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Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 "The Accent is always on the penultimate syllable.
Esperanto reminds one of Italian, when spoken, and has proved
extremely melodious for singing.

"The Vocabulary. The principle of internationalism is

applied here in a most ingenious fashion. Dr. Zamenhof
proceeded thus: he compared the dictionaries of the different
languages, and picked out first those words which are common
to them all. He spelled them according to the phonetic system,
dropped the special endings in each idiom, and adopted them as
root-words in his proposed language. … Then he picked out
those which appear in most languages, although not in all. …
For the remaining words,—and there are comparatively few
left,—which are never the same in the different languages, Dr.
Zamenhof selected them in such a manner as to make the task of
acquiring Esperanto equally difficult or equally easy for all
concerned."

A. Schinz,
Esperanto: the Proposed Universal Language
(Atlantic Monthly, January, 1906).

The sixth international Congress of teachers and promoters of

Esperanto is appointed to be held at Washington in 1910. An
influential Esperanto Association has been organized in the
United States, under the presidency of Dr. D. O. S. Lowell, of
the Boston Latin School.

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:

Eugenics: The Science and Art of being Well-born.

"We know that the old rule, ‘Increase and multiply,’ meant a
vast amount of infant mortality, of starvation, of chronic
disease, of widespread misery. In abandoning that rule, as we
have been forced to do, are we not now left free to seek that
our children, though few, should be at all events fit, the
finest, alike in physical and psychical constitution, that the
world has seen?

"Thus has come about the recent expansion of that conception

of eugenics—or the science and art of being well-born,
and of breeding the human race a step nearer towards
perfection—which a few among us, and more especially Mr.
Francis Galton, have been developing for some years past.
Eugenics is beginning to be felt to possess a living actuality
which it was not felt to possess before. Instead of being a
benevolent scientific fad, it begins to present itself as the
goal to which we are inevitably moving. … Human eugenics need
not be, and is not likely to be, a cold-blooded selection of
partners by some outside scientific authority. But it may be,
and is very likely to be, a slowly growing conviction—first
among the more intelligent members of the community, and then
by imitation and fashion among the less intelligent
members—that our children, the future race, the torch-bearers
of civilisation for succeeding ages, are not the mere result
of chance or Providence, but that, in a very real sense, it is
within our grasp to mould them, that the salvation or
damnation of many future generations lies in our hands, since
it depends on our wise and sane choice of a mate. …

"Eventually, it seems evident, a general system, whether

private or public, whereby all personal facts, biological and
mental, normal and morbid, are duly and systematically
registered, must become inevitable if we are to have a real
guide as to those persons who are most fit or least fit to
carry on the race. Unless they are full and frank, such
records are useless. But it is obvious that for a long time to
come such a system of registration must be private. … Through
the munificence of Mr. Galton and the co-operation of the
University of London the beginning of the attainment of these
eugenic ideals has at length been rendered possible. The
senate of the University has this year appointed Mr. Edgar
Schuster, of New College, Oxford, to the Francis Galton
 Research Scholarship in Natural Eugenics. It will be Mr.
Schuster’s duty to carry out investigations into the history
of classes and of families, and to deliver lectures and
publish memoirs on the subject of his investigations. It is a
beginning only, but the end no man can foresee."

Havelock Ellis,
Eugenics and St. Valentine
(Nineteenth Century, May, 1906).

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:

The Gasoline Engine.

Writing in 1905, in an article entitled "The Age of Gasoline,"

contributed to the American Review of Reviews, Mr. F.
K. Grain, M. E., gave this brief account of the rapid
development of its use as a producer of power, threatening to
supersede coal: "About fifteen years ago we first began to
hear much of the gasoline engine, which was then in a very
crude state. Its possibilities, however, were so attractive,
and the field for its use so large,—practically
unlimited,—that inventors and manufacturers at once bent their
energies to its development, with the result that the gasoline
engine has reached a degree of perfection in the past few years
that is surprising in view of the fact that the designers were
working out a new problem in a practically unknown field, and
consequently had no data, theoretical or practical, of any value
to assist. … As a motive power, utilized by means of the
internal-combustion engine, gasoline is at this time
revolutionizing travel, through the automobile. The
automobile, in turn, has been the means of adapting gasoline
to propulsion of railway trains, as this form of power is
found especially useful on short lines where the traffic is
light. Several railroads are now building gasoline motor cars
of considerable size. …

"The gasoline engine as now made is an adaptation of the steam

 engine, employing the gas produced by gasoline as a means of
energy. Contrary to the general understanding, the gas or
gasoline engine is but a high-pressure caloric motor. The
power in the gasoline motor is derived by igniting the gas
produced in the cylinder, which in turn by its heat expands,
the atmosphere imparting energy to the piston by its
expansion. A common error is the supposition that the
explosion of the gas produces the power, the same as a blow
from a hammer, whereas it is the heat generated by the
ignition of the compressed gases acting expansively."

One of the speakers at a Congress of Applied Chemistry held in

London in May, 1909, said that it seemed almost certain that
for most purposes on land the internal combustion engine would
before long replace the steam engine, at any rate for moderate
powers; for whereas the best types of the latter furnish only
about 12 per cent, of the energy of the fuel in the form of
work, the former can ordinarily be made to yield 25 per cent.,
and in the case of the Diesel engine the return is as much as
37 per cent.

{602}

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Interferometer, The:

Principle of the Invention of Professor Michelson for
Infinitesimal Measurements.
Suggestion of an Unvarying Unit of Measurement.

