Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1870-05-13
InHIaIhIIItX OF Light.

WE are permitted to publish the follow
ing interesting extract from the paper |
read o few evenings ago by Richard WI.
liams, Esq, before the Buffalo Society OF
| Natural Sciences;
A friend recently handed me file OF
English papers containing partial report
Of q lecture or lectures recently delivered
before the Royal Institute by professor
Tyndall, and announcing Whist seemed 10
me an important discovery. NO accouns
of these lectures having as yes apPvareo
Thought slight abstract from them, with
few observations Of my own, might be
interesting and instructive.
The discovery announced by Prof Tyn-
dali is, that paradoxical as 1t may seem,
"llght itself is perfectly invisible thing"
| 1t seems that Tyndall, in his experiments
on the decomposition of vapors by light,
was much troubled by the dancing notes
or dust which we have all seen OCCASION
ally when a small body of light is let into
Q partially darkened room. These notes
he found were both organic and morgan
ic; he was much troubled in his endeav-
ors to get rid of them, and after trying to
do 30 unsuccessfully, by passing the air
through caustic potash and sulpburic acid,
he finally succeeded in making the air
perfectly pure by burning them out. He
then showed by various experiments that
light would not pass through perfectly
pure air, and proved copclusively that the
thing we call light Is absolutely without
witness of itself except it has something
to strike upon to reflect or fill with the
mysterious and subtle life of illumination.
One of the methods by which he proved
this was flower shade with hydrogen
gas, or glass tube with common air free
| ErAv hoe I'm an m
light through these vessels, or intercept
ing the rays, they became perfectly dark
in the vessel and light again upon emerg.
ing from the other side, Another way of
showing it was to cover his mouth and
nostrils with thick batting of cotton
] wool. The notes were caught in the
: lungs and cotton, and the exhaled breath
. instantly abolished the light in its path
Verify, the Bible and science are not al
war here, for we are told that 1.-THE light
q shineth in darkness and the darkness
: comprehended it not "-an exact descrip
D ton of this physical phenomenon.
b One would naturally infer from the
. multitude of stars we see in the heavens
v every one of which is a sun like our own
!. that the universe would be filled with
O light but it is not so, and it is certain
a that the orbs of heaven, guided by HanC
q that needs no light, wheel in their ap
\. pointed paths amidst the most profound
8 and inconceivable darkness. This discov
e cry of Tyndall may explain the mystery
n of the darkness of the great stellar space
l. which the astronomers have heretotor
a been unable to account for. In reading
je the history of scientific truths, one is con
g. stantly surprised at the important part
mere chance has played in their advance
r ment The means of measuring the in
re conceivable velocity of light, q problem
ct which Newton was unable to solve, wer
discovered by accident, and often, il
searching after trifies we stumble upol
facts of the greatest value. This discover,
ofTyndall's is q striking illustration of thi
i truth, and of that constant revolution @
knowledge from knowledge ever going on
~ it is full of significance, opening, as
does, a vast field for inquiry, and mayb
of the greatest practical value to man
kind. Tyndall also showed that iron
Is when heated only to the temperature @
boiling water, partially burnt up thes
IN notes. A French chemist recently an
nounced that one of the most poisonou
of the gases emitted in the combustion G
coal went through red hot iron as easil
as water does through sieve we knoN
at that in the best constructed furnace
'e there is always more or less leakage {
gas which is imperceptible to the sense!
ul and that notwithstanding every one re
le cognises the fact that Easements are nc
healthy places to live and sleep in, W
i'd take air from its lowest strata on tn
rs earth's surface, and from cellar
to. warm our houses. These fact
n may go far toward explaining th
az alleged unhealthiness of hot air furnace
The air filled with these notes we ar
constantly passing through our lung
~ One of the scientific men of Europe, veal
70 ago, asserted that when decoction
meat was shut off from common air, an
at only exposed to that which had bee
le raised to high temperature, putrefactio
never sets in-thus showing that SOM
off thing more than oxygen of the air WI
or needed in the process of destruction an
decay. A lady now in the city buffalo
n who was living in Texas few years sine
ri at place where the yellow fever rage
er with great violence, and where the air
so pure and dry that ordinarily, in th
40 hottest weather, freth beef never spoie
m but dried up-making the "jerked beef
q. of the Spaniards-intorms me that for
few days before the fever broke out, the
A., fresh meat spoiled in a few hours, an
IN before the animal was fairly cold. Mall
oy rious and infectious diseases, and the ha
u fever, have long been supposed to
=, owing to germs in the air. Surgeons
IL hospitals are careful not to allow wounC
OF to be exposed to the air for fear of gal
X creme. We know how this class of di
be eases is propogated by clothes, hides, etc
, and it may be that whilst pure air wou
he not carry along these infectious germ
a these notes act as kind Of raft to flo
ut, them from place to place, and this ia
mis- demonstrated might give US the means
file stopping to some extent at least the spres
of infectious and epidemic diseases.-Bl
ge tdlo Kepress.