Evening star., 1941-07-10
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
BY Thomas r. Henry.

A $4,000 platinum mink" coat may
shield the hare shoulders of some
American matron from the chill winds
| this winter.
1t is made from 80 pelts of an hitherto
unknown anlmal-the blond mink,
which appeared suddenly three years
ago in the herd of a Wisconsin fur
| farmer.
Just reported to the American Genetic
Society here, this is the most exciting
news in mammal genetics since 1899
when the Duchess of Windsor appeared
| at an American Legion ball in Paris
| attired in platinum fox" coat made
from the pelts of a silver fox mutation
which had appeared few years before
| in Norway.
The first platinum mink, according to
a report just published by the society,
was born in 1888 on the farm Of c.. H.
Whitaker at Union Grove, Wise. There
were two females in a litter of seven.
With the platinum fox case in mind, the
event was of such economic Importance
that it was reported to the Fish and Wild
Life Service of the United States De-
partment of the Interior. Nothing was
said about it, however, until it could be
demonstrated that 1t was an actual
''mutation'-th is, that the des-
cendants of these two would contain
certain proportion OF platinum colored
animals, even though the fathers were
ordinary mlnkS.
This, according to Sedgewick E. Smith
of the Department of Agriculture, has
proved to be the case. In succeeding
generations there has been ratio of
As platinums to so normals in the litters.
There have been enough platinumS to
spare to make up one fur coat. Eventu-
ally a race may be established all of
whose litters Will be blonds and the
present high values of the peltS will fall
somewhere close to those of ordinary
mink skins.
The wild mink, it is explained in the
report, has dark brown fur of various
shades, but with lighter brown under
fur. Ranch-raised minks have been
bred selectively to meet demands of
furriers for a chocolate brown outer fur
and blue-gray underfur.
It was as a result of such breeding that
the platinum animal appeared. The
same report tells of a race of silver
minks, with white hairs interspersed with
brown. which has appeared on an
Ontario fox farm, and of a different
kind of blond reported by a Geneva
IN. " fur farmer.
The platinum minks. according to the
report, are as vigorous, and apparently
as healthy, as ordinary minks Presum-
ably however, they would not be so
we'll fitted to survive in the wild. since
the mutation must have appeared in
the past and disappeared because the
new type of mink was at some sort of
disadvantage.
The appearance of these animals re-
calls the story. related by the Journal of
which was born in Northern Norway in
1888, of some animals brought from
Canada The Norwegian ranch was
owned by corporation which broke up
shortly after the birth of the mutant
animal The stock was distributed among
the owners. None of them would take
the platinum pup, supposedly worthless.
and it was purchased very cheaply by
another Norwegian fox farmer.
He found that it bred true and in
1888 placed the first platinum skins
on the market at public auction. To his
astonishment, they brought about 1000
each, compared to approximately s25 for
ordinary silver fox pelts. They were
practically unknown, however until the
Duchess of Windsor paraded her new
coat at the Paris ball.
Six pm, June a. 1888.
1t was a clear, sultry evening in Pitts
burgh Tired workers were sitting on
their front porches, listening to their
radios.
There was a long roll of thunder
Windows ratified momentarily. Some
said the ground seemed to shake.
Must have struck close some said,
thinking there had been lightning blast
although the sky was clear.
Something must have blown up near
here" said others.
They had just missed what might have
been the greatest catastrophe in Ameri-
can history, which would not have left
one stone in Pittsburgh on top of an
other
Somewhere nearby what remained of
500-ton meteor had hit the earth. Had
the path of the celestial visitor been
little different it might have struck the
center of the city with an explosive
energy of about 10000 tons of INT.
Few would have been left alive to tell
the story. The capacity for destruction
would have compared very favorably
with that of the shipload of TINT that
blew up in Halifax Harbor in 1917.
Such is the calculation of James r.
Randolph of the Smithsonian Institu-
ton, where are deposited the only two
fragments of this meteorite which have
been found to date
The meteor was observed by many
people. DR.. F. w. Preston of Butler,
Pa, has collected testimony from 40 of
them. Some were able to locate it in the
sky quite precisely and also to time
observations by the radio programs
which were on at the time 1t was pos
sible to check with the radio stations the
precise times of various recalled incidents
in the programs.
From descriptions it has been possible
to reconstruct tentatively the trajec-
tory. 1t is computed that the speed of