The 1910s surgery advancements were numerous and important, as I have pointed out before. Without the constant fear of patient dying from pain or infection the surgeons were quick to develop new treatments and techniques. Skin grafting, one of the oldest surgical operations, was still a new field in the early 20th century. Some surgeons were grafting skin preserved in cold storage. Others tried to substitute donor tissues with rubber, as this January 1915 Popular Mechanics note describes.
Porous rubber has been used successfully by an Italian surgeon in reinforcing the muscular walls of the human body. In original experiments he inserted fine, spongelike pieces of the material in the bodies of various dumb animals, and by observation found that the granular tissues penetrated them without causing inflammation, while the wounds healed over rapidly. Later he employed the method in treating two large-area wounds caused by hernias. An X-ray examination one year after the operation showed that the rubber was in the position in which it had been placed to hold back the internal organs, and was also in perfect fusion with the tissues. The marginal note mentiones the October 10, 1914 India-Rubber Review but I was unable to find the 1914 issues of this magazine online. Nor could I find any reference to an Italian surgeon performing this operations. I did however find The British Medical Journal for April 4, 1914 where the same hernia reconstruction was described as performed by a notable French surgeon Pierre Delbet. I lack necessary expertise to explain why this method did not find any use later. The British Medical Journal mentions the research by Tuffier and Carrel, which demonstrated that body does not reject rubber inserts. Without immunosuppressant drugs transplant rejection was the cause of most transplant operations failure. Since rubber was not rejected in would have served well inside the body. Whatever the reasons may have been for this method to disappear, we still see this as an important step towards the advanced surgery of today.
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Yet another short but meaningful note from the 1909 Scientific American describes a communication system working through the same wires the ordinary electricity is supplied.
A recent number of l'Industrie Electrique describes a method of using the wires of a power transmission line for establishing telegraphic communication between the generating plant and the sub-stations. By using an induction coil, which obtains its power from the transmission line, a local high-frequency current is generated, which may be superposed on the current in the power line, and thus affect instruments at the receiving station. It is not necessary to use two lines for a system of this sort, because the circuit can be completed through the ground. Later, in the 1930s some inventors have suggested house intercoms, which sent voice through the house wiring. Looking through the 1909 Scientific American issues I found this seemingly trivial notion about a new form of dry battery. But as my eyes caught the "photo-electric cell" part, I understood the significance of this small notice.
An interesting form of dry battery has recently been invented, which, is inactive unless exposed to a beam of light. The cell consists of a glass tube in which a platinum strip forms one electrode, and an amalgam of potassium and sodium the other. The air is exhausted from the tube, leaving a high vacuum. When the amalgam is exposed to a strong light, a current fiows from the platinum to the amalgam through the vacuum tube. The internal resistance of this cell, which is known as a "photo-electric cell," is about 75.000 ohms. This turns to be a huge misnomer. Dry battery is a primary source of current which generates electricity through chemical reaction, while the photoelectric cell is not a source of current at all. It utilizes the photoelectric effect or the emission of electrons when light hits a material. Unlike photovoltaic devices (including solar panels) a photoelectric device cannot generate any current and is used to control the current of other sources like primary cells. Still, this is an early description of photoelectric cell, which was developed during the late 19th centure through the works of Hallwachs, Hertz, Righi, Stoletow, and was first made practically viable by German scientists Johann Elster and Hans Geitel. The commercial production of Elster and Geitel photoelectric cells began around 1910. The 1930s were the age of Arctic exploration. Every major power was establishing its presence in the region with research bases and expeditions. Soviet Union had a huge advantage in this exploration because of the enormously long Arctic coastal line. Soviet explorers employed naturally drifting ice to create drifting ice stations, which allowed for large-scale expeditions into the Arctic ocean. September 1937 Popular Science Monthly gives a brief description of this concept.
Russian aerial explorers are shown at the base they recently established at the north pole in the photograph reproduced at the left, which was brought back by a plane bearing returning members of the expedition. Four expedition members are remaining at this arctic camp for a year's study of climatic and atmospheric conditions. Their base rests on floating ice. Emperor Akihito of Japan has abdicated today, April 30, 2019. To commemorate this historical event, here's an early example of Japanese culture as presented to the foreigners. February 1911 Popular Mechanics issue featured the set of photographs entitled Japanese women dress their hair in recognized forms, many of which have been used for ages. The set features two dozen photographs of traditional women hairstyles with captions describing the appropriate age or occasion for every style.
Returning to older ideas on household machinery, here's an example of the very early washing machine, which completes the full cycle, e.g. washing, rinsing, spinning, and drying. The description was published in the 1853 Mechanics' Magazine (Vol. 59).
