One-half Feet Research Articles

Fierce Solitude: A Life of John Gould Fletcher.

In this biography of John Gould Fletcher, Ben Johnson examines Fletcher's work as a poet and critic and his life as a child, writer, husband, and lover. Fletcher's life was intertwined professionally and personally with those of Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell, T. S. Eliot, Allen Tate, Van Wyck Brooks, and Conrad Aiken. His books often bore the imprint of major publishers, and his essays appeared in leading journals. Fletcher won the 1938 Pulitzer Prize for his Selected Poems and later was installed in the American Institute of Arts and Letters. Well documented and researched, Johnson's study draws upon all the available sources on Fletcher's life and work. Johnson tells us of Fletcher's childhood in the Albert Pike house in Little Rock, where the young boy lived in an isolated and regimented world. As an adult, Fletcher moved in high literary circles, often causing confusion among his critics and followers with his writing - was he an Imagist, an Agrarian, or a Modernist? Or was he simply John Gould Fletcher, the man, caught up in tumultuous times and events, seeking no particular label to pin on his writing, but rather reflecting the changing world as he saw and lived it? Fletcher suffered extreme, cyclical depression; nonetheless, he continued to compose some of his best work until his death just one quarter mile from his home at Johnswood in Little Rock in 1950. There he was found twelve feet from the bank of a pond, lying in two and one-half feet of water, with his coat, hat, billfold, and cigarettes laid out along the edge.

Archaeological Excavations at the Alamo Acequia, Southwest Hemisfair Plaza, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas

In January 1989, the Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio conducted archaeological testing of the Alamo Acequia Madre at the southwest corner of HemisFair Plaza for the City of San Antonio. Six test trenches were excavated across the ace quia, and it was found that the stone lining on the east wall is, in most areas, in relatively good condition, but the west wall has been removed. The bottom two to three feet of the ace quia contains an accumulation of household trash discarded into it after the acequia ceased to hold water. Above this in some sections there is an accumulation of metal junk such as old bed springs and other furniture parts, along with a great deal of demolition debris from the surrounding house lots. The entire area is capped by layers of gravel and topsoil brought in at the time of the construction of HemisFair. Additional test trenching around buildings in the area to the north revealed that the fill depth was as much as two and one-half feet.

Sources of Compass Error in Tunnel Mapping

Six sets of compass measurements were performed in tunnels in igneous rock at the Nevada Test Site. The measurement sets were analyzed to evaluate the influences of wire mesh, rock bolts, mining equipment, and steel arches on compass-based geologic mapping work. Analysis revealed that wire mesh within one foot of the compass, rock bolts within one and one-half feet, or mining equipment (such as a drill jumbo) within two feet would cause deviations in the compass readings which could lead to errors in mapping. Steel arches affected the compass with an apparent “cage effect” that virtually precluded use of the magnetic compass for mapping.

HUMAN IMPACTS ON WISCONSIN STREAM CHANNELS∗

ABSTRACT The conversion of natural land cover to agricultural land uses in the Platte watershed of southwestern Wisconsin caused a three to fivefold increase in the magnitudes of floods that recur more frequently than once in five years in the small headwater and tributary watersheds. The impact of settlement on floods is less for larger watersheds, but the general impact of settlement has caused a major channel metamorphosis throughout the Platte River channel system. Most headwater and tributary channels have modern channel cross sections that are relatively wide and shallow when compared to their presettlement counterparts. Most channel cross sections along the downstream main channel, beyond the channel reaches where bedload sediments are a dominant factor in determining channel shape, are narrow and deep relative to their presettlement counterparts. Much of the sediment that is related to man-induced accelerated surface runoff has been transported only short distances and is presently deposited on alluvial fans and floodplain surfaces. Historical floodplain alluviation varies in thickness from about one and one-half feet (0.5 m) in the headwaters to about twelve feet (4 m) near the mouth of the river. The morphology of channels and the mobility and storage of sediments in the Platte watershed responded quickly to environmental changes in the watershed.

