SCIENCE OF THE DAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20426, 30 November 1929, Page 5 (Supplement)

SCIENCE OF THE DAY.

HOMES OF THE FUTURE. A full-sized model of a wholly new typo of house, " designed without regard to popular prejudices," was one of the novel features at the recent House and Building Exhibition in Copenhagen. The house is circular in form, with a flat prismatic glass roof. The entrance corridor .leads to a central hall, from which tho other rooms open, following the course of tho sun, according to the use for which the rooms are iiitended. On entering the corridor one steps on a perforated rubber mat, the p/essure starting an electrically operated vacuum underneath which removes dust from the boots. Here are some of the other novel features:—Beds, which aro supplied with rubber air mattresses, are let into alcoves, \and a radio apparatus is fitted into a niche beside each. In tho parlour is a glass-top table on steel legs, the top so adjusted that it will revolve and bring to hand anything lying on the opposite side. This room is equipped with magnavox and television apparatus. Alongside is a suction tube connected with the local post-office for reception and despatch of letters. A circular over-room in the centre of the roof, reached by an elevator, provides sleeping accommodation for the children, and gives them direct access to the roof games. On the top of this overroom there stands a helicopter, provided with suction feet to hold it fast in case of a storm. Antennae over the roof pick up electric energy transmitted wirelessly for the lighting and heating of the house, and all sorts of auxiliary services.

HOUSE BUILT OP NEWSPAPEKS. A house made of old newspapers stocked with furniture of the same material, is the result of eight years' patient work by Elis F. Stenman, of Pigeon Cove, Massachusetts. Impressed by tho wastefulness of large numbers of newspapers blowing about the streets, he began a series of experiments, which finally led him to the conclusion that the paper house was a possibility. Some 65,000 old daily news-

papers were used, he stated, besides several thousand photogravure sections, which form a deep coloured border around the top of the rooms. The walls are made of 215 thicknesses of newspapers pasted and folded, and subjected to a pressure of about two tons, the surface being strengthened with three coats of varnish. The roof shingles also are made of compressed papers. The house is entirely of paper except the floors, the rafters, the window and door sills. The furniture, made of newspapers largely in cylindrical form, is singularly perfect in construction, having somewhat the appearance of bamboo.

AGE OP CIVILISATION. Take a postage stamp and stick it on to a penny. Now climb Cleopatra's Needle and lay the penny flat, postage stamp uppermost, on top of the obelisk. The height of the whole structure may be taken to represent the time that has elapsed since the earth was born. On this scale, according to Sir James Jeans, the eminent mathematical astronomer, in his book, " The Universe Around Us," the thickness of the penny and postage stamp together represents the time that man had lived on the earth. The thickness of the stamp indicates the time he has been civilised, the thickness of the penny representing the time lie lived in an uncivilised state. He proceeds: Now stick another postage stamp on top of the first to represent the next 5000 years of civilisation, and keep sticking on postago stamps until you have a pilo as high as Mont Blanc . . . the first postage stamp represents what man has already achieved; the pile which out-tops Mont Blanc represents what he may achieve •if his future achievement is proportional to his time on earth. As inhabitants of the earth we are living at the very beginning of time. Wo have come into being in the fresh glory of the dawn, and a day of almost unthinkable length stretches before us, with unimaginable opportunities for accomplishment."