El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-10-14

EROM small beginnings the Smith
SOnian institution has grown to De
= one of the mightiest Of the worlds
| activities in gathering and dissemin-
| ating beneficial knowledge Establis-
| ed through the half million dollar be-
| quest of James Smithson, it has served
to create and now leads the scientific
) thought Of the new world. 1t has
/ made American science respected in all
| parts of the world, Some OF the great
| est race benefitting inventions Of the
age may be traced to work done at the
J Smithsonian institution, and the foun-
dations of many sciences were laid
| there.
The First Telegraph.
Joseph Henry, the first secretary of
! the institution, constructed the worlds
! earliest electrical magnetic telegraph.
| Upon his theories were evolved the Bell
| telephone and the Morse telegraph. The
| first weather map published was issued
| by the institution, and the United
| States weather bureau. recognized ey-
| erywhere as the worlds leading organ
| ization of meteorological investiga-
| tions, had it's beginning in the activl-
| ties of the Smithsonian. The ground
work of the present science Of fish cul-
| ture was laid here. Spencer F. Baird,
| the second secretary of the institution,
began the experiments and investi-
| cations which have made the United
| States the foremost fish cu1turalist of
| the globe.
When Professor Langley built his
| celebrated aerodome and tried TO fly IL
| at Wide Water on the Potomac river,
! he was greatly ridiculed. AS a flyer
| the Langley machine was a failure, but
| the lessons learned through its con-
T., struction and operation have formed
| the basis of aeronautic science. Those
who were most skeptica1 of the Lang
! ley airship are now foremost in hon
| oring his memory as the father or
| aerial navigation.
Measuring the sun.
| Professor Langley made other valua-
! BILE contributions to general knowl-
| edge during his career as secretary OF
| the Smithsonian institution. He in
vented a little instrument which may
/ solve some of the most troublesome
| problems that confront the human race
This instrument is known as the bolo-
meter, and is so delicateIy constructed
! that 1t will register the hundredth- mill
| lionth part of a single degree OF tenn
| perature. spiders web, the gauZe OF
| a fly's wing, a mirror as small as
pinhead but as perfect as a $50, 900 re-
Hector. a thread of spun glass. are
some of the delicate Things which enter
| into it's construction Although the
| heat Of a star is no greater than that
| of candle a a distance of many miles.
| the bolometer vibrates markedly when
such a slight amount Of heat is thrown
/ upon it.
| This instrument is used in studying
| the constancy of the sun. 1t long has
| been recognized that weather seems to.
move in cycles The bolometer has dis
closed the fact that the heat from the
| sun shows marked variations. 1t was
| Professor Langley's theory that there
might be a relation between the vari-
atoms of the heat of the sun and the
1 changes of the weather. He bequeath-
ed his Investigations to Professor Alb
bott director of the astrophysical OBJ
| servatory, who now is engaged in
| fathoming the mysteries of solar radi-
| alton. 1t is thought that the lessons
he learned may yet enable scientists to
! forecast the weather as accurately as
| they forecast the eclipse of the sun or
| the coming Of a comet.
The advantages which would accrue
from an accurate forecast of the
weather are manifold. The farmer
| could know whether the season ahead
of him was TO be a wet one or dry
one, and could plant such crops as would
| be most advantageously grown under
| such conditions. The ship owner could
| know whether is was safe for his yes
| esls to leave port. the big conventions
! could be held on fair days, and in
thousand ways this knowledge could
! be used in the advancement of the well
| fare of mankind.
Preserving Indian Customs.
Through the bureau Of ethnolOgy the
| songs, customs and traditions of the
aboriginal American are being pre-
served. Handbooks dealing with in
! dian languages, indian arts and indian
/ habits are being published. Through
+, the national geological park there is
| being gathered together one of the fin
! est collections of wild animals in the
world From every continent and al
| most every country species that are
| rare and interesting have come to. en-
| rich the collections at the national zoo.
The Roosevelt African expedition gath
| cred many interesting specimens of
| birds and animals for this collection.
No finer museum for scientific re-
| search is to be found anywhere in the
world than the National museum,
| maintained under the jurisdiction of
J the Smithsonian institution. Here one
may see men and women from every
part Of the world engaged in studying
| the various collections. The division
of economic geology contains more than
a half million different exhibits, and
holds the worlds first rank among all
exhibits of this kind. One may find
any sort of exhibit from a huge me-
teorite TO a few grains of sand. Its
collection of meteorites ranks next to
the one in Vienna Scientists are con-
tinually studying it in the hope of find
ing the source of their origin
One may see the skeleton of extinct
animals, so large that the elephant
looks small in comparison. He may
stand under the skeleton of a huge
whale more than a hundred feet long,
and look through a microscope at sea
shells so small that to the naked eye
they seem but specks of dust.
Human Progress.
No collection in the museum is more
interesting to the ordinary visitor than
the anthropo1ogical exhibit. Here one
may trace human progress from the
stone age existence of his antedilu
Wan ancestors to his own twentieth
century civilization Likewise he may
trace in other collections, the devel
opment of the arts and sciences. He
may follow ship building from the rude
followed out log to the perfected ocean
greyhound. He may trace the art of