"In the measurement of length or motion a most refined

instrument is the interferometer, devised by Professor A. A.
Michelson, of the University of Chicago. It enables an
observer to detect a movement through one five-millionth of an
inch. The principle involved is illustrated in a simple
experiment. If by dropping a pebble at each of two centres,
say a yard apart, in a still pond, we send out two systems of
waves, each system will ripple out in a series of concentric
circles. If, when the waves meet, the crests from one set of
waves coincide with the depressions from the other set, the
water in that particular spot becomes smooth because one set
of waves destroys the other. In this case we may say that the
waves interfere. If, on the other hand, the crests of waves
from two sources should coincide, they would rise to twice
their original height. Light-waves sent out in a similar mode
from two points may in like manner either interfere, and
produce darkness, or unite to produce light of double
brilliancy. These alternate dark and bright bands are called
interference fringes. When one of the two sources of light is
moved through a very small space, the interference fringes at
a distance move through a space so much larger as to be easily
observed and measured, enabling an observer to compute the
short path through which a light-source has moved. … Many
diverse applications of the interferometer have been
developed, as, for example, in thermometry. The warmth of a
hand held near a pencil of light is enough to cause a wavering
of the fringes. A lighted match shows contortions. … When the
air is heated its density and refractive power diminish: it
follows that if this experiment is tried under conditions
which show a regular and measurable displacement of the
fringes, their movement will indicate the temperature of the
air. This method has been applied to ascertain very high
temperatures, such as those of the blast furnace. Most metals
expand one or two parts in 100,000 for a rise in temperature
of one degree centigrade. When a small specimen is examined
the whole change to be measured may be only about 1/10000
inch, a space requiring a good microscope to perceive, but
readily measured by an interferometer. It means a displacement
amounting to several fringes, and this may be measured to
within of a fringe or less; so that the whole displacement may
be measured to within a fraction of one per cent. Of course,
with long bars the accuracy attainable is much greater.

"The interferometer has much refined the indications of the

balance. In a noteworthy experiment Professor Michelson found
the amount of attraction which a sphere of lead exerted on a
 small sphere hung on an arm of a delicate balance. The amount
of this attraction when two such spheres touch is proportional
to the diameter of the large sphere, which in this case was
about eight inches. The attraction on the small ball on the
end of the balance was thus the same fraction of its weight as
the diameter of the large ball was of the diameter of the
earth,—something like one twenty-millionth. So the force to be
measured was one twenty-millionth of the weight of this small
ball. In the interferometer the approach of the small ball to
the large one produced a displacement of seven whole fringes."

George Iles,
Inventors at Work,
pages 214-218 (Doubleday, Page & Co., New York).

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:

International Congresses of Science.

The most notable of the gatherings at St. Louis in 1904,

connected with the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, was the
Congress of Arts and Science.

See (in this Volume)

ST. LOUIS: A. D. 1904.

Hardly less important from some points of view was the meeting
of the First Pan-American Scientific Congress, at Santiago,
Chile, beginning on the 25th of December, 1908. It had been
preceded by three scientific congresses of the Latin-American
states, at Buenos Aires in 1898, at Montevideo in 1901, and at
Rio de Janeiro in 1905. The Pan-American comprehensiveness was
given to a fourth one by an official invitation from the
Chilean Government to the Government of the United States to
send delegates to the meeting, and a further invitation from
the Chilean Committee of Organization to fifteen of the
prominent universities of the United States to do the same.
The response to the invitation was cordial, and both of the
 American continents were well represented at the Congress. The
programme of topics for discussion included a number of
historically and politically scientific questions of specially
American interest, such, for example, as the following:

"An explanation of the reasons why the colonies of English

America were able to unite into a single state after they had
attained their independence, while those of Spanish America
never succeeded in establishing a permanent union.

"The extent to which America has come to possess a

civilization, as well as interests and problems, different
from those of Europe.

"Given the special circumstances of the states of the New

World, would it be feasible to create an American
international law? and if so, upon what bases should it rest,
and how should it be composed?"

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: The Moving Picture Show.

The Millions entertained by it in the United States.

In 1908, in the United States, "the moving-picture show drew

an attendance of 4,000,000 daily, a total attendance of more
than a billion; or an average of one visit a month to this
form of amusement for every man, woman, and child in the whole
country. Already this infant industry has developed to a point
where $50,000,000 is invested in it, and 7,000 moving-picture
houses are scattered over the country. Of the larger cities,
Chicago has at present 313 moving-picture shows, and probably
will have 500 before the end of the present year. New York has
300, St. Louis 205, Philadelphia 186, San Francisco 131,
Pittsburgh 90, and Boston 31. Hundreds of smaller cities and
towns have from one to a dozen, and the craze has extended to
Mexico, Central and South America, and the Panama Canal Zone.
Nearly 1,000,000 feet, or 190 miles, of films are shown every
day in the United States. … Making of these films is in itself
 an enormous business. The organization which controls them not
only has agents photographing scenes in every part of the
world, but maintains theatres and out-of-door establishments,
where complete plays and all sorts of other activities are
presented before the camera."

New York Evening Post.

{603}

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Opsonins:

A remarkable new Discovery in Biology.

Discovery of the functions of the white corpuscles found in

the blood of animals was begun, it is said, by Dr. Augustus
Waller, in 1843, and continued in much later years by
Professor Metchnikoff, who was associated with the work of
Pasteur. The latter determined the surprising and extremely
important fact that the white corpuscles or cells are
essentially minute living creatures, which serve the larger
creature they inhabit as a sanitary guard, defending it
against the invasion of microbes that are hostile to its
health. They pursue and devour these malignant invaders;
whence the name that has been given to them, of "phagocytes,"
or "eating cells."

