Rocket

4015

Rockford

 

disease.' With the initial gift of $200,000,
scholarships and fellowships were distributed
among existing laboratories throughout the
country; but the need of greater concentra-
tion in the work was met by the further do-
nation of $1,000,000 for land and building
purposes. Mr. Rockefeller gave $2,600,000
for endowment purposes in 1907. The Insti-
tute has three departments: the department
of laboratories, department of the hospital,
and the department of animal and plant
pathology.
Rocket Flight denotes a method, as yet
unachieved, of flying and conveying by pow-
er-driven 'rockets' or projectiles instead of
the familiar airplane, airship or balloon. In

have all contributed to the aspiration of a
human expedition to the moon—and a safe
return. Already in 1930 Robert Esnault-
Pelterie of France, an expert on the rocket
system of propulsion, had published a work
on interstellar navigation and outlined plans
for a moon flight, with the confident predic-
tion that this would be accomplished within
the next 15 years. Radio and television would
be employed to describe the flight while in
progress. Important experiments with rock-
ets have been recently conducted in the U. S.
by Prof. R. H. Goddard.
Rockets, in warfare, are used for making
signals, for setting fire to buildings or ship-
ping, or as projectiles. Signal rockets gener-

Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, New York City.

1865 the ingenious French novelist Jules
Verne published a fantastic but fascinating
story, From the Earth to the Moon. In this
imaginary voyage, made by three adventur-
ous scientists, the aerial vehicle was an elabo-
rately constructed projectile, fired from a
huge cannon deeply rooted in the earth, and
aimed towards the moon. Grotesque and im-
possible as the story seemed for more than
half a century, modern scientists have been
taking the matter very seriously, for Verne
had woven fiction around airplanes, airships,
submarines and television long before any
one of those marvels existed. The remarkable
stratosphere ascents of Piccard (1931 and
1932), and of the Russian Goltzman in
1933; the development of motors and pro-
pellers, the experimental rocket engine
of Paul Heylandt (Germany, 1931)* and
a rocket turbine for airplanes patented
by R. H. Goddard (U. S. A.,

ally have a tubular case and head of stout
Daper. The head contains a composition
which when ignited bursts into stars of vari-
ous colors; the bottom is choked until it
forms a single vent in the center, where the
rocket is lighted. They are fired from a rocket
trough, by which the required elevation may
be given.
Rockfish, the name of many fishes notable
for haunting rocky parts of the coast or bot-
tom. The term is most distinctively applied
to the numerous species of the family Scorpse-
nidas, found chiefly on the Pacific Coast of the
United States and in Japan. The group is
composed of gaily colored, viviparous, ma-
rine shore fishes, varying in length from 10 in.
to 3 ft.
Rockford, city, Illinois. The finest grades
of furniture are produced and more walnut is
consumed than by any other furniture cen-
ter in the country, Other leading manufac-