Chapter XIX: , page 276 (1)

Doubleday, Page & Co., New York
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48454_

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Electrical:
A New Electric Phenomenon.

Writing recently in the London _Times_, Professor
Silvanus P. Thompson has described a discovery of effects
which "appear to point to a true electric momentum." "To two
men, Professor Nipher, of St. Louis, and Dr. Mathias Cantor,
of Würzburg, the question seems to have occurred whether, if a
flow of electricity is caused abruptly to turn its path round
a sharp corner, anything is observable in the neighbourhood of
the sharp corner, that would suggest a momentum of the
electric corpuscles. Nipher employed as conductor a
sharply-bent splinter of bamboo, carrying a high-tension
discharge from a large influence machine. Cantor used a thin
metallic film of gold or platinum formed by deposition on the
faces of a glass plate bevelled to a sharp edge; the current
being provided by a battery. Nipher, investigating by photographic
plates, discovered that the current passing the sharp
corner emitted radiations akin to the X-rays, and capable of
giving shadow pictures, even through ebonite 3/16 of an inch
thick. He has also used thin metal wires bent into a series of
sharp corners, and finds that at every corner some of the
electrons leave the wire, tending to persevere in their
original direction of movement rather than undergo a sudden
change of direction. Cantor, exploring electrically with a
wire attached to a charged insulated electrometer, found the
electrometer discharged by the emanations (or radiations) from
the acute angle of his conducting film. Later, but without
knowledge of what Nipher had accomplished, Cantor also exposed
a photographic plate to the angle of the film, and found it
marked with streaks as if charged particles had left the angle
in a particular direction. Both experimenters had already made
numerous observations under different circumstances before
publishing their results. Nipher’s discovery was communicated
to the American Philosophical Society in the early summer, and
an account of his work appeared in _Science_ of July 17
last [1909] . Cantor’s observations were announced to the
German ‘Naturforscher’ meeting at Cologne on September 23.

"If," remarks Professor Thompson, "we accept the modern
doctrine that all inertia in what we call matter is due to the
magnetic field surrounding a moving charge of electricity,
this newly-discovered effect takes its natural place beside
the other known effects."

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: TELEGRAPHY:
The Printer System.

The _Electrical Review_ of January 2, 1909, gave the
following account of the extent to which the "printer system"
of telegraphy had then come into use in the United States:
"Over fifty printer circuits are now in regular operation on
the Western Union lines, between leading business centres of
the United States, and additional wires are being equipped as
fast as the printer apparatus can be installed. This is a
system of rapid automatic telegraphy by which telegrams are
transmitted at a high rate of speed and received at their
destination printed on the regular message forms by a
typewriter automatically operated by the electrical impulses
transmitted over the wire. The appearance of the message as
received is identical with a message turned out by the most
expert typewriter operator on Morse circuits. The messages are
ready for delivery as soon as they come off the wire, and the
only attention required by the typewriter as it receives the
messages from the wire is that of removing the blank when the
message is completed and supplying a fresh, sheet to the
machine for the next message."

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Wireless Telegraphy.
Statement from Marconi.

"Up to the commencement of 1902 the only receivers that could
be practically employed for the purposes of wireless
telegraphy were based on what may be called the coherer
principle—that is, the detector, the principle of which is
based on the discoveries and observations made by S. A.
Varley, Professor Hughes, Calsecchi Onesti, and Professor
Branly. Early in that year the author was fortunate enough to
succeed in constructing a practical receiver of electric
waves, based on a principle different from that of the
coherer. … The action of this receiver is in the author’s
opinion based upon the decrease of magnetic hysteresis, which
takes place in iron when under certain conditions this metal
is exposed to high frequency oscillations of Hertzian waves. …

"This detector is and has been successfully employed for both
long and short distance work. It is used on the ships of the
Royal Navy and on all trans-Atlantic liners which are carrying
on a long-distance news service. It has also been used to a
large extent in the tests across the Atlantic Ocean. … The
adoption of this magnetic receiver was the means of bringing
about a great improvement in the practical working conditions
of wireless telegraphy by making it possible to do away with
the troublesome adjustments necessary when using coherers, and
also by considerably increasing the speed at which it is
possible to receive, the speed depending solely on the ability
of the individual operators. Thus a speed of over 30 words a
minute has been easily attained. …

