Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1875-04-25
THE APPLICATION OF SCIENCE TO
PRODUCTIVE MINISTRY

thinks be has discoveredthe -"successol
Of steam" as a motive power IN liquid
carbonic acid. He says: "For many
years I have, with the collaboration Of
my brother, who is director Of tbs
Netherlands Soda Mandatory of Am.
sterdam, considered the question.
rHow to transpose heat into mechan,
ioal power more advsntageously than il
is done in common steam and othel
engines 1t occurred to me to makt
the experiment, to see what degree d
tension Of the Oarbonic acid given Of
by natrium bicarbonate common soda,
would amount to when heated in q
closed space. We we're surprised and
much gratifed to find that when soda
IN q dry, ~pulverized state, or in a
watery solution, is heated in a
closed space, a part of the carbonie
acid is given of and condensed IN
a not heated portion of that space, 50
that at a temperature Of 800 OF 400
degrees centigrade liquid carbonic acid
can be distilled out of this salt with a
tension Of from fifty to sixty atmos-
pheres." The weight Of the atmos-
phere is fifteen pounds to the square
inch, and the tension Of fifty atmos-
pberes would work a piston rod with a
force equal to $50 pounds to the square
inch. AL wealth is utilized force,
which may be called mechanical and
intellectual powers, which are probably
the same, varied slightly in their mani
festations. Neither gold, coal or gran
ite in the mountain can properly be
called capital or wealth; but force brings
them out into the service Of man, when
they are able to make rich a person
who was poor.
To-day the matter that will form all
the wheat, oOrn and cotton raised in
the United States thisyear, exists almost
whollyinair and water, which r value
less. Force from the sun mainly, viii
change these u~norganized elements into
those valuable staples to reward human
industry. The Lest labOrs of mans
brain and muscle are simply force gen
Grated by the daily consumption and
burning in his system of combustible
food. As the force Of the OK, ass,
hcrse and mule, water-wheel, steam
engines and LIQUID carbonic acid, may
do mans work, and as these powers are
as unlimited as solar light and heat, it
follows that mans power IF creating
wealth is equally unlimited. Science.
neutrality-suspicious. industry, is des-
tined to increase its productiveress
a million fold in the near future.
This IS prophecy, but it is one Of the
wonders OF science that it is able to
create true prophets. Let US give sam
pies. Some two hundred and fifty
years ago a young student OF astronomy
calculated for the first time that on a
certain day the planet Venus would
pass between the earth and sun in a
way to cast a small round shadow on
the earth where he lived. Venus is
many millions of miles from the sun
and from the earth. The prophecy
was bold indeed, for several witnesses
were invited into his darkened room to
see for themselves whether a dark spot
fell on the sheet Of white paper which
received the suns light through a hole
in a plank window shutter. The pre-
diction was fulfilled. Full of celestial
inspiration, the young prophet prophe-
cied again.
He said in substance on a certain
day more than n hundred years IN
the future another transit Of Venus
would occur, but visible only in the
Southern hemisphere. The distiu-
guished navigator, Capts Cook, was
sent into the South seas, and sailed
round the world TO verify the truth or
reSeal the error of this prophecy q
science. As predicted, the phenome-
non transpired. Again, celestial in
spiration prophecied that more than q
century after the observations taken
By Capt. Cook and his associates on
the Sth day of December, 1874, in the
Southern hemisphere, but not in the
Northern, another transit OF Venus
would be visible. All of our readers
were alive on that day. Was it a true
prophecy?
The old and vague art of forctelling
events has become an exact science,
which differs very little from the prob
lens Of Euclid, or the multiplication
table. All the laws Of t. universe
are a unit, and as much alike as two
molecules Of water possibly can be
alike. It IS a mistake to assume that
all nature IS governed by a thousand
or mor warning devils, or warning
angels, somewhere in space. If that
we're the condition Of things, no one
could possibly tell when a year began
or ended, nor when to expect spring,
summer, autumn or winter. The time
vii! never come when heat will cease to
expand water into an invisible vapor,
and cold CONCEAL it into solid ice. The
laws Of nature being invariable, mans
fOre-knowledge may become as bound
less as nature, and as limitless in re-
sources.
ANOTHER " OUTRAGE"
In the last issue of the Nashville BuL-
IetiH, under the heading, "SHoT Be-
CAUSE He SUBSCRIBED FOR THE Bull
LETIN, there appeared the following
E-NTpEpT Avn Trrx- U,ystop C,,,t-