new no Student Publication of the ARMOUR INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY CHICAGO, lLLlNOlS Published Weekly During the College Year ll. 51 acute) A5396. IMlWN SHAWNEE i a! A _ f : IMHEGE NEW} Will’l‘iflli SUBSCRIPTION RATES $2.00 Per Year Single Copies, 10 Cents Each MANAGING BOARD Editor-in-Chief. . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wilbur H. Rudolf, ’32 Managing Editor. . . . . . . .Max J. Schinke, ’32 News Editor ..... . .Edward W. Carlton, ’32 Business Manager . ....... James J. Casey, ’32 Faculty Adviser. . . . ..... . . Professor Walter Hendricks EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Feature Editor .............. . .J. R. Jackson, Jr.. ’32 Fraternity Assistant. ..... . . . . .Harold Bodinson, ’33 Architectural Assistant. . . .W. W. Davies, ’33 Art Assistant. . ...... Dave Chapman, ’32 Reviews ...... . . .Morton Fagen, ’32 Columnist ........ . ............ George Bonvallet, '32 Assistant News Editor. . . . . . . . . . Orville T. Barnett, '33 Copy Editor . .............. . . ...... .L. G. Wilkie, ‘32 , J. B. Dirkers, ’32 Assmtants ..... . ........ J_ W. Juvinall, ,33 Reporters E. G. Avery, ‘34 N. E. Colburn, ’34 H. L. Gibson, ’34 W. Krol, '34 J. P. McGuan, ’34 V. Rimsha, ’34 J. A. Scheyer, ’34 E. E. Eherth, ’33 S. T. Leavitt, ’33 R. J. Mulroney, ’33 F. W. Paine, 733 R. F. Rychlik, ’33 H. Fishman, ‘33 SPORTS DEPARTMENT Sports Editor. . . . . . . . . .H. P. Richter, ’32 Reporters H. W. Davidson, ’34 D. F. Landwer, ’34 C. H. Fox, ’32 H. F. Becker, ’33 S. J. Viktora, ’34 BUSINESS DEPARTMEIIIJQT Advertising Manager ........ . . . ...... . A. Collick, ’32 Assistants R. E. Nelson, ’33 W. L. Bengston, '32 Circulation Manager ................. J. S. McCall, ’32 Assistants E. H. Chun, ’32 R. Dufour, ’33 C. B. Sommers, ’33 J. A. Bacci, ’34 J. F. Bonnell, ’34 L. Marcus, ’34 T. C. Pcavey, ’34 C. T. Seaberg, ’34 E. J. Wiltrakis, ’32 Vol. vm OCTOBER 6, 1931 No. 3 “The material universe exists only in the mind * ‘l All material existence is only idea." Jonathan Edwards. ' Born October 6, 1703. Progress The University of Chicago has published recently a list of famous books to be used by the students of the four general courses as “text-books.” The compilation of that list must have required a. great deal of work by the meme bers of the faculty, yet even now no claim is made that the list is complete or that it contains the very best books obtainable. All that the authors of the list claim for it is that it is the best they could do at present. Their in- tention is to add to it from time to time and perhaps to remove books from it occasionally as experience and good judgment indicate. All that they hope to accomplish by it is to make the course of instruction 3. little more thor— ough and a little easier to master. Perhaps the expenditure of so much time and energy on the formation of a mere list would seem, to practical- minded Armour engineers, a case of unbridled extrava» gance. It may appear a futile endeavor, this attempt to increase the efficiency of study at such a great cost in expended energy. But if we stop and consider the case rationally and carefully, we can see it in a somewhat dif- ferent light. When we look at it in a deliberative mood, the whole enterprise changes from an almost useless action by fanatics to one of the world’s most inspiring sights; the slow and sometimes painful progress of man’s ascent in the realm of knowledge. The entire history of the educa~ tion of the human race shows one outstanding character- istic. Always it has proceeded slowly and haltingly. The forward movement has always been brought about only by great effort, yet always it has maintained the same general direction with only minor digressions now and then. We, ourselves, sometimes like to think of a description of the world that we were taught in one of the early grades of grammar school. In that portrayal, the earth . was compared to a large room filled with tiny people, all of whom were busy looking in the corners, turning up the rugs, examining the furniture, and doing a hundred other things to try to satisfy their apparently insatiable curiv osities. To us that seems a rather good picture of the world and its people. The men and women of all nations are constantly trying to learn more, to ease conditions in this field, to increase the efficiency in that. All this work calls for a tremendous amount of energy and ambition but by no other way has the human race advanced and by no other way will it do so in the future. That is the kind of work that the faculty members of the University of Chicago have done. They have added one more to the countless small steps by which human education has progressed. They are doing their part to leave the world a little better than they found it. ARMOUR TECH NEWS r W W--- W- “' W2» 6 e o 99 4 l l The filipstlck , Cleave to “The Slipstick"; let 2 B the Slapstick fly where it may. l COL UMNISTIC RA VINGS 1V0. This Cellophane Age Ever stop to consider all the articles which come wrapped in cellophane? Neither did we. Shirts, coffee cakes, safety razors, etc., fresh delivery guaranteed. Not only do they wrap with it, but at a. recent style showing at the Sherman they had a genuine cellophane bridal gown. Why, the new humor mag “Ballyhoo” comes wrapped with cellophane so that its readers may “Read a Fresh Magazine.” 