Eugene register-guard., October 31, 1962, Image 21

Page 4Cm XUGENE REGISTER-GUARD, Wed., Oct. 31, 1962 ' "ViV'i '."' '
.' PigeSBzz
Ask Andy
I LOVE A Nice QUIET
RELAXING evtJNINan
AT HOME LIKE
i
Echo's a Special Kind of Bounce
Andy sends a complete 20-volume set of the World Book
Encyclopedia to Luis Kame, age 8, of Hayden, Arizona, for
his question;
What makes an echo?
You hear an echo when you stand and ihout in just the
right place. "Hello," you shout in a long empty hallway.
"Hello" conies the echoing answer. "Hello," you shout at the
face of a steep cliff. "Hello," comes the echoing answer. No,
there is not a pixie hiding at the ending of the hall. There is
not an elf in the cliff waiting to answer your friendly greeting.
An echo is a puzzling thing because you cannot see it hap
pen. A bouncing ball is easier to understand because you can
see it hit the floor and spring up again into the air. But the
echo is something like the bouncing ball except that you
cannot see what goes on. This is because the clever trick is
done by midgets far, far too small for your bright eyes to see.
These midgets are molecules of air. Millions of these tiny
particles of floating gas could sit on the head of a pin. In the
air they float around like tiny balloons with plenty of space
between them. In fact, these gas molecules are the air around
us. We can see right through the air and most of the time we
forget it is there.
The tiny air molecules are never still. They race and chase
at a great rate crashing into each other many times in a second.
The slightest breeze, the smallest movement sends them
hcltcr skelter. You move billions of them every time you
breathe. When you speak, you send a whole line of them
bashing into their neighbors. The neighbors bang their neigh
bors and this crashing of air molecules is what makes the
sound of your voice.
The sound of your voice moves out from your mouth in all
directions. Line after line after line of molecules crash into
their neighbors in a major traffic jam.
Your voice carries across the room. But if this molecule
traffic jam tunnels down a hallway and meets a solid wall,
there is a bounce. The hard wall sets the sound moving back
from where it came. It comes back to your ears as an echo.
Sometimes you can get a good echo from a steep cliff. Take
100 giant steps away from the foot of the cliff, turn around
and shout "Hello." The sound of your voice travels to the
cliff, bounces off the solid wall and comes back to your ears
in about one second. The echo will be a little fainter than your
voice because the sound gets weaker as it goes.
Sound travels through ordinary air about one mile in five
seconds. It travels faster through water and still faster through
steel. An echo travels at the same speeds. If your voice echoes
back in five seconds, the sound has traveled a mile to that
steep cliff and half a mile back. Scientists use echoing instru
ments to test the depth of the ocean. The sound goes down
through the water, bounces off the floor and comes back in so
many seconds. The number of seconds tells how far it has
traveled.
Andy tends a Hammond's International World Globe to
Christine Clark, age 11, of Clyde, N.C., for her question:
How big is the oldest tree In the world?
For many years we thought the world's oldest trees were
the giant sequoias of California. Many of them known to be
2,000 and maybe 3,000 years old. But in 1958, a group of still
older trees was discovered not far from the giant sequoias.
They are the bristlecone pines which stand on the shoulders
of the White Mountains, a range of the Sierra Nevada.
Many of these gnarled pines are more than 4,000 years old
and at least one is 4,600 years old. A tree is always growing
and adding new width to its trunk, so we would expect these
old timers to be giants. They are not. Their gnarled trunks are
very thick, but in height most of the old timers stand about as
high as oak trees.
Andy award! tach day full set of th World Book Encyclopedia
for the first question he selecta to answer. When a second question
Is answered a lame world globe or atlas la awarded. Questions are
accepted from teenage or less-than-teen-age readers. They should bo
addressed to the Register-Guard, 97S High St., Eugene. Andy prefera
that questions be written on postcards, rather than In letter form.
Brazil's 'Wonder of World'
Falls Into Jungle Obscurity
WASHINGTON A jungl
railroad in Brazil was hailed as
one of the world's greatest won
ders when it was hacked out by
North Americans 50 years ago
Today, the line operates in cas
ual obscurity.
The 228 miles of track were
built to open a large part of
Brazil's wild interior to the rub
ber trade, the National Geo
graphic Society says. The road
pierced dense jungle, traversed
swamps, and spanned turbulent
streams to connect the Madeira
and Mamore' Rivers.