Outhouses, Weather Changes, and the Return to Basics in English Education

I DIDN'T EXPECT to be an antique at forty-six, but it all seems to have worked out that way. The geographical and social circumstances of my early years are such that I find myself remembering things that few of my contemporaries and none of my juniors seem to recall. Clearly, then, I must be at least twentyfive years older than I thought, contemporary with my elders. Together with my elders-and our number grows fewer each year, threatening the loss from our culture of certain artifacts known only to our dwindling memory-together, I was saying, with my elders, I remember the outhouse. The outhouses I have known best were structures ordinarily of wood, about five feet square, standing some six feet high in front, the roof slanting downward to a rear wall of maybe four and one-half feet. The two sides were sometimes decorated with designs cut into the wood, the crescent moon and the diamond being the most widely favored figures. In some instances, the door was so decorated rather than the walls, and in a few instances, both the two sides and the door were adorned, though the discriminating thought that made entirely too busy an effect. The outhouses of my memory were almost all of the grey-brown achieved by weathering on unpainted wood. Some few, to be sure, were painted, but it seemed an affectation, and I recall that if, on a Halloween night, the choice presented itself to a group of boys between a painted and a weathered outhouse, there was no contest as to which got toppled over. When I was young and all of the family gathered on Christmas at my grandparents' farm, the outhouse there was the center piece for an annual entertainment. It was the custom of all the gathered cousins-I don't know how many there were, and I believe that on two different occasions strangers joined the gathering-to spend a portion of one morning chunking rocks at the outhouse when it was occupied. This was a game that required both skill in the throwing arm and keen judgment, for some of the adults wouldn't do as targets. Aunt Edith, for example, and Aunt Willie Mae were both entirely too gentle and

Effects of acute gamma radiation on growth and morphology in Pinus monophylla Torr. and Frem. (Pinyon Pine)

A Pinus monophylla (pinyon pine) tree was irradiated from a position near the base for eight hours with a Multitron cobalt-60 unit in April 1960. Shoot apices within fifteen inches (0·38 m, ca. 1300 r to 8000 r) showed almost immediate growth inhibition and were killed within four months. Between two and three feet from the source (0·61 to 9·92 m, ca 500 r to 200 r) the terminal buds elongated, but by the end of the season had died, and one or two basal lateral buds had developed per shoot. At three to three and one-half feet (0·92 to 1·07 m, ca. 200 r to 150 r) stem elongation proceeded, but the 1961 bud primordia were dwarfed, and lateral buds elongated. Out to four feet (1·22 m, ca 100 r) no needles developed on the 1960 stem length. From four to five feet from the source (1·22 to 1·53 m, ca. 100 r to 80 r) the number of needles was reduced to from one-half to one-third normal, and approximately one-half were dwarfed. Gnarled growth was common in these dwarf needles. Two vascular tissue anomalies occurred in a number of grossly abnormal as well as in normal appearing needles collected four to six feet from the source (1·2 to 1·8 m; dosages ca 100 r to below 50 r). One, the double vascular strand, probably is related to the naturally occurring fusion process. The other anomaly involved reduction of or lack of vascular tissue. Xylem radii measurements in transverse sections of young stems indicated a decrease in growth for 1960, ranging from 3 to 8 per cent, correlated with increasing exposure. Stem tip elongation in the experimental tree compared with that of the controls was inhibited at doses as low as 15 r. Lateral branching assumes a significant role in shoot recovery from radiation damage, particularly at exposures great enough to affect the actively growing regions of the stem but not the other functional portions.

