The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1866-03-06
The Magnesium Light.

The brilliant white light produced by burn
ing the metal magnesium has lately attracted
much attention. Magnesium is the metal con-
tanned in ordinary magnesia and EPSON salts,
in soapstone and meerschaum, and might be
very common metal If uses were found for it.
Within two or three years it has been produc-
ed in England in considerable quantities, and
its price has rapidly fallen as the production
increased, till il now costs in London only ten
shillings an ounce. This weight corresponds
to a considerable bulk because of the low Spec
itic gravity of the metal, which is seven times
lighter than lead. In the metallic state it looks
much like zinc, a metal to which it bears a
close chemical as well as physical resemblance.
Zinc may be readily burned in coal fire, and
in the burning it also produces a white light,
due, like the magnesium light, to the mean
descent particles of the solid oxide. A small
ribbon of magnesium may be Lit by the heat of
an alcohol or gas lamp, and it will burn stead
lily SO long as iii properly protected from cur
rents of air, provided there be no flaws in the
ribbon. slight puff of wind may blow out
the fame The magnesium light is remark
able for other qualities besides its briIliancy.-
The ultraviolet portion of its spectrum is
more than six times as broad as the common
spectrum produced by sunlight. Hence the
phenomena OF fiuorescence are very finely ex-
hibted with the magnesium light. Its chem
ical and Photographic power is intense. Dry
chloride Of silver is colored dark blue by 1t in
few seconds. III mixtare of equal volumes
of chlorine and hydrogen be exposed in glass
cylinder to the light OF burning magnesium
wire, mist of hydro-chloric acid will at once
appear; and If a second burning wire he
brought to reinforce the first, the two gases
will, after few seconds, unite with explosion.
precisely as they do when exposed to direct
sunlight. Bodies which will emit light in the
dark after five or ten minutes exposure to the
direct rays of the sun, as do the phosphides OF
calcium, strontium, and barium, and some va
rieties of the diamond, of fuorspar, and of al |
umina, attain their maximum OF phosphores-
cence from az many seconds exposure to the
magnesium light. fEz&E kER
yet to be invented. The product Of the COM
bustion is white, solid, bulky ash, which CT m
siSts OF nothing but pure magnesia. 1t j.. DIFF
fcu!t to get rid of this ash, which forups very
rapidly and greatly dims the brilliancy of the
light. Progress has, however, been made to-
ward this most desirable end, both. by Enelisb
experimenters and by the American Magnesi-
um Company, Of Boston. One of the most in
genlonSs suggestions which HIS been made is
20 reduce the magnesium to powder. mix it
with sand, and let the mixture run into a Jet
of gas, as sand runs from an hour-glass. The
greater part of the magnesium now Inanllfac-
tured is consumed by the theaters, and for
such purposes it is certainly much more con-
venient and manageable than either the Drum
mond or the electric light. For lighthouses
and for signal1igLts at sea and upon railways,
the magnesium light possesses great adyanta-
ges over any light which has ever been used
for such purposes, but the actual employment |
of the metal for ships and lighthouses must |
depend upon the invention of lamp which |
will insure the uninterrupted combustion of
the metal, and the complete and immediate
removal of the smoke and ash. For fireworks
mixtures of zine and magnesia may be used
with excellent effect. BY. the magnesium
light photographers may work at night or in
dark weather, and the interiors of caves, cata
combs, aud mines may be reproduced with all
the distinctness of a sun-pictllre. ii Professor
Smyth has obtained by its use photographs of
the great Pyramid, and ofthe granite Golfer in
the Kings chamber of the Pyramid. Colors |
look by the magnesium light just as they look |
by sunlight, SO that in those countries Of Eu- |
rope where sunshine is scarce the light may
prove a convenience to dealers in delicately-
colored fabrics Of silk, cotton, or paper.-IThe
Nation i'A g - ~ filAAt- = - -