THE KATHAROMETER

Evening Star, Issue 18998, 21 July 1925, Page 8

THE KATHAROMETER

The honored guest of the Royal Society at Burlington House recently, where scientists gat lie red to admire the evidences of the year’s progress in learning, was Mr Joliu Bluebottle. Mr Bluebottle arrived with many friends from his university town of Cambridge, end was specially accommodated in a tube (says the. ‘Daily Chronicle’). Fresh air was put into the tube, with an intimation that tho visitor could breathe as much as he liked. Mr Bluebottle breathed deeply, and to the delight of those who were measuring his respiration with an instrument called tho Shakespeare katharometer. At the same time the “staleness ” of the atmosphere inside the tube was also recorded by this device. The katharometor can measure a plant's breathing, record an insect’s respiration, and find the water vapor in the air. It can also detect the most minute leakages of gas in the envelopes of balloons and airships, and tests are being made to determine its value in medical research. In another part of the exhibition Air George H. Gubb showed what is believed to be the earliest English telescope. It is made of wood, covered with red leather, and shaped like a trumpet. It boars the name and date: “Jacob Cunningham, 1661.” Air Gabb, who collects antique instruments, told a romantic story of the discovery, lie was attending a sale in a London auction room, and bought “tor a song” a job lot, in which lie found the unique instrument. Actually the apparatus was not even recorded in the catalogue. He has made the most exhaustive research as to the original owner, but little has been traced. The telescope magnifies only three diameters. Sir Ernest Rutherford demonstrated with a French film showing the motion winch is incessant in minute particles. Microscopists know it as “Brownian movement.” The incessant and irregular motion of these atomic particles in liquids and gases were clearly shown in the photographs. To secure them a , high-power pxLcrogcopo )unl.,to h$ used* |