"When we study the process familiarly known as ‘inflammation,’

we find the most perfect illustration at once of the duties of
the white blood-cells and of the new phase and meaning of a
common occurrence which are revealed by research.
‘Inflammation’ is a process which follows upon a large variety
of injuries, and which marks the onset and course of many
diseases, from a scratch on the finger to an inflammation of
the lungs. … Given a simple scratch and the phagocytes
stimulated by the injury to the tissues will come hurrying to
the scene of the accident like ambulance men, eager to assist
in the removal of any deleterious matter, and to give their
aid in the healing process and in the formation of the new
tissue, the production of which will complete the cure. But
given a scratch that inoculates the finger with ‘dirt,’ which
is only another name for microbes, and the nature of
inflammation becomes clearer to us. In a few hours the finger
will begin to feel painful; its temperature will rise; it will
appear red and ‘inflamed,’ and it will exhibit swelling. Later
on, if we puncture the swelling, we shall find a yellow fluid,
which we name ‘pus,’ or ‘matter,’ escaping from the puncture.
Now to what are the symptoms of inflammation due? The plain
answer is, that they represent the results of a great
migration of phagocytes from the blood-vessels, destined to
attack, and if possible remove, the infective particles which
threaten to do us injury. The inflammation, in this view, is
the evidence of a battle being fought in our favour, and often
with very long odds against us. If our phagocytes gain a
complete victory, we escape the suppuration which we saw to
result in the shape of the ‘festering’ finger. If, on the
other hand, they sustain defeat, they will fight on, leaving
their dead behind. It is the dead white blood-cells, which
have fallen in the fray, which constitute the ‘pus’ or
‘matter’ we find in wounds. … These dead cells, like the
corpses of soldiers who fall in battle, later become hurtful
to the organism they in their lifetime were anxious to protect
from harm, for they are fertile sources of septicaemia and
pyaemia (blood-poisoning)—the pestilence and scourge so much
dreaded by operative surgeons.

"Such is the story which forms the natural prologue to the

history of ‘Opsonins.’ For many a day after the publication of
Metchnikoff’s discoveries regarding the germ-killing power of
the phagocytes, it was held that these living cells alone
accomplished the duty of disposing of troublesome invaders.
Later on, other opinions were advanced to the effect that
while the phagocytes did undoubtedly accomplish their work in
the direction indicated, they demanded aid to that end from an
outside source. This source was indicated and represented by
the plasma or blood-fluid itself. The fluid part of the blood
had long been known to possess germ-killing properties, but
the extent of its powers in this direction had not been duly
determined, nor had the important point been settled whether
the plasma as a whole or only part thereof aided the white
blood-cells in their forays on microbes. … Researches made
prior to the year 1903 gave cause for the belief in the
importance of the blood-plasma in whole or in part, but it was
in the year just named that very important investigations were
undertaken with the view to determining the exact status of
the blood-fluid in work of bactericidal kind. Drs. Wright and
Douglas of St. Mary’s Hospital, London, undertook a piece of
research conducted on lines somewhat different from those on
which previous work of this nature had been carried on. They
proceeded first of all by the aid of delicate processes to
separate the blood-corpuscles from the blood-fluid. The white
blood-cells were thus kept in a medium or fluid of neutral
kind, while the blood-fluid itself on the other hand was
obtained free from its corpuscles. Next in order an emulsion
of certain microbes capable of producing disease was made in a
solution of salt. When the phagocytes, alive, of course, in
their neutral fluid, were allowed access to the germs they did
not attack them. It was as if two contending armies had been
brought face to face, waiting to attack, but restrained by
some negotiations proceeding between the commanders. The case
was at once altered, and the battle began, when the
experimenters brought the separated blood-fluid into the
field. Added to the germs and to the phagocytes these
elements, which had been ‘spoiling for a fight,’ joined issue,
and the white blood-cells performed their normal work of
microbe-baiting. There was but one inference to be drawn from
these facts. Clearly, the addition of the blood-fluid supplied
some condition or other, necessary for the development of the
fighting powers of the cells. … Our investigators are of the
opinion that the real source of the power possessed by the
blood-fluid or ‘plasma’ is to be sought and found in
substances contained therein and called ‘Opsonins.’ We can now
 appreciate the meaning of this term. It is derived from the
classic verb for catering, for preparing food or for providing
food. The view taken of opsonic action justifies the use of
the word, for it is believed that these substances perform
their share of the germ-destroying work, not by urging on or
stimulating the phagocytes to the attack, but, on the
contrary, by acting on the microbes, by weakening their powers
of resistance and by rendering them the easy prey of the white
blood-cells. The ‘Opsonins’ are carried by the blood-stream
everywhere, and it is when they come in contact with any
microbe-colonies in the body that they exert their specific
action on the germs. … The idea that the more active our white
blood-cells are, and the more extensive and complete their
work, the greater the amount of ‘Opsonins’ present, is one
which seems to be founded on a rational basis. This view
regards these substances as the real cause of phagocytic
activity. That ‘Opsonins’ furthermore appear to possess
definite degrees of power seems proved by the observation that
a person’s blood may contain sufficient to deal with one
disease in the way of stimulating the phagocytes to work,
while the same quantity would not equal half that required to
effect a satisfactory attack on another and different disease.
What has been called the ‘opsonic index ’ of a person is the
standard, if so we may call it, or measure of his germ-killing
power, in so far as the amount of ‘Opsonins’ contained in his
blood is concerned. By a technical procedure and calculation
the experimenter can compute the opsonic power of a given
specimen of blood."

Andrew Wilson,
About Opsonins
(Cornhill, January, 1907).

{604}

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Medical.

 See (in this Volume)
PUBLIC HEALTH.

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Physical:

The New Conceptions of Electricity, Matter and Ether.
Statement by Madame Curie.
Sir Joseph Thomson’s Address to the British Association
at Winnipeg.
Sir Oliver Lodge on the Ether of Space.

