100 YEARS AGO

The introduction of electricity into our houses has added materially to the comfort and luxury of home. If we were living in the days of ancient Greece, the presiding domestic deity would have been Electra. The old bellhanger has been rung out by the new goddess. Electra⃛ attracts the attention of our domestics, not by a gamut of ill-toned and irregularly-excited bells, but by neat indicators and one uniform sound. The timid visitor fears no more that he has expressed rage or impatience by his inexperience of the mechanical pull required at the front door. The domestic telephone is coming in as an adjunct to the bell. Its use saves two journeys. The bell attracts attention, the telephone transmits the order⃛ Heating appliances are becoming very general⃛ Radiators assist the coal fire by maintaining the temperature of a room uniform throughout its length and breadth. Ovens are heated, water is boiled, flat-irons become and are maintained at a useful temperature, breakfast dishes and tea-cakes are kept hot, even curling-tongs have imparted to them the requisite temperature to perform their peculiar function.

From Nature 3 November 1898.

50 YEARS AGO

The award of the Nobel Prize for Medicine for 1948 has been made to Dr. Paul Müller for his discovery of the effects as an insecticide of D.D.T. Drs. P. Läuger, P. Müller and H. Martin were the leaders of an intensive research for insecticidal chemicals in the Basle laboratories of J. R. Geigy, S.A., which extended more than twenty years. The researches were directed originally towards the discovery of moth-proofing agents⃛ It seems to have been in the course of field trials that its remarkable effectiveness against the Colorado beetle was noticed. It was soon found to be equally toxic to the louse and the mosquito. The material was brought to the notice of medical entomologists⃛ at a critical moment in the War when the supplies of pyrethrum were rapidly falling short of the demand⃛ It proved of enormous value in combating typhus and malaria during the War, and now it is being employed with success in campaigns for the complete eradication of malaria from island areas.

From Nature 6 November 1948.