"In the spring of 1903 the transmission of news messages from
America to the London _Times_ was attempted, and the
first messages were correctly received and published in that
newspaper. A breakdown in the insulation of the apparatus at
Cape Breton made it necessary, however, to suspend the
service, and, unfortunately, further accidents made the
transmission of messages unreliable, especially during the
spring and summer.
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In consequence of this, the author’s company decided not to
attempt the transmission of any more public messages until
such time as a reliable and continuous service could be
maintained and guaranteed under all ordinary conditions. … In
October, 1903, it was found possible to supply the Cunard
steamship _Lucania_ during her entire crossing from New
York to Liverpool with news transmitted direct to that ship
from Poldhu and Cape Breton."

_G. Marconi,
Recent Advances in Wireless Telegraphy
(Annual Report Smithsonian Institution, 1905-1906,
pages 137-142)._

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
The Real Problem.

"It is well to remember that the year 1903 is the earliest
date at which radio-telegraphy could be regarded as really
workable, and of material practical utility. Previous to then,
‘wireless ’ working was very uncertain, but in that year tuning
devices were introduced, the principle of which was originally
due to Sir Oliver Lodge; and it is these that have made so much
difference in the application of Hertzian waves for the
purposes of telegraphy. Practical success in radio-telegraphy
should not, in fact, be judged from the point of view of the
distance at which signals can be sent—or received—but rather
from the standpoint of non-interference and secrecy. The
essential element in wireless telegraphy—above all others—is,
indeed, a discriminating or selective method. For the main
purposes of radio-telegraphy, immunity from interference by
syntony is essential. Thus a selective system in time of war
would be invaluable; a non-selective system almost worse than
useless. Syntonic wireless telegraphy entails in the first
place, a similar rate of oscillation, or time—i. e., a similar
wave length—at the sending and receiving ends. Indeed, the
real problem in wireless telegraphy is to arrange the
receiving apparatus so that it is alive to notes of one
definite frequency, or pitch, but deaf to any other notes,
even though of but slightly different pitch. This is effected
by the proper adjustment of inductance and capacity, as first
shown by Sir Oliver Lodge. … It is, however, at present,
impossible to secure really complete secrecy from any method
of open wave radiation. A radio-telegraphist, with the right
apparatus and a knowledge of the tune, could upset any system
of Hertzian wave telegraphy. It should, therefore, be clearly
understood that there are, as yet, definite limits to the
practical results of tuning for securing absolute selectivity
and secrecy."

_Charles Bright,
The Useful Sphere for Radio-Telegraphy
(Westminster Review, April, 1908)._

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
Singular Unexplained Phenomena.

Speaking at Stockholm, Sweden, on the occasion of his
receiving the Nobel Prize, in December, 1909, Mr. Marconi gave
the following account of some unexplained phenomena that are
experienced in the working of radio-telegraphy. He said that
"a result of scientific interest which he first noticed during
the tests on the steamship _Philadelphia_ and which was a
most important factor in long distance radio-telegraphy was
the very marked and detrimental effect of daylight on the
propagation of electric waves at great distances, the range by
night being usually more than double that attainable during
daytime. He did not think that this effect had yet been
satisfactorily investigated or explained. … He was now
inclined to believe that the absorption of electric waves
during the daytime was due to the ionization of the gaseous
molecules of the air effected by ultra-violet light, and as
the ultra-violet rays which emanated from the sun were largely
absorbed in the upper atmosphere of the earth, it was probable
that the portion of the earth’s atmosphere which was facing
the sun would contain more ions or electrons than that portion
which was in darkness, and therefore, as Sir J. J. Thomson had
shown, this illuminated and ionized air would absorb some of
the energy of the electric waves. Apparently the length of
wave and amplitude of the electrical oscillations had much to
do with this interesting phenomenon, long waves and small
amplitudes being subject to the effect of daylight to a much
smaller degree than short waves and large amplitudes. …

"For comparatively short waves, such as were used for ship
communication, clear sunlight and blue skies, though
transparent to light, acted as a kind of fog to these waves. …
It often occurred that a ship failed to communicate with a
near-by station, but could correspond with perfect ease with a
distant one. … Although high power stations were now used for
communicating across the Atlantic, and messages could be sent
by day as well as by night, there still existed short periods
of daily occurrence during which transmission from England to
America, or _vice versa_, was difficult."

