were in the constructing of the mechanical eye and in supplying it with power. The electrical wizard told of another invention which, he asserted, will soon make it possible to create lakes and rivers in waste places and so irrigate the deserts of the earth. He declared that '"the soundness of the underlying principle of his rain-producing machine had been demonstrated and installations of the apparatus will assure the opening of millions of unused acres to agriculture. Not only will the soil be abundantly irrigated, but we shall have a virtually unlimited motive power at our disposal. This is not an idle dream, for I have already developed electrical apparatus with which I have demonstrated the soundness of the underlying principle. It is only necessary to make large installations on suitable points of the earth in order to realise the idea," Dr. Tesla said. LENGTHENING LIFE. Dr. Alexis Carrel, who attained considerable notoriety in the world war whilst with the American forces by reason of his discoveries of new painless surgery by new anaesthesia, has again come into the limelight by announcing in New York in an address before the National Academy of t-cienccs a discovery of the tissue-building activities of the white blood corpuscles, believed by scientists to point the way to the indefinite prolongation of human life. As might be expected, this announcement has caused a flutter throughout the UnitedjStatee as Dr. Carrel's statements were taken by many prominent scientists in his audience to indicate that the secret of longevity might be found through the discovery of a means of stimulating the activity of these corpuselee, which experiments had shown, he said, protected the body against infection and also stimulated the growth of new tissues and the regeneration of dormant cells. He told of his experiments with animals which had indicated that the white blood corpuscles stimulated the growth of new tissue by setting free growth activating substances in the tissues. He pointed out that in extreme old age new tissue grew to heal wounds and broken bones. Hideyo Noguehi, a Japanese scientist, also a member of the Rockefeller Institute, announced he had developed an anti-serum for Rocky Mountain spotted fever, which now has a mortality rate of 70 per cent in the rocky Mountain and Pacific States. He said his serum would prevent the disease if the victim were innoculated within four days after he contracted it. Human beings, he averred, caught the disease through the bite of the woodtick and usually did not know they had the fever until six days after they were bitten. PILOTLESS AEROPLANES. The United State 3 Government, and especially the Navy and Army Departments in Washington, have been following most closely the experiments being made in Great Britain and Germany with aeroplane development, notably in the gliding tests chronicled in the daily press, but American experts have been turning their attention to a pilotless army aeroplane, equipped with an automatic control device said to be more accurate and dependable than any human pilot. A statement issued in Washington says that this pilotless army aeroplane has beeu developed to a point where it has made successful flights of more than ninety miles. The army service air department, in making this interesting announcement, stated that the results produced after a long series of experiments constituted the "most important postwar development of the many novel ideas of new engines of war.' . It was added that Hie experiments had shown it to be possible to shoot '"bomb-laden planes, without pilots, at targets on or off the ground with astonishing accuracy. "In actual work with these automatic pilots," the announcement said, "hundreds of automatic takeoffs and a number of automatic flights of ninety miles and more have been made. This 'pilot , is capable of being mounted in any typp aeroplfne and in bumpy weather will hold a plane much steadier than a human pilot, and will carry it on an absolutely true course regardless of fog or adverse weather conditions." Air service officials characterised the invention "as the dream of engineers and inventors the world over ever since the solution of heavier than air flight which has been positively accomplished in the United States." RADIO MIKE RESCUE. The Bureau of Mines at Washingtor has announced that tests conducted at Bruceton in Pennsylvania indicate tin possibility of use of the wireless wave tc communicate with entombed miners. Tht successful working out of a practicablt method of communication would undoubt edly result in the saving of many lives following fires and explosions, experts considered. Many entrapped miners would havf been saved in previous disasters if the rescuers could have learned quickly the location of the men and the condition oi their imprisonment. Tests were conduc ted at the bureau experimental coal mint at Bruceton in co-operation with th< Westinghouse Electric and Manufact^/

ing Company's radio station at Pittsburgh. Preliminary Tesults indicated that electro-magnetic waves might be made to travel through solid strata, for in the Bruceton experiments signal:? were heard distinctly through fifty feet of coal strata. Mine telephones are already useful, but the system is usually .deranged by the force of explosion which traps the miners and therefore are seldom useful, I following disasters, it waa pointed out. It was found that with a receiving instrument set at a point 100 feet underground signals from the radio station mentioned could be heard at East Pittsburgh distinctly, this being a distance of eighteen miles. About fifty feet from the receiving station used in this test was a six-inch bore hole lined with iron pipe and conl taining electric wires which extended therefrom throughout the mine. The ! presence of these wires evidently assisted ■greatly in the reception, for when the ] receiving set was carried to another point in the mine removed from wires and tracks the signals were barclv audible through fifty feet. GROUND SIGNALS. The fact that signals w<Te. detected, however faintly, was sufficient evidence of transmission through tJie ground to encourage further experimentation, bureau officials reported. In sending waves underground a transmitter was used in such a manner as to send out continuous waves of 200 to 300 metres length. In all experiments the vortical antennae was found to give the better j results. Horizontals gave practically no reception. In regard to the widespread pastime of amateurs using radio telephony, Govlernment officials state that the first year of the craze has failed to show any diminution in the enthusiasm displayed throughout the United States. They c'stijmato the number of outfits now in use in America already past the million mark. There were but three licensed broadcasting stations in September, 1921, in the "whole United States. To-day there are 542. In addition to these, there are 15.1-27 amateurs on the job, equipped with "sending" outfits. California leads all the States in enthusiasm for radio. This State has 60 broadcasting stations against Ohio with 35. and New York ■ with 30. Nevada has but one—at Reno I —perhaps to broadcast latest news from ! the town's divorce mill, said one radio enthusiast jocularly.