Is Nature Kind to Man?

Is Nature Kind to Man? <By DR. JOSEPH F. MERRILL Church Commissioner of Education MAN lives in a world in which he is beset on ev- ery hand with natural enemies, some assert. Do you be- lieve that Nature is unkind to man? In any case, life is a chal- lenge that man has successfully met, for he still lives and his power and dominion in the natural world are increasing apace. In this fact lies the basis of high compliments to his intelligence and capacity. He has grown in spite of his enemies. But has Nature provided him with no friends? Let us see. We live in a marvelous age. Many scientific discoveries have been made. What is the greatest one of all time? If you have never tried to reply to this question you will be surprised at the simplicity of the answer, for it is only this: Natural law is universally su- preme. If you examine widely and study deeply you will be pro- foundly impressed with the order- liness that prevails everywhere in Nature. Whether you study with a microscope in the realms of the infinitesimal or with the unaided eye in the world about you or with a giant telescope that reaches out to incomprehensible distances you find not chaos but orderliness everywhere, a fact of tremendous importance to man's welfare. His control of Nature and his utiliza- tion of her forces rest upon this basis. 'T'O be sure man has natural ene- ■■ mies — but let us hunt a little for ways in which Nature is espe- cially kind to him. We shall not be disappointed in our search. But space will permit of a reference to a very few only. Are not the elements tempered for his good? Sunshine and rain, day and night, summer and winter, are all necessary to his wel- fare. But let us be more specific. A little study of water will reveal a case in point. This liquid has some remarkable properties, all of which are serviceable to man. It exists as a solid — ice, as a liquid, and as a vapor. A moderate fall in temperature makes water freeze; and it boils, passing off as steam, with a rise in temperature that cer- tainly is not excessive. These are facts familiar to everyone. But in these changes in state — liquid to solid, or liquid to vapor — lie tre- mendous "tempering" effects that ordinarily escape our attention. TF the temperature falls suffkient- ly, water becomes ice. Certain- ly, you say, but what of it? Well, if you want to melt a block of ice you have to apply lots of heat. Now in Nature nothing is lost — certainly no heat is ever lost. When a pound of water freezes as much heat is given out as it takes to melt the pound of ice that results. So the freezing of water is in a sense a heating process. The heat given out by the freezing water slows up the freezing process and tends to prevent a further fall in tem- perature, a fact that is utilized in keeping fruit and vegetables in a cellar from freezing. A tub of water is placed in the cellar. So much heat is given off by the freez- ing water that the temperature does not fall to a point dangerous to the vegetables. And another thing. The "la- tent heat of ice" — the amount of heat required to melt a unit mass of it — is very great, much greater than the latent heat of other sol- ids. Herein lies a "tempering" capacity that is marvelous. The freezing of ponds, rivers and lakes gives out tremendous quantities of heat that are very effective in pre- venting bitter cold weather. Com- pare, for instance, the winter tem- peratures of North Dakota with those of Michigan in the same lati- tude. Michigan is surrounded on three sides by lakes and large riv- ers. Her winter temperatures are mild compared with those of North Dakota. T3 UT let us go a little further in our study of the peculiar be- havior of water. We begin the study with water at ordinary liv- ing temperature, 70 degrees, say. We begin to cool it at the surface. The temperature falls, the cold water sinks, for it contracts and gets denser. The warmer water be- low is forced up, for it is lighter. A circulation ensues, but does not continue indefinitely. When water cools to 39 degrees — seven de- grees above the freezing point — it has reached its greatest density. If cooled lower, or below 39 degrees, it expands. So if water in a ves- sel is sufficiently cooled at the top, circulation will cease when the en- tire volume has reached a tempera- ture of 39 degrees. If cooling continues, expansion takes place, resulting in the coldest water stay- ing at the top where it finally freezes. But ice is lighter than water and so floats. Furthermore, the resulting ice not only slows up the freezing by giving off heat, but also by preventing the escape of heat outward and the coming of "cold inward," due to the fact that ice is. "a poor conductor of heat." Now think through what all this means in the economy of Na- ture. When cooled most liquids continue to contract and on solid- ification the solids sink, for they are denser and therefore heavier than their liquids. If water and ice behaved thus, ponds, rivers, lakes and seas would freeze solid during winter in our northern and far southern zones, killing all aquatic life, and making naviga- tion in these regions impossible. For no summer's sun could ever thaw out these bodies of water due to the high "latent heat" of ice and the poor heat conducting property of both ice and water. TCE floats. This means it is ■■ lighter than water. Hence water, contrary to the behavior of many liquids, expands on freezing. And all too many cracked vessels give mute evidence of the enormous expansive force of freezing water. This fact is also of tremendous economic importance. Soils are made from the crumbling of rocks. And rocks are split and crumbled by the freezing of water in the pores and cracks. Let us look for a moment into water in the form of vapor. Here again we see the kindliness of Na- ture. In springtime a farmer does not expect a frost on a cloudy night. Clouds are masses of mi-