A Biology Class Project Illustrating Wind Erosion

Within the borders of the United States is a region that is better known for its destructive winds than for the crops that it produces. This region is known as the Dust Bowl. The activity or class project that is submitted in this article was designed to illustrate how the winds of the Dust Bowl region caused the movement of soil from an ever-enlarging area. It is true that the movement of soil might not be as great if cultivation, overgrazing, and droughts of a sustained nature were not normal to the region. However, these conditions do exist, or have existed, and severe wind erosion can be expected whenever the precipitation received becomes sub-marginal rather than marginal in amount. It is therefore understood that the protective vegetative cover depends on the amount of moisture received and the cover determines the severity of the erosion problem. To illustrate the movement of soil in an active wind erosion area the following materials are needed. A fifty-foot tape measure, two bundles of lath or long poles, an area being eroded by wind at the present time, a strip of cloth to attach to each pole to indicate the direction and velocity of the wind. The activity may be carried out in an area being eroded by wind or water, if certain suggested procedures are modified. Procedure: 1. Determine roughly, the area of the active blow. It is suggested that a small corner, or a small blow area just beginning to develop will lessen the time required for the activity. 2. Lay the laths flat, side-by-side, and paint, cut or burn a mark in each lath one and onehalf feet from one end. Then repeat the process making each pole, or lath, at a six inch interval for the entire length of the stake. 3. Encircle the perimeter, or outer portion, of the active blow that is to observed, with the prepared stakes. Drive them into the ground to the depth of one and one-half feet according to the markings on the stakes. As each stake is driven into position, tie a strip of cloth to the end exposed to the wind. 4. Make a map of the blow area indicating the location of the stakes, their distance apart, and the direction of the prevailing wind. Record the date when the stakes were placed in position. 5. After each windstorm, return to the area and determine whether the area being eroded is becoming larger, and if so, in which direction it is being enlarged. 6. It is sometimes desirable to enclose the enlarging blow area with stakes so that a determination can be made of the increased size of the blow at the end of the windy season.

Egg Production of Streptocephalus seali Ryder, with Notes on the Distinctions between Certain North American Streptocephalids

METHOD: Streptocephalus seali, the spiny tailed fairy shrimp, was selected for several reasons. It is a species easily obtained during most seasons of the year in the vicinity of New Orleans. It is also the most widespread of North American fairy shrimps, having been collected from 23 states, Canada, and Mexico. All species used during the study were collected from a roadside ditch at Florenville in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. This ditch is temporary in nature, had a predominantly mud bottom lined on both sides with vegetation, and an average depth of one and one-half feet. Two separate collections were made: one on June 30, 1957, and another on November 30, 1957. The shrimp were obtained with a dip net, and transported to the laboratory in water taken from the ditch at the time of collection. They were maintained in this water until used.

The Erratics of the Cambridge Greenland—Their Nature Provenance and Mode of Transport

Summary The 163 erratics from the Cambridge Greenland in the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge, comprise about 40 types of sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks. Two boulders may be matched with the paisanite of Mynydd Mawr, North Wales, others with the Uriconian rocks of the Midlands and Welsh Borders, whilst the majority, two of which are of types unknown in the British Isles, cannot be localized. The boulders were floated to the Cambridge region, probably in the roots of trees, during the long period of the formation of the Greensand deposit. They prove the existence of land in North Wales and other areas in Cambridge Greensand times. I. Introduction The Cambridge Greensand, a glauconitic marl 1-2 and one-half feet thick, rests on the Gault, and in places with obvious disconformity (Jukes-Brown 1875 ; Reed 1897, p. 96). Between 1854 and 1909 it was worked for phosphate nodules at many localities from Sharpenhoe (Bedfordshire) to Soham (Cambridgeshire) (Strahan 1916), a distance of over 50 miles. Sedgwick writes in 1858 : “Many hundred men are employed in turning out this (so-called) coprolite bed, and many steam engines are working to wash out the phosphate nodules” (Clark and Hughes 1890). “Immense tracts of land in the neighbourhood of Cambridge were turned over” (Jenyns 1867), the nodule bed being only a few feet from the surface, and Sedgwick (1846) states : “The Greensand though partly incoherent and of such inconsiderable thickness, yet appears to have protected the upper surface of the gait from denudation,

