The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1911-11-28
SCIENCE MADE
EASY FOR ALL
SMITHSONIAN REPORT TREATS
OF THIRTY-FoUR SUBJECTS
OF WIDESPREAD IN
TEREST.

Washington. Nov. 2s.-The Smith
sonian report for the year 1910 has
Just been published. Besides the re-
port of the regents and the secretary
the volume contains. as usual, gen
eral appendix" consisting this year OF
thirty-four papers of popular interest
on various branches of science; also
biographs of number of prominent
scientific men who have recently dleu'
Some of the papers are original, whhe
others reprinted from foreign and
domestic scientific and technical perl
odicals All the articles are selected
with a view of furnishing the latest
accurate information on topics which
are believed to be of special interest
to the public.
Aviation Review.
A review of modern progress in avia-
ton is ably recorded by the late
eminent aeronautical authority. Oc-
tave Chanute. His paper covers the
principal advances made in aviation,
beginning with the experiments of HI
ram Maxim i'm 1894, and including
Iangleys own investigations, the work
of the Wrights, Dumont. de Lagrange
Farman, Bleriot, Bell, Curtiss and 9TH
ers. bringing the subject down TO the
close of the year Of 1909. Altogether 1t
is a most interesting review. illustrat-
ed with nineteen plates and several
text figures.
Reclamation of Lands.
+. II. Newell, director of the reclama-
ton service, sets forth the recent pro-
gress i'm the reclamation of the arid
lands i'm the western states The work
of reclamation includes all the west
ern states and territories, where nearly
ten thousand families are being sup
piled with water. Through this great
undertaking, the waste waters of the
west are being conserved, destructive
floods prevented, apparently valuelesS
lands converted into productive farms
land thousands of families settled IN
newly opened territory where they are
maintaining homes on reclaimed land
| Besides engineering, with its business
with many other subjects, such as thu
character of settlers, the size of farms
crops and the Individual project
(which together furnish water for abou
100000 acres, nearly one-half q
which is already settled.
Power from Mississippi.
A kindred topic is the great electri
= power plant at Keokuk, Ia, with 1t
; APIS foot concrete dam across the Mis-
: sissippi river between Keokuk, Iowa, an
Hamilton, III. This subject is treate'
: by Chester Clark in Q wel-ilustrate'
article entitled Electric Power fror
! the Mississippi River" The pape
! shows the development Of the larges
single hydro electric plan in exist
ence, through the construction of wha
= is undoubtedly the greatest bank-to
$ bank dam in the world.
Papers on Physics.
( Under the heading of physics, DIR.
= Thorne Baker has written an accoun
n of experiment and researches in In
f telegraphy of photographs, transmit
ted by both the wire and wireless sys
s tens; Jean Becquerel, professor of tn
6 museum of natural history of Pari
a has permitted the translation of hi
= valuable paper on Modern Ideas on th
= Constitution of Matter" comparing III
Z old theories of matter, with the newC
ones recently confirmed be expert
r, ments; and II. A. Millikan has abridg
n ed his treaties on The Isolation of a
Y, Ion" which deals with the exact meas
- urement of an elemental electric;
- charge and several analogous problem
J. on the testing of explosives, ID
i Charles If. Munroe, professor of chem
istry at George Washington universit
. and well known authority on e>
:. plosives, has written an interesting pa
:. per on the Modern Developments
:. Methods of Testing Explosives"
:. Charles G. Abbot, director Of II
:. astro- physical observatory of Il
:. article on the recently developed sui
:. ject of astro-physics, which is a stud
of celestial physics, but pertains prr
= cipally to the heat and other physics
lr properties of the sun. The paper T,
l. lates to the solar constant of radij
n ton" topic on which Mr. Abbot
lc well informed. having pursued Studio
i'm that direction for nearly sixtee
81 years, at the Smithsonian observatoI