The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1878-12-28
A YEARS WORK IN SCIENCE,
OLD THEORIES DESTROYED AND
NEW INTENTIONS MADE.
NO such Thing as Liquids and Gases--
All Nature Composed Of Hydrogen--
Making Air Solid Opening New
Fields.
[ From the Ne,o York. Herald. |

tFiom the Ne,o York. Herald
While the political annals of the
year are writ large with battle, mur-
der and sudden death, the scientific
record stands written in letters of
living light.
at the very outset of the present
year the world of science was as-
sombled on the judges stand count
ing seconds in the race between
Picket and Cailletot for liquefying
the last Of the gases, and thus ex-
perimentally proving the unity of
nature and the continuity between
the solid, liquid and G seous do.
mains. Cailletet had scored the
first round by liquefying oxygen
aud carbonic oxide as early as
December 2, 1877, but being then
candid tie for election to a seat in
the Academy of Sciences he mag
unanimously rofrained from an
nouncing his success and consigned
the account of his discovery to q
sealed packet, which Was opend at
the academic session of December
"a. Strange to relate, M. Raoul
Picket, of Geneva, announced by
letter 1T that meeting the same re-.
suit achieved by entirely different
processes. Scarcely had the. won
dering savans found time to an.
nounce to the public this double
triumph when NJ. C1illctet, on the
last day of tho year, accomplished
the liquefaction of hydrogen, ni5.o-
gen and Itmt sphe:ic uir, anI press
ing closely upon MIN, NJ. Plctat
swept to the goal January IL,
definitely establishing the sequence
of the constants OF nature" by the
solidification of hydrogen. It was
found to be metal, thereby bril-
liantly justifying the conclusion
first reached forty years ago by the
veteran chemist, j. B. Dumas, who
had the honor, as president of q
leading scientific society, to receive
the first telegraphic announcement
from NJ. Pictet, and to IN Ike known
to his associates 1T :':,ia. tbs gran
discovery on th: very d,y it was
made Geneva.
Results such as these would
suffice 10 make the year 1878 for.
ever memorable in the annals of
science, but only the first page had
yet been written. In the same
month of December, 1877, when
Cailletet and Fictet were winning
their first laurels in Paris and
Geneva, Thomas Alvc Edison rode
into New York one morning from
Menlo Park with queer brass CYL
inder under his arm, and astonished
our neighbors of the Scientific
american with the brazen-f laced
assertion that "Mary had little
lamb" The phonograph had sprung,
unheralded, upon the world, and
so incredible was the scientific fact
thus revealed that several weeks
elapsed before it was generally
credited. Although the full hedged
discovery of the phonograph per
tains to 1877, the whole of it's
development and it's worldwide
renown belong to 1878, and it is
assuredly not the least of its many
titles to perpetual remembrance
that "the Wizard of Menlo Park"
then first assumed a recognized
position as factor in our coming
civilization. OF Edison's manifold
other and curious inventions-the
megaphone, the phonometor, and
the aerophone-we have no need
now to speak, though in other times
they would rank high among the
curiosities of science. But there
are three other achievements of his
genius which distinctly call for
mention among the wonders Of the
year-the improved carbon tele..
phone, the tasl,neter and the electric
lamp-more than one of which
were first fully described in the
columns of the Herald. Other
workers have recently inscribed
their names upon Fame's eternal
bead-roll with similar titles, and it
would be unjust not to recognize
the great merit of our countryman
Professor Hughes in the discovery
ofthe:microphone, of Professor Gra>
ham Bell in perfecting his to eohone,
of Mr.. Stearns in ''duplexing' the
Atlantic cable, of Professor Alfred
M. Mayer in his illustrations of the
atomic theory by floating magnets,
of Sir j. D. Hooker and Paul Bert
in their discoveries in vegetable
chemistry, Of Count Du Moneel in
his Ingenious develop ment of the