1971
How Locusts Management Yaw
“Like an airplane, an insect can roll about its longitudinal axis, pitch all around a horizontal axis or yaw all over a vertical axis. It appears that locusts have two diverse yaw-correcting tactics: (1) a speedy alter in wing twist, abdomen placement and leg posture managed by wind-sensitive hairs on the head, and (2) a slower, subtler movement of the similar standard character evoked by cervical receptors. It appears that the change in wind angle, indicating a yaw, is built-in somewhere in the locust’s central nervous system, and is followed by independent motor instructions to the wings, legs, abdomen and head.”
1921
Delicious Radio
“Two engineers recently executed experiments to establish the feasibility of reception of radio signals by the perception of taste. Electrodes were being put underneath the tongue to trigger a flavor feeling when a source of [electrical] opportunity was linked to them. Checks were made, making use of reduced-probable immediate existing and 60-cycle alternating existing, to ascertain the sum of electrical power and opportunity needed for style reception. The reception of actual indicators from an antenna was tried. It was observed not possible, [even with] four phases of amplification. The benefits suggest that while from an electrical standpoint it is possible to obtain radio signals by the sense of taste, it is a lot inferior to that of listening to, or even of sight.”
Orange Tree Never ever Quits
“An ever-bearing orange tree which citrus fruit growers think is destined to revolutionize the orange field has been learned by horticulturists in a little grove at Avon Park, Florida. To shield the specimen, its purchasers have placed all over it a hefty wire fence 20 ft in height and stationed guards day and night time. The tree has been in bearing continually eight several years, but right up until lately its existence was known only to the owner and several neighbors, who, in accordance to citrus professionals, did not understand its benefit but regarded it simply as a freak of nature. A syndicate has been formed to propagate the tree so that a huge amount of trees may perhaps be set out in groves in 1923.”
1871
Early Fake Leather
“Enameled fabric enters into several uses as a substitute for leather-based. Its most significant use is that of covering for carriage tops, for traveling luggage and trunks, and not not often is it worked up into rainproof coats and pants. The basis is cotton fabric, which is slowly passed by way of a machine’s iron cylinders. It first gets a coating of a black, disagreeable-seeking compound composed of oil, lampblack, resin and other components, boiled jointly until about the consistency of melted tar. Then the fabric is wound upon a huge picket frame that is passed into a heater to dry. It then is laid on prolonged tables, and personnel sprinkle with drinking water and rub with pumice stone, till the full surface area is built perfectly sleek. The fabric is comprehensively varnished, and once more handed as a result of the heater. It is now a piece of fabric with a thick, shining coat of black, incredibly considerably resembling patent leather.”
Miracles of Chloroform
“Chloroform is the most effective identified solvent for camphor, resins and sealing wax it also dissolves the vegetable alkaloids. As a solvent it will get rid of greasy spots from fabrics of all varieties, but its main use is as an anesthetic. There are a number of other volatile natural bodies which possess comparable properties, but none create the complete unconsciousness and muscular relaxation that adhere to the inhalation of chloroform.”