Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-06-28

heavens, winch, in future centuries, will
serve as center basis for the solution of
the great problem OF the constitution of the
universe.
Better Than the Human Eye.
The human eye certainly is an instrument
admirably adapted to its purpose. How
transparent is this living crystal, how de-
hEhlful are its hucs, what depth it has,
what beauty 1t is life, pasS'or, light!
Close the eyes, and how muck u the world
remains? And vat the lens of photogra-
piers camera is Il new eye that gives the
finishing touch to ours, that surpasses it,
that is more marvellous still This giant
eve IS endowed with four important advan-
tages as compared with our eyes-it secs
more quickly, further, longer, and, ines
timable faculty, it prints, preserves, what it
sees.
il sees more quickly; in the half thou
saudth part OF 4 second it photographs the
sun, its spots, its whirlw;ndS, its flames, its
mountains of fire, in an imperishable docu-
ment
il secs further; turned at darkest night
toward any part of the heavens whatever,
it discovers, in the atoms of the infinite,
stars, worlds, univegses; creations that our
eye could never see by any possibility, no
matter how powerful 4 telescope were
brought 10 bear.
IT secs for longer time; what we cannot
coHtrive 10 see after several seconds of at
tention, We can never see. This new eve
needs but 10 look sufficiently long; at the
end Of an hour it will see better sill. and
the longer it remains directed toward the
unknown, the more complete will the eve
possess ii, without fatigue and always
better.
Holds Fast to What 1t Sees.
And it preserves upon its retinal plate
all that it has seen. Our eve retains i'm
ages but an instant Suppose, for example,
that you kill man at the moment when,
quietly seated in his chair, he has his eyes
open and directed toward a bright window.
CGhere is nothing improbable in the suppo-
sltion upon planet where ali the citizens
are soldiers and kill each other in all man
ner of wavs at the rate of ], 100 daily.
Then suppose that you tear out his eyes,
q should have said that the hypothesis in
wolves dealing with an enemy) and YOU
immerse them in a solution of alum; those
eyes will then retain the image of the win
dow with its transverse bars and its light
spaces. But IN normal state OF things cur
eyes do not retain images-there would be
too many of them besides. The giant eve
OF which we speak holds fast everything it
tina.
Yes the artificial rctina sees more quickly
and better. And, by virtue of property
wholly lacking in the human eye, it pene-
trates abysses where We do not and never
could see anything This is, perhaps, its
most astonishing faculty. Place the eye,
for example, at the eye-piece of a telescope
whose object glass measures 80 centimeters
in diameter; such an instrument is the best
for practical observations. With this glass
of 80 centimeters diameter and three and
one-haf meters in length, We may discover
stars to the fourteenth magnitude, that is to
say about 40, 600 stars of all kinds.
The Time That Is Required.
Now place our eve by the Photographic
retina. Instantly the most brilliant stars
beat upon the plate and ma rk their like
nesses there. Five one-thousandths of