Abstract: Actors Joseph Potter Bob McGill Walter Koehler Harry Welker and Harry Weiss dramatize the trial of Socrates Aeropagus in 399 BC The seventy year old Athenian philosopher is under attack as a sophist and faces the Tribunal Lynn Poole as chorus intersperses descriptions of Athens its religion courts and history with scenes played by costumed actors Libelled by Aristophanes comedy The Clouds and accused by the poet Meletus of impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens Socrates eloquently counters the accusations only to be voted guilty by the jury He abides by the death penalty and prophesies that punishment will fall upon both his supporters and accusers for not examining their lives and living righteously
Date Published: 1959-12-06
Abstract: Actor Joseph Potter impersonating HL Mencken opens this show on the Sage of Baltimore and quotes him throughout the program Lynn Poole gives a pictorial account of Menckens early life Dr Carl Bode University of Maryland English professor discusses Mencken as a critic of literature society and politics He points out Menckens contentiousness in his writing especially in political criticism such as his comments in 1912 on Baltimore mayor James H Preston Although Mencken stood up for New Realists such as Dreiser and Hemingway he disliked the pretentiousness of many authors of his day and spoke out against bestsellers with no literary merit With Mr Potters assistance Dr Bode describes events in Menckens career as editor and columnist with The Baltimore Sun newspaper coeditor with George Jean Nathan of The Smart Set editor and writer for The American Mercury and author of numerous books such as George Bernard Shaw and The American Language Mr Potter dramatizes a portion of Menckens obituary for William Jennings Bryan written after Bryans death following the 1925 Scopes Trial In 1926 the Watch and Ward Society of Boston forced off the newsstands Menckens controversial Hatrack story in The American Mercury but Mencken prevailed However his unchanging views became trivial when he failed to recognize and understand the grave implications of the Great Depression or Hitler Johns Hopkins professor emeritus Kemp Malone discusses Menckens book The American Language which posits that American English was so different from British English that it should have a separate name As an amateur philologist Mencken also launched American Speech a learned journal although he considered himself a scout for scholars not a scholar himself In conclusion Lynn Poole recommends Menckens A Carnival of Buncombe for additional reading
Date Published: 1959-12-13
Abstract: Lynn Poole identifies the equipment in Johns Hopkins Universitys ham radio shack station W3GQF for students with amateur radio licenses and shows QSL cards from around the world A film clip shows the International Geophysical Year Expeditions ham radio shack KC4USA in Antarctica Dr Edward Krieg ham radio operator W3CAY and surgeon at Bon Secour Hospital in Baltimore shows a film clip of a ham radio operators field day and explains some of the ham radio lingo such as CQ for hello and 73 for goodbye He notes that some hams specialize in Morse code a requirement for getting a radio license from the FCC A film documents the DX distance expedition of six ham operators who sail to Navassa Island to set up a ham station KC4AF there During the four days on the island they made over 7000 contacts in 75 different countries before going QRT off the air Another film shows the amateur ham operators free emergency network to assist disaster organizations Sam Harris Rhododendron Swamp VHF Society of amateur ham experimenters is featured in another film clip Perry Klein a teenager credited with bouncing a signal off an artificial satellite explains how he did it and plays a recording of the signal He calls this form of communication high frequency satellite scatter or satellite bounce Klein recommends to viewers the book How to Become a Radio Amateur A film clip shows Joe Pratt a homebound polio victim in Baltimore MD using his ham radio to make friends Dr Krieg concludes the program by promoting the American Radio Relay League ARRL and their publication QST
Date Published: 1960-04-17
