The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1884-06-11
FIRE FROM THE ROCKS.
THE FAMOUS LUMINOUS sToHH OF
SALT LAKE.
A Yankees Trick fin Indla-Phos'
p%hOrcsrent Diamonds and KAN
Heat Developing Light.

stone that was of Il light gray color and
seemed to possess no particular interest.
"Just step in this dark room, and now
rub the stone on the WALL .
The writer did so, and a streak OF red
light was the result.
T"Phosphorcsccrcc?" qucried the some
what startled observer.
"No. 1t is nothi & but simple lime
stone from the region about Salt Lake.
Some time ago some laborcrs were Dig
gipg out the foundation of a house when
they came upon a ledge of this rock that
was so soft that it was found not neces-
sary to blast. The contract for building
called for the completion at q certain
time. and so a gang of men worked all
night by an electric light, but the first
man that struck his pick into the rock
droprcd it and rushed out Of the cxcava-
ton in such a manner that the others,
dcmoralizcd also, left, and when the
boss demanded the reason the man said
thathe had seen a spirit, or had struck
the evil regions. for as soon rs ne touched
the rock u stream IF red fire came out.
The ovcrseer of course doubted the story,
but jumping in he struck a blow with a
bar that went far toward coroborating
the Others story, as no sooner dld
the iron touch the rock than a flash
of red light cnsued that lasted sew
eral minutes, finally, slowly dying
away. 1t was found that the slightest
touch or scratch produced the same re-
suit: in fact, the rock was ph%osphores-
cent. A simple scratch on this, you see.
makes a light that will last two or three
seconds. 1t is limestone, indeed almost
pure carbonate of lime with a few i'm
puritics. Examining it under the glass
it is found to be loose grained, so that 1t
really appears like q sandstone.
"You know" he continued, "there
are some objects that only show their
luminous properties on exposure to heat.
Subject this to heat and it will glow for
three or four minutes with n rich, red
light, and then die away entirely. A
piece was recently exhibited before the
Philadelphia academy of sciences and
the members made the interesting dis
covery that in their collection was an
other specimen of a similar limestone.
but from Kangberry, India. A gentleman
who had visited the locality tod me a
curious story in this connection. 1t
seems that several years ago q gcnu.
inc Yankee from Vermont found himself
in Calcutta with less than enough money
to buy him a dinner and his sole property
an electric battery. He had been a little
of everything in his time, but had de-
voted most CT his energies to collecting
minerals and curio>ities of all kinds, and
when he found himself in the lurch, as it
were, he determined upon starting through
the country and trusting to luck. He
was very successful at sleight Of hand
and easily made his expenses. In several
months he found himself at the locality
before named, and in prowling around
discovered the luminous limestone by
accident. With mother wit he deter
mined to take advantage of it, and in
q day or so the little village in which he
was staying was full of rumors to the
effect that a wonderful wizard was among
them who was enabled to work marvel
Gus cures by drawing fire from the rocks
and imparting it to the patient.
Gin the meantime the American had
erected a hut zeal the ledge of rock and
was visited by hundreds, and rugged up
with a curious costume he carried on a
business for some time that made the
native cure-alls wild with envy. His
method was to take a number of persons
into the hut, and with his tinger-nails,
that were sharpcned for the purpose,
scrape down the side of the limestone
that left marks of lurid flame, of course
astonishing to behold; then joining
hands with several and having the bat
terry concealed he gave them a shock that
they thought came from the rock. Nc
doubt it did them some good, and for 4
long time he did a thriving business,
until finally q rival appeared in the field,
and he was obliged to leave the place.
THE subject of the phosphorcscence
of inorganic matter is of great interest,
and experiments are being made in many
laboratories. Curiously enough" said
the mincralogist, "many of the discov-
cries that have been made regarding or.
ganic phosphorcscencc have been the re-
suits of efforts to manufacture gold. You
see that is worth the labor of the chem.
list. 1t has hardly been done, though
know a mar who claims to have discov'
cred the process and expects to food the
markct-so the first success perpetual
motion machine will probably be made
of this manufactured metal.
Gone of the first experimcntalists in
the gold-making line was Vincenzo Cas-
tinola, a shoemaker, of Bologna, in the
sixteenth century. He was a famous
chemist of the time, working alternately
at his shoes and his drugs and bottles.
The real reason. however, for his invcsti.
cations was to find out the secret of gold
making, and one night, in walking in
the country, he stumbled over a stone
that was so extremely heavy in compari'
son to Others that he took it home and.
beginning his experiments, discovered
phosphorcscence, which he considered
the clement of gold. Not being able, how.
ever, to get the gold out he took it to
another noted chemist and for many
years it was the subject of innumerable
experiments and attempts to obtain'the
gold, as the stone had the then remark
able faculty If shining in the rk with
a golden CLEAN after it had been exposed
to the rays of the sun. The stone is now
we'll known as barytine, that is phos'
phorcscent after insulation. The curious
mineral is still sod in Bologna as the
Bologna stone and explained as solar
light.
N"Thc discovery that diamonds arc
phosphorcscent was made in 1853 by
Robert Boyle and created a great sensa:
ton. 4 diamond was shown that looked
like a burning coal in a perfectly dark
room. An old chemist of Hamburg
while trying to manufacture a gold
fluid made accidentally sub
stance that shone in the dark,
and in a dclirium of delight he went to
the chemist, John George II. Of SaNony,
thinking that he had discovered the
golden secret. He took care. however,
not to inform anyone how it was made.
Another chemist hearing of the discovery
travelled a long distance for these times
and succeeded in buying the secret for
about 5000 of our money. But his cX-
perimcnts were not successful, the mate
rial being merely phosphorus that was
discovered in this way. Later, in 1875,
a different phosphorescence was discov-
cred by calciming nitrate of lime, and
others soon followed, until now hundreds
of different methods of its manufacture
are known.
"Heat in some mysterious way de-
velops light in certain minerals; thus
ell dspar, lime, sulphuret of calcium, dia
monds, etc, when heated to a certain
degree give out a soft, phosphorcscent
glenn over their entire surface. In fact,
the luminous property is possessed by
neutrality-suspicious., insects, minerals,
and even the very air often shows re-
markablc exhibitions. Some years ago |
was travelling on horseback at night near
Trenton, New Jersey, when 4 sudden
49,. 4o..> ,.1 -, 4, ,sntfn I ,x.Oc