The Wilmington morning star., 1941-01-25
, Washington DaYbook
BY JACK STINNET1
Observation-Disclosures guide:

I once knew a lad who always described
as ''golly-whopping'' anything Of such magni-
tude that it made the eyes bulge. I'm sure
if he could come to Washington today and
see the Smithsonian Institutions new exhibit,
he would suck in a quick breath and say it
was 'the golly-whoppingest thing I ever saw"
For three months, behind locked doors, the
men and women of the Smithsonian labored
in the great exhibition hall. When the 'tclosed"
the Public the other day, they had completed
a task which probably will put the Smithsonian
on more visitors 'einust'' lists than it ever
has been.
Briefly, the exhibit is the story of life for
the last half-billion years and, just as a flip,
a ga1nce into the future. This peek at things
to come is proof positive that the men Of the
Smithsonian are far from unimaginative gray
boards. They may do a lot of porting over
crusted skulls and fossils, but they also have
a Wellesian flair that would put both H. G.
and Orson to shame.
Realistic Space Ship
They have cooked up a realistic space ship
which appears to be looming along some in
ter-planetary highway. AS the pilot looks back,
he can see the changing scene of the earth
as the continents and oceans revolve into tn
sulight. Before him, brightly lighted, is a
chart of his course. It is accurate to an inch.
Smithsonian mathematician spent days in the
realm of higher mathematics to produce it.
The pilot is receiving television reports. He
carries in his holster a deadly gas gun "to
repel attacks by space cruising bandits
Wont WE ever Get rid of thoSa fa11ou1S2l
The Smithsonian experts went the rocket ship
boys one better, for this one, I'm told, is
powered by oxygen bombs"
By a series of scale-model diaramas, the
Institution has traced the ascent of Man.
from his beginnings. These show early man
in his natural habitat, with the trees, grasses
and animals of prehistoric times. All has been
reconstructed on the latest scientific conclu-
sions, with every thing as accurate as it
possible credence, there are exhibits of pre-
historic skulls. The one of old Joe Cro-Magnon,
who seems to have died with a toothy grin
that the centuries haven't erased, should be
labeled: ITO be dreamed about only after
Welsh rarebit and hot mince pie.
Meteorite In Color
In the geological section, the exhibit has
what it refers to as it's great collection of
meteorites. Not being geological, I couldn't
get stirred up about these hunks of iron and
such that burned themselves out bombarding
their way through the earth's atmosphere. But
even this section is enlivened by a color
transparency" of a fiery meteorite plunging
along where only space ship p' DTS ought to
be. And here also are the worlds largest
topaz and some new minerals discovered in
the gold and silver mines of Mexico.
In its century of progress, the Smithsonian
has unearthed something like a 100, 900 new
plants and animals and the gentlemen there
know what they are drawing when they sketch
a tree of life like the one which is the center
OF the biological exhibit. Here also are some
OF the Institutions rare specimens, like the
fish that carries its eggs in it's mouth and
another that disproves that old one about 1.-The
fish out of water" by packing up frequently
and taking long junkets across dry land.
Old And New
The exhibit has plenty of first editions
in the machine age, too. These range from
a working model Of the Newcomer atmos-
pheric steam engine, the first steam engine
which, at two piston strokes a minute, was
pumping water out of a flooded coal mine
in England 200 years ago, to the solar cook
err in which its inventor canon a clear
day-dry an egg in a jiffy or bake a cake
in half an hour.
ALI in all. it's a pretty facinating exhibit
and the one place in Washington where you
can get away from war and politics. 3