Abstract: Two actors James Potter and Robert Keller open this program with a dramatization of an emergency situation in which a child is severely burned far from a treatment center Dr Sanford Rosenthal pharmacologist at the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases in Bethesda MD explains the emergency treatment he developed that is recommended in the dramatic scene one teaspoon of salt plus half teaspoon of baking soda mixed in one quart of cool water and delivered orally to the burn victim at the rate of one quart per twenty pounds of body weight during the first 24 hours and half the amount during the next 24 hours He explains that since 1942 National Institute of Health NIH has studied shock that follows severe injuries such as burns crushing injuries and hemorrhage A film shows the procedure that replicated these types of injuries on female albino mice Tissue fluid and blood rushing to the wound area result in dehydration sodium deficiency and reduced blood volume overall and can be corrected by administering Rosenthals fluid treatment orally or intravenously Dr Kehl Markley also of NIH explains a chart comparing the amount of saline treatment to survival rate He then narrates a film about 1951 experiments with human burn victims in Lima Peru where half received saline solution by mouth and half received plasma and glucose by vein The two groups showed no significant differences after 24 hours although many burn victims who survive the shock later die from infection Dr Markley discusses a chart of burn victims showing the number of deathscases of those who received saline plasma or both In conclusion the Office of Civil Defense Mobilization has recommended emergency use of saline solution for burn shock in case of a major bomb disaster
Date Published: 1960-03-20
Abstract: This program takes place at Hughes Aircraft Company in California and features the Mobot Mark I an electrohydraulic device that was developed as a lab technician for tasks too dangerous for humans John Colp of the Radiation Effects Lab at Sandia Corp shows the mobot operating between the radiation room where component parts are exposed to atomic radiation and the hot cell where the mobot analyzes the components damage and tests them for malfunction Design engineer Vaughn Thompson explains the design of the mobots pincers elbow rotation and other movements and how the hydraulic system functions Dr John Clark manager of the nuclear electronics lab at Hughes displays a diagram of the operating system controlling the mobot and explains how the mobots movements are controlled on the operators console A triaxial cable carries all signals via a multiplexing circuitry to the mobot The mobot demonstrates its dexterity by putting a golf ball into a cup and operator Stan Pearlman successfully guides the mobot through an exercise in finding a dumbbell hidden by Lynn Poole Drawings of future mobots include models to fight fires and to explore underwater and lunar areas
Date Published: 1959-10-18
Abstract: Lynn Poole displays the incandescent point source of light from 1909 the 1938 fluorescent line source of light and the new electroluminescence flat panel of light Carl Jensen a lighting engineer and marketing manager and Dr John McNall the director of research at Westinghouse Electric Corp discuss how this light is generated by exciting phosphors in alternating electric fields and demonstrate the concept using a tilting board with traps and marbles Electroluminescence was first discovered in 1936 by Georges Destriau shown in a film clip The guests also make the analogy of keys on a piano to the full electromagnetic spectrum from radio waves to gamma waves They explain that lumens are units of light and watts are units of power and they compare the brightness of electroluminescence to incandescent and fluorescent bulbs The new product can become brighter by increasing the voltage or frequency or both but it has limits Dr McNall shows the electrical conductors and other layers making up this artificial source of light and notes that it can be made into many shapes or designs and installed in ceilings walls stairs furniture and even drapery However square panels are the most common shape as shown in the top of a coffee table and on the walls of a model room Scientific use of electroluminescence includes astronautical instrumentation and electroenhancement will lead to less xray exposure by intensification of fluoroscopy screens Mr Jensen predicts that in the future this product could be used for a thin flat wallmounted television screen with controls available remotely for the viewers convenience
Date Published: 1959-05-24
Abstract: The program opens with photos showing the versatility and expression of glass Host Leo Geier explains that Johns Hopkins University employs fulltime glassblower John Lehman because research scientists require intricate complex glass equipment that no one has ever seen Mr Lehman demonstrates pulling points as he creates a ring seal for a trap When Mr Lehman first started blowing glass there were only soft soda and lime glass varieties now there are 75 different types and additional refinements are in process A film covers the discovery of glass from obsidian natural glass used to carve weapons vessels and decorations to the first manmade glass in 5000 BC and the Egyptians glass jewelry and containers Mr Lehman demonstrates how to make a manometer from capillary tubing glass as well as the procedure in blowing a flask and a coiled glass tube To demonstrate nonscientific aspects of the art Mr Lehman blows a swan makes glass Christmas snow and completes a glass bird
