Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/885

 Popular Science Monthly

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��How Man's Eyes Differ from Those of the Animals

ASIDE from the niDiikoy, man is the only animal lia\ing what we call binocular single vision. That is, he can tell not only the direction of an object, but he can estimate lairh' accurately its distance. This is because both of his eyes point at the same object at the same time, like two range finders. Other animals do not concentrate their gaze in this way. Their eyes are set more nearly at the sides of the head so that they see not only forward but backward for a short distance. Man, on the contrary, sees clearly only the object at which he looks directly.

��Using a Tree as a Mast for a Wireless Station

THE ceiba tree is the largest specimen of the vegetable kingdom growing in Central America. The city of La Ceiba, chief among the settlements on the Carib- bean coast of Central America, was given its name because a huge ceiba tree standing near the beach was a landmark for mariners.

Anotlier of these huge trees was made use of when the big fruit company operating at La Ceiba built its wireless station. One tower one hun- dred and fifty feet high was constructed of steel, but the company utilized the trunk of the ceiba tree for the other tower.

The trunk as it is shown in the photograph is about one hundred feet high. A steel mast carries the wires up fifty feet further. At the buttressed base of the ceiba are shown two cottages, and a tree which, but for the presence of its giant neighbor, would be recognized as a tree of respectable size; but by contrast it looks like a mere bush or leafy shrub.

��The trunk of the tree is one hundred feet high. A mast car- ries the wires higher

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��During an earthquake masonry is shaken off like dust from steeples

How Earthquakes and Similar Disturbances Change the Styles in Architecture

T has always been a m.atter of conjecture why people will return to a locality which has been demolished by an earth- (|uake and rebuild the city time and time again, apparently forgetting the disaster as soon as the debris is cleared away.

Seemingly the principal effect that an earthquake has on a region is to change the style of the architecture. Houses there- after arc made more squat and solid, and those that must have portions extending into the air reduce the weight of the pro- jecting portions to a minimum. In the accompanying illustration, which is a photograph taken in Fort de France, Marti- nique, the church spire looks as though it had been left unfinished; but such is not the case. Its openwork construction is the approved style for steeples there.

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