Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-30
IMPROVED RADIO
RECEPT|ON|N SIGHT
Sun Spots Which Interfere
With Broadcasting Are
Fading, Savants Say.

By the Associated Press.
DIES MONIES, Iowa, December 3d.
Improving radio reception for several
years, except for Q brief period about q
year hence, was forecast at the Ameri-
can Association for the Advancement
Of Science convention today by Harlan
T. Stetson of Ohio Wesleyan University
Stetson based his prediction on what
he described remarkable fulflllment"
OF a forecast to the effect Of sun spots
upon radio that, he and DR.. Greenleaf
w. Pickard ''ventured" before the aSso-
citation year ago. This was that there
g7ould be an increase in the number of
sun spots this Fall, interfering with the
broadcast band that the radio used for
programs. That, he said, was just what
happened this Fall, in october and No.
Vennber.
Eleven Year Peak Over.
Now, he said, he has additional evi-
dence that the number of spots rises
and falls each IS months. while making
big rise and fall each IL years, cir
Gle within q circle. The big 11-year
peak is over.
"Forecasting on the basis of the IS
month cycle" he said, the year 1880
should show a general decrease in the
4uA4bC1 VI 0u1I SPObo AS Tic year WAKES,
with corresponding increase in radio
signal strength In the broadcast zone.
By the end Of 1880 and the beginning
Of 1891 the general rise Of secondary
sunSpotS maximum should be evident.
By 1891. however, 1t is believed we shall
be 50 far from the maximum 11-year
period that the secondary period will
have no such effect on radio reception
as we had in 1928 and 1922"
Favors Weather Forecast.
Still another hope for better radio
was explained by Comdr. Heck of the
United States Coast and Geodetic Sur
vey. This Is in the serious considera-
ton being given to a proposition to
broadcast daily with the weather re-
ports" certain information about mag
netic conditions to aid radio operators
and radio transmission studies.
The information concerns, for one
thing, the peculiar layer Of atmosphere
many miles aloft that is chemically
changed by the suns rays and named
the Kennedy eaviside layer. It is be-
lieved to reflect radio waves back earth
ward and to account for contain blind
spots in reception.
Predictions that science will save the
world from war, its future inhabitants
from starvation and present civilization
| from Sensationalism were made in the
annual address of the incoming preSi-
dent, DR.. Robert A. Millikan, world
famous physicist, Of California Institute
OF Technology. He talked on alleged
sins OF science. To all charges, he said,
science replies very quietly:
Find out the facts; we have TO live
with them, anyway"
Denies War Charges.
One charge Is that science makes
war more deadly, more horrible, less
heroic. Answering, DIR. Millikan said
Primitive mans chief tools were
probably arrowheads and tomahawks
and his chief industry making and
I using them. When the age of bronze
replaced the Stone Age, q multitude OF
new peaceful arts were born.
These arts turned mems minds, en-
ergies and interests away from wal
toward peace. And this has been the
consequence Of practically every ad-
vance Of science since that time. ]
! think q survey will show conclusively
that every scientific advance fi1ds ter
times as many new, peaceful, construc-
tive uses as destructive ones.
I'm my. Judgment war is now ir
process of being abolished chiefly BY
this relentless advance of science, its
most powerful enemy. IL has existed
I IN spite OF religion, philosophy, the
golden rule-Simply because it has hac
survival value.
Disappear Like Dinosaur."
"It will disappear like the dinosaul
only when the conditions that have
given it survival value have disappeared
and those conditions are rapidly dis.
appearing now primarily because Of
changes in the world situation beine
brought about by the growth Of mod.
ern science"
Answering another alleged sin Of
causing labor to be defeated and
routinized," DR.. Millikan said even the
most "routinized'' labor today has "fal
shorter hours than the dumb agricul.
tural drudge who 1oed potatoes for IL
hours a day through all the history Of
the world before the machine age ap-
peared.
Locked at in the large, do moi
think there can be the slightest ques-
ton that the only hope this world has
Of maintaining in the future suitable
balance between population and fooc
supply is found in science. That. ir
the last analysis, Is mankind's sreatset
problem"
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