A WONDERFUL APPARATUS.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14314, 27 March 1912, Page 9

A WONDERFUL APPARATUS.

Jnst imagine seeing thrnge through a magnifying glass millions and • millions of times more powerful than*tho most powerful microscope on earth to-day, Imagine- what a tiny drop of water ■would Jook liko magnified. until it appeared as big as the earth itself. Lp unt : l a very short timo ago the spectroscope uas tho finest instrument of analysis availablo for i chemical and scientific research. If, after vainly try- , ing all other tests,, the scientist wished to" know of what some mixed substance was made he burned it and converted it into gas and directed a ray of the gas aga:nst a prism of glass. Th'a' prism broke the light up into a band *f colours streakodT with dark lines. By examining the lines and the colours the sc:etit : st was ablo to tell of what ■ tho.burnt enbetance was composed. And now an instrument which is deciered to bo one million million times nwre exact thnn the spectroscope is being tested at the Cavendish Labora- ' Cambridgo University, by Sir J. ,J. Thomson, whose recent researches hare given promise of .entirely revolutionising the fundamental science of the structure of matter. With his now magnifying apparatus, a cornbinat'on •of spectroscope and photographing • camera. Sir J. J. Thomson. »■ said to hare been able to detect cnemical com- • DSnatons which exist only in that part of a second which compares to a second *as a second compares to a year.