0fttimes we wonder just how moisture—proof this ma— terial really is. Once we carefully removed the wrapping from a cigarette package, taking care not to disturb the bottom seal, poured water therein, and watched it leak out faster than it was poured in, thus proving something or other. Wonder when they'll start wrapping Fords in the stud. You ought to make money by buying a shipment of the .automohs and selling the wrapping to the cigar manu» facturers. If they start wrapping fountain pens with it the makers might be tempted to include a week's supply of ink at no extra cost. Maybe Stanley ought to order sliderules wrapped with it so that the fresh would be sure to have “fresh” slipsticks. A real idea would be for him to sell those little yellow two for a nickel books cellophane wrapped. The profes- sors could then demand that such literature be brought into the quiz room with the seal unbroken. (We ought to collect some bucks from the school for that practical suggestion I ) 19 I): at 5.1 The first of our daily educational broadcasts to enrich the intellect is given below: Do you know that the daily supply of transfers for the surface lines is 5,552,000 slips. One Meisel press prints 758,000 per hour. It takes 804 tons of paper for the annual supply. The next of our educational talks will be given in a few days. Don’t miss a single one. AND WE ARE STlLL LAFFlNG about the joke about the man who took his wife out West with him to develop his gold mine. He said that if there were any pockets she would be sure to find them. Yes amt mamy of the people who spent the summer on the sands will be forced to spend the winter on the rocks. SEElNG lS BELlEVlNG A backwoods mountaineer one day found a mirror which a tourist had lost. “Well, if it ain’t my old dad,” he said, as he looked into it. “I never knowed that he had his pitcher looked.” He took the mirror home and stole into the attic to hide it. But his , suspicious actions did not escape his wife. That night while he slept she crept up to the attic and found the mirror. ' ‘ “Hm-m-m,” she said, looking into it, “so that’s the old hag he’s been chasin’.” GOOD DEDUCTION Detective: “Got away, did he? You had men at all the exits like I told you?" Mail order Det.: “Yes, sir, but personally I think he got out through an exit.” Our next door neighbor writes stories, insures them for fifty dollars, and sends them to magazines. As yet he has not lost any in the mail, but he still has hopes. While on the subject We wish to go on record as agreeing to the principle that writing for the mags producer quick returns, if you know what I mean. POSITIVE PROOF “De Irish is real fighters." “Aw, rats. *Last night me an’ my hrudder an’ two oth- er guys an’ a clip wiped up the street with one of them." The height of optimism in a freshman occurs when he starts to comment about the collection of dues in the Alumni Association. HERE’S THE REAL LOWDOWN Professor: “What did Juliet say to Romeo when she saw him in the balcony?” Greencap: ““Why the deuce didn’t you get seats on the main floor?" And if all llié“ sophomores who go to sleep in Science Hull were laid and to and, they would at least be a little more comfy. , _. 9W3: SOLVED!!! Procedure: Take a bar each of Ivory, Lifebuoy, Naphtha, Bon ,Ami, Amber, Cuticura, one cake Babo, a small can Vanco,;andla bar of Palmolive. Pulverizc fine~ ly into one inch cubes, put in kettle, add water, boil, cool, and pour into méuidsg Result: You now have a. soap which is ninety-nine and forty—four one hfindredths per cent pure and floats, kills B. 0., which contains the sweet, clean smelling naphtha, which has neveriscgrntched, which is not at all harmful to baby’s soft skin, 'which cleans the grimiest mechanic’s bands, which is as clear as amber, which easily cleans bath tubs. and which heals pimples, blackheads, cold sores, and removes ingrgqvm toenails. May we offer to; the several seniors who expect to get married soon aitcr:.graduation the advice of enrolling in y: reviews | A Narrative History of Aviation By John Goldstrom The writing of history, if it is to be anything more than a recital of dates, data, and details, may he as difi'icult as the making of it. Consider the temptation for a chron- icler to build his story around a calendar, the convenience of fitting a fact to time expressed as a num» her, the lure of logical development. Only rarely are these treacherous pitfalls eluded, but when they are the reward for the fortunate in— vestigator appears in his work to make it an interesting, readable ac- count with the exactness of fact and the romance of imagination. I be- lieve that John Goldstrom’s “A Nar- rative History of Aviation" is to be so classed. Within the pages of a single vol— ume, and this not unduly lengthy, Goldstrom has treated the genesis of aviation from the fanciful tradition