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
Transatlantic Service.

"The Transatlantic wireless service was inaugurated in
October, 1907, between Ireland and Canada, the charges being
reduced from 1s. per word for business and private messages
and 5d. per word for Press messages to 5d. and 2½d.
respectively, these charges not including the land line
charges on both sides of the Atlantic. …

"The first wireless messages across the Atlantic were sent
from the Canadian station at Table Head, in Cape Breton, in
1902. This station was afterwards removed to its present site,
five miles inland, and there greatly enlarged. Ever since 1902
Mr. Marconi has been conducting experiments and making new
discoveries and improvements until, at the present day,
wireless telegraphy across the Atlantic, over a distance of
2000 miles, is an assured success. … Press traffic … was
started on October 17, 1907. On February 3, 1908, the service
was extended to private and business telegrams between
Montreal and London. The number of words transmitted during
the past year is in the neighbourhood of 300,000."

_Correspondence of the London Times,
June 25, 1909._

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
Equipments at Sea.
Extent of the Service.
Compulsory Legislation Pending.

"Although an installation was carried on the St. Paul for one
trip in 1899, the credit of being the pioneers in the use of
wireless telegraphy on the ocean belongs to the North-German
Lloyd and Cunard Companies. The first vessel fitted was the
Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, and the lead of the Germans was
immediately followed by the English company. Both vessels were
fitted by the Marconi Company, which has the distinction of
being the first company to equip vessels on a commercial
basis. … The Marconi Company alone has up to the present
fitted nearly 200 merchant ships, while the United Wireless
Telegraph Company has fitted nearly 170 ships. …

{599}

"A very large number of vessels engaged in the coasting trade
of America and on the Great Lakes are fitted with wireless
telegraphy; the American list shows that 133 vessels are
equipped, while a statement issued by the United Wireless
Telegraph Company shows 31 other vessels to have been fitted
up to April 2, besides 15 Great Lake steamers either fitted or
in course of equipment. …

"Nearly 500 warships belonging to nine different countries
have been fitted, or are in course of equipment, with
radio-telegraphy. According to the American list the United
States Navy has been foremost among the navies of the world in
the use of ‘wireless.’ On October 1 last 173 United States
warships were fitted with various systems. The Berne lists,
issued up to May 1 last, show Great Britain to have 157
vessels equipped, Germany 80, Netherlands 11, Denmark 9, and
Spain 5.

"In February last the United States House of Representatives
passed a Bill providing that ‘every ocean passenger steamer
certified to carry 50 passengers or more, before being granted
a clearance for a foreign or domestic port 100 miles or more
distant from the port of her departure from the United States,
shall be equipped with an efficient radio-telegraph
installation, and shall have in her employ and on board an
efficient radio-telegrapher.’ … The Bill, it is understood,
will be considered by the Senate in the autumn, and will it is
thought be passed after it has undergone some slight
modification. Following the example of the United States
Congress a Bill has been introduced in the Canadian House of
Commons. … An Italian Royal Decree dated March 14 last
provides that all vessels of whatever nationality clearing
from Italian ports with emigrants shall carry a wireless
installation. So far as this country [Great Britain] is
concerned no legislative action is likely to take place, at
least for the present."

_Correspondence of the London Times,
July 2, 1909._

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
The Cry that brought Help to the Steamship "Republic."