Date Published: 1959-11-01
Abstract: Lynn Poole discusses the era of American showboats and their onwater performances such as the melodrama The Drunkard The first act of this play is performed in the studio by Naomi Evans Betty Shaffer Joe Bandiera Mel Shaffer Robert Adams Maurice Sole Jane Pollard Walter Koehler and Sonny Harmon and Mr Poole summarizes the remainder of the plot Film clips show river boats and a few specialty numbers or entre acts that took place between play scenes Vaudeville often followed the play like the programs barbershop quartet singing Bird in a Gilded Cage In 1817 Noah Ludlow and his acting troupe boarded a keelboat and performed in halls onshore Chapmans 1831 Floating Theater was the first preCivil War showboat to ply the rivers and entertain culturehungry audiences with lectures plays religious revivals circuses and museums Between 18701920 other riverboats such as Augustus B Frenchs New Sensation were popular floating theaters their calliopes dignaling the coming of the showboat into town
Date Published: 1959-11-22
Abstract: This program opens with a film of the US Department of Agricultures Agricultural Research Station in Beltsville MD In one greenhouse two groups of plants are receiving the same daytime conditions but at night one is kept in total darkness while the other receives eight additional hours of incandescent light Two fouryear old loblolly pines show the results of this experiment Dr H A Borthwick explains that this is to study photoperiodism or the effect of light on the plants growth mechanism In 1918 Wightman W Garner and Harry A Allard discovered that it is not the length of the day but rather of the night that is the determining factor in flower and seed production and growth of plants Further experiments with lettuce bean tomato and corn seeds test the effect of spectrum light colors and exposure on germination A far red light creates a taller plant and red light creates the tomato skin color The mechanism in a plant the reacts to light is not chlorophyll but rather a twoway growth pigment phytochrome that acts as a switch with red and far red light A film shows the process using a spectrophotometer by which this was determined K H Norris demonstrates a spectrophotometer with a corn sample and explains the results with graphs Two film clips show Sterling B Hendricks doing further research on phytochromes to isolate their molecular structure and Soviet Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev at Beltsville MD listening to Dr Borthwick discuss crop growth issues
Date Published: 1960-02-14
Abstract: Dr Herbert Friedman astrophysicist with the US Naval Research Lab uses a piano to demonstrate that the range of the spectrum from red to violet is one octave of electromagnetic frequency and notes that the earths atmosphere blocks all but thirteen of the total sixty octaves of radiation frequencies He shows a photo of Karl Jansky and a picture and soundtrack of lighteningproduced whistlers which Jansky studied In a 1945 film clip V2 rockets carry a Lyman alpha solar disk camera above the earths atmosphere to study ultraviolet wavelengths such as the Lyman alpha line discovered by Theodore Lyman at Harvard in 1912 The eponymous camera is described in a film as are the photon counters used in the rocket to send data from the flight to the ground Pictures reveal the suns characteristics such as sunspots flares and plages A 1959 detailed photo of the sun taken with the Lyman alpha camera shows the Lyman alpha regions Another film discusses the study of solar flares and the use of push button rocketry to measure them A film shows twostage rockets launched from the Pont Arguello CA US Naval Missile Facility to study the ultraviolet xray emissions of solar flares A chart displays the suns photosphere surrounded by outer and inner coronas and a chromosphere An animated segment and film clips document the attempt to photograph the sun during the October 12 1958 total eclipse Dr Friedman concludes the program by explaining the detection of ultraviolet nebulosity in the night sky and lists questions researchers are trying to answer about Lyman alpha light and hydrogenfilled galactic space
Date Published: 1960-02-28
