Evening star., 1952-07-25
Cooled Countries Cut
Death Rates Sharply
Population Likely to Double
In Less Than Is Years
By Thomas R. Henry

By Thomas R. Henry
Cooled countries" have started to
uncoil.
They threaten increases in world pop
ulation such as hitherto have hardly
been maginable-through less dying
rather than more births.
This is the conclusion of DR.. Robert
c. Cook, just reported through the Pop
ulation Reference Bureau here.
Already. he points out, these "coiled
countries" are among the most thickly
populated in the world. But their present
populations may double in less than Is
years. The change had come about
through healthful measures carried out
since the war.
DR.. Cook cites Ceylon as an example.
All over this heavily-peopled island there
has been an intensive campaign to cut
down malaria through DDT spraying.
AS result, he points out:
"The death rate dropped one third in
one year-from 20 per 1000 in 1916
to IA in 1947 Since then this rate has
dropped to about IL. The birth rate
through this period has held constant
ural increase-eXceSs of births over
deaths-amounted to about % per 1000.
AT that rate numbers will double in 25
years."
600 Per Square Mile.
This means essentially, DR.. Cook says.
that Ceylon will have a population of
about 600 per square mile.
"Pn0nJo ora
continues, that population explosions
are caused by rocketing birth rates. Tbis
rarely has been true. Changes in death
rates. rather than birth rates, set the
tempo OF population growth. It took
about 70 years for the death rate of the
western world to drop as much as it did
In one year in Ceylon."
The country, he says, is fairly repre-
sentative OF the cooled countries" with
huge potentials for population increase.
Death rates are so high that life ex-
pectancy is only about 80 years. Birth
rates are near the liimt of human
fertility.
In the past, he says these high birth
rates and high death rates have balanced
each other.
At present, he says, Ceylon has less
than half acre of arabic land per per-
son anc when this is cut in half the
food problem will become virtually un-
solvable, regardless of expected improve
ments in agriculture. Yet, DR.. Cook
points out. Ceylon is only one of half
dozen or more "coiled countries" now
In the process Of uncoiling.
X
Robot weather stations scattered over
the seven seas now are practical.
First planned for the Navy during
the last war, these free-floating. buoy
supported automatons have been brought
to high degree of effectiveness by
United States Bureau of Standards
scientists. Such robot gives a fairly
complete weather report automatically
every three hours and requires no atten-
ton over long intervals. Self-contained
batteries provide sufficient power for
reliable operation at over-water distances
up to 400 miles.
The automaton devised by Drs. Per-
cival D. Lowell and William Hakkarinen
of the Bureau of Standards staff weighs
about 280 pounds, and is q feet in over
all length. 1t is attached to buoy Ave
feet long and 16 inches in diameter.
Ten-Minute Transmission.
Each transmission, according to the
bureau description, lasts ten minutes.
Five kinds of information are transmit
ted-air temperature, water tempera-
ture, air pressure, wind speed and wind
direction. The robot also identifies it
self. Its position already is known.
Differences in any of these conditions
are noted quite accurately.
The new automaton is in many ways,
an amplification of the radioSonde de-
veloped before the war for recording
conditions at great attitudes far beyond
the ceiling for any observer. These are
carried aloft by small balloons and are
in daily use. Weather reporting robots
also have been designed for isolated
areas of the earth, such as the rim of
the Arctic Circle.
The sea, however. has offered special
problems for the bureau scientists to
solve. At the same time, the oceans
have constituted great blank spaces in
the maps of weather forecasters with the
only reports coming from moving ships.
These, at best, can give data for only
a few positions. Aside from regular
weather ships, navigation tends to be
concentrated along certain routes and it
has been necessary to deduce conditions
off these routes.