On the 23d of January, 1909, the service of the wireless
telegraph to imperilled ships was illustrated by an incident
which thrilled the world. In a dense fog, off the island of
Nantucket, 26 miles distant, the steamship "Republic," of the
White Star Line, was struck amidships by an Italian liner, the
"Florida." Two passengers on the former were killed and two
were seriously injured, while four sailors of the other were
killed. Both steamers were shattered to the sinking point, but
the state of the "Republic" was the worse. Fortunately she was
equipped with the wireless apparatus for telegraphy, and its
operator, "Jack" Binns, was a man equal to the emergency. His
appealing signals, "C. Q. D." ("Come Quick! Danger"), were
flashed out into all surrounding space, and brought many
responses from sea and shore; but then came the difficulty of
finding the sinking ships in the black fog. The first rescuing
vessel to reach their vicinity was the "Baltic" of the "White
Star Line," and she was helped in her groping to them, not
only by the ceaseless exchange of wireless messages, but by
the sounding of the submarine bell of the Nantucket lightship.
The "Baltic" was fitted with receivers for taking guidance
from these bells, as her Captain described afterwards in a
published account of his search. "On my ship," he said, "there
are two apertures on either side of the bow, which you might
call submarine ears. They are connected by wires with a
telephone receiver on the bridge. By listening at this
telephone and switching the instrument from the starboard
‘ear’ to the port ‘ear’ and back again, you can hear the faint
tones of the lightship’s submarine bell when you get in range
of it. If the tone is louder through the starboard ‘ear’ than
through the port ‘ear,’ you know the lightship is on your
starboard side. If the tone is exactly the same through both
‘ears,’ you know the lightship is dead ahead. This apparatus
helped me greatly."

Nevertheless, the "Baltic’s" search for the "Republic" went on
through twelve hours, like that of "a hound on the scent," as
the Captain described it. Meantime, the passengers of the
"Republic" had been transferred to the "Florida," which seemed
well afloat, and the "Baltic" now took everybody from both,
the total exceeding 1500. The "Republic" was then towed toward
Martha’s Vineyard, but sank a few miles from land, her Captain
remaining until the last minute on board. The conduct of all
connected with the peril and the rescue was fine, and none
more so than that of the sleepless and tireless operator of
the wireless telegraph.

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
Marconi Coast Stations in Great Britain taken over by
the British Government.

The following announcement was made by the British Postmaster
General in the House of Commons on the 30th of September,
1909:

"I am glad to say that arrangements have been completed with
the Marconi Company for the transfer to the Post Office of all
their coast stations for communication with ships, including
all plant, machinery, buildings, land, and leases, &c., and
for the surrender of the rights which they enjoy under their
agreement with the Post Office of August, 1904, for licences
or facilities in respect of coast stations intended for such
communication.

"In addition, the Post Office secures the right of using, free
of royalty, the existing Marconi patents and any future
patents or improvements, for a term of 14 years, for the
following purposes:—Communication for all purposes between
stations in the United Kingdom and ships, and between stations
on the mainland of Great Britain and Ireland on the one hand
and outlying islands on the other hand, or between any two
outlying islands; and (except for the transmission of public
telegrams) between any two stations on the mainland; and on
board Post Office cable ships. The inclusive consideration to
be paid to the company is £15,000.

"The arrangement is in no sense an exclusive one. All the
stations will, under the International Radio-Telegraphic
Convention, be open for communication equally to all ships,
whatever system of wireless telegraphy they may carry; and the
Post Office will be free to use or to experiment with any
system of wireless telegraphy at its discretion. All inland
communication of messages by wireless telegraphy will be
entirely under the control of the Post Office. The company
will retain the licence for their long-distance stations at
Poldhu and Clifden, which are primarily intended for
shore-to-shore communication with America. Arrangements have
also been made with Lloyd’s for the transfer to the Post
Office of their wireless stations for communication with
ships, and for the surrender of all claims to licences for
such communication."

{600}

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
Notes of Recent Progress.

A despatch from Seattle, March 5, 1909, reported that "the
steamship Aki Maru of the Nippon Yusen Kaisha fleet
accomplished her recent passage from Yokohama, Japan, to Puget
Sound, a distance of 4,240 miles, without losing communication
with wireless stations on either the Japanese or American
coasts. The accomplishment was made possible by relaying
messages through other vessels of the company, which were
picked up between the Aki Maru and the coast. The Aki Maru was
able to communicate directly with the Japanese coast stations,
when she was 1,400 miles away."

According to Paris correspondence of the London _Daily
Telegraph_, quoted in the New York _Evening Post_ of
August 21, "wireless messages from New York are now received
or intercepted almost daily by the military station on the
Eiffel Tower. Occasionally radio telegrams have also been
received from Canada, which, it is believed, forms a record in
wireless telegraphy. The communications are at present only of
a desultory nature, but the officer, Commandant Ferie, who is
in charge of the station, hopes to be able soon to organize a
regular service for government, and, perhaps, also for
commercial, purposes. The new apparatus which is now being set
up in the underground office on the Champ de Mars will be more
powerful than any preceding ones, and will be ready probably
by the end of next month. Wireless messages will then be
exchanged regularly between Paris and the eastern coast of the
United States, and perhaps also with Canada."

