Evening star., 1933-01-15

OMANCERS of the Verne-Wells school,
as well as oader-fashioned tellers OF
- fairy tales, have always delighted IN
X occasional excursions into the world
of the very small, showing us through
the eyes of Hop-o my Thumb or
Gulliyer the astonishing aspect of things wnen
their scale of size Is changed. 1t IS real ao-
venture undoubtedly, SO see a Wine cask no
bigger than wine glass, or in another imael-
nary land to drive mouse as you would
horse.
But not even Wells, most modern of these
literary discoverers of wonderlands, has ever
taken us on as exciting voyage as he couio
If he only would.
Imagination would not be necessary at ALL
one would only need to take for granted eyes
gifted with microscopic vision, and then dive
into the first inch of water in the nearest brook
or garden pond.
In those clear or greenish depths is world
of plants and animals more fantastic, more
fascinating often more ferocious, than you Will
fnd in the jungles of the Amazon or the Niger
or the Irrawaddy.
Here you will find animals rooted like plants;
plants that snatch their prey like animals.
You will see Edens of AdamleSs Ewes; strange
little female animals that have no males among
them. yet spawn forth countless swarms OF
young You will see other little animals that
have no sex at all, whirling down the currents
like living stars or jewels in their unimaginahle
delicacy of lacy structure.
You can see all these things through micro
scope, as scientists and laymen have been
seeing them for many years. But the way into
this Lilliputia Of the waters is being made even
more easy for you, through the amaAAg arts
try in glass of worker at the American Mu-
scum of Natural History in New York.
This man, Herman o. Mueller, RS been
hailed as "the most skillful glassblower I'M the
world" He was once glassblower for Tiffnys.
as was also his father before him, but the
wisdom Of the American Museums administra-
tive officers brought about his capture from
the service of few wealthy patrons and dedi-
Gated his unique talents to the more demo-
cratic service Of the museum-visiting public.
Some recollection Of his apprenticeship IN the
jewelry profession fingers In Mr.. Muealer's
models Of individual specimens Of the deep-sea
protozoa known as radiolarians.
These tiny animals only one cell In size, belle
the adjective primitive" often applied to them:
they are highly complex in spite of their uni
cellular structure, and In their complexity they
attain beauty Of design that not even the
sophisticated artists Of Renaissance Venice ever
dreamed of.
They are veritable swimming jewels, and
platinum jewelry designers knew about them
and had the skill to initiate their intricate
patterns.
Mr.. Mueller, at least, can reproduce these
patterns, and In medium which most crafts
men find much harder to handle than the pre-
cious metals. But in his hands, glass, the brit
tie and refractory. becomes plastic and obe-
dent.
He has only two principal tools-f1ame, as
yYror1 I1ota xuffh and nuyY1
breath. With these, and few odd sticks and
rods, he treats glass as though it were wax
He cuts and trims 1t, bending and molding
1t, drawing out points to threadlike fneness or
blowing up globose bubbles welding together
pieces of diverse colors to give the soft green
of plants, the brilliant patterns Of some of the
little animalcules whose bodies he renders
faithfully in all details but enlarged thousands
OF times so that our not-so-very-sharp eyes can
see and study them.
In doing this work he uses as models pref
erably the living things whose portraits he is
molding in glass. He has them individually
hinder the microscope, and looks at them from
Sme to time as he manipulates his glass.
COMETTMES he cannot get the fresh mate
- rial and must work from the drawings In
scientific monographs as portrait painter
must sometimes work from photographs Of
person long since dead. This was the case
with the radiolarians, which live in the depths
of the ocean, and some Of them in remote parts
of the world
These radiolarians are sometimes known as
"wheel animalcules" because most OF them
build many-pointed spiky skeletons out Of silica.
They are not really wheels. however, but
spheres.
But the foreshortened view one gets Of them
from one side makes them look like many
spoked little wheels, as they 20 rolling over snq