NEWS I FOCUS
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^ G O L D STRIKE OF ' 5 7 . Scientists of California Research Corp. struck it rich this month at Sutter's Mill, where an earlier discovery launched a famous gold rush. This time, however, in a switch on 49'er panning techniques, the American River was salted upstream with radioactive gold. Physicists stationed at the mill fished for the passing particles with a Geiger counter—to test the volume of water flow. This new testing method promises to simplify the survey of water resources in regions unequipped with regular gaging stations
r "SYLVATRONS." By combining the sciences of lighting and electronics, Sylvania Electric has developed image-producing panels, or "Sylvatrons." These devices are flat glass electroluminescent panels with various control layers— thin coatings of photo-conductive and electro-conductive surfaces. When electrical signals and a power source are applied to the panels, a visual display, or image, is produced. The panel on the right can convert electrical data into simultaneous dots of light, thus reproducing pictures in motion 98
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4 BY IGY ROCKETPOST. Rocket Research Institute gave the International Geophysical Year a proper sendoff by flying five mail rockets 1% miles from Douglas County, Nevada, to Topaz, Calif. Each of the five, 14-foot-long, solid propellant rockets carried 1000 letters in three specially designed fins. All five landed within a 500-foot circle at the end of the flight
• PENTHOUSE PARTY LINE. Telephone service from top to bottom of the 207-foot fractionating tower at Esso's Baton Rouge refinery is supposed to be private. But an electronic gremlin, Baton Rouge radio station WJBC, breaks in on tower conversations with a muted background of comment or music. Boilermaker Victor Gunderson listens to the pickup from the station while he waits for the "penthouse" to answer
^gr FROM AN EXECUTIVE EASEL. Among a select group of amateur artists whose work now appears in a national exhibit is a chemical manufacturing executive. Werton Dee Moore of Tulsa, Okla. One of Moore's paintings, "Dream Lake," hangs in a national exhibition of professionalquality art by business executives and professional men. Sponsored by Manpower, Inc., a nationwide temporary help service, the exhibition opened in Chicago and will embark on a twoyear tour of art museums, colleges, civic centers