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
Electro-Chemistry: The Study of the Infinitely Little.

"A new branch of physical chemistry has lately been developed
from the study of the infinitely little which promises to be
the most important science of the future; for it deals most
intimately with the problems of life. This subject is called
electro-chemistry. It is based upon the effect of electricity
in revealing the important reactions and motions of the
smallest particles of matter. The literature of this subject
in current periodicals already exceeds that of any other
department of physical science. Until a comparatively late
day, heat and light were considered the principal agents which
chemists employed to study the reactions of matter. In the new
subject of electro-chemistry, electricity occupies the first
place, as a destroyer and a readjuster; and heat and light are
merely subordinate parts of its manifestations, differing from
it only in length of waves in the ether. The to-and-fro
motion, which is our incontestable fact, is an electrical
vibration. When we consider the investigations in
electro-chemistry, we perceive that the most important actions
of electricity are not those we are conscious of in their
great practical applications; it is rather in subtle and
silent effects that it works its greatest changes on life and
matter."

_John Trowbridge,
The Study of the Infinitely Small
(Atlantic Monthly, May, 1902)._

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
Entomological Study: What we Owe to it?
Practical Affairs.

"The insect friends and enemies of the farmer are getting
attention. The enemy of the San José scale was found near the
Great Wall of China, and is now cleaning up all our orchards.
The fig-fertilizing insect imported from Turkey has helped to
establish an industry in California that amounts to from fifty
to one hundred tons of dried figs annually, and is extending
over the Pacific coast. A parasitic fly from South Africa is
keeping in subjection the black scale, the worst pest of the
orange and lemon industry in California."

_Message of President Roosevelt to Congress, 1904._

"The business man, always on the outlook for a dividend, has
sometimes complained that some of our inquiries do not seem to
him practical, but he must have patience and faith. A few
years ago no knowledge could seem so useless to the practical
man, no research more futile than that which sought to
distinguish between one species of a gnat or tick and another;
yet to-day we know that this knowledge has rendered it
possible to open up Africa and to cut the Panama canal."

_A. E. Shipley,
on Research in Zoology, at Meeting of
British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1909._

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
Esperanto.

Dr. Zamenhof, a Russian physician, inventor of the proposed
international language called Esperanto, published his first
pamphlet on the subject in 1887; but it was not until ten
years later that the prospect of its extensive use as such
began to be realized. "It was well received, first in Russia,
then in Norway and Sweden. Then it was taken up in France, by
M. de Beaufront. The latter had himself invented an artificial
language, but gave it up as soon as he became acquainted with
the admirable work of his Russian competitor. He is the man
who forced the world at large to stop and seriously consider
Esperanto as the solution of the great problem proposed by men
like Roger Bacon, Descartes, Pascal, Leibnitz, Locke,
Condillac, Voltaire, Diderot, and so many others. From France
it went to Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and finally
to England, where thirty societies of Esperantists were
created within a little over a year. …

"The general principle upon which Dr. Zamenhof has worked is
this: to eliminate all that is accidental in our national
languages, and to keep what is common to all. In consequence,
and strictly speaking, he invents nothing; he builds entirely
with material that has been in existence for a long time.
Here, then, is the way in which he proceeds regarding the
various elements that are necessary to the formation of a
language.

"_The Sounds_.
Sounds that are peculiar to one language are eliminated. The
English _th_ and _w_ are not found in French or
German, therefore they are dropped. On the other hand, the
French _u_, the German _ü_, and the French nasals do
not exist in English; they too are dropped. The Spanish
_ñ_ and _j_, and the German _ch_, have the same
fate. Thus, only sounds which are found everywhere are kept,
and no one will have any difficulty about pronunciation, no
matter to what country he belongs. Spelling is of course
phonetic: one and the same sound for one letter. There are no
mute letters, as in French; neither are there double letters.
…

{601}

"_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._

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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. …