Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1895-06-26

helium. See. here is morsel of
pitchblend. fine supply of which has
lately been discoveed in Cornwall. so
that it is now obtainable by the ton.
1t has not yet been tried, and we will
try it. We will not even powder it
Just pour little sulphuric acid and
water upon it. heat it slightly over the
gas, and watch the effect. Ali I
thought SO. Do you see those pin-point
bubbles rising in the tube. few at first
and slowly, but anon with multitud-
inous rush? OF course. it would be
absurd to say what those bubbles con-
tain; they have been neither collected
nor observed. but. reasoning from
analogy, and with some imprudent
haste. have little doubt that here we
have argon and helium again. And,
though he would not state so publicly,
for scientific men are canny creatures,
l doubt not that Professor Ramsay
agrees.
1t is. at all events, case in which
hope amounts almost to conviction. II
the hope be justified we shall soon
know all about helium. 1t may take
little while to discover a compound
which will separate helium from argon
and enable the one to be tested apart
from the other but the lines of inves-
tigation have already been laid, and
we hope before long to be able to lay
the results before our readers.
Meanwhile the investigation of the
properties of argon is going on rapidly
some people think too rapidly-and
M. Berthelot may have stepped in too
soon when he proclaimed the other
day in Paris that the idle and lