SKELETONS IN ARMOR REVEALED BY DIGGING

The famous battle of Visby [capital of the island of Gothland in northern Europe], July 27, 1361, about which history says so little and legend says so much, is at last being understood as the result of scientific investigation at the site of the battle.

As a result of archaeological excavations in the summer of 1928, hundreds of new skeletons have been found, and medieval military equipment and weapons have been unearthed.

BELL TONES STUDIED BY PHYSICIST

"The silver-toned bells rang out a sweet old tune." Perhaps you think that is a trite statement, but it is worse than that; it's a lie, according to Prof. Arthur Taber Jones of the Department of Physics at Smith College. If those bells have any silver in their tin and copper alloy, the chance of their being sweet is very small and those notes you think you hear are not the ones the bells are playing.

This curious fact that the note you hear is not any one of the tones actually given out by the bell is a phenomenon that Prof. Jones has been studying for many years. He has performed an interesting series of experiments with the Dorothea Carlile Chime at Smith and another with the Harkness Memorial Chime at Yale. He believes now that the "strike note" of the bell is really a whole octave higher than you think it is.

"SURPRISE SHIPS" MAY CHANGE FASHIONS

The new high-efficiency German warships of the "Ersatz-Preussen" class, whose appearance has caused a good deal of a buzz in European naval circles, may force some radical changes in battleship and cruiser fashions. Medium-sized, fast ships armed with 12-inch guns, favorite caliber of pre-war days, may replace some of the huge floating fortresses like the "Nelson" and the "Maryland," with their 16-inch armaments.

This possibility is discussed by the editor of The Engineer, leading British technical publication. The German ships, with their 26-knot speed, can easily run away from any existing ships big enough to sink them, except for four big battle cruisers in the British Navy and four in the Japanese. Other navies have plenty of cruisers fast enough to overtake the German ships, but the 11-inch guns carried by the latter would make such a proceeding suicidal. Therefore, the Continental admiralties, especially the French, are considering whether it would not be wise to meet this new type of construction with a "medium-sized battle cruiser" of about 17,500 tons, armed with guns of 12-inch caliber. There were battle-cruisers of this general description in the British navy before and during the war, but they were scrapped in accordance with the Washington treaty.

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