First impressions of teaching

As an inexperienced teacher my first impression of my schoolroom was an eagerness to begin work immediately. It was after the Christmas holidays of this past year that I began teaching in the Prairie Point School System at Nocona, Texas. Physically speaking, I have quite an ideal setup. The first three grades are in a separate building from the remainder of the school. This pleased me very much, and when I went into the third grade room, for I teach the third grade, I was really thrilled with the appearance of the room. The room is rather large, the exact dimensions being twenty-two and onehalf feet by nineteen and one-half feet. We have eight windows in our room. Four of these are on the east and the other four are on the north. They supply us with plenty of light and ventilation. On the east side of the third grade room we have our lockers. They are made of wood and fit just under the windows. On each locker we have the child's name and it is here that we keep our books, pencils, paper, etc. The lockers are constructed to accommodate thirty children. They are ten feet long and three and one-half feet high. They are varnished and stained with clear varnish. In our room we have tables and chairs. We have five tables and thirty-two chairs. On the north side the teacher's desk and the bookcase are found. Our library table is parallel to this on the south side. For heating facilities we use gas. On the two sides of the room opposite the windows we have our blackboards. They are placed near the floor so the children are able to reach them without any difficulty. Socially speaking, my room is made up of children whose fathers are farmers or those who work in the oil fields. This school is in the oil district and half of the third grade parents are workers there. The people are indeed very, very friendly. When I came to this place I did not know a single person. Everyone was new to me and of course I was new to them. I shall never forget the first day I taught here. School opened on Tuesday, January 2, following the Christmas 376 [May

Extreme hypersensitiveness to heat: Report of a case

A case of extreme hypersensitiveness to heat is described. The outstanding features were: (1) Exposure of the chest to heat from an ordinary forty-watt desk lamp at a distance of one and one-half feet for thirty seconds invariably produced an attack of asthma. (2) An ice bag invariably relieved attacks in three or four minutes or less. (3) The patient was promptly desensitized to heat by foreign protein shocks from typhoid vaccine intravenously.

Fractures of the Pelvis

UNTIL early in the twentieth century, the chief cause for fractures of the pelvis was thought to be falls from buildings, scaffolding, trestles, etc., and it was not until the development of the coal mining industry and of automobile accidents that this injury became particularly common. Before the days of the Bucky diaphragm real diagnostic films of the pelvis were comparatively rare and only the gross lesions in this region were interpreted. The physical findings are very indefinite even at the time of injury and are of little value three to six months after the trauma has occurred. In this series of cases the peculiar conditions found in the mining industry in the soft coal region are responsible for the rather unusual traumas. To understand the various applications of force with which we have to contend, the conditions under which the coal miners in the large mines in Southern Illinois work may be briefly described as follows: All the coal mines in this State, except the so-called “strip mines,” are shaft operations. A shaft is sunk to the level of the vein of coal which is to be mined, which in Franklin and Williamson counties lies 500 to 600 feet below the surface, with the vein of coal itself running six to eleven feet. From the bottom of this shaft so-called “main entries” are driven in various directions—usually north, south, east, and west—and from these main entries cross-entries are cut. Opening off the cross-entries are the rooms in which the actual coal mining process takes place. From the bottom of the shaft, extending in various directions in the entries, are railway tracks, on which the trains of coal cars are hauled from the distant parts of the mine to the bottom of the hoisting shaft. Under the Illinois law there must be two and one-half feet on one side of these tracks, without any specified distance on the other, and it is on this other, or off-side, that most of the so-called “squeeze accidents” occur. In mining parlance the man is caught between “the car and the rib,” the “rib” meaning the mine wall on this off-side. Other sources of the “squeeze” are the catching of men between the cars and the “face,” the “face” meaning the end of an entry, and between cars. Another important cause is the fall of coal, or rock, from the roof. These accidents are brought about by the desire of the men to get out as much coal as possible before setting props, and carelessness on the part of the inspectors in marking off dangerous territory. Occasionally the fall occurs without warning. In this particular type of accident the individual is first knocked down and then covered with tons—few or many—of coal, rock, or slate. All sorts of forces are applied and the men in the coal country have a stock saying that “when coal falls all bets are off,” meaning that anything may happen. The trauma extends all the way from a mere shaking up to a completely crushed body—and death.

