OUR BRIGHTER LIVES

Hawera Star, Volume L, 14 February 1931, Page 16

OUR BRIGHTER LIVES

JN this fascinating new series], commencing this morning, I am going to do mv utmost to show what an important part science plays in our everyday fives and how grateful we should be for the many wonderful inventions which surround us on all sides, writes Maurice Lane Noreottc in the “Daily Mail.”

For example, take that small electrical device called “Bell for Lift,” which we press each morning on the Underground Railway. How many of us have the faintest idea how that works? What actually occurs when we press it, and press it, and press it, and in what manner, if any, may it be said to be superior to shouting?

Well, I will tell you. It is less vul gar than shouting and far more scien tific.

The truth is, when we press this small electrical device called “Bell for Lift,” we arc doing a very refined and intricate thing. Wo are setting a whole lot of electrons in motion that until then had been static. And when I say “static” I .mean “static.” At. least I think I mean “static.” Anyway, they had been pretty idle until we came fussing along. However, with the pressure of a Anger we soon alter all that. Whereupon, with one accord, these electrons hurry below and with great molecular force ring a bell which would certainly attract the attention of the lift attendant if only he were there to hear it.

Unfortunately, he is not there to- hear iv. He is right at the other end of the passage, discussing a matter of fife and death, with a ticket inspector whom, for

What Science Does for Us

the iim« being-, wc will call Football Fan No. 1, although, of course, that is not his real name.

“You know, Football Fan Ho. 1," he is .saving miserably, “whichever way i look at it Chelsea are a great disappointment to me again this year—a very, very great disappointment indeed."

“Too, too true, alas,’ ' replies the inspector despondingly, and with a gesture of despair he holds out his clippers for the passengers to thrust their tickets into in passing. “Beally, our team’s inability to score frankly appals me."

“They should buy some brand new forwards!" says the other fervently. “Some—some really expensive ones!" “Like Jackson!" adds the inspector in a stifled voice. “Only thus, I opine, will our beloved Chelsea come into their own again!"

These two then shake hands in a friendly way, and this busy lift attendant hurries through a door labelled “Staff Only, " and is lost to sight, maybe for ever.

Meanwhile, those little friends of man, the- electrons, have been ceaselessly working at high pressure in that electrical devicx called “Bell for Lift," until at last we realise tha’r through no fault of their own they are powerless to assist us. whereupon we reluctantly leave them to become static again and hasten away to our train on foot.

You see? Thus does science help us to travel quickly from place to place, aided only by human intelligence and some useful emergency staircases.