New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1850-06-08

We publish in another place letter from,
an enthusiastic convert to the reality Of the
great discovery claimed to be made by
Henry NJ. Paine of Worcester, mainly
known to the public hitherto as successful
in avoiding great number of musket, rife
and pistol bullets with which certain mys-
ferrous enemies Of his some three or four
years since endeavored to put an end to his
existence. Our correspondent has not the
slightest doubt that Mr.. Paine has actually
found out the means of producing the
greatest revolution which physical science
can well be supposed to make in the BUSH
ness and comfort of Society, and accordingly
pays him in advance a small instalment of
the admiration which, if his discovery be
genuine, future ages will award without stint
or deduction. For our part we hope it is all
SO, but we are as yet far from sharing the
certainty of our correspondent.
AS far as we apprehend the claim Of Mr..
Paine, it is that he has established as new
principle of science that electricity possesses
the qualities Of weight, compressibility and
grayitation; that he has proved water
to be in reality simple elemental sub
stance, which he can decompose or trans
form into either hydrogen or oxygen gas &C
| cording to its electrical condition, and accor-
ding as positive or negative electricity is APP
piled to it; and that he has invented the
means whereby from water he can produce
at will either of these gases without any
other than mechanical agency and with no
expense save that Of the machine, which
will cost at the outset $500 or $500 and last
for an indefinite period,
Now we are not among those who conf
IDENTIFY declare all this to be impossible. We
have conyersed with several scientific gen.
tlemen for whose opinions we have respect,
who have argued that the whole is an abb
surdity and cheat and that the gas which
Mr.. Paine has exhibited at Worcester. is
not produced by any new method as he
claims, but is generated in the usual mode
and kept in private reservoir in order to
impose upon visitors. This may all be so;
but yet it seems to us rash to affirm that it
must be SO. The predictions of learned
men as to the possibilities Of scientific dis
coyery have too often been falsifed by ex-
perience to pass for absolute and final au-
thority. We doubt not that the universe is
still rich in unappropriated powers and
agencies waiting tor man to lay hold of and
subdue them to human purposes. We are as
yet only at the beginning of the vast series
Of inventions through whose aid Man, the
lord of this fair planet will obtain perfect
control over his diyinely bestowed dOmin-
ions, ennoblng the globe with uses and en-
riching it with beauty, till it shall bloom
with purer health and higher glories than
the original paradise. 1t is out of the ques-
ton to set limits to the triumphs of discove-
ry or the grandeur Of enterprise. The word
impossible is obsolete, outlawed, its sense
reversed; it is no longer impossible that
great things should be accomplished: it is
impossible that they should not be.
If this discovery which Mr.. Paine claims
to have made, be humbug, it cannot long
keep from exposure. Opposition enough it
has already met with from men of science,
to secure the exhibition Of the cheat, if
they had been quite sure as to the mode of
its performance. 1t is true, we believe,
that the process has not been shown by the
inventor to those who have visited him for
information; this he explains by the state
ment that he has not yet completed his pa
tent in England, where he wishes to take
out patent before taking one in this cOun-
try. But, at any rate, the deception, if |
there be one, as is very possible, must ere
long come out, and there will be an end Of
the matter. Meanwhile we know of at
least one eminent savant who has conyersed
with the inventor, examined the light and
heat, and inspected the apparatus as far as
il is exhibited, and who has had, with his
mind so far changed, respecting the affair,
Is to be entirely undecided, waiting for
'urther testimony before concluding either
way. This is exactly our position we hope
90, that if it is a cheat somebody will with
tut delay conclusively show it up. In the
we do not advise any one TO