Page:Popular Mechanics 1928 01.pdf/81

 

Believing that the gas industry is still in its infancy, engineers predict that gas soon will be produced at the coal mines and piped into distribution centers, saving the costly transportation of coal and the erection of large plants on expensive land. The chief problem in the way at the present is a means of successfully transmitting the gas long distances and, when this is solved, it is believed that the gas industry will be able to take over a much larger percentage of the home-heating and cooking tasks than can now be done and that gas will be used much more extensively in manufacturing. Another problem that must be solved is the profitable disposal of by-products. Many of these materials have a limited market at present. How the gas industry is already aiding aviation was shown by the announcement that 1,500 companies are ready to mark their huge storage tanks with insignia that will help guide pilots. New England states reported that the number of installations of home-heating plants using gas had increased from 1,308 to 2,600 in a year.

 

Closely resembling a huge monoplane on the exterior, a dining room and dance hall in Fort Worth, Tex., has attracted considerable attention. It is sixty feet long, twenty feet wide and accommodates a fairly large crowd with comfort.



 



So that deaf children may more easily learn how to place their lips in correct position for pronouncing syllables, use is made of mirrors in a school at Atlanta, Ga. The pupils strive to imitate their teacher and with the aid of the reflectors, can correct their own errors.

 

Recent experiments by David Wechsler, a New York psychologist, have further shown that the skin is an emotional barometer, so that the familiar description of "thick-skinned" and "thin-skinned" persons has some basis in fact. However, the difference in behavior depends not so much on the question of relative thickness as on the electric resistance of the skin. Of all tissues, the skin is one of the best insulators and, like other materials, it offers less resistance to electricity when moist. Under various emotional strains, perspiration is induced, and the consequent increase in moistness results in greater conductivity of current. Practical use of this discovery has been suggested in the field of criminal investigations.