A New York correspondent of the Boston Transcript, in describing the new St. Nicholas Hotel in that city, thus refers to the Steam-Washing Machine in the basement of the building:—"This is something new under the sun. Four hundred pieces are thrown into a cylinder, half filled with water and soap suds. This is thrown into rapid revolution by a small steam engine. Steam is then let into the cylinder under the water and clothes, which raises them out of the water, passing through the pores of the fabric, and out at the top of the cylinder. The clothes are thrown down again by the pressure of steam into the suds, and so on. The changes thus produced by the rapid revolution, and by the passage of the steam through the clothing, washes them perfectly clean in the space of 10 minutes. The clothes are then thrown in a body in another cylinder, and wrung by the revolution of the cylinder, and then by letting in hot air, which passes through the clothing, they are perfectly dried, ready for ironing, in seven minutes. The whole time occupied in washing, wringing, and drying, is but 17 minutes. The advantages of this apparatus are ; first, an immense saving of time and expense in washing; second, the finest cambrics can be washed without wearing them out or injuring the texture, as is necessarily done by rubbing." This washing machine encompasses a host of innovations unseen before and abandoned for a long time after. This was probably the first ever engine-driven washing machine, as well as very early centrifugal wringer and combined combo washer dryer. St. Nicholas Hotel referred to in the article was also an early example of a modern hotel. Built in 1853, it was equipped with steam heating, gas lighting, bathrooms with cold and hot water, not to mention lavish decorations such as gol-embroidered draperies at $1,000 per pair. Today we perceive running water, central heating, and well-equipped kitchens as a necessity, not a luxury. This attitude is not even one hundred years old. Before that a householder had to deal with such amounts of elbow grease that would break even the cleaning professionals now. But even then people tried to make household more efficient and technologically advanced - even if it involved a steam engine right inside.
Here's a rare example of such an attempt from 1848. Mechanics' Magazine, a Popular Mechanics or Popular Science of that era, published an anonymous letter to the Lord Ashley (short for Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury) on the subject of communal housing for growing working classes of industrial England. Among the ideas proposed by the author we find such things as water, both hot and cold <...> carried to the very top of the building by machine force, steam heating, so that the floor may be reservoirs of warmth beneath the feet, steam taps <...> in each apartment, affording the means of warming liquids at pleasure. The general idea behind such building might have been inspired by communes envisaged earlier in the 19th century by Robert Owen and Henri de Saint-Simon. In this project, however, no social reform is proposed. The author describes a perfect house intended to develop mental and physical abilities of its dwellers as well as provide the living quarters. The building would have had good air, dry air, warm air; good water, hot and cold in abundance; space for exercise in bad weather; convenience for privacy or society at will; arrangements for storage of provisions, and also for cooking them with the minimum of labour; artificial light; a library and reading room, a school-room, an infant school, and a lecture room. The author even proposed two things unheard before and reinvented decades after. The first idea was vacuum storage for food, which neither decomposition, nor vermin, nor thieves can affect. The second proposal was to have small steam-engines <...> would perform all the drudgery, and cleansing of plates and utensils, chopping wood, &c. People might have not seen such household conveniences for another hundred years, but it is still fascinating to read such an article today and be amused by human ingenuity as strong in the reign of Queen Victoria as it is today. 1917 Communist Revolution triggered the beginning of a new era in Russian art - including the art of architecture. Plans were suggested to rebuild old cities and to build the new ones. Most unorthodox ideas of Constructivist-style buildings, communal houses, skyscrapers and monuments were for the first time set in stone. By the mid-1930s the experiments have all but ceased. As every 20th century tyrant, Joseph Stalin was fond of pseudo-Classisism style of architecture, so that the architects forcefed metro stations and airports with columns, bas-reliefs, and frescoed ceilings. However, technical know-hows of Constructivism age did not disappear, as the June 1937 Popular Science Monthly note witnesses.
City planning in Russia is aided by testing models of projected apartment houses and public buildings in a wind tunnel. Placed on a flat surface in front of the wind tube, the models create whirls and eddies of air that are studied with the aid of small celluloid flags. In this way, the best location with regard to prevailing winds, especially in respect to air pollution from industrial plants, can be determined before the buildings are erected. Every dictator pays close attention to the army and military training. Joseph Stalin was not an exception to this rule. During the 1930s Soviet people lived in the atmosphere of artificially induced militaristic paranoia, which sometimes resulted in such curious things as these tree stumps described in the May 1937 Popular Science Monthly. Artificial tree stumps set up on a Russian rifle range help train Soviet sharpshooters to fire from cramped quaters and inclosed spots where it is difficult to aim accurately. In the photograph at the left an observer in the right-hand "stump" peers through field glasses to check the target hits made by the sniper, who is shown in the foreground. Wireless telegraph was introduced during the late 1890s in several countries simultaneously. One of the most prominent inventions of the age, it has soon become a true necessity for navies and fleets around the globe. The importance of the wireless as a substitute for the marine cables was quickly recognized as well. Here's the April 1913 account from Popular Mechanics magazine with some relevant statistics.
There are 375 public wireless coast stations in the world at the present time, according to a report from the International Bureau of Wireless Telegraphy. Of this number the United States has 142; Canada, 33; Great Britain, 43; Germany and its colonies, 22; Italy, 19; Russia, 19; France, 17; Spain, 10, and Denmark, 9. The British and French colonies also have a number of stations. Of the wireless stations on board war vessels the United States has 247; Great Britain, 213; France 141; Germany, 112; Italy, 77; Japan, 70, and Russia, 70. The merchant marine of Great Britain has 455 stations; the United States, 253; Germany, 206; France, 68, and Italy, 47. It is unclear what is meant as a "public wireless costal station." One could argue that it is a station conducting commercial service, but, to the best of my knowledge, Russia did not have any commercial wireless in 1913. Overall, the numbers show how quickly the wireless spread in less than twenty years of its existence. |