AMERICA DAY BY DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 212, 6 September 1924, Page 15

AMERICA DAY BY DAY.

SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES, j KIDNEYS MADE FROM GLASS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SAX FRANCISCO, July 28. Much prominence has recently been afforded the frequent discoveries of American scientists, but probably one of the strangest- was that mentioned a few days ago at the Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, where it " was stated that German scientists are planning to use an artificial kidney invented by Dr. John J. Abel, of the famous John Hopkins Medical School of Baltimore. This curious prouuet of the genius of the Baltimore medico has been used to save life in cases of corrosive subUimate poisoning and other maladies where death is a consequence of over-: working the kidneys. Efforts to' use the artificial kidney fr- that manner have been made in Baltics Ire, but failed because Dr. Abel's work' on it was interrupted by the World War, and he could not make it available for use in his home city. i Physicians believe that through itmany lives which otherwise would he. sacrificed will be saved in the future, especially the lives of those who attempt suicide by taking bichloride of; mercury. The artificial kidney is said to make it possible to relieve the natural kidneys of all work for hours. The false kidney is a tube of glass and other matter which can be attached to the ■ arm or some part of the body. It is connected with an artery on one side and with a vein on the other, so that the blood flows throujli it. The impurities are filtered by means of the artificial kidney and are drawn from the false kidney while the real kidneys rest. . _." i It is now proposed to introduce the, artificial kidney into, the chemical fac-, tories in certain parts of Germany' where contact with highly poisonous compounds have-affected-the industrial workers there. Dust Injections for Asthma. A study of the queer forms of scusi-. tivity to which mortals are subject ispresented by the asthma and hay fever, clinic of St. Mark's Hospital, on the : East Side of New York, where analysis has been initiated. One New York, woman proceeds each, week to the' clinic at the hospital to .receive an injection of the dust from her own house. Tests have shown that she is sensitive only to jthis dust. -While 'much could be done to make her i home dust-proof, it would be impossible "to make it wholly sb,'and'"the only'way to relieve her from ,asthma is to desensitise her to the dust by injecting it into her body to such an extent that eventually she will become immune to -it. " , ' A little girl attends St. Mark's each week to .eeeive injections of a solution or rat)bit hair. The physicians in charge of the asthma clinic state that the average housekeeper does iiot Tealise to what extent rabbit hair is used •as a filling for pillows. - Rabbits have become a pest m Australia, with the result that it has beetfnecessary to exterminate them in .great numbers. One of the New York hospital doctors added that their hair, was found to he good material for pillowfilling, and "since then much rabbit hair has been so used. Rabbit fur :is dyed in imitation of other fur and largely ■used for neckpiecss to-day in "America. Thus many persons come in contact with it." ' ' ■ Women will appreciate another medical statement in the following words: "Many persons are sensitive to mice. A. house does not -have to. be'overrunning with mice for a person sensitive to them to have an attack of asthma. Many are so acutely- sensitivethat the meerestr whiff of an object may make them ill. Just on the face of-it it seems somewhat revolting to submit to an injection of an extract of mouse .hair, but no asthma sufferer sensitive to mice hesitates for a moment to receive such an injection." . . ' Resembles Movie -Thriller. Two ajien smugglers t were , rescued from their disabled boat in the rapids a few hundred yards above the American falls at Niagara late at night in a rum ■ smuggling -episode when' immigration; men and city policemen braved the upper rapids in a motor boat. One of the smugglers later found himself in a hospital with a bullet wound in Ms leg, and the other man was placed under arrest. The wounded man was shot while trying to escape from the immigration inspectors. . .- The rescue of the smugglers in their boat contained all the elements of a movie thriller. The story, began, with, a night watch by Immigration .Inspectors Frank Stutzman and Guy Garchwjler, at the mouth of Gill Creek on the upper river. A boat appeared out of the darkness and landed near where the inspectors Avere hidden. Three men jumped out and the craft was quietly pushed out into the stream for the return trip to Canada. Just as the three were about to disappear the immigration men jumpedfrom their hiding arrested the Canadians, and ordered the' smugglers to stop their boat. Several shots were fired and one of the aliens, an Irishman, escaped. ' . In the. excitement the launch grounded on the rocks and lost its propeller. Then the boat was released,'and it was riot until it was caught in the swift current that the smugglers realised that they were riding .toward death in a disabled craft. There were shouts for help from the men in the boat. When Stutzman and Garchwiler realised the plight of the smugglers they ran to their automobile with the two prisoners. Walter WJ* Steams, immigration inspector, who waswaiting in the car, started towards the. falls, sounding the alarm. Steams and the policemen saw the smugglers' boat from the pier at Port Day, and they got their boat out into the river just as the disabled craft drifted by. While, they were making .fast a. Kne to the smugglers' boat, bbth-.floated into the grip of the upper rapids. Daredevil Stunt Bobby Leach, the veteran swimmer of the United States, has come to the fore once more from his obscurity, with th* announcemenj s>.t the age of sixty-five,' that he will essay his second trip" over Niagara Falls, and at the time of writing he was.secretly guarded, jn shackle bari.in the vicinity of the Falls,' planning"'to\make the adventure •in'anf immense rubber ball. Though several have tried and failed, Leach is one of the only two persons who have ever gone over the Falls and ! have survived the ordeal. The other j was, Mrs.. Anna E. Taylor,, who accom-.l plisSfed the -feat ;in a 'steels birreU'ih 1 1905. She died a few years ago. |

