Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1859-08-09
From the Scientific american,


TuOSpuOiCsCCuCCs
1t is related by Christiana, the daughter o
Linneus that while she was walking in her To-
theirs garden in the evening of a hot and bril-
liant summers day, now and then watering SOM
favorite plants with her Gorrosir, her attention
was arrested by flashes of light which were e.
mitted by some flowers of nasturtium. Coler-
idge the poet thus slludes to its sl
otis said, on summers evening hour
Flashes the golded-colored flower
A fair electric fiame,"
Strolling at twilight or in the evening by th'
hedge-row or along the field path at this season
of the year, especially over the sandy soil of thu
Surrey hills England you will see little spark
ling gems Illuminating the banks which divide
the fields. Should you be fortunate enough tt
entrap one of these living jewels it will be found
on examination by daylight to have legs ant
wings if it be male, but no wings If it be fe-
male; it is, in fact, an insect which naturalist
have named the Cicindela, or 'Sparkler !" yor
doubtless have heard of it by the familiar name
of the glow-wrm, more correctly glow-beetle.
Should You be sailing down the Mersey, ol
merely crossing that stream in the ferry-boa
from Liverpool to Birkenbead in the autumn
(particularly if the evening be such as to over
shadow the harvest mooD) you will be delighted
and surprised to notice that as the vessel cleave
the water it will appear to be floating "on the
realms of light" A closer examination OF the
water shows it to be charged with minute infu-
sorial animalcules, (Fyrosonna Attantaca) only
to be discovered by microscope; every one Of
them, however, glows with light.
Down some of the lead mines in Derbyshre
the miners throw out with the ore pretty
greenish blue crystal stone, like bits OF broken
glass this is called "Flour Spar" There is such
an abundance of it that some of the operative
chemists sell it at few pence per pound. Ii
YOU make this spar warm over flame, (holdiDg
It with piece of wire,) and then take it into a
dark room, it will shine with a beautiful blue
light. While in the dark room be provided with
a few Jumps of sugar, OF such shape as you can
divide between your hands. Now break them
and flash of light will be visible; rub the
Jumps of sugar together and there will be more
light or if you are provided with two rounded
whitish flint pebbles, such as boys call milk
stones, you will by grotipg them strongly to-
gether see brilliant reddish light.
On many of the commons in England, and by
the sides of numerous streams, willow trees are
allowed to grow bere and there. One more
venerable than the rest has, perhaps, begun TO-
decay, and you may help yourself to pieces OF
its trunk without the saw or axe. Country boys
call it "touchwood," for, If spark fall on It, 1t
will burn like tinder. When the day has been
unusually bright and warm, this touch-wood, if
taken into dark place, will shine like glow
worm.
In that warm region of the earth where Gay
enne pepper grows, where the coftee-plant Hour
ishes, and the sugar-cane is an immense grassy
weed, innumerable insects may be seen at sunset
skitting and dancing in the air, as we see gnats
do in this country. Every one OF these little
creatures, called in that country "fre.fies,"
teens with light, and so brilliant are they that
three of them placed under glass on dark
night wonld give light enough to enable you to
read the Scientific american.
The Zgnis Jatuus or "Will-o-the- -wisp," has
afforded the poets and romance.writers many
mythical theme, such as the following:-
"On distant swampy heath see
A Will.o'. '.the.wispl- l-ah luckless he,
Who to next village bends his way!
That glimpse will lead him far astray."
This luminous vapor is frequently seen during
the summer months lowering over marshes, low
meadows, in the vicinity of stagnant ponds; the
slightest breath of air causes it to fit and move
as If it had life.
The luminous willow-trees together with
Will-o-the-wisp, have been the foundation of
many ghost-story as told by some luckless
wight, who, after seeing sweetheart home, has
had to return through the meadows to his ma
tive hamlet.
Now all these curious lights are attributable
to one uniform cause, namely, phosphorescence.
The light thus visible differs from the suns light
and from the light emanating from combustion,
in this one particular, that there is no heat with
it. Hence phosphoric light or phosphorescence
is pure light as pure as the light of the moon
and stars while ordinary light may be consid-
cred to be adulterated with heat and chemical
rays, which produce effects independent of the
pure principle of phosphorescence.