Who Was First in Flight? This 1925 Scientific American Piece Dives into a Museum Disagreement
Rachel Feltman: Happy Monday, listeners! For American scientist‘s Science quickly, I am Rachel Feltman.
You may have noticed that we have taken a little break in our usual News News Roundup to make room for special episodes, including our series of bird flu, as well as to welcome certain summer vacation and vacation projects for our little but powerful team. We will be back in Roundup News format next week.
For today, I thought it would be fun to resume American scientist Archives for a few minutes. Let’s see what Sciam was until exactly a century, in July 1925.
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I will start with the coverage of the number, which was brought by the conservative of marine life to the American Museum of Natural History in New York and seems to have been written, at least in large part, to present to readers the concept of tidal pools. These are withdrawals in the rocky coastal areas which, during the high tide, fill with water, which remains trapped once the tide is retreating.
The writer describes the abundant marine life which could be found in the puddles of high tidal waods Hole, the Massachusetts and other tidal areas of Massachusetts, poetic wax on berlacles and sea verses, which he compares to “acrobats” and “goddesses of the sea”, respectively. A hundred years later, scientists and laity are still quite taken with tidal pools. These are really interesting environments: during the low tide, they are generally not very deep so that they can become quite hot, which can be difficult for organisms that live inside them. The other difficulties of these organizations include the fact that tidal pools are easy for predators such as birds and crabs to access. In addition to that, oxygen levels in the pool fall between the infusions of new seawater. In addition, residents of the tidal pool must often resist the waves that crash when the ocean reaches them again.
Many things have changed since 1925, but checking the Tide swimming pools is always an excellent hobby for anyone suspended the coast. Depending on where you live, you can spot anemones, starfish, coral and even octopus, among others.
The problem also presents a somewhat scathing assessment of the American commercial aviation industry as it was in 1925. According to American scientistThe editors, someone aimed from abroad asked him if we could travel from New York to Chicago by plane. (He asked this question, by the way, calling the magazine’s office. Life was difficult before Google.)
The publishers told him that he should hire his own plane to make such a trip, which would be very expensive. But would that made them think: would this request have been reasonable in the country of origin of the traveler? Thus started SciamInvestigation of the world of commercial flight. Rip Sciam Editors, you would have liked The rehearsal.
The resulting article stresses that in the United States in 1925, commercial aviation was mainly used to make mail from one coast to another. Meanwhile, explains the article that European countries were already in the middle of an aviation boom, using planes to move people and products everywhere. According to the article, we could travel from London to Berlin for $ 40, which represents about $ 753 today. It is not exactly a plane ticket, but it is not SO Far from what a modern leaflet could pay to travel in business class, and we can imagine that most people who pay for the privilege of plane trips in 1925 were traveling for important cases, rinse in cash or more likely.
It is clear that the American scientist The publishers have been dismayed to find the United States lagging through so far. In a box entitled, rather radically, “Are we a neglecting people?” The magazine requests what has become of American aviation. “We invented the plane, neglected and left it in Europe the task of putting it in a largely extended sales service,” says the section in a transatlantic accent. “As a people, we are supposed to have a perfect genius to practice fast shooting methods in our industrial activities. We are supposed to have developed time in an exact science and we have shown the world how to practice it. The navy, the air postal service and a few private companies, we have practically did nothing, leaving in Europe the development of commercial transport. »»
It is not the only aeronautical tea in the July 1925 issue. In the “Our Point of View” section of the magazine, the publishers are thinking about the decision of Orville Wright to send the first planes that carry people’s power and transport to the British National Museum. If you are not familiar with this historic scandal, here is the essential: the Wright Brothers are famous for having made the first flight controlled and controlled in 1903. But for decades, the Smithsonian Institution tried to give this honor to Samuel Langley, his former secretary, whose own flying machine was crushed a few days before the Wright aircraft. In 1914, the director of the Smithsonian had the Langley planes modernize to prove that he could have flying – if only he had not failed – and used it to assign the credit to him. The museum showed the plane with a sign for this purpose. Orville Wright was naturally unhappy. In American scientist‘S July 1925 The publishers say that the museum exhibition is misleading and that Langley I certainly did not beat the Wright brothers. “The whole, in fact, can be considered a storm in a teapot,” wrote the publishers, “and this could easily be correctly if the institution of Smithsonian suppresses the reprehensible sign and will modify it so that there is no possible misunderstanding.” This would not happen before 1928, and the Smithsonian failed to apologize before 1942. But hey, we tried!
Although the United States is late in the commercial flight, a graph of the 1925 number shows that we run the charge in at least one technological arena: Gabbing on the phone. Infographic maintains that 62.9% of global phones in 1925 were located in the United States and that the country also paved the way in telephone per capita. We also released with regard to the frequency to which people have embarked on: the average person in the United States apparently sent 182 messages by telephone each year, with second place going to Denmark with 123. And the Russians, noted the publishers, “are satisfied with four and a half calls”. Of course, we talk a lot, but do we really say something?
That’s it for today’s archives adventure. We will come back on Wednesday to talk about some of the SciamThe hottest summer reading recommendations. And connect next week for a return to our good news Roundup.
Science quickly is produced by me, Rachel Feltman, with Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper and Jeff Delviscio. This episode was published by Alex Sugiura. Shayna has and Aaron Shattuck checks our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Subscribe to American scientist For new scientists up to date and in -depth.
For Scientific American, Here is Rachel Feltman. Spend a good week!