RECENT EXCAVATIONS AT LONG'S HILL, NEBRASKA

While pursuing archeological studies in the northern part of Douglas county, Nebraska, in October 19o6, I chanced upon an excavation in a low tumulus similar to others in the neighborhood. Splinters of human bones lay about the edge of the excavation, which was somewhat more than three feet deep at the beginning of an examination that continued intermittently until ten fractured skulls and many fractured skeletal parts, as well as a few complete bones, had been collected. When five of the crania had been taken, three of them showed a type new to me, as they exhibited massive supraorbital ridges and low foreheads. These five skulls with the skeletal parts were examined by Prof. Henry Fairchild Osborn, of Columbia University, who observed that two of them, which had been taken from a higher level in the hills than were the other three, differed in type from these others. Professor Osborn devoted special attention to the three skulls from the lower level, which he considered to be the remains of a very primitive people. At the suggestion of Professor Osboin I asked assistance of Prof. Erwin H. Barbour, state geologist and curator of the museum of the University of Nebraska, in further work at Long's hill. Professor Barbour's first day's study at the mound resulted in his belief that the more primitive remains had been deposited, where found, by other than human hands. Five days of consecutive work resulted in finding dissociated skeletal parts at varying depths to eleven and one-half feet and thus strengthened his earlier conclusion. The crania of the modern type were found resting upon an area of partially burned earth, or loess, of which the hill is composed. The more ancient type was found mostly below this fired earth. In no instance were parts of the so-called primitive type found nearer the surface than four feet, and at that depth only on the borders of 60

SEVEN CASES OF CEREBRAL SURGERY.

Believing that cerebral lesions not accompanied by fracture or even trauma represent a large proportion of the cerebral cases requiring relief at the hands of the surgeon, I present the following cases in support of that view: <h3>Case 1.</h3> —May 9, 1891, was called to see L. G., age 5 years, who had four days previously sustained an injury by falling fifteen and one-half feet, striking her head on a plank sidewalk. No evidence of fracture of the skull was found at that time or subsequently. She slept eighteen hours in twenty-four, temperature 99.5, pulse 72. Sensation and muscular coördination normal. Appetite was good and bowels regular. Slight mental hebetude. Right side of head and face greatly swollen and discolored. Extravasation of blood under the ocular and palpebral conjunctiva. Left pupil responded to light readily. Swelling prevented inspection of the right pupil. A small swelling was found to the left

NOTES ON THE MAIN CHANNEL OF THE SANITARY DISTRICT OF CHICAGO.

It is impossible within the few minutes at my disposal to more than cursorily touch upon the following general points relative to the main channel of the Sanitary District of Chicago: A general description of the present progress of the work. Some of the benefits accruing to the residents of Chicago upon the completion of the channel. Points of interest in a tour of the line. Of the well-known facts regarding the origin of the project, the labor involved in its legal birth and the imperative demands of sanitation for immediate relief, I will say nothing. The existing result is a channel under process of construction and about thirty miles long. The eastern terminus is at the intersection of Robey Street with the west branch of the south fork of the river, the grade of the bottom being about twenty-four and one-half feet below the Chicago datum plane, or the

On the geology of a part of the Masulipatam District

T he country west of the Palair River, and north of the Kistnah River, is covered with a thinly stratified limestone (E) of a dark blue or black colour, which is about 150 feet thick, and alternates sometimes with dark purple slates (A), sometimes with a lighter-coloured speckled slate, and occasionally with some cubical pieces of clay iron-stone. The extent of this district is 24 square miles*. The limestone here has a strike due north, and a dip about 19° east: this description mainly applies to all the limestone west of the Palair River. The slates are considered old, and have attracted much attention at Madras. No quarries have been opened in these limestone-fields; but the stone is burnt for lime by the natives, who use the slates extensively for the floors of their houses and verandahs. The slabs are usually about 6 feet long, three and one-half feet wide, and from 2 to 8 inches thick. The dark-coloured limestone contains casts of shells, and rings when struck by a hammer. A similar limestone in appearance at Kurnool, Province of Ballaghaut, on the Toombuddra River, 250 miles N.W. of Madras, contains large quantities of lead; and in every ton of lead there are 400 oz. of pure silver; at least, a specimen analysed showed this per-centage. The limestones on the east side of the Palair differ much in colour, appearance, and position from those on the west side, indicating great disturbance of strata; they are principally of a pale yellow, salmon, or red