Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/276

 248

��Popular Science Monthly

���Nature has built the largest stadium in the world for the sport-loving population of Cleve- land, Ohio. Over one hundred thousand persons watched this baseball game, and thirty thousand more could have been accommodated

��A Natural Stadium Which Holds One Hundred and Thirty Thousand

THE largest stadium in this country is not a product of engineering skill but the work of nature. More than one hundred thousand persons, the largest crowd that ever witnessed a baseball game, was assembled in this great bowl recently without taxing its capacity. It is estimated that it could accommodate one hundred and thirty thousand persons.

The natural stadium is part of a city park in Cleveland, Ohio, and all athletic events which take place there are free to the public. It is almost a perfect amphitheatre. The large field, suitable for all kinds of athletic games, is almost completely surrounded by hills inclined at just the right degree to accommodate spectators. At one end there is a break in the hills that affords a convenient en- trance and parking space for auto- mobiles.

Fifty Thousand Aviators

TO the average American, the aero- plane is still a wonder, a miracle, a creation of magic. In Europe men have become so accustomed to it, that children now talk of becoming "avia-

��tors" as they would of becoming "police- men." Counting both pilots and ob- servers, there are more than fifty thou- sand men now in Europe, in daily flights above ground. The number in- creases from day to day, and before the war is ended it is possible that the num- ber will reach one hundred thousand. A hundred thousand human beings taken to the air every day — and only six years ago Glenn H. Curtiss made his first long flight down the Hudson River — a won- derful feat chronicled in the press of the world!

Paper from Grass

TERMINATING a series of experi- ments, the Department of Agricul- ture has recently announced that it is possible to manufacture a first-grade ma- chine finished printing paper from zaca- ton grass, which grows in great profu- sion from California and Texas south- ward to the Argentine Andes.

This grass is harvested for the sake of its roots. These are made into brushes of various sorts, and are frequently known as broom root grass. At the pres- ent time the tops of the grass are allowed to go to waste. There is reason to be- lieve that from these a satisfactory pa- per-making material may be developed.

�� �