"One point which appears to-day to be definitely settled is a

view of atomic structure of electricity, which goes to confirm
and complete the idea that we have long held regarding the
atomic structure of matter, which constitutes the basis of
chemical theories. At the same time that the existence of
electric atoms, indivisible by our present means of research,
appears to be established with certainty, the important
properties of these atoms are also shown. The atoms of
negative electricity which we call electrons, are found to
exist in a free state, independent of all material atoms, and
not having any properties in common with them. In this state
they possess certain dimensions in space, and are endowed with
a certain inertia, which has suggested the idea of attributing
to them a corresponding mass.

"Experiments have shown that their dimensions are very small

compared with those of material molecules, and that their mass
is only a small fraction, not exceeding one one-thousandth of
the mass of an atom of hydrogen. They show also that if these
atoms can exist isolated, they may also exist in all ordinary
matter, and may be in certain cases emitted by a substance
such as a metal without its properties being changed in a
manner appreciable by us.

"If, then, we consider the electrons as a form of matter, we

are led to put the division of them beyond atoms and to admit
the existence of a kind of extremely small particles able to
enter into the composition of atoms, but not necessarily by
their departure involving atomatic destruction. Looking at it
in this light, we are led to consider every atom as a
complicated structure, and this supposition is rendered
probable by the complexity of the emission spectra which
characterize the different atoms. We have thus a conception
sufficiently exact of the atoms of negative electricity.

"It is not the same for positive electricity, for a great

dissimilarity appears to exist between the two electricities.
Positive electricity appears always to be found in connection
with material atoms, and we have no reason, thus far, to
believe that they can be separated. Our knowledge relative to
matter is also increased by an important fact. A new property
of matter has been discovered which has received the name of
radioactivity. Radioactivity is the property which the atoms
of certain substances possess of shooting off particles, some
of which have a mass comparable to that of the atoms
themselves, while the others are the electrons. This property,
which uranium and thorium possess in a slight degree, has led
to the discovery of a new chemical element, radium, whose
radioactivity is very great. Among the particles expelled by
radium are some which are ejected with great velocity, and
their expulsion is accompanied with a considerable evolution
of heat. A radioactive body constitutes, then, a source of
energy.

"According to the theory which best accounts for the phenomena

of radioactivity, a certain proportion of the atoms of a
radioactive body is transformed in a given time, with the
production of atoms of less atomic weight, and in some cases
with the expulsion of electrons. This is a theory of the
transmutation of elements, but differs from the dreams of the
alchemists in that we declare ourselves, for the present at
least, unable to induce or influence the transmutation.
Certain facts go to show that radioactivity appertains in a
slight degree to all kinds of matter. It may be, therefore,
that matter is far from being as unchangeable or inert as it
was formerly thought; and is, on the contrary, in continual
transformation, although this transformation escapes our
notice by its relative slowness."

Madame Curie,
Modern Theories of Electricity and Matter
(Annual Report, Smithsonian Institution, 1905-1906,
pages 103-104).

A remarkable summary of recent advances in physical science,

by Sir Joseph Thomson, in his presidential address at the
opening (August 25, 1909) of the seventy-ninth annual meeting
of the British Association for the Advancement of Science,
held at Winnipeg, Canada, contains what is, without doubt, the
most successful of endeavors to give some understanding of the
new conceptions of matter, ether and electricity, with which
scientists are now working, to minds that have not been
scientifically trained. Sir Joseph treats the subject at more
length than can be given to it here, but abridgment seems
possible without robbing it of the more important parts of its
rich content of information:

"The period which has elapsed since the Association last met
in Canada [1897] has been," said the President, "one of almost
unparalleled activity in many branches of physics, and many
new and unsuspected properties of matter and electricity have
been discovered. The history of this period affords a
remarkable illustration of the effect which may be produced by
a single discovery; for it is, I think, to the discovery of
the Röntgen rays that we owe the rapidity of the progress
which has recently been made in physics. A striking discovery
like that of the Röntgen rays acts much like the discovery of
gold in a sparsely populated country; it attracts workers who
come in the first place for the gold, but who may find that
the country has other products, other charms, perhaps even
more valuable than the gold itself. The country in which the
 gold was discovered in the case of the Röntgen rays was the
department of physics dealing with the discharge of
electricity through gases, a subject which, almost from the
beginning of electrical science, had attracted a few
enthusiastic workers, who felt convinced that the key to
unlock the secret of electricity was to be found in a vacuum
tube.
{605}
Röntgen, in 1895, showed that when electricity passed through
such a tube the tube emitted rays which could pass through
bodies opaque to ordinary light; which could, for example,
pass through the flesh of the body and throw a shadow of the
bones on a suitable screen. … It is not, however, to the power
of probing dark places, important though this is, that the
influence of Röntgen rays on the progress of science has
mainly been due; it is rather because these rays make gases,
and, indeed, solids and liquids, through which they pass,
conductors of electricity. … The study of gases exposed to
Röntgen rays has revealed in such gases the presence of
particles charged with electricity; some of these particles
are charged with positive, others with negative, electricity.
The properties of these particles have been investigated; we
know the charge they carry, the speed with which they move
under an electric force, the rate at which the oppositely
charged ones recombine, and these investigations have thrown a
new light, not only on electricity, but also on the structure
of matter. We know from these investigations that electricity,
like matter, is molecular in structure, that just as a
quantity of hydrogen is a collection of an immense number of
small particles called molecules, so a charge of electricity
is made up of a great number of small charges, each of a
perfectly definite and known amount. … Nay, further, the
molecular theory of matter is indebted to the molecular theory
of electricity for the most accurate determination of its
fundamental quantity, the number of molecules in any given
quantity of an elementary substance.
"The great advantage of the electrical methods for the study
of the properties of matter is due to the fact that whenever a
particle is electrified it is very easily identified, whereas
an uncharged molecule is most elusive; and it is only when
these are present in immense numbers that we are able to
detect them. …