of mythology to the autogyro. Such scope is tremendous, and to handle the subject in customary historical fashion would of course require many volumes. Actually, a number of these works have been published; no doubt thorough, quite possibly exact, perhaps highly authorativc, but withal unpalatable to the average reader whose interest is but a gen- eral one. The author of this book, however, attacks the subject in a novel manner: he selects a series of outstanding events as the frame- work l'or absorbing stories, power- fully written and complete enough to explain consequent developments in the light of those events. At this point perhaps it would be best. to pierce the fog with a beam of "For Example.” All right. For example, he takes the American air mail as an outstanding feature; treats of its establishment to make us see pilots who made their own maps, and risked a “three out of four" chance of losing their lives; introduces the story of his own flight made in a mail plane across the country, a thrilling adventure, by the way, with two or three forced landings and a twenty-five mile walk in the desert. Finally he entercrtains us with some real sagas of the air mail. We have room for one of them here, a model of brevity which high: he followed in writing up laboratory experiments. Notice how exact and complete is this classic report by Pilot Dean Smith: “Dead Fticked — flying low —— only place available --on cow —- killed cow —— wrecked planer—scared rue—Smith." In somewhat the same manner, the story of the Wright brothers who solved the problem of mechanical flight in 1903 is told. An account of the Wright-Smithsonian dispute, one of the most bitter controversies in the history of science, is an in- teresting sidelig‘ht. Thus Goldstrom’s liisLory unfolds: the first trans- oceanic flights, the Lindbergh epic, circumnaviation of the globe, air— craft and the polar regions, all de— scribed in absorbing fashion. There is even a chapter on “Women in Aviation” which you may like, though it really isn’t at all import- ant. In a period of about twentyvfive years aviaiion has become a one hundred million dollar American industry. It has been estimated that at least 70,000,000 miles are being covered yearly. Re~ cent progress in the development of aids to aviation has been astounding: radiobeacons map all airlines, the Alcxanderson altimeter indicates ac- curately the height of a plane above ground through rain, fog, or dark- ness, and sound sensitive automatic lighting devices turn on the flood lights of an airport when a plane is 1000 feet away. Flying activity is increasing greatly; tenfold, twenty- fold as year follows year. Commun~ factor in ‘ Tuesday, October 6, l93l @650th mi 6. E. is AWARDEB T0 monsoon KNEE Professor Herbert Ensz received his C. E. degree at the end of the summer quarter at the University of Colorado from which he graduated in 1924. The title of his thesis was: Specifications and Design of Sus- pension Bridgc over zhe Hurricane Creek near Boldman, Kentucky. When completed the structure will facilitate the transportation of coal across the canyon over a forty—four inch gauge track by an electric, overhead trolley locomotive and mine cars. A walk-way will be pro— vided by planking cross-ties in the center between tracks and on one side. The main span is to be a sus— pended stiffening truss, 500 feet long, with a hinge at either end. The side spans are to be fixed riveted trusses, 150 feet long, sup- ported at the abutment and tower. The total span will be 800 feet. Cables from tower to anchorage will be straight back stays and main cables are to be fixed at the towers with provision for expansion in the main span side. ication and business are being specded up as the airplane is adapted to all sorts of activity. Goldstrom believes that, in America particularly, the next five years will bring a development of civil air transportation such as we have never before known, following on the formation of large combinations of airways operators and manufactu- rers. With statistics and rhetoric, he paints a bright and encouraging pic- ture of the future. For one who is at all interested in aviation, here is a truly unusual account of a sensational march. ——Morton Fagen. gas? 3%? filé'ififlgfifi “3&3“th . ¢m§¥gxwtwf< aun‘ewmfifl- tor strong Long before the huge bulk of a new sky- scraper looms up, Bell System men have planned its nerve system—the maze of tele- phone cables and wires so vital to its busi— ness activities. From the inception of a building design, telephone engineers work hand in hand with the architects. They determine the telephone EELL the course in Domestic Silence? Yours, . 7: The Bongineer. o It. NATEON-WRBE SYSITEM 0F gygggfi ‘ 4 aiififiifi'fiéfi :9 needs of thousands of future tenants. Then they plan cable shafts rising from cellar to roof and the grid of under—floor ducts that will put telephones within easy reach of every occupant. There’s a real thrill in working out these plans, for without telephones the immense structures of today would hardly be practicable. fillhl‘hlhl ‘t‘SilfihfiflNES