SCIENTIFIC.

Otago Witness, Issue 1890, 10 February 1888, Page 36

SCIENTIFIC.

— Human thought has never been able to form a theory of the origin of matter, life of force, any more than to conceive a beginning of time or limit of space. Of matter, hitherto men have been accustomed to think that the 70 or more so-called elements were the ultimate atoms. One evening in the theatre of the Royal Institution, and in presence of a distinguished audience, Mr William Crookes, F.R.S., brought forward in a lecture on the " Genesis of the Elements," a series of brilliant experiments tending to show that these atoms have been themselves evolved from 3impler forms of matter. The learned chemist dealt chiefly with the substance yttrium, derived from one of the rare earths, and to break it up into its fractions he had to use the electric current, the spectroscope and phosphorescence in an exceedingly low medium. Mr Crookes has carried beyond any other investigator experimentation in the nearest possible approach to a vacuum, and, amid loud cheers, he produced a little vial containing air of only the fifty-millionth of common air in density, and yet holding within five-sixteenths of a cubic inch", he confidently asserted, 100 million million molecules. The experiments were made in air of about the millionth of an atmosphere, and the phosphorescent glows produced were exceedingly fine. As a net result, the yttrium appeared to be broken up so as to yield at least six new elements ; and thence followed the conclusion that at some time in the history of the universe these materials also have been combined. He said that a few weeks ago in this theatre Sir William Thomson asked them to travel back with him an imaginary excursion of about 20,000,000 years. He then pictured to them the moment before the birth of our sun, when the Lucretian atoms rushed from all parts of space with velocities due to gravitation, and, clashing together, formed an incandescent fluid mass, the nucleus of a solar system, with 30,000,000 years of life in it. Mr Crookes then asked them to accompany him to a period even more remote, to the very beginning of time, before even the chemical atoms had consolidated from the original protyle ; and thus starting, the lecturer went on to show how, by the process of cooling, and the intervention of various states of electricity, the successive elements as we now know them might have come into existence from one single form of primordial matter. Prolonged applause followed the close of the address.

— There is much talk of a steam balloon which is being built by aM. Yon. The form is that of a fish, and its dimensions arc gigantic, the length being 200 ft. It is to bo enclosed in the usual manner in a net, from which the car will be suspended. The latter will be provided with a rudder and a trapezoidal screw, to be driven by a compact steam engine weighing 37401b. This weight allows 701b per i. h. p. M. Yon, in an account which he has published of his invention, says that he hopes to attain a speed in a calm atmosphere of 13 or li miles a second. Such a speed would not disgrace one of the inferior members of the planetary system, but possibly M. Yon means hours when he talks of seconds.

— The process of welding invented by Mr de Bernardoz, of Russia, is now applied in^ dustrially by the society for the electrical working of metals. The pieces to be welded are placed upon a cast-iron plate supported by an insulated table and connected with the negative pole of a source of electricity. The positive pole communicates with an electric carbon inserted in an insulating handle. On drawing the point of the carbon along the edges of the metal to be welded the operator closes the circuit. He has then merely to raise the point slightly to produce a voltaic arc, whose high temperature melts the two pieces of metal and causes them to unite. The intensity of the current naturally varies with the work to be done. For regulating it a battery of accumulators is used, and the number of the latter is increased or diminished, as need be. The process of welding is largely employed in the manufacture of metallic tanks and reservoirs.

—It is not generally known that the inflammable vapour of benzine, can be ignited by means of friction. A case has occurred in Philadelphia which shows in a curious manner how an accident happened by this means. A boy was cleaning a printing-press with benzine, rubbing in the volatile liquid with a rag, when the vapour suddenly caught fire, and the poor boy was severely burnt. Another fact not generally known is that benzine can be ignited by a, copper soldering

| tool at less than red-heat, for a case of accj, I dent has been recorded where a workman f soldering a leak in a tin can holding this • dangerous liquid, noticed that the applic a< tion of the tool caused an immediate flame around the opening which he was about to seal. These two examples are quoted in a recent American publication. — The opinion has lately been expressed by Mr Proctor that the present denuding effects of air and water are absolutely as nothing compared with the denuding forces which must have been in operation when the earth was young— that the oxygen and nitrogen of the air are but a residuum of what was once there, but, besides these gases, now in due proportion to support the earth's life, there were immense quantities of carbonic acid gas, of sulphurous acid, sulphuretted hydrogen, chlorine, boracic acid, and other destructive gases, some ready to 1 assume the liquid form, and thus to be still more destruc. tive. Mr Proctor thinks there must also have been immense quantities of water ia the form of vapour; in fact, the pressure of that primeval atmosphere must have been so great that the waters of such oceans as then existed could have turned into steam only at a temperature so far above the boiling point at the present atmospheric pressure that the surface of the ocean must actually have glowed with inherent lustre; the water vapour in the air must have been steam at high pressure and intensely hot, and tho rains falling then must have been torrents of hot water, impregnated with destructive acids, and falling on intensely heated rocks.

— The pneumatic dynamite 'gun has latelybeen subject to some very exhaxtstive trials at Fort Lafayette, New York. The Secretary of the United States navy had placed at the disposal of the company which has been formed for dealing with this weapon an old schooner, which was moored at about 2000 yards from the fort. After two shots ot blank shells had been fired, in order to find the range, the gun was loaded with a charged missile containing 551b of explosive gelatine, 'Die result of this shot was to give the old vessel a terrible shaking, and, as was discovered by those who boarded her immediately after the explosion, to injure her severely and cause serious leaks. With sue ceeding shots the vessel was broken up into matchwood. A photograph taken instantaneously, just as one of these explosions occurred, shows the vessel with the hull raised up several feet above its normal posi--tion. This picture thus exhibits in a cufiotte manner the peculiar lifting power of the explosive employed. A writer in one of our service journals maintains that some kind of international agreement will have to be come to " for the prompt execution of the inventors of new weapons " ; otherwise he urgea that the whole naval question will be onco more upset, and millions must be spent in a new direction. This reminds us that " there are many true words spoken in jest."