"We have already made considerable progress in the task of

discovering what the structure of electricity is. We have
known for some time that of one kind of electricity—the
negative—and a very interesting one it is. We know that
negative electricity is made up of units all of which are of
the same kind; that these units are exceedingly small compared
with even the smallest atom. … The size of these corpuscles is
on an altogether different scale from that of atoms; the
Volume of a corpuscle bears to that of the atom about the same
relation as that of a speck of dust to the Volume of this
room. Under suitable conditions they move at enormous speeds,
which approach in some instances the velocity of light. The
discovery of these corpuscles is an interesting example of the
way Nature responds to the demands made upon her by
mathematicians. Some years before the discovery of corpuscles
it had been shown by a mathematical investigation that the
mass of a body must be increased by a charge of electricity.
This increase, however, is greater for small bodies than for
large ones, and even bodies as small as atoms are hopelessly
too large to show any appreciable effect; thus the result
seemed entirely academic. After a time corpuscles were
discovered, and these are so much smaller than the atom that
the increase in mass due to the charge becomes not merely
appreciable, but so great that, as the experiments of Kaufmann
and Bucherer have shown, the whole of the mass of the
corpuscle arises from its charge.

"We know a great deal about negative electricity; what do we

know about positive electricity? Is positive electricity
molecular in structure? Is it made up into units, each unit
carrying a charge equal in magnitude though opposite in sign
to that carried by a corpuscle? … The investigations made on
the unit of positive electricity show that it is of quite a
different kind from the unit of negative; the mass of the
negative unit is exceedingly small compared with any atom; the
only positive units that up to the present have been detected
are quite comparable in mass with the mass of an atom of
hydrogen; in fact they seem equal to it. This makes it more
difficult to be certain that the unit of positive electricity
has been isolated, for we have to be on our guard against its
being a much smaller body attached to the hydrogen atoms which
happen to be present in the vessel. … At present the smallest
positive electrified particles of which we have direct
experimental evidence have masses comparable with that of an
atom of hydrogen.

"A knowledge of the mass and size of the two units of

electricity, the positive and the negative, would give us the
material for constructing what may be called a molecular
theory of electricity, and would be a starting point for a
theory of the structure of matter; for the most natural view
to take, as a provisional hypothesis, is that matter is just a
collection of positive and negative units of electricity, and
that the forces which hold atoms and molecules together, the
properties which differentiate one kind of matter from
another, all have their origin in the electrical forces
exerted by positive and negative units of electricity, grouped
together in different ways in the atoms of the different
elements. As it would seem that the units of positive and
negative electricity are of very different sizes, we must
regard matter as a mixture containing systems of very
different types, one type corresponding to the small
corpuscle, the other to the large positive unit. Since the
energy associated with a given charge is greater the smaller
the body on which the charge is concentrated, the energy
stored up in the negative corpuscles will be far greater than
that stored up by the positive. The amount of energy which is
 stored up in ordinary matter in the form of the electrostatic
potential energy of its corpuscles is, I think, not generally
realized. … This energy is fortunately kept fast bound by the
corpuscles; if at any time an appreciable fraction were to get
free the earth would explode and become a gaseous nebula. The
matter of which I have been speaking so far is the material
which builds up the earth, the sun, and the stars, the matter
studied by the chemist, and which he can represent by a
formula; this matter occupies, however, but an insignificant
fraction of the universe; it forms but minute islands in the
great ocean of the ether, the substance with which the whole
universe is filled.

{606}

"The ether is not a fantastic creation of the speculative

philosopher; it is as essential to us as the air we breathe.
For we must remember that we on this earth are not living on
our own resources; we are dependent from minute to minute upon
what we are getting from the sun, and the gifts of the sun are
conveyed to us by the ether. It is to the sun that we owe not
merely night and day, springtime and harvest, but it is the
energy of the sun, stored up in coal, in waterfalls, in food,
that practically does all the work of the world. … On the
electro-magnetic theory of light, now universally accepted,
the energy streaming to the earth travels through the ether in
electric waves; thus practically the whole of the energy at
our disposal has at one time or another been electrical
energy. The ether must, then, be the seat of electrical and
magnetic forces. We know, thanks to the genius of Clerk
Maxwell, the founder and inspirer of modern electrical theory,
the equations which express the relation between these forces,
and although for some purposes these are all we require, yet
they do not tell us very much about the nature of the ether.

"Let us consider some of the facts known about the ether. When
light falls on a body and is absorbed by it, the body is
pushed forward in the direction in which the light is
travelling, and if the body is free to move it is set in
motion by the light. Now it is a fundamental principle of
dynamics that when a body is set moving in a certain
direction, or, to use the language of dynamics, acquires
momentum in that direction, some other mass must lose the same
amount of momentum; in other words, the amount of momentum in
the universe is constant. Thus, when the body is pushed
forward by the light, some other system must have lost the
momentum the body acquires, and the only other system
available is the wave of light falling on the body; hence we
conclude that there must have been momentum in the wave in the
direction in which it is travelling. Momentum, however,
implies mass in motion. We conclude, then, that in the ether
through which the wave is moving there is mass moving with the
velocity of light. The experiments made on the pressure due to
light enable us to calculate this mass. …

