Evening star., 1941-07-31
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
Bu Thomas r. Henry.

By Thomas r. Henry.
There are 965 persons of royal blood
In Europe today.
Most of them are looking for jobs in
the badly depressed business of sitting
on thrones, but they furnish probably
the most remarkable records of physical
family survival in human annals, ac-
cording to a study reported to the Amer
| ican Genetic Association here by the late
Frederick Adams Woods, formerly pro-
| fessor of biology at the Massachusetts,
Institute of Technology.
The remarkable feature, it is pointed
out, is that any Bourbons, Hapsburgs and
Victims are left. They have all passed
down the family name unchanged in the
direct male line for a thousand years
Other royal families have been nearly
as successful and even in these days of
adversity are extremely prolific They
range in antiquity from the Bourbons,
who date from 1913 AID, to the relatively
recent Bonapartes and the Bernadottes
of Sweden.
But, it is explained, the tradition of
large families and an unusual ratio of
boys to girls persists in all of them.
Perhaps the most successful of all is
the Victim family. It's most prominent
living member is George VI of Great
Britain King Boris of Bulgaria and
former King Leopold of Belgium bear
the same name Other members of the
family are claimants to the thrones of
Portugal and the German states of SAKE
Weiner. SAKE Meiningen, SAKE Alten-
burg, SAKE Coburg ana Saxony.
They are all descendants in the male
line of robber baron named Thielmar
who in some way got control of the
County of Victim on the left bank of the
Saale River in Germany in 9l9. The
family succeeded to the British throne
through Albert of SAKE Coburg, the hus-
band of Queen Victoria There are 81
living members, most of them now out
of jobs
The Victims are in striking contrast
to the Guelph family, with only 10 liv-
ing members. The end of the line came
with Queen Victoria in England. The
survivors are claimants to the Prin-
cipality of Brunswick in Germany. The
name is threatened with extinction be-
cause the family has produced too many
girls. 1t is italian in origin, springing
originally from a certain Othbert, Mar
grave of Este, in the Province of Podna.
He took the name Guelph. however, from
his wife, Bavarian princess.
Actually. the male line of the Haps-
burgs is extinct although rs persons in
Europe bear the name, including the
Archduke Otto, claimant to the throne
of Austria The line ended, Mr.. Woods
points out, with the death of Queen
Maria Theresa of Austria in 1870. Her
husband, whose family name was Lor-
raine, legally adopted his wife's name
and passed it on to his descendants. The
Hapsburg family descended from a Count
of Altenburg in Switzerland, who died in
958. The Lorraine branch springs from
Richwln, Count of Verdun, who died
in 932.
Numerically, the largest royal family
Is that of the Bourbons. There are 181
of them All are descendants in the
direct line of Robert the Strong, Count
of Paris who died fighting the northern
ers in 8ee They include all the claim
ants of the thrones of France, Spain,
Sicily and the Carlist pretenders to the
Spanish throne.
"Of all families that have ever lived"
(the BourbonS in power and historic
importance"
A new aviation instrument by which
a pilot, flying in complete darkness, can
tell the nature of the country over which
| he is passing-if it is level plain, a city.
forest, smooth sea or stormy sea-has
been patented here this week
The invention-labeled "a radiant
energy distance measuring system'-is
credited to DR.. Russell c. Newhouse of
| Orange N. j., and is assigned to the Bell
Telephone Co.
The fact that it was published with
! the rest of the weeks patents indicates
that the Axis powers are known to have
| a similar DEVICE
The general method, described by DR..
Newhouse in his patent application, is
that of sending toward the surface un-
derneath the plane a radio wave of con-
tinuously changing frequency, receiving
reflections of this wave, and beating
| them with the wave instantly being radi-
ated" The time delay of the reflected
waves, relative to the instantly radiated
waves is directly proportional to the dis
tance to the rejecting surface.
If the plane is passing over smooth
surface, he says, the pilot will hear a
regular. pulsating beat. If the surface
is irregular, the beat will be irregular.
and will become more so the higher the
plane above the earth.
1t is not necessary to listen. The
beat" can be seen on device known
as the oscillograph, which can be kept
under the flyers eye.
1T has been found" DR.. Newhouse
says, that numerous general types OF
irregular rejecting surfaces may be dis
tinguished by peculiar characteristics of
the respective patterns obtained. For
example, smooth water or a smooth
landing field produces a pattern of
smooth and regular character. A water
surface with relatively regular waves pro-
duces pattern having somewhat SINH
| To- oIor nfe h,1t rnO1y1Qr f.