SCIENCE'S SWIFT STRIDES.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2927, 18 July 1911, Page 7

SCIENCE'S SWIFT STRIDES.

THE DIBCONCERTMENTB OF DISCOVERY. "The fairy tale 9of Science and the long results of Time," sung of by Tennyson in "Locksley Hall," are very disconcerting to dwell on. Human discovery is so revolutionary in its effect, and so speedily does it stride down the ages, that the wonder of to-day becomes often the disregarded derelict of to-morrow. One invention supersedes and "scraps" another with marvellous celerity, in almost every direction of human activity and ingenuity.

"Mother Skipton," whose remarkable prophecies startled the world in Tudor times, foretold that "carriages would go without horses but the more or less mythical eld woman, who was later accepted as a seer, would surely have rubbed her wise old eyes in a bewildered way could she but have witnessed the electric motors whizzing about our streets, looked up at the army aeroplanes hovering over Aldershot Camp, received a wireless telegraphic message from a turbine-driven steamer hundreds of miles out on the Atlantic, or even listened to somebody else's stored-up song or story from the funnel of a gramophone ! She may, to quote Tennyson again, have "dipt into the future far as human eye could see but Mother Shipton could hardly have imagined with what easy audacity man nowadays harnesses the lightning,to serve

his needs, and how he hopes soon to sound the almost abysmal depths of the potentiality of the world-won-der, radium, and to tarn the restless energy it diffuses with such incredible velocity to his own everyday uses ! WHAT RADIUM IS. Really radium was not "discovered"—in the sense of practicality—until as recently as 1902, when its marvellous nature was demonstrated through the researches of Professor Bccquerel and of Professor and Madame Curie.

Prepared as a bromide or chloride in the form of white crystals or powder, somewhat resembling ordinary salt, radium is obtained from pitchblende. But it would require something like 4,000 tons of the most suitable pitchblende known to make a single pound of the crude radium.

Radium bromide (the form in which it is needed for use in the newest phase of'curative science) now costs £SO for the smallest quantityseven milligrammes—that can be usefully employed. At that rate an ounce would cost nearly £220,000, and a pound avoirdupois (7,000 grains) £3,500,000. The figures are simply staggering. And the scientists say that not only can this precious radium be obtained in our own "delectable duchy" of Cornwall, besides being found in certain Bohemian mines from which the Austrian Government have forbidden its exportation, but that it exists also in appreciable quantities in the waves of the ocean. LASTING LIGHT AND HEAT.

The outstanding peculiarity of radium is that it seems capable of going on almost for ever producing light and heat—that is to say, it is calculated that under ordinary conditions this marvellous potentiality for the omission of the source and sustainer of animal life would continue in radium without waste or loss of energy for at least a couple of thousand years. The light and heat seem to be due to an emanation of some gaseous product given off, the nature of which is as yet very imperfectly understood. This has the power of endowing certain other objects upon which it falls with the radio-activ-ity of the substance itself. As instances, -sulphide of zinc and certain gems phosphoresce brilliantly under the influence of radium. Such is the force concentrated in this mystic element that, could it but be controlled, quite an infinitesimal quantity would serve to impel the biggest battleship afloat through a long, voyage overseas. But, better by far for humanity than that, radium possesses the power of destroying bacteria and diseased human tissue—a property which has promptly attracted the attention of all the advanced medical scientists of the world. Hence came the foundation of the British Radium Institute, in which "Doctor Radium" will be constantly called upon to cure that cruel scourge of our kind, malignant cancer, besides many other "ills that fle6b is heir to."

Some savants hold that we are actually dwelling in a world heated throughout by radio-thermal actions which the wit of man has as yet failed to fathom !

THE STEEL OF THE FUTURE. Is Sheffield steel played out ? We have long been accustomed to pride ourselves on the world-super-iority of the principal product of our British "Steelopolisthough Mr. Millionaire Carnegie had the temerity to lately prophesy its early decadence. But since this gloomy piece of prophecy was uttered a great firm in the grimy Yorkshire city on the River Sheaf has placed on the market a steel with from three to seven times the cutting power of existing high-speed steel, and which, in contradistinction to present material, can be hardened in water", oil, or blast. The new steel, whose cutting power is almost incredible, will not, we are told, call for any alteration in present machinery. But will its discovery not great) v disconcert many concerned in the older fashion of metallurgy ?

HOW SCIENCE AIMS AT ENDING WAR.

Sir Horace Maxim predicts the

eariy doom of militarism by the use of a fearsome aerial machine, perfectly controllable, and capable of cutting through Cloudland at a rate of eighty miles an hour. Says the grim American-born rival of the Wrights, and the rest of the aviators :

'"Such machines are already pos-

sible. There are men who can make them.

"The effect on the nations will be that war will be made so undesirable that we shall have no war. No longer will it be possible for the war-makers to sit at home in comfort while others do the fighting. With flying machines a great and powerful nation will be quite open to attack. The enemy will be ab'e to destroy your cities, his approach being hidden by darkness or cloud. The fact that you can at the same moment be destroying your enemy's cities will not make your position any more secure or pleasant.'' ."In ten years' time." Sir Hiram holds, "the three great European Powers will be able to decree that 'the nations of the earth shall make

war no more.' "

! That would be a stride of science . which humanity might welcome indeed, a development disconcerting only to the soldiery whom it would , render superfluous.