"The place where the density of the ether carried along by an

electric field rises to its highest value is close to a
corpuscle, for round the corpuscles are by far the strongest
electric fields of which we have any knowledge. We know the
mass of the corpuscle, we know from Kaufmann’s experiments
that this arises entirely from the electric charge, and is
therefore due to the ether carried along with the corpuscle by
the lines of force attached to it. … Around the corpuscle
ether must have an extravagant density; whether the density is
as great as this in other places depends upon whether the
ether is compressible or not. If it is compressible, then it
may be condensed round the corpuscles, and there have an
abnormally great density; if it is not compressible, then the
density in free space cannot be less than the number I have
just mentioned. With respect to this point we must remember
that the forces acting on the ether close to the corpuscle are
prodigious. … I do not know at present of any effect which
would enable us to determine whether ether is compressible or
not. And although at first sight the idea that we are immersed
in a medium almost infinitely denser than lead might seem
inconceivable, it is not so if we remember that in all
probability matter is composed mainly of holes. We may, in
fact, regard matter as possessing a bird-cage kind of
structure in which the Volume of the ether disturbed by the
wires when the structure is moved is infinitesimal in
comparison with the Volume enclosed by them. If we do this, no
difficulty arises from the great density of the ether; all we
have to do is to increase the distance between the wires in
proportion as we increase the density of the ether."

Some English journals, in discussing Sir Joseph Thomson’s

address at Winnipeg, spoke doubtingly of its scientific
soundness, regarding it as too speculative, representing
conclusions in advance of what physical science had obtained a
real warrant to draw. These newspaper critics were called
sharply to account by Sir Oliver Lodge, and told that they
were suspicious of Sir Joseph’s statements only because they
knew nothing of the data on which he founded them.

In a magazine article of the previous year, Sir Oliver Lodge

had already traversed part of the ground covered by the
impressive review of Sir Joseph Thomson. In that article he
said of the present conception of the ether of space, as
accepted among the leaders of physical science:

"When a steel spring is bent or distorted, what is it that is

really strained? Not the atoms—the atoms are only displaced;
it is the connecting links that are strained—the connecting
medium—the ether. Distortion of a spring is really distortion
of the ether. All strain exists in the ether. Matter can only
be moved. Contact does not exist between the atoms of matter
as we know them; it is doubtful if a piece of matter ever
touches another piece, any more than a comet touches the sun
when it appears to rebound from it; but the atoms are
connected, as the planets, the comets and the sun are
connected, by a continuous plenum without break or
 discontinuity of any kind. Matter acts on matter solely
through the ether. But whether matter is a thing utterly
distinct and separate from the ether, or whether it is a
specifically modified portion of it—modified in such a way as
to be susceptible of locomotion, and yet continuous with all
the rest of the ether,—which can be said to extend everywhere,
far beyond the bounds of the modified and tangible portion
called matter—are questions demanding, and I may say in
process of receiving, answers.

"Every such answer involves some view of the universal, and

possibly infinite, uniform, omnipresent connecting medium, the
ether of space."

Oliver Lodge,
The Ether of Space
(North American Review, May, 1908).

[Transcriber's Note: The Michelson-Morley experiment 21

years earlier had cast doubt on the ether concept.
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/70888]

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Radium and Radio-activity:

The Discovery by Professor and Madame Curie.
The Light it throws on many Scientific Problems.
Faraday’s Prophetic Anticipation.
The Dissolution of Atoms.

"In his first treatise on the X-rays, Röntgen [see in Volume

VI.] drew attention to the fact that they proceeded from those
parts of the Röntgen tubes where the glass, under the
influence of the impinging cathode rays, showed the most
fluorescence. It therefore seemed possible that the existence
of these mysterious rays was in some way dependent on
previously acquired fluorescence, and many physicists tried to
ascertain with the well-known Balmain dyes, which become
luminous after exposure to the light, if results could be
 obtained resembling those with a Röntgen tube.

{607}

"Similar attempts by the French physicist, Henri Becquerel,

were crowned with success in an unexpected direction. He
exposed a uranium salt to the light, and then placing it in a
dark room on a photographic plate covered with opaque paper he
demonstrated the action of these rays on the plate through the
paper, thin sheets of metal, etc. But the supposed and
sought-for relation of the rays to the previous fluorescence
was not evident, for Becquerel obtained precisely the same
results with preparations of uranium which had not only not
been previously exposed directly to the light, but had
purposely been kept some time in darkness and could therefore
display no stored-up luminescence. He had, however, discovered
the uranium or Becquerel rays. …

"At Becquerel’s suggestion Madame Curie undertook a systematic

investigation of all the chemical elements and established the
fact that with none of them, excepting uranium and thorium,
could an appreciable effect indicating rays be obtained with
her apparatus. On the other hand, she found that many of the
minerals investigated showed noticeable action in this
direction. The fact that a few of them, the uranium
pitchblende, for example, from Joachimsthal, Bohemia, emitted
rays three or four times stronger than those of pure uranium,
and which could not therefore be announced as uranium rays,
led her to suppose that in the pitchblende itself, apart from
the uranium, there must exist a still more powerful
radioactive substance. It is a matter of record how, in this
research, which might serve as a model for such work, she and
her husband, so soon afterwards to lose his life by a
deplorable accident, succeeded in tracing this supposed
substance more and more accurately, and finally in obtaining
it pure. Madame Curie thus became the discoverer of radium, a
new element possessed of wonderful, of fabulous qualities.
"Besides Madame Curie no other investigator but Professor
Braunschweig, so far as I know, has yet succeeded in obtaining
pure radium."

Franz Himstedt,
Radioactivity (Annual Report, Smithsonian Institution,
1905-1906, pages 117-118).

