Museum Entries Range From Steam Engine To Model of a Modern Atomic Reactor
An old bicycle wheel, the gurgles in a working model showing remnants of a radio speaker, the legs of a chiffonier, some tin foil and the top of a candy dish make a solar cooker.
This is typical of the ingenuity on display today in the Museum of Science at the 18th annual Science Congress of Western New York.
“It will boil a thimbleful of water in five minutes — on a sunny day,” William D. Walsh, 8 Benefield Pl., Town of Tonawanda, explained.
In his final year at Kenmore West Senior High School, he is the builder of the solar cooker, one of nearly 300 exhibits by students from 42 Western New York junior and senior high schools entered in the congress.
Wide Range of Understanding
Stimulated by the study of light in his physics class, William covered his bicycle wheel with tin foil to reflect the sun’s rays, then figured with mathematical precision the proper height for the candy dish cover (the platform for what is to be cooked) to absorb the reflected rays and heat.
The chiffonier legs and the radio speaker form a support and a means of adjustment in focusing the rays.
Displays built by the young scientists show a broad range of understanding about the “whys” and “hows” of the physical universe. They include:
¶ Flowing water trickles through a valley and a volcano crater gurgles in a working model showing “geological wonders.”
¶ Humming motors keep a petroleum-drilling rig in motion.
¶ A chirping chick draws attention to a display on the development of chicken eggs.
Dial Slide Rule
¶ White mice show the good effects of balanced diet.
¶ A battery-operated “slide rule” enables a person to divide or multiply merely by turning dials.
¶ Models of an atomic reactor and a satellite beep transmitter.
¶ But the operation of a steam-engine — sometimes seeming old-fashioned — is not overlooked.
Other exhibits illustrate the mechanics of the lung and the eye and the transmission of nerve impulses.
The congress is sponsored jointly by The Buffalo Evening News, the museum and the Western Zone of the New York State Science Teachers Association.
The exhibitors and the 28 finalists in the lecture-demonstration contest which began last Saturday are competing today for $1500 in cash awards, scholarships and other prizes.
