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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1959)
2 MAIL TRIBUNE, Medford, Or. A Wednesday, July I, 1939 Lightning Known To Strike Twice In the Same Place Washington Contrary 10 popular belief, lightning fre quently strikes twice in the same place. A lightning bolt is not a single spark, weather, sci entists say, but a salvo hit ting one spot in rapid succes sion. Futhermore, the bolts favor; certain targets year after year. They have hit New York City's Empke State Building hundreds of times. But occupants aren't worried: the steel-ribbed building acts as a giant lightning rod. Less well protected are the nation's forests where light ning starts about 7,500 fires a year at a cost of more than S25 million. In addition, some 400 Americans are killed each year by lightning. Scientists Seed Clouds To save lives and property, meteorologists are studying the growth of thunderstorms in the hope that man can some day control lightning. This year scientists will seed clouds with dry ice and silver iodide, record electric currents, and count lightning strokes. Some scientists believe they can now modify the form of a cloud and its electric field, though they aren't sure they can really avert lightning. Lightning has long struck fear in men's hearts and pro duced strange superstitions. In the first century A.D., terri fied Roman emperor Tiberius wore a laurel wreath during thunderstorms in the belief that lightning, never touched the plant. In medieval times, church bells range to repel the "ma lignant demons" of the storm. Many bell-ringers were killed -the high church steeples at tracted lightning bolts. But the demonic belief persisted Unemployment Claims Decrease Salem-(UPD-The State De partment of Employment said Tuesday tnat last week s in itial unemployment claims, totalling 1,044, were at the lowest level since the Korean war. First laims denote per iods of new unemployment. The number of persons re porting a week of unemploy ment during the week dropped to 7,215-which is 10 per cent below the preceding week and 44 per cent below. last year at this time. The department said the basic reason for the rirnn ivs.k an increase in jobs, but said a contributing cause was the drop-out of persons who have used up all their benefits. Industries on the uptrend are agriculture, food 1 proces sing, logging, lumbering, and construction. Tiny Baby Now Weighs 'Husky Six Pounds A girl, weighing 334 pounds, born May 17 to Mr. and Mrs. Vernon. Moran, 854 East Ninth st., is now describ ed as a normal 6 pounds, 1 ounce baby, according to her mother. The baby, born prematurely at Rogue Valley hospital, has been named Laura Karen, and is the third child for the Morans. Her two older broth ers are Dean, 2Vi, and Bill, 11 months. Moran is employed by Oregon Veneer company. Y BOOKLETV A 33 RZVEALS I AVjA th TRUTH I S ABOUT I Tells What Can Be Does About Bearing Lost After all the fancy phrases and the high-powered syllables about hear ing aids that have been directed to the hard-of-hearing,. we . think youTl be ready for a few simple, direct words of truth. We offer you a free booklet entitled "True Facts About Bearing Aids." put out by TOnemaster. world-famous manu facturers of Superior Quality Hear ing Aids. This booklet clearly and simply discusses such topics as "Can You Hear With Nothing In The Ear" and "How A Hearing Loss Destroys Tour Personality." Also, what can be done to your own individual bearinc loss tests that can be made to help correct hear ing loss, ana now seii-confiaence and enjoyment of life can be re stored to you. You hard-of-hearing people "MUST read this booklet you owe it to yourself, to your fam ily and friends. 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It also sends out radio waves that can disturb a radio listener 4,000 miles away. . Lightning bolts range ud to several miles in length, but are only about one to six inches in diameter. They flash from cloud to cloud and from ground to cloud, as well as from cloud to earth. A stroke may travel at 55 miles per second. , Make Arlifical Lighning One stroke made lightning history when it hit, the table of electrical genius Charles P. Steinmetz, a four-foot dwarf with a giant's brain, on an August afternoon in 1920 Steinmetz decided man could make his own lightning, and soon built the first artificial lightning generator. The ma chine had glass plates, coated with metal foil, where elec tricity accumulated. When they could hold no more, art ifical lightning leaped across the discharge path, accompa nied by artificial thunder. Thunder" is believed to be caused by the abrupt 'expan sion of air particles along the path of the lightning, and their subsequent collision as they return to fill up the vacuum. Thunder "rolls" be cause sound waves from zig zagging lightning have dif ferent distances to travel; there are usually a number of discharges, and , mountains, valleys, and clouds reflect the sounds. Even thunderclouds have a silver lining. Lightning, by its quick passage through the air, frees nitrogen in the surround ing air and the gift to plant life is brought down with the rain. In this way, nature spreads perhaps 100 million tons of fixed nitrogen over the earth each year. The Inquiring Mind This series of articles, on many different subjects, results from work by senior students at the school of journalism at the University of Oregon. Each is a con densed version of a full-length thesis written as partial requirement for graduation at lha school. THE ADVANCE OF TELEVISION IN THE CLASSROOM By - Judith Anderson Whether educational televi sion has a future in the class room1 may soon be decided and very possibly in the nega tive. Despite the acceptance of television in the classroom as an instructional tool, the problems of finances and pro gramming are serious enough to thwart this progressing medium before it reaches full maturity. , Griffith Hermit in Psychiatric Ward Los Angeles - (UPD - Dennis Farrell, the hermit of Griffith Park, was under observation today in the psychiatric ward of General .hospital. The 32-year-old World War II veteran voluntarily left the bush -studded hills of the 4,200-acre city - owned park Tuesday for the first time since turning his back on civilization six years ago. Bearded and in tattered clothing, Farrell would say only that he wanted to talk to a policeman who had questioned him briefly on a prowler complaint last April but then released him to re turn to his lonely life. The North Platte, Neb., man said he Jived off wild fruit and picnic leavings in the park during his. long stay there. He was committed Tuesday for 72 hours to determine': his mental competency. ' . Beaverton Hunters ! Kill large Bear Beaverton-(UPI-A seven-foot bear that scared two house wives Monday was tracked down and killed Tuesday by a hastily-assembled group of hunters that shot the animal on a farm near here. The bear, which weighed 245 pounds, was killed on the Harold Lehman farm one mile off the Sunset highway. Seven bloodhounds were used in the hunt. A volley of seven shots by A. M. James and Chet Everest stopped the big bruin. Glacier national park has more than 250 lakes. The solutions to these prob lems are not easy to find, as more than 100 experiments have shown. But most educa tors and students alike feel that the success of education al television inrthe classroom is worth their greatest efforts. Eight Years Old Just eight years ago educa tors from all parts of the United States witnessed the establishment of the first ed ucational television channel at Iowa State college. Soon petitions from educational in stitutions for similar non-commercial television channels were heard by the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC answered the re quests in 1952 by setting aside 242 channels soley for ed ucational purposes. Since 1952 aver 100 experi ments with televised courses for credit have indicated very definitely that television can be a boon to education. As everyone knows, schools are becoming more and more crowded, and more' and more teachers are needed. The de mand will soon be critical at the college level.-': Beside the steady" increase in the number of : students, there has been a demand for an uplift in the quality of ed ucation. Students, 'as well as their . . parents, ;. demand the most educated- teachers and the most diversified and ex pensive audio and visual aids. Television has brought to the classroom ' instruction enrich ed as never -before with out standing professors and illus trated" lectures. Where it would be impossible for indi vidual schools to obtain rare pieces of art and live presenta tions of fine drama, television has succeeded in presenting such visual , experiences to thousands of; students at the same time. . ;' -, Minimizes Shortages - Television has also offered an invaluable means of min imizing the problem of teach er shortages. With television the same lesson can be given to thousands of students at one time. On the university level, where much teaching is straight lecture, this can mean great savings both in dollars and personnel, as has been shown in many experiments with television in the class room. Despite the great advantages of educational television in many respects, some students and educators question its ef $ectjrEes as a teaching med ium and its acceptablitiy in the classroom. Can students really learn anything from television? The answer is echoed again and again in the results of experiments" with. the medium: yes, stud ents learn as much, from tele vision classes as from regular classroom instruction. An experiment at Pennsyl vania State university with 225 chemistry students, some taught by traditional class room methods and some by .television, showed no import ant differences in achieve ment. At Chicago Junior col lege the numerical final grades of television students were about 10 per cent higher than those of non-television students. Psychological Effect Ther,e still remains the question of the psychological effect of televised instruction on the student as well as the teacher. Generally students have admitted that a televised course requires more concen tration because the instructor is not in the classroom to watch them. Some feel that they are being deprived of close contact with, and indivi dual attention from, the teacher. Many" faculty members at once feared television because it threatened the teaching po sitions of the less talented. Some suspected that they would be demoted to the role of classroom monitors if their personalities were not adapt able to television, as shown in several surveys . o'i faculty members. Teachers also felt the lack of class response when instructing over tele vision. In several surveys in structors voiced the need for class discussion and individual instruction. The doubts of instructors and students have been gradu ally eased as television experi ments have been completed. College teachers have found that television is most effec tive when used only as a sup plement to classroom instruc tion. There is little possibility that television will ever re; place the teacher. Students will have their classroom in- Bay At Builders Supply QUALITY BLOCKS Drain Tilt Bricks, Flues . 727 W. McAndrews Phone S? 3-4575 or SP 2-4107 struction and discussion peri ods. And teachers; will still hold theif own as' leaders- in the classroom. Finance Problem There remains a basic prob lem which cannot be over looked, that of paying for this new means of instruction. From the very beginning the Fund for the Advancement of Education, supported by the Ford Foundation, has demon strated its whole-hearted sup port over $23 million worth to the establishment of edu cational television in. . the schools.. . The federal and state gov ernments have been extremely cautious about allocating funds r- ehiratlonal tele vision -doubting theX. eauca tional television would last long. As television experi ments have proven successful, however, state governments have slowly added to the sup porting funds. , Directors of the Fund have recently announced that they will soon withdraw their sup port of educational television experiments now that then purpose of getting educational television on its feet has been fulfilled. 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