New Earthquake Theory

1910

Areas of earthquake and volcanic activity are traveling westward about twenty-five miles a year, according to the investigation of H. Wehner, a German physicist. He accounts for this by the novel theory that the earth's solid crust encloses a thin layer of liquid, within which is a solid nucleus rotating about the same axis as the outer shell, and in the same direction, but with a slightly less velocity, the lagging behind causing the nucleus to make a revolution to the west in the crust in about 952 years.

It is assumed that earthquake and volcanic disturbances result when projecting or active spots on the nucleus are moved under weak portions of the crust. From reports by ships during the last 60 years it is calculated that the active spots of the Atlantic are nearly all collected at the present time under the region between 35 and 41 degrees west longitude and one degree north and one degree south latitude, and that this area off the northeastern coast of South America may be regarded as a danger zone.


Grecian Nose Worth £1,000

Mlle. Boucheraud, a fascinating Parisian actress, once had a perfect Grecian nose. Now it is slightly concave in its lower part, and she is claiming in the law courts £1,000 from M. Lang, who was the direct cause of the alteration. M. Lang considered that Mlle. Boucheraud did not reserve her fascination for himself, and in the course of a lovers' quarrel struck her heavily on the face.

Much-Shaken Japan

1900

In 1893 the Japanese government appointed an investigating committee on earthquakes. This committee, which has now nearly completed its labors, reports, among other things, that it seems likely that one part or another of Japan will be visited by a destructive earthquake once in every two-and-a-half years.

That portion of the land bordering the Japan Sea is seldom disturbed by other than local earthquakes, while the Pacific coast of the country frequently suffers from great shocks originating under the ocean. When a region is shaken by constantly recurring small earthquakes, it appears to be rendered safe against the occurrence of destructive shocks, because the accumulation of stress in the earth's crust at that point is prevented.


Modern Bullets

Sir William MacCormac writes in the Lancet that in most cases the damage done by modern bullets, and especially the Mauser, cannot be compared with that inflicted by the projectiles of the needle-guns or the Chassepôt rifle, weapons employed in the Franco-German War. A similar result is obtained when comparison is made with the work of the bullets used in our Civil War.


Studying A Prodigy

At Indiana University a 19-year-old boy who possesses extraordinary powers of arithmetical calculation is under investigation to determine, scientifically, the nature of his mental processes.

It has been found that a tenacious memory underlies much of his singular power, the rapidity of his calculations depending upon the great quantity of number relations which he has memorized, as well as upon the short cuts that he has invented. — Youth's Companion.

Movement of Earth's Poles

1904

One of the strange phenomena of nature for which an explanation has long been sought is the fact that the earth's poles undergo a certain more or less irregular displacement, says Harper's Weekly.

Professor John Milne, of England, well known as an authority on earthquakes, has suggested that this displacement may be due to movements of the earth's crust, and consequently depend on the number and frequency, of earthquakes. The theory attracted the attention of M. A. de Lapparent, who has studied the subject with the aid of observations made of earthquakes, as well as of astronomical observations of the movement of the poles, and his results are strongly confirmatory of the English seismologist's theory.

Any movement of the earth's crust, such as the sinking of an ocean bed or the rising of a continent, apparently occasions earthquakes and earth tremors and it is only reasonable to believe that such movements must produce some change in the distribution of the mass of the earth, which would, of course, directly affect the position of the earth's axis, which is also affected by other and exterior causes.

Conversely, by studying the change in the position of the earth's axis by astronomical observations it would be possible to study the changes in the earth's crust. This new science, according to knowledge, "might almost be called the new astrology, since we might perceive, in the apparent motions of the stars' cataclysmic action, possibly of direct influence in man's destiny on the earth."

Prophet Predicting World's End Dec. 17 Says 'I Told You So'

1920

I TOLD YOU SO, PROPHET PORTA SAYS OF QUAKES

By United Press Leased Wire

San Francisco.—The violent earthquake shocks in Mexico last Saturday night were part of the seismic disturbances he predicted as a result of the conjunction of six planets on the same side of the sun, according to Professor Albert F. Porta. Porta was credited with predicting the end of the world on Dec. 17.

"The Mexican earthquakes and those which occurred in the Canary Islands, Jan. 1 to 3 are to be considered as the product of the 'league of planets' which I predicted last August," Porta said today. Porta claimed other of his prognostications would be verified within a few months.

—The Appleton Daily Post, Appleton, Wisconsin, January 8, 1920, page 5.

The Sinking of a Small Island

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Frequent seismic manifestations of late had prepared the world for news of some such upheaval as that which is reported off the coast of Salvador, accompanied by the sinking of a small island. This has involved a lamentable loss of life, and illustrates anew the peril of making homes in the earthquake-ridden sections of the earth, for several similar catastrophes have occurred in that quarter.
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In Colorado they propose a law making it an offense for doctors to cut out patients' appendices unless it is necessary. The enactment of such a statute would enable us to foresee the time when professional ethics would require every doctor to testify that all his brother practitioners' appendix-pruning was positively required.
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Feminine Financiering
He -- I've won our bet on the football game and you owe me ten kisses.
She (a commercial school graduate) -- Very well, I'll give you a draft on mamma.
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--The Ellis Review-Headlight, Ellis, Kansas, 1911.