Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-10-10
PIGEON WHISTLES
PLANNED BY ARMY
Ancient Chinese Device Being
Tried Out to Protect
Birds.

Whistles for pigeons is an ancient
Chinese device which the United States
Army plans to try out.
In fastening whistles to tail feathers
of messenger pigeons the Army hopes
to brighten off hawks. Bamboo pigeons
pipes have long been used in China to
protect the birds.
Western civilization never ceases to
learn from China.
Every year brings to the United
States some marvel from the treasure
chest of China'S ancient civilization. -
says a bulletin from the Washington,
D. c. headquarters of the National
Geographic Society.
Cabbage and Cotton.
"This year pc tsia, or Chinese cab
bage, has invaded even the chain
grocery stores of some American cities
and the big, red Crinese persimmons
decorate the vegetable stalls This
year new salves and ointments bloom
on drug store shelves as palliatives for
hay fever sufferers, and their essential
element is ma huang, a drug used for
centuries in the Far East. Ma huang.
or medicinal grass, grows wild in north
China and the exports of it to the
United States have Sprun from nothing
to $4,000 pounds in 1927.
China has also helped American cot
ton growers to determine fertile from
infertile seeds, according to a recent
recommendation of the Department of
Agriculture, which approves the ORR
entail practice of placing cotton seeds
in water and planting only those which
sink.
"Mah-jongg, the Chinese game, has
come and almost gone again, but tung
oil, the preservative which has protect
ed Chinese junks for agesNand makes
possible the tremendous Chinese house.
boat population, now comes into this
country at the rate of a hundred mil
lion pounds annually valued at APP
proximately $10,000,000. So important
has tung oil become to American in
dustry that the Department of Com
merce has arranged for monthly
cable report of prices at Hankow.
Probable Chinese Firsts.
Nearly every one knows the more
Famous discoveries like gunpoWder and
printing Other Chinese 'firSts' some
times escape attention Among them
are India ink treally China ink domi
noes, silk, tea, playing cards, dice, en-
cyclopediaS, chess, dictionaries, movable
type, porcelain, rag. wood and rice paper,
stone engravings. certain lacquers, arti-
fetal pearls, goldfish, stitched books, Chi
nese lanterns, jade mines, Pekingese dogs,
chow dogs, water tight compartments for
ships, peaches, f1recrackers, peonies and
seismographS, not to mention soy sauce
and bean sprouts, and probably spinach,
onions, cabbage, green peas, cucumbers,
caulif1ower and eggpant. In some cases
the ultimate ancestry of these products
and devices is obscure, though Europe
first learned of them from China
THE writings of Shen Kua mention
the magnetic needle in the eleventh CEN
fury AID, long before Western civiliza-
ton discovered it to be the key to navi-
cation. The same author gives the earli-
est description of printing with movable
type. There is also good evidence that
one Ts'ai Lun first made rag paper in
los AID, while the first recipe for true
lampblack ink appears in a document
dated $40 AID.
THE Picking Gazette, which ceased
publication in 1900, had been issued
daily since about TIA AID, and thus
was one of the oldest of newspapers. al
though in the style of a government bull
ietin. Some Chinese claim that their
nation had the first we'll developed
postal system and the first air mail. In
support of the latter tradition the Chi