The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1891-10-02

known to physical history are on the
threshold of solutionl
Among these are the question as to
the prevention OF frost; the produc-
ton OF motive electrical power by the
use OF such immeasurable agencies
as Niagara; the burning of water
for fuel, and-more nearly solved
than any other. the production of To-
cal rains by purely scientific, practi.
cal processes.
We wish few words with q alliance
men on the latter subject. There are
today a large class of fossilized old
scientists who in their earlier day
were the real radicals of the then
present reforms. Their day is past,
and anew generation of thinkers and
'experimenters" are ION the carpet. y
Many OF these new thinkers are old
men-but old men who have token
the silken bands Of thought as new
ideas crowded upon their intelligence.
These new and progressive expert
mentors have great difficulties to con-
tend against. We ask of the Peoples
Party, when they come into power,
that they open the pathway for the
progressive genius and spirit OF the
new age-for discovery in science will
then add new comforts to the toiler-
and bring him nearer to the ideal OF
a perfect life life in which the chill
dren of the toiler will be educated in
to the "higher life'' where all the
powers of the senses are cultivated to
enjoyment.
One of the first things deserving
complete and exhaustive examina-
ton and experimentation is the sep
aration of water into oxygen and
hydrogen. the burning of which two
gases forms the hottest flame known
in nature-that every rain-storm
may provide fuel for the people.
Another problem now receiving
great attention is that of producing
rain at will. The fossilized press of
the age is making great sport of the
The old shell-covered
scientists still cling to the idea that
rain is produced by the condensation
ofmoisture in the atmosphere. Even
the possibility of such phenomena as
the accumulation of vast bodies of
water in thin and upper strata OF air
ought be a question for these fossils
to ponder deeply over. We do not
believe any physicist Tor material
scientist) is justified today in taking
.impossibilities upon which
is founded supposed facts, merely to
sustain theories. They are liable to
make the facts conform to theories
rather than give up the moss-grown
theories. We will not be autocratic,
and say that no laws known in ma
ture will sustain the old time theo-
RES OF rain being the condensation of
moisture held in suspension in thin
Or rarifed upper currents of air; but we
10 say that there is a demand for
doubt, inasmuch as human reason
1oes not go along with the PROPOSE
ton that thin air will bear up those
floods OF water, which, in
aiming, fall through heavier strata.
However true or false the old view
nay be, there are other propositions
now made, among them those pre-
'ented in 1881 by the editor of this
ournal, which should command the
Instant attention of the thinking
world.
Among these new ideas we pick out
! few of great significance.
Electricity has always been held to
exercise a potent and controlling in
luence in the formation of matter or
substances. We get all our electricity
~ this proposition, whether it be
rictional, dynamic or battery cleo.
;ricity. When acid separates zinc,
article from particle, Invisible moli-
ules-force points to most. modern
,hinkers) the force that held them to-
,ether reappears, being freed. That
orce appears as electricity.
On the same proposition we can
lpply electricity to either make mole
ules, particles Or force-points unite
% form matter-or, we can apply
lectricity to separate them. We do
his every day in the laboratory. In
'ur dining room, at home, is an or
linary Law Battery. If we want
ONE hydrogen or oxygen gas we put
he two poles of the battery in agob-
ct of water, and over the end of each
wire point put q small glass cup up
ide down. The water is destroyed,
'roken up-annihizated as water
md from one point comes up hydro
;en gas, from the other oxygen.
Now it makes no difference wheth- |