50, 100 & 150 Years Ago: Space Race, Cost of Coal and An Uncivil Club

Articles from past issues of Scientific American
* Supplement: An Uncivil Club

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DECEMBER 1957
SPUTNIK 2— “With the launching by the U.S.S.R. of its second artificial satellite, weighing half a ton and carrying the first living being into space—a little dog named Laika—scientists the world over were ready to accept the age of space travel as already born. A rocket shot to the moon seemed imminent. An official statement, issued through the Soviet news agency Tass, said that ‘the increase in the satellite’s size to provide for a large number of measuring and telemetering instruments, and even for an animal passenger, necessitated the development of improved new instruments and sources of power.’”

DECEMBER 1907
COAL MINES— “Secretary Garfield of the Interior Department announces that the number of mining accidents, caused directly or indirectly by mine explosions, has been steadily increasing. Their increase is attributed in part to the lack of proper and enforcible mine regulations; to ignorance of the explosives and the proper conditions of their use in the presence of gas and dust. Also, not only is the number of miners increasing, but the coal is being taken from greater depths or farther from the entrance, in locations where ventilation becomes increasingly difficult. During the year 1906, no less than 2,061 men were killed outright in the mines.”

DECEMBER 1857
TOP OF THE WORLD— “An interesting paper was recently read before the Academy
of Sciences in Paris. In 1855 in the summer Hermann Schlagintweit explored the eastern part of the Himalaya, the Sikkim, Bhootan, and Kossia mountains, where he measured the altitudes of several peaks. The highest of all the summits known throughout the world appears by his measurements to be the Gahoorishanke, situated in the eastern portion of Nepaul, the same announced as such by Colonel Waugh, but called by him Mount Everest, because he had been unable to ascertain its real name in the plains of Hindostan. This peak is more than 29,000 feet in height.”

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