"The phenomena of radio-activity revive interest in the

prophetic views of Michael Faraday. In 1816, when he was but
twenty-four years of age, he delivered a lecture at the Royal
Institution in London on Radiant Matter. In the course of his
remarks there occurs this passage:—‘If we now conceive a
change as far beyond vaporization as that is above fluidity,
and then take into account the proportional increased extent
of alteration as the changes arise, we shall perhaps, if we
can form any conception at all, not fall short of radiant
matter; and as in the last conversion many qualities were
lost, so here also many more would disappear. It was the
opinion of Newton, and of many other distinguished
philosophers, that this conversion was possible, and
continually going on in the processes of nature, and they
found that the idea would bear without injury the applications
of mathematical reasoning—as regards heat, for instance. If
assumed, we must also assume the simplicity of matter; for it
would follow that all the variety of substances with which we
are acquainted could be converted into one of three kinds of
radiant matter; which again may differ from each other only in
the size of their particles or their form. The properties of
known bodies would then be supposed to arise from the varied
arrangements of their ultimate atoms, and belong to substances
only as long as their compound nature existed; and thus
variety of matter and variety of properties would be found
co-essential.’"

George Iles,
 Inventors at Work,
pages 204-205 (Doubleday, Page & Co., New York).

"An ascertained commercial value of £4 per milligramme

(equivalent to £114,000 per ounce) has been placed upon radium
by a contract just entered into between the British
Metalliferous Mines (Limited) and Lord Iveagh and Sir Ernest
Cassel for the supply of 7½ grammes (rather more than a
quarter of an ounce) of pure radium bromide. This very large
order for radium will be supplied from the above named
company’s mine near Grampound Road in Cornwall."

London Times, June 21, 1909.

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:

The Mono-Rail Gyroscopic System.

A mechanical invention not yet developed, but which seems more

than likely to count among the most important of the next few
years, is that known as the Brennan mono-rail system, which
balances cars and trains of cars on a single rail by use of
the principle of the gyroscope. It was first exhibited by its
English inventor, Mr. Louis Brennan, in model form, before the
Royal Society, in 1907, and won so much confidence in its
possibilities that the British War Office and the India Office
gave financial assistance to meet the cost of the long
experiments that were necessary for adapting the system to
service on a large practical scale. The result of these
experiments was exhibited in public trials at New Brompton,
England, and, subsequently, at New York, in the later part of
1909. The following account of the exhibition at New Brompton
was given by The Times:

"The car with which the test runs were carried out is 40 ft.
in length and 10 ft. in width; its weight is 22 tons, and it
is designed for a load of 10 to 15 tons. The weight of the
gyroscopes, of which there are two, is 1½ tons, each having a
 diameter of 3 ft. 6 in. The speed of rotation is 3,000 r. p.
m., or considerably less than it was in the 6 ft. model
exhibited before the Royal Society. It would be possible for
the car to obtain the necessary power by collecting current
from an overhead wire with a consequent saving of weight, but
in the present example the motive power is provided by two
Wolseley petrol engines, one of 80 h. p., and the other of 20
h. p., driving two direct-current shunt-wound motors of the
Siemens type. It is not necessary that the car should be
propelled electrically, and steam or other motive power could
be employed; but in any case it would be necessary to spin the
gyroscopes electrically, this method being ideal for the
purpose. The air is exhausted from the gyroscope cases, the
pressure in them being equivalent to from ½ in. to 5/8 in. of
mercury. It is hoped in future installations to design the
gyroscopes for higher speeds, and in that case it would be
possible to reduce the size and weight of the equipment. In
this first car the gyroscopes run in the vertical plane, but
that is merely for convenience, the essential feature being
that the trunnions should be at right angles to the track. …

{608}

"Several experimental trips were made on the factory circular

track as well as on the straight, and the car travelled with
remarkable steadiness throughout. It is not likely that the
Brennan mono-rail will find any wide field of application in
this country, but there would appear to be great advantages in
the system for mountain railways in India and elsewhere, and,
indeed, it seems suitable for adoption in any country where
new railways are being planned. The inventor lays stress on
the absolute safety of the system at speeds ranging up to
about 150 miles per hour."

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:

Sanitary.
 See (in this Volume)
PUBLIC HEALTH.

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:

Submarine Signal Bells.

In May, 1909, it was announced from Washington that "the

Government, recognizing the substantial service rendered to
shipping by submarine bells, has decided to extend their
installation from time to time to light vessels and stations
on both coasts and upon the great lakes. At present forty-six
of the light vessels are thus equipped, and the signals which
they send out are of undoubted aid to deep-water navigation.
Canada, England, Germany, Holland, France, Sweden, and Denmark
are following suit. The bells operate during fogs and at night
and the sound waves emitted by the bell under water have been
known to travel as far as twenty-seven miles. These sound
waves are picked up by the receiving microphones on board
ships, and by the code signal of each station the vessel’s
navigator is able to tell where he is."

See (in this Volume) above,

ELECTRICAL: WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY:
THE CRY THAT BROUGHT HELP.

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:

The Turbine Steam Engine.
Its Successful Development.
First Use on Ocean Steamers.
The "Lusitania" and "Mauretania."

"For a long time and well into the nineteenth century, water
was lifted by pistons moving in cylindrical pumps. Meantime
the turbine grew steadily in favor as a water motor, arriving
at last at high efficiency. This gave designers a hint to
reverse the turbine and use it as a water lifter or pump: this
machine, duly built, with a continuous instead of an
intermittent motion, showed much better results than the
old-fashioned pump. The turbine-pump is accordingly adopted
for many large waterworks, deep mines and similar
installations. This advance from to-and-fro to rotary action
extended irresistibly to steam as a motive power. It was clear
that if steam could be employed in a turbine somewhat as water
is, much of the complexity and loss inherent in reciprocating
engines would be brushed aside. A pioneer inventor in this
field was Gustave Patrich De Laval, of Stockholm, who
constructed his first steam turbine along the familiar lines
of the Barker mill. Steam is so light that for its utmost
utilization as a jet a velocity of about 2,000 feet a second
is required, a rate which no material is strong enough to
allow. De Laval by using the most tenacious metal for his
turbines is able to give their swiftest parts a speed of as
much as 1400 feet a second. His apparatus is cheap, simple and
efficient; it is limited to about 300 horse-power. Its chief
feature is its divergent nozzle, which permits the outflowing
steam to expand fully with all the effect realized in a steam
cylinder provided with expansion valve gear. Another device of
De Laval which makes his turbine a safe and desirable prime
mover is the flexible shaft which has a little, self-righting
play under the extreme pace of its rotation.

