MODERN WONDERS OF THE WORLD.

Cue (NZERS), Issue 14, 31 December 1944, Page 5

MODERN WONDERS OF THE WORLD.

THE Colossus of Rhodes; the Mausoleum, the Pyramids, the Pharos of Alexandria, the Statue of "Jupiter at Athens, the Temple of Diana, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon these are the accepted Seven Ancient Wonders of the World, as compiled by Herodotus. There have been later ’’wonders” listed from time to time, and one septet included the Pink and White Terraces of New Zealand.

What are the wonders of the world as we know it to-day? Herodotus compiled, his list largely from great architectural masterpieces completed before 24.7 b.c. The list of modern wonders given below pays tribute to the contributions of science to our present day way of life.

. , The Thermionic Valve. Perhaps the greatest single invention of this, age. •Without it; no radio, .talkies, overseas telephone, a much inferior trunk-line service, no radio location, no direction-

beams, -no television, no electronic microscopes, no electrical recordings, no well YOU fill in the rest.

The Petrol Motor in to-day’s aircraft engines, the pinnacle of achievement 'in power-for-weight, 2,000 h.p. within the compass of a few cubic feet! Without it; no aviationor not as we know it.

Automatic. Telephony the uncanny intricacy of countless relays, handling calls tirelessly in a volume and at a speed impossible for human operators. It does not get tired, rarely makes a mistakeand never talks back.

The "Miracle” Drugs — sulphanilamide, sulphaguanadine, sulphathiazole etc., and penicillin. Their peculiar I powers of germ-destruction and killing of infection have brought back to life thousands dying of pneumonia, meningitis, infected wounds and other diseases. ' ' ’■ x Plastics — or rather, the increase in their number and myriad uses. Lighter and stronger than most metals, non-

corrosive, some of them are transparent and nearly all excellent non-conductors. Most may be moulded, pressed, worked into any shape for almost any conceivable use. • . ~

5 The Animated Cartoon — a world of fantasy brought to life" Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is , an

outstanding example. They also make possible an entirely new field of visual instruction in things which cannot be photographed in motion, nor portrayed adequately otherwise.

-Natural Colour Photography/ . Probably the most notable example of natural colour photography is Technicolour. No other motion-picture colour process can approach it lor fidelity. The best examples of technicolour,

where it is used with restraint, show that it has no technical inadequacy. Colour photography in its simpler forms with the "still” camera is no less wonderful, preserving as it does lasting, natural pictures as they appear to the eye. - -