Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-11-16

/ moon appearing Immediately beneath
them and about equi- distant from each.
As viewed from Fort Worth the moor
Will appear little east of the planets al
the time Of setting. Should we happen
to have clear weather our admirers OF
astronomical phenomena will be favored
with very pretty sight, and one ~
like of which they are not often afforded
the opportunity OF seeing. OF course
they will know that the planet on the
west side is Jupiter while that to the east
is Mars. There is nothing else in the way
of astronomical phenomena for this week
that could be regarded US worthy OF spe-
cial mention.
It has been noticed that our rains of
the past week have come from the north .
The moisture giving rise to them was not
taken up by the atmosphere in that d.
rectlon, but from the southern seas. The
phenomenon is due to Il double current
of air-an upper current moving north
ward and an under current moving to-
wards the south. The upper current
passing above the low rain clouds, j.
heavily charged with moisture. 1t is the
warmer current OF the two. At some
point north of US il comes into contact
with u colder current which reduces Its
temperature and ut once carries it down
TO the earth in obedience to well known
laws. The stronger earth current turns
it southwark and the lower temperature
so condences il as to render it incapable
of holding the large amount Of moisture
it was able to bear along before con-
trscted by the cold. This moisture a
squeezed from the sponge as it wsye,
f.lr fiT,rr tlxsra
pearance of rain coming from the Forth.
In the times OF Grains from the Forth
in Texas, such as have characterized the
past week our atmosphere is moving like
an eddy in river. Far above us it rolls
northward to q turning point, where u
sweeps downward and reverses its mosa-
nent along the surface towards fine
tropics. At some southern point, sfh9S
ing been war cd TO its former teuihaSR
ture, and having taken up new supply
of moisture, 1t will find another turning
place, rise to its original position and
sweep back above the clouds, thus rem
dering the eddy figure complete.
II is estimated that the amount of
capital, in round numbers, now EN-
pIoyed in electric lighting by the whole
worl amounts TO Sl20, 900 200, and it
was only eleven years ago, you remember,
when the light was first perfected. From
the few lamps burned by Edison at
Menlo Park IN 1879 there has grown into
present use at least l25, 900 arc lightS
and l 100 200 incandesceut lights. Tug
writer of these notes well remen bers tRe
first electric light ever seen by an AmsEs'
lean public. 1t was at n lecture room in
New York city in 1858. The lecturer
had a wire working 10 an old fashioned
primary battery, and to the wire was
attached very thin plate of platinum.
BY cutting off and turning on the cur
rent he produced what he called IAN
electric lightning bug The current
turned on heated up the platinum gradu-
ally TO about the glow of q lightning
bug, and when turned off the platinum
cooled. down in about the same space of
time necessary to heat it. thus giving it,
in the darkened room, much the ap-
pearauce of a lightning bug, sure
enough. Nothing in the lecture seemed
to il lcate that the lecturers philosophy
had so much as dreamed of the wonderful
lighting power of his mysterious agent
that was soon TO develop from that
very Insignificant beginning.
-
Speaking of platinum leads us to think
of the great advancement in price OF
that article resulting fro the develop
ment of modern electric lighting. EX-
anime an iuoandescent lamp. You see a
short strip of wire attached to the copper
conductor just at the top of the globe.
That is platinum. 1t connects the car
bombed loop and is one of the absolutely
Indispensable features OF the lamp, be-
cause it expands ct the same tempera-
ture and in the same proportion as the
glass globe. Hosts of experiments have
been made with view to finding g sub
stitute for platinum, but no successful
substitute has yet been discovered.
Without platinum wire the globe inye-
riably breaks. Every incandescent lamp
must have some platinum, and as g con-
sequence the metal, naturally scarce,
has come to be extremely valuable. The
price of platinum has so advanced until
it is now worth on the market almost as
much as gold, weight for weight. 1t is
now quoted at $50 per ounce, which is
only q few cents below the gold quota
ton.
The platinum now in use by electric
lighters is product of an almost mac
cessible region of the Ural mountains.
Its name, according to the encyclopedias,
comes from the Speniards. As early as
the sixteenth century it appears to have
been noticed that gold ore IN the Spanish
mines of Darien included grains of
white metal endowed with the qualities
of noble metal, aud vet distinctly diff
ferenr from silver. Its expectation was
prohibited for the reason that the Span
ish government found that it might cas-
lily be used in the adulteretion of gold.
For this reason 1t did not find its way
into common use until the middle of the
last century, when it was known as
'platina del Pinto 1.-THE little silver
from the river Pinto. Since its remark
able chemical properties were established
in 1880, it has been discovered in New
Grenada, San Domingo California, Bor-
neo, and in portions of Canada. But
the deposits are so poor in all these places
that our platinum of commerce still
comes from the Uurals, where the metal
WIS discovered il 1928. and where it has