The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1869-09-03

use than to serve as landmarks for meas
uring the spaces of the colored spectrum.
But, in 1889, the two German chemists,
Kirchof and Bunsen, made the capital dis
| c0very that each chemical element, when
burning in fame, gave out light that
had its peculiar marks or lines, 80 that
these lines could become means of de-
tecting the element A totally new mode
OF chemical analysis was thus hit upon,
far more delicate than anything hitherto
known, and a method, moreover, which
Was capable of becoming recelator Of the
constitution Of the universe. Chemistry, at
q single stroke, was fused with astronomy,
and the universal agent of light became
the powerful servant of the laboratory.
At the very first step, several new ele-
ments were discovered, the existence of
which had never before been suspected
Examining with the spectrum the ash of
some mineral waters, Prof Bunson thought
he saw some lines which did not belong to
the substances already known. He then
boiled down forty four tons of Durkheim
spring water, and got couple of hundred
grains of residue, from which he extracted
two new metals, Casium and Rubidium,
which resemble potassium. This Rubi-
dunn has since been found in the ash of
oak, of bee.-root of tobacco, coffee, tea,
and cocoa.
The spectrum analysis, however, is not
mere instrument of original chemical
research it has practical applicability.
The Bessemer process, as it is called, is
method of converting cast iron directly
into steel Cast iron contains more carbon
than steel, and it is converted into steel by
burning this carbon out of the molten
white-hot mass by blast of atmospheric
air. In this operation five tons of cast
iron are converted in twenty minutes into
five tons of cast steel But the success of
the process depends upon being able to
stop it at just the right time. If contin-
ued ten seconds too long, or stopped ten
seconds too quickly, the batch is spoiled.
The fame, of course, is an index Of the
advance of the combustion, and, by watch
ing it with the spectroscope, the appear
ance and disappearance of the lines indi-
cate the exact moment at which the opera
ton is to be arrested.
The spectroscope promises also to be-
come very valuable instrument in medico-
legal investigations into the evidences of
criminality. Blood stains may be detect
ed by it with extreme delicacy. Mr.. Sorby
has shown that the e-thOusandth part of
agrain of the red -coloring matter of blood
stain may be detected with the greatest
certainty.
But it is in its celestial applications that
the spectroscope has performed its most
wonderful achievements. The constitu-
ton of the sun, for example, which, ten years
ago, was a matter of the purest conjecture,
is now matter of definite and positive
knowledge We know what it is composed
of-its chemical constituents-not as COM
pletely, but with the same certainty, as we
know the chemical constitution of the
earth. Sixteen of the elements with which
we are familiar upon earth, are proved
also to exist in the atmosphere of the sun.
They are the following sodium, calcium,
barium, magnesium, iron, chromium,
nickel, copper, zinc, strontium, cadmium,
cobalt, hydrogen, manganese, aluminium,
titanium.
The stars have also been subjected to
spectroscopic study with equal success.
They are shown to resemble our sun, their
light coming from white-hot matter in
their atmospheres. About eighty lines in
the spectrum of the light from Aldebaran
have been mapped, and it has been ascer-
tanned that the atmosphere of this star
contains sodium, magnesium, hydrogen,
bismuth, tellurium, antimony and mercury.
Sirius contains sodium, magnesium, iron
and hydrogen. About sixty other stars
have been examined, and all seem to have
some chemical element known on earth.-
Appleton's Journal.