Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-08-23
A SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY
A New Gas Said to, Have Been Found in the
Atmosphere.
1t Forms 4 Per Gent of Common Air,
but Has Hitherto Evaded
Detection.

From the New York Sun.
LONDON, August 1S.-The scientific SEN
sation Of the year is the announcement
made to the British Association at Oxford
this week that new gas has been discov-
cred in the atmosphere. The great assem-
bly, Of the worlds savants has felt as near
an approach to excitement over the aston
ishing news as men Of science ever allow
themselves to reach. Lord Rayleigh and
Professor Ramsay are the honored discover
ers Of what they believe is the new element
In chemistry. The qualities of this strange
substance are peculiar. Although IT is said
to form, chemically, the proportion Of per
cent Of common air, nobody suspected its
existence until about three weeks ago. The
experimenters found that nitrogen obtained
from air has a different density from that
OF the same gas obtained from other
sources. Then they treated what they sup
posed was the pure nitrogen from the at
mosphere with magnesium. The nitrogen
was absorbed but the residue remained.
This mysterious remainder was tested and
proved to be a dense and remarkably inert
gas twenty-one times heavier than hydro
gen and 20 per cent heavier than nitrogen.
The spectrum was new, showing single
blue line much more intense than the cor
responding line in the nitrogen spectrum.
The discoveries kept the result Of the in
vestigation secret in order to fulfill the con-
ditions Of the prize offered through the
Smithsonian Institution for the most i'm
portant scientific discovery. They have sue
ceeded thus far in accommodating only a
quarter of pint of the new gas.
Professor Dewar. the great expert in all
atmospheric affairs, is plainly skeptical
about the identity of the new gas. He has
found, when liQuefying the air, that the pro-
q al WI clO nv wi
which he supposed was solid carbonic acid
and other impurities. 1t may be, he says,
that this Is the solid form Of the new gas.
but 1t forms far less than per cent. The
substance must have exactly the same boil
ing point as either oxygen or nitrogen,
otherwise. he would have been sure to de-
tect 1t In his experiments in solidifying air.
The general belief is. however. that the
new gas is really new, or an allotrOpic form
OF nitrogen, which does not exist I'm APP
probable quantities in ordinary atmosphere,
but which was produced by the discoveries
experiments just as ozone is produced by
the action OF electricity on oxygen.
Other bits of news of popular interest
In the various departments Of the scientific
world have been announced at the meetings
Of the associa ton. 1t has long been known
that the earth's axis varies in an irregular
way as regards its relation to fixed objects
in space, but Prof. Forster announces, as
the result of careful observations by agents
Of the International Geodetic Union that
the es rth's axis is bit loose as regards
the globe itself. The effect is that the
Eorth pole wabbles slightly. The variation
In position Is NOT oyer fifty feet, however,
SO there Is no danger that any explorers
who have gone TO The Arctic regions with
out Prof. Forster's warning will get hurt
by going too near. >
Some queer discoveries by the Prince of
Monaco during Ids, deep-sea dredging in the
Atlantic and Mediterranean in the present
summer were make known. He found that
at great depths, where 1t was supposed
nothing could live. life Is abundant. Many
black ground sharks Of a species supposed
to be extremely rare were caught at
depth Of a mile and half. Some fishes
not identified were found at q depth of more
than two miles.
Several strange discoveries regarding pre-
historic man were announced. The remains
recently found In Switzerland show the
existence in the. neolfthic age. of a race of
pygmies in Europe. Herr Mascha has un-
earthed, within few days in Moravia,
many remains Of mammoths and with
them the skeletons of a whole human
family, almost gigantic in size The dis
covery seems to settle the disputed point
whether man was co-existent with the
mammoth.
An explorer in Guatemala reported the
discovery, In an ancient mound in that
country, OF many small jars. each contain
Ing the remains of a little finger from the
human hand. 1t Is supposed to have been
the custom of mourners in some prehistoric
race to make this sacrifice.