Abstract: The program opens with drawings of early primitive underwater vessels and segues into a film of swimmers with aqualungs A photo of Charles William Beebe is shown as oceanographer Dayton Carritt discusses Beebes 1930s bathysphere In 1953 Auguste Piccard built the first bathyscaphe the Trieste a 50foot untethered underwater vehicle after many years of successfully using balloons to study the atmosphere The Trieste operates on the Archimedes principle of water displacement demonstrated by Dr Carritt by dropping a tennis ball and a golf ball into water Dr Carritt explains in detail a schematic diagram of the Trieste showing how the ballast mechanism works with a small experiment and film clip of the procedure In 1958 the Office of Naval Research bought the Trieste from Piccard for $185000 to study the physical chemical biological and geological characteristics of the ocean Dr Carritt interviews Dr Robert Dietz of the US Navy who recounts his dive in Trieste with Piccard describing what he saw and how he felt Dr Dietz also explains the false bottom or deep scattering layer and shows a graph of it He discusses the drawbacks and the uses of bathyscaphes such as deep sea salvage mineral mining and cable monitoring
Date Published: 1958-11-16
Abstract: Members of the Baltimore Woodwinds first chair or principle players with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra open the program playing the finale of Quintet in Eflat major by Anton Reicha Lynn Poole describes the history of woodwind music and introduces the players Britton Johnson on flute Wayne Rapier on oboe Robert Pierce on French horn Stanley Petrulis on bassoon and Ignatius Gennusa on clarinet The quintet plays two movements of Vivaldis Sonata in G minor and continues with Pastoral by modern composer Vincent Persichetti Last in their repertoire are three short pieces for woodwind composed by Jacques Ibert
Date Published: 1960-02-21
Abstract: Lynn Poole describes some pottery pieces from several different centuries and civilizations and notes how the features of the pottery are clues to their past Dr Gus W Van Beek Johns Hopkins University archaeologist says that of written and unwritten remains archaeology is the only source of information on civilizations before the third millennium BC and pottery shreds are the most common remains On a diagram of the Hajar bin Humeid mound excavated in 195051 he shows how each stratum is delineated by debris and specific features The study of these layers is called stratigraphy Since ancient pottery styles changed readily relative chronology of a culture can be based on these changes For example the ledge handles on Palestinian jars went through four stages of design change Likewise immigration and colonization are revealed by changes in native pottery Use of literary sources adds to this information for dating objects in the strata as does carbon14 dating
Date Published: 1958-12-07
Abstract: Lynn Poole describes how Charles Darwin changed the world with his theory of evolutionthat all forms of life evolved from lower forms through natural selection Poole briefly describes Darwins life tracing on a map the naturalists fiveyear 183136 journey on the HMS Beagle on which he observed the variations of species on the Galapagos Islands and their modifications to their environments Darwin concluded that successful characteristics are transmitted by the fittest survivors of a species and that the process of evolution continuously creates change His ideas were published in 1859 in Origin of Species with the support of Joseph Hooker Charles Lyell Alfred Russel Wallace and Thomas Huxley Responses and challenges to these heretical views were made by such critics as Samuel Wilberforce Lord Kelvin and Fleeming Jenkin
Date Published: 1959-01-11
Abstract: Nicolaus Copernicus took issue with early astronomers such as Ptolemy who wrote the Almgest a catalog of the motions of the planets and position of stars based on his use of an astrolabe Costumed actors portraying Copernicus and his pupil Rheticus discuss astronomical theories and question the prevailing belief in the epicycles of planets in an earthcentered universe However their work was criticized by the church including Martin Luther who considered the concept of the earth revolving and rotating to be ludicrous Danish astronomer Tyco Brahe combined the best findings from both Ptolemy and Copernicus but did not accept the latters heliocentric universe Rheticus however wrote about that theory in his First Account Copernicus died in 1543 as his Concerning the Revolution was being published Giordano Bruno defended the Copernican heliocentric theory and was tried as a heretic and burned at the stake
Date Published: 1959-01-18