"Of direct action turbines the De Laval is the chief; of

compound turbines, in which the steam is expanded in
successive stages, the first and most widely adopted was
invented by the Honourable Charles A. Parsons of
Newcastle-on-Tyne. … In 1894 Mr. Parsons launched his
Turbinia, the first steamer to be driven by a turbine. Her
record was so gratifying that a succession of vessels,
similarly equipped, were year by year built for excursion
lines, for transit across the British Channel, for the British
Royal Navy, and for mercantile marine service. The
thirty-fifth of these ships, the Victorian of the Allan
Line, was the first to cross the Atlantic Ocean, arriving at
Halifax, Nova Scotia, April 18, 1905. She was followed by the
Virginian of the same line which arrived at Quebec, May
8, 1905. Not long afterward the Cunard Company sent from
Liverpool to New York the Carmania equipped with steam
turbines, and in every other respect like the Caronia of the
same owners, which is driven by reciprocating engines of the
best model. Thus far the comparison between these two ships is
in favor of the Carmania. The new monster Cunarders, the
Lusitania and the Mauretania, each of 70,000
horse power, are to be propelled by steam turbines. The
principal reasons for this preference are thus given by
Professor Carl C. Thomas:—Decreased cost of operation as
regards fuel, labor, oil, and repairs. Vibration due to
machinery is avoided. Less weight of machinery and coal to be
carried, resulting in greater speed. Greater simplicity of
machinery in construction and operation, causing less
liability to accident and breakdown. Smaller and more deeply
immersed propellers, decreasing the tendency of the machinery
to race in rough weather. Lower centre of gravity of the
machinery as a whole, and increased headroom above the
machinery. According to recent reports, decreased first cost
of machinery."

George Iles,
Inventors at Work,
pages 452-456
(Doubleday, Page & Co., New York).

In August, 1908, the Lusitania made the voyage from

Queenstown to New York in 4 days and 15 hours; again in
February, 1909, in 4 days, 17 hours and 6 minutes. In
September, 1909, the
Mauretania crossed from New York
to Queenstown in 4 days, 13 hours and 41 minutes.

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:

The Washington Memorial Institution.
Extension of the Usefulness of Scientific Work in Departments
of the Government.

See (in this Volume)

EDUCATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1901.

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:

The Nobel Prizes.

See (in this Volume)

NOBEL PRIZES.
See also
EARTHQUAKES.

----------SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: End--------

----------SCOTLAND: Start--------

SCOTLAND: A. D. 1901 (March).

Census.

According to the returns of the decennial enumeration made on

the night of the 31st of March, 1901, the population of
Scotland that day, "including those in the Royal Navy, and
belonging to the Mercantile shipping in Scottish Ports or on
Scottish waters, number 4,472,000 persons, of whom 2,173,151
are males, and 2,298,849 females.

"When compared with the corresponding population as enumerated

at the Census of 1891, a total increase of 446,353 is found to
have occurred; the male increase being 230,434, and the female
 215,919.
{609}
The percentage rate of increase of both sexes during the
decennial period is 11.09—that of the males being 11.86, and
of the females 10.37. The corresponding total rate of increase
during the preceding decennium, 1881-1891, was 7.77 per cent.
… The rate at the present Census for Scotland is, with the
exception of that at 1881, the highest since the decennial
period 1821-1831. …

"In 19 Counties an increase in the population has taken place,

in 14 a decrease. The highest rate of increase—both sexes
combined—is in Linlithgow, 24.4 per cent.; followed by Lanark
with an increase of 21.1 per cent.; Stirling with one of 20.6
per cent.; Renfrew with one of 16.5 per cent.; Dumbarton with
one of 16.2 per cent.; Kincardine with one of 15.3 per cent.;
Fife with one of 15.0 per cent. The greatest falling off
occurs in Berwick, 4.6 per cent.; in Orkney, 5.7 per cent.; in
Roxburgh, 8.8 per cent.; in Caithness 8.9 per cent.; in
Wigtown, 9.4 per cent.; and in Selkirk 15.8 percent. Inverness
stands almost as it was, having increased but 0.1 per cent.,
and the minimum rate of falling off as to population is in
Banff, 0.3 per cent., and Argyll, 0.6 per cent. …

"Among the larger Burghs the increase of population varies not

a little. Thus, in Motherwell, which heads the list, the
increase during the decennial period 1891-1901, is at the rate
of 62.5 per cent. Partick follows with a rate of increase of
48.6 per cent.; Wishaw with one of 36.8 percent.; Hamilton
with one of 31.8 per cent.; Kirkcaldy with one of 25.5
percent.; Falkirk with one of 24.3 per cent.; Govan with one
of 24.2 per cent.; Coatbridge with one of 21.3 per cent.;
Aberdeen with one of 22.9 per cent.; Kilmarnock with one of
20.1 per cent.; Paisley with one of 19.5 per cent.; Airdrie
with one of 16.5 per cent.; Glasgow with one of 15.5 per
cent.; Ayr with one of 15.1 per cent.; Edinburgh with one of
14.8 per cent.; Dunfermline with one of 14.1 percent.; Leith