Word: harmlessness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1930-1939
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Convention prohibits mining coasts or ports "with the sole object of intercepting commercial shipping." It also requires that warnings be issued about mine fields dangerous to neutrals, and that floating mines or mines breaking their moorings shall become harmless within one hour...
...British freighters (Matra, Ponzano, Wood-town, Pensilva) and a Danish steamer (Canada) all blew up in nearshore British waters. Certainly the British would not mine roadsteads used by their own ships. Nor could mines drifting loose from British defense fields be blamed since British mines are designed to become harmless after breaking away from their anchorages, as required by international convention. Certainty came when, driven by gales, mines of German make washed ashore in quantities along the British North Sea coast and in Belgium, bashing into piers and bulkheads with savage detonations, frightful flotsam set afloat by the nation whose...
Fortunately, facts will not bear out this saga of declining freedom at Harvard. Not a university law but an unwritten custom prevented the Young Communist League from distributing its message from door to door. Any other group, whether left or right, harmless or vicious, would have met with the same refusal. But the mere fact that an "unwritten law" should crack down particularly on the more politically minded members of the university gives it an unsavory aura. No matter what the origin of this law, no matter what the original purpose, its present function is dangerous. It has almost become...
...tide. U. S. mines used in World War I had 35-ft. antennae attached to their horns which greatly increased their contact range. For harbor defense, "controlled" mines are fitted with electrically charged detonators discharged by a key from shore, or capable of being switched off to render them harmless to friendly ships. The harbor at Southampton is now guarded by a curtain of mines which is drawn aside to let friendly ships enter...
...sodium cyanide. If these began to leak from the apparatus, the sensitive little birds would collapse in time for the men to take action. Pacific, round-faced, gum-chewing Dr. Urey and his associates were not interested in poison, they were simply using the dangerous gases to make a harmless but scientifically important substance called "heavy carbon." An atom of heavy carbon weighs 13 units as compared with ordinary carbon's twelve...