Magazine content is available exclusively for TIME subscribers.Science: Technology Notes
Recent news of invention and engineering:
> Firestone Tire & Rubber Co.—which branched out into batteries, plastics, steel parts, service stations, cotton mills—announced development of a new automobile spark plug that provides better ignition, quicker starts for cold motors. The plug has electrodes coated with polonium, a radioactive element discovered by the late great Marie Curie (and named for her native Poland). The polonium shoots a steady stream of subatomic particles which ionize (electrify) the air in the spark gap, make it a better conductor when the spark jumps.
> In ordinary metal...
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