BELL MAY WARN OF QUAKE
Earthquakes of the future may be heralded by the ringing of an earthquake alarm bell a few hours before the shock. In this way there would be time for an exodus from tall buildings and other places where the greatest loss of life is likely to occur.
That such an earthquake warning is not at all impossible is the statement made by John W. Evans, British seismologist, in a letter to the scientific magazine Nature. Investigations made by Prof. Akitune Imamura, leading Japanese earthquake expert, and presented by him at the recent Geodetic and Geophysical Union meeting in Prague, support his ideas.
The effect that Mr. Evans proposes to utilize is that of a tilting of the earth’s surface which seems to happen usually a little while before a quake. In five Japanese earthquakes between 1793 and 1927, including the great quake of 1926, there was a lifting of the ground of a yard or two which preceded the quake by from half an hour to five hours.
NEW GERMICIDE
A liquid germicide, known as S.T.-37, that destroys bacteria so quickly that the time in which the reaction occurs cannot be accurately measured, has been developed by Dr. Veader Leonard, assisted by Dr. William A. Feirer at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.
The new germicide has the selective capacity of killing the most resistant bacteria in 15 seconds without injuring the most delicate tissues. The active agent responsible for this extraordinary germicidal power is hexylresorcinol, a synthetic chemical harmless to man but possessing over 7 times the germ-killing power of pure carbolic acid.
SECRETS OF THE MOUND BUILDERS
 |
| Pearl necklaces taken from the Hopewell mounds and a skull showing the copper nose with which mound builders were equipped for their burial. |
copyright 1997 Science Service