Men came from 30 countries
to work on the project. Hun
dreds were to die from malaria
and other fevers. Hostile In
dians showered arrows on sur
veying parties. Heavy rains
Y q Y'our Good. hlBolt h -mir
Lack of Potency in Men Mostly Emotional
By DR. JOSEPH G. MOLNER
Dear Doctor Molncr: Why is nothing ever
written about middle-aged men whose sexual
potency cither slows down or in some cases
fails completely?
Most males seem to believe that such
potency is the measure of a man. When his
powers fail, panic sets in and unless he is a
pretty steady character there is likely to be
trouble. No man is going to admit to others
that such has happened to him, so there is
absolutely no conversation on the subject.
N.S.W.
I think you are right in your opinion. Men
doubtless would be much better off it they
WOULD talk about this problem.
They probably would succeed in propagat
ing a great deal of misinformation, as happens
when women get to talking about the meno
pause. But after women have been exposed
to enough obvious contradictions, they finally
go to a reliable source and get the right an
swers. The men, poor souls, just worry in
ailencc.
Without any question, the biggest cause of
this lack of potency is emotional. Only in rare
instances is it physical, and even then the
situation is so obvious that it can hardly be
missed.
That is why when men go to their doctors
with this problem (some do, but far too many
don't!) the chief job is one of convincing such
patients of the simple truth.
It can happen any time in the 40s, 50s or
60s, and I've even known it to occur in the
early 20s. The man is tired, he is absorbed in
worries over money, business, his job or what
ever. He may not have been eating well, or
sleeping enough. Pooped and abstracted, he
suddenly finds that he has "lost his potency"
or so he thinks.
Once that thought pops into his head, it
turns into an obsession. That finishes him!
The more he worries, the less he relaxes. And
yet relax he must.
The best "medicine," if you can persuade
the man to take it, is a short vacation, perhaps
only for a weekend, but soon. It should,
psychologically, be ao sofin that he has to work
hij head off to get everything done In time
to go. He stays so busy that he forgets to
worry about lack of "potency." Then two or
three days of just relaxing and enjoying him
self puts him in a totally different mood. With
out quite realizing when, why or how, he finds
himself "cured" (or improved).
Obviously the longer he lets his weary
worry build up, the bigger the problem grows
in his mind. Bottling up the fear inside is the
worst thing he can do. Yet most men to do
just that.
Truo there are physical factors that have
some weight. Lack of adequate diet is one; so
is thyroid deficiency. Obesity is most decidcly
another. But the biggest of all is the male
trait of getting his emotions in such a knot
that he can't untie them.
washed out miles of track, and
vast columns of army anls de
voured the wooden railroad ties.
Before the railroad was con
structed, Bolivian rubber was
shipped down the Madeira and
Mamore' in large batelones, or
canoes, to reach the Amazon.
The boatmen had to make diffi
cult portages around rapids,
and the round trip took months.
In 1898. an effort to lay track
failed because of the appalling
mortality rate among workers.
An American firm began work
on the line in 1907, instituting
strict sanitary controls.
All workmen were vaccinated
and required to take 10 grains
of quinine a day. Doctors made
daily rounds in small track cars,
treating the ill and sending se
rious cases to a specially built
hospital near Porto Velho. In
four years, the hospital admit
ted 30,000 patients.
In spile of precautions, men
came down with malaria, yellow
fever, dysentery and beriberi. A
sting on the hand from a spe
cies of black ant resulted in a
painfully swollen arm. Poison
ous snakes slithered underfoot.
The legend grew that the lay
ing of every tie on the Madcira
Mamore' Railroad cost a life. A
meticulous official recently re
futed this story. "The records
show," he said, "that 21,717
came to work, and 1,552 died.
That's one to every 354 ties.
We've got 549,000 of them. I
know because we replace one
in ten every year. They just
don't last."
After five rigorous years, the
railroad was completed, and the j
first train rattled over ils en-
lire length on July 15, 1912. But
the road had been finished too
late. The South American rub
ber boom had collapsed under
competition from Asian rubber.
Other Bolivian products could
pass more cheaply through the
Panama Canal, which was just
being finished.
Now the road carries nuts,
hides, wood and 4.000 tons of
rubber a year to Porto Velho.
It brings back food, petroleum
products and construction ma
terials to peoples of the interior.
1 THIS
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i
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Fine.Hlilmer.
It's time tue took
a more active
interest in
affaire Ii0rv
flhi oace needs a oood N'tib u,t luViri I'm not aoina to fire anubod j
shaking up. In business I take it a bit I are rndir.ated I But before I get through with
nouiaaays you ve cpt to
take it a bit
easy at first
Skeezix is
snowing a
nmfirl
but let's not
do anything
foolhardy!
a couple of those guys they'll
wish I had! ( uj-. -i '
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