The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-01-05
SCIENCE IN 1873.
Year Of Wonderful Discoveries In
science.
New York Herald ]


At the very outset of the present year the
world of science was assembled on the judges
stand counting seconds in the race between
Pictet and Cailletet for liquifying the last OF
the gases and thus experimentalIy proving
the unity OF nature aud the continuity be-
tween the solid, liquid and gaseous domains.
Cailletet had scored the first round by lique-
flying oxygen and carboIic oxide as early as
December2 2, 1877, but being then q candidate
for election to seat In the Academy OF
Sciences he magnanimously RETAINED from
announcing his success and consigned the &C.
count OF his discovery to a sealed packet,
which was opened at the academic session Of
December "a. Strange to relate, M. Raoul
meeting the same result achieved by entirely
different processes. Scarcely had the won
dering Swans found time to announce to the
public this double triumph when NJ. Chilletet,
on the last day OF the year, accomplished the
liquifaction of hydrogen, nitrogen and atmos-
pheric air. and, pressing closely upon him, NJ
Pictet swept to the goal January H. definitely
establishing the sequence OF the constants OF
nature" By the qualification OF hydrogen. IL
was found to be q metal thereby brilliantly
iustifyiug the conclusion first reached forty
years ago by the veteran chemist, j. b.
Dumas.
Results such as these would suffice to make
| the year 1873 forever memorable In the annals
of science, but only the first page had yet
been written. In the same mouth OF Deem
| Der. 1877, when Oaflletet and Pctet were win
ming their first laurels In Paris and Geneva,
| Thomas Alva Ellison rode into New York one
morning from NenlO Park with queer brass
cylinder under his arm, and astonished our
neighbors OF the Scientific American with the
| brazen faced assertion that Mary had o little
lamb" The phonograph had sprung, un-
heralded, upon the world. and 80 Incredible
was the scientific fact thus revealed that sew
eral weeks elapsed before It was generally
credited. Although the full-fledged discovery
OF the phonograph pertains to 1877, the whole
| OF its development and its worldwide renOwn
belong to 1875, and 1t Is assuredly not the least
of its many titles to perpetual remembrance
that "the Wizard OF Menlo Park" then first
assumed recognized position as a factor
In our coming civilization. OF Edisons mani
| fold other and curious fnventiOns-the mega
phone the phOnomOtOr and the aerOphOne--we
nave no need now to speak, though In other
| times they would rank high among the Gu
riosities of science. But there are three other
achievements OF his genius which distinctly
call for mention among the wonders o. the
meter and the electric lamp-more than one
OF which were first fully described In the col
umns OF the Herald.
! Other workers have recently inscribed their
names upon Fame's eternal bead roll with
recognize the great merit of our c0untryman,
Prof. Hughes, In the discovery Of the micro
phone, OF Prof Graham In perfecting his tele-
phone, OF Mr.. Stearns in "duplexing" the At
| ltuLlC CLDIc, VI IOl AliIcu M mayer IN ulS
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 MonceI In his Ingenious develop
ment OF the photograph into condensateur
| cha,stant OF Lewis Swift and Prof. Watson In
their discovery of intra- Mercurial planets, OF
Prof. Leconte in his discovery OF a new ele-
ment, OF Profs. Newlands, Wilde and others
| In their ingenious classifications of the ele-
ments by periodic laws, and Of LentiD, Rapeff,
Jablochkoff, Werdermann, Sawyer Hosmer
and Gary in their important, but not yet fully
realized applications Of electric force.
| The browning discovery Of the year, how
ever, il the half that has cen claimed should
prove true, will belong neither to Plctet. Call
letet, Hughes, Watson nor Swift, but to the
eminent English astronomer and spectre
| scopist, Mr.. ). Norman Lockyer, who visited
our shores In July last for the observation Of
the great solar eclipse. His discovery,
which the Herald was the first to announce
In America, is nothing less than that all the
sixty-four so-called elements are condensa-
tions or notifications by the Intersections of
the cosmic forces upon O single primitive
matter, which, SO far as this earth Is con-
cerned, seems to be hydrogen, but which In
the solar corona Is found to be at least four
times lighter than hydrogen. 1t is too early
to predict the range OF Mr.. Lockyers dIscov-
cry; but, granting all the facts which he
claims, he has but demonstrated experiment
tally an idea which IS perfectly familiar to