Evening star., 1947-08-06
Picard Doesn Know
What He'll Find in
24-MiIe Dive in Sea
(Second in a Series.)
BY Prof. Aueuste Pieeord
tcepyright, 1e47. by North American
Newspaper Alliance. Incl

Copyright, 1e47. by North American
Newspaper Alliance. Inc.)
BRUSSELS. Aug. 6.-One question
has been asked us more than any
ether during the months and years
We have been preparing for our i'm
pending l2.000-foot sea dive: What
90 We expect to see down there at
the bottom?"
The answer is easy: If we knew
what we'd see, there d be no sense
in going down. 1t is precisely be-
cause we know so little of animal
life in the great ocean deeps that
curiosity leads us there.
The thing which distinguishes
men from beasts Is primarily in
telligence. Certainly without supe-
rior intelligence, man would be at
considerable disadvantage facing a
hostile. and savage nature. Mans
intelligence gave him mastery of
this planet.
But intelligence and invention
alone did not build modern civiliza-
ton. its great technical and indus
trial developments. Discovery-that
is observation of something which
thought alone could not anticipate
played its part too. Discovery is the
offspring of human curiosity.
Fire First Conquest.
Mans first conquest was fire. No
animai<to this day has used it; yet
even the most primitive men have
left traces showing that they used
fire. And the first man to see tree
struck by lightning, burning In the
forest, had only one thing to help
him overcome superstitious, ignorant
fear: Curiosity. AS fires pleasant
warmth died down, curiosity led to
another thought, another discovery:
let's add another tree to the dying
fame and see what happens.
Some hundreds Of thousands Of
years later, curiosity was again at
work. In Boulogne in the year 1888,
the wife of DR.. Luigi Galvani had q
sors throat. Her husband prescribed
frogs legs. But the doctor was at
that time experimenting with static
electricity-the only form of cleo
tricity then known. He produced
little sparks. DR.. Galvani noticed
casually that the sparks made the
frogs legs. nearby, jump. 1t was
curiosity that led the doctor to do
more than just notice the phenom-
enon and pass on. He wanted to
know why the frogs legs jumped
The idea of galvanic current was
the result of his inquiry. Count
Alessandro Volta seized upon 1t,
and invented electric batteries.
Hans Oerstedt Recalled.
In Copenhagen in 1919, curiosity
drove Hans Oerstedt to check the
action of galvanic current on a
compass, That led to the discovery
Of electromagnetism, one of the
bases OF our present industrial CIV
iliza ton. And it was the curiosity
Of Antoine Becouerel and of Marie
and Pierre Curie as to the sources
Of light given out by certain sub
stances which uncovered the secret
Of the composition Of the atom and
later helped split the atom.
Every part of the world Is known;
Africa is no longer dark, the polar
regions have become accessible.
Even the air is known and men have
risen above the limits of breathable
air. And as for the seas, men have
probed the greatest depths, studied
the seas in their various aspects
hut men themselves have always
stayed on the surface. Alone, Prof.
William Beebe has gone down 5000
feet into the sea. But that is less
than tenth of the great ocean
depths. And only by diving into
those regions where sunlight never
penetrates can man in fact conquer
them.
That Is why the Belgian National
Fund for Scientific Research is