316 The Improvement Era for March^ 1930 nute particles of water and water vapor floating in the air. Clouds are good absorbers of heat — "they seem to devour it." During sun- shine the earth, too, absorbs heat and warms up. But at night this heat is lost — it is radiated out in- to space. But if there are clouds above and water vapor in the air but little heat passes through into outer space to be lost. The ab- sorbed heat Warms up the clouds and the air, preventing a freezing temperature. Thus clouds over the surface of the land, like ice over a pond of water, act like blankets in preventing a loss of heat. Manifestly, for more rea- sons than one, we could not live on the earth if its skies were cloud- less. piNALLY, glance a little more in review at the climatic temper- ing effects of water in its three forms — solid, liquid, and vapor. Freezing water is a sort of furnace that gives out heat, slowing up the freezing and a fall in tempera- ture to bitter depths. The melt- ing of snow and ice in the spring requires such enormous amounts of heat that the process is relatively slow, eliminating quick run-offs and floods. It is extremely fortu- nate for us that the "latent heat" of ice is so high, but no more fortunate than that the "latent heat" of water vapor is also high — much greater than that for most other vapors. That is to say, to convert water into vapor requires a large amount of heat. But when the vapor (or steam) goes back — condenses — into water, all this heat is given out again. The ef- fectiveness of steam in a heating system or in a steam-engine is very largely due to this. So evaporation — formation of vapor or steam — is a cooling pro- cess and condensation is a heating process, just as freezing is. And if large quantities of vapor or ice are involved, these processes are very effective in their climatic tem- pering results. And man is the beneficiary. This study cannot here be fur- ther pursued, but it has only been introduced. To the thoughtful reader pursuing it further will ap- pear abundant evidence that Na- ture is good to man. Tke Beauty of Bravery By PRES. EMERITUS GEORGE H. BRIMHALL Of the Btigham Young University T INDBERGH'S wife's mother -^recently said: "Bravery is beautiful!" As I read the remark I thought: "If as mother, so daugh- ter, then the 'Lone Eagle' is well- mated." Yes, bravery is beauty, character beauty, enduring beauty, a beauty within the reach of all, a beauty that grows from within, a beauty to be brought out, a beauty that cannot be put on. It is the ugliness of cowardice that makes it universally despised, and the beauty of bravery that makes it so admired. The bravery that is beautiful is not the bravery of the brute with nothing but the urge of appetite or the push of passion behind it, but the bravery of a humanity that at once makes its way upward and lifts from below. No one may hope for the phys- ical perfection of an Apollo, or a Venus, but every one may acquire the beauty of bravery, the charm of character courage shown by high-aim conduct. The three word message: "Bravery is beautiful" called for reflection and reflection called for desire and desire called for resolu- tion. From the boundless field of bravery-beauty I present seven samples : 1. A believer in the midst of doubters. 2. A defender of the absent where gossipers gather. 3. A hard worker with oppor- tunities for ease. 4. A mother with a babe in her arms. 5. A young person saying "no" to temptation. 6. A scientist persistently fol- lowing the trail of truth. 7. A religionist keeping pro- gressively in rapport with God. Desiring to be of such as these I wrote in my New Year Book of Self Commandments, Be Bravely Beautiful, Batik Work By GLENN J. BEELEY THE word "Batik" means to design and comes originally from Java. The process of Batik is called resist dyeing. The meth- od used is to paint the design upon the fabric by hand with melted wax. The material which has to be decorated is covered where the original color has to remain with a composition made with equal parts of paraffin wax and beeswax.which is absorbed by the material so that it clings to the fibres of the textile, to prevent the color from penetrat- ing the covered parts when placed in the dye tub. When this wax is removed by ironing between paper or dipping in gasoline, it is found that the material has kept its orig- inal color while the uncovered parts have taken on the shade of the dye. A NOTHER method of getting •L *■ designs is by the use of twine and knotted cloth. The Indians, Chinese and Japanese tied pebbles into cloth and wound heavy thread below each pebble. These were dyed, and after being thoroughly dried the twine untwisted. This method is often used when several colors are required, but it is a te- dious process, as the material has to be tied for the first dip and then retied for the second color after the first is dry. A MORE modern method of 1V Batik workis to put the de- sign on the fabric to be decorated by the use of some of the standard fabric paints on the market. The designed part is then covered with a composition of hot wax, half paraffin and half beeswax. The whole is now dipped in some dye. The background and a few cracks running through the designed parts will thus be dyed by this last dip- ping. This method is very sim- ple, but the results are very grati- fying.