100 YEARS AGO Fly experiment presented

Lincoln Baths will be reopening

Professor James W. Mavor of Union College in Schenectady claimed he was able to change the sex of a banana fly by the application of an X-ray. He made the announcement during a lecture for Union College alumni. While experimenting in the lab, Mavor said, he used an X-ray on the insect’s eggs to create males where females would have naturally occurred.

The professor did admit to skepticism as to the practical application of his discoveries to the the human species. He said his work had merely been “of interest to prove that the mechanism of heredity can be altered by an external agent such as the X-ray.” Still, if true and verified, it would be one of the first cases of the predetermination of offspring of any species.

—Times Union, June 10, 1922

The Lincoln Baths in Saratoga Springs, closed last season because of state budget cuts, would open this year, according to the Saratoga Springs Commission and Alexander Aldrich, state commissioner of parks and recreation. Aldrich said the opening, scheduled for July 5 through Aug. 11, had been ordered for the purpose of reducing the “unfortunate overcrowding ” last year at the city’s Washington Baths. As a result, many of the regular visitors to the Spa baths were unable to be accommodated. Aldrich noted the opening dates of the three bathhouses had been arranged to coincide with the peak usage periods. He said the Washington Baths would close the day before the opening of the Lincoln Baths and would reopen after the Lincoln facility closed in August. The Roosevelt Baths No. 1 would be open as usual from July 6 through Aug. 26.

Looking Back is compiled by C.J. Lais Jr. and Azra Haqqie.