Tlie rubber ball on ■which. Leach] risked his life against 50,000 dollars for motion picture rights, was shaped exactly like a Rugby football. It measured seven, feet four- inches from end to end and had a width of four feet i at the centre. It was made of the i material that balloon tyres are constructed for the latest type of automobile wheels. The.rubber ball cost the i adventurous swimmer 3400 dollars and weighed without passenger some 28-1 pounds. i In'the interior was a compact, oblong space, just large enough to accommodate a man of Leach's diminutive proportions. In this ball Leach' arranged to repose, on a hammock suspended at each end by swivel fixtures in order that gravitation might keep him right aide up, irrespective of the t'wistings and turnings of the ball in its mad flight over the swirling rapids. Air compartments were formed at each end of the ball, and, like the familiar football, it was laced up from the outside. I - At the end of the ball was a big ring attached to the.bottom of an aeroplane by a rope on the day of his ad\-entur-ous journey. A cutter, operated from the pilot's seat by a lever, it was arranged, would release the ball at the correct place. Leach arranged for the airmen to drop him in the rapids near the Toronto Power House, and he declared that once he entered the water he would have sufficient air in the ball to last him for an hour. If not picked up in 12 minutes he expected to lose his life in the venture. Leach, who made his first successful attempt over the Falls on July 25, 1911, escaped narrowly, suffering gerious punishment,- which included a .broken jaw and both kneecaps crushed. He was in the hospital for 23 weeks after that. Another of his daredevil stunts was a parachute descent from a balloon from ' an altitude of 12,000 feet, or over two miles; a dive from the steel arch bridge into the river below the Falls, a distance of' 208" feet, the highest dive in the world, and a shoot through the rapids, he being the only roan to perform such a miracle and live after the hazardous task. 'Ford's New Peace Formula. Henry Ford, who sailed-hopefully for Europe during the Great War on his famous but futile mission of "getting the boys out of the trenches by Christmas," now has a new peace formula. He would have the United States prevent war by arming herself in greater strength than the world has ever known. Ford's latest views on war were revealed in an interview with Samuel Crowther, and -published in "Collier's Weekly' in New York. Whereas in the old days, the automobile manufacturer believed in peace, by mortality alone, he believes now. that the wars can be ended by Uncle Sam -wielding the big stick and developing.Muscle Shoals, a huge piece of property which he has been vainly endeavouring.to secure and exploit for the last few years. The potential nitrate production -of Jfuscje Shoals, Ford declares in the interview, will • make the United States independent of Chilean nitrate. This would enable America to manufacture high explosives on a colossal scale, undreamed of by'munitioris manufacturers, and thus "develop war power beyond, anything- that has ever been known." "In the interests of peace," Ford added, "it seems-lhat we shall have--to .do it." _ ,v. In view of-Ms' record in automobile production,,. special interest has been attached to" Ford's , prediction that commercial aeroplanes eventually will be built "by-the thousands or by the million.s." . Ford believes aeroplanes can he developed .for .commercial purposes "as 1 soon-as- they c are taken up commercially." Ground at the Dearborn plant has been given' over to an aviation field and Ford predicts that "as soon as we know as much about aeroplanes as we do about automobiles—and that will not be long—fhen they can be built by the thousands or. by the millions." ' ■ ~ - : Kuri, "Emir" -in Gaol. The royal ribs of the "Emir of Kurdistan," accustomed to robes of the finest ermine, if one can take his word for it, were cloaked by only an undershirt while he was incarcerated in a Washington gaol. In "the lattice room" of his summer palace—a cell in" the thir,d precinct police station—the "Emir" told interviewers how. the. United States would have to apologise for arresting him and causing him to he suspected of being Jay Bonzou, Chicago book agent and London., ■ ' Besides his throne on a gaol cell cot, the "emperor" stacked his straw hat, his stiff bosomed shirt, wing collar and tie, the better to keep them clean for occasions of state. '"There is a misunderstanding," said the "prince." "It is only a matter, of hours before the officials learn that they had no right to arrest mc." The U.S. Department of Labour, headed by - James Davis, a Welshman, caused his arres.t, contending that he had entered the United States without permission. ''My passport was properly made out and signed," said his royal highness. "It was a diplomatic pass- ! port signed by one of your ministers to Europe." The potentate said that everyone had the wrong impression of him since he arrived on the s.s. Homeric. Among these impressions, said the '"emir," was that he had a harem. . "Of course," he conceded, "we have ladies at the court. But, harems! No! Why I married an American girl. Kathryn Spigli, of Lexington, Kentucky. She is vow in New York awaiting mc." •Asketl what was his purpose in coming to America, the "Emir" said it was to promote good feeling between the United States and his own kingdom, which the U.S. State Department contended'no longer existed. Besides, he added, he knew the United States to be .a progressive country and he wished to ; study its methods for importation into Kurdistan. Thus far. he . has been j unablo ; to study little besides the gaols, I wluch have proved entirely too progressive for him. America's Latest Church. Further construction details of the 4,000,000 dollar Broadway Temple projected for erection between 173 r- and ITitli."Streets "in New York," have . just been announced by Doan Barber, architect, who is planning the "skyscraper church." ; Above the sub-basement will be an I assembly hall and gymnasium seating 800.persons/and provided, with a bal-cony;-motion picture-booth and a stage. Behind the stage is planned a swimming i pool, locker, and shower rooms, cafeteria and kitchens,, with a removable partition that will permit use of the assembly hall as a gallery for aquatic events. The auditorium, in the form of a cross, ' accommodating 2200 persons, j will be located just above the street level. Above the offices will be donni- . apartments....'Pie .tower_-yrlll : be'sunnbuntjai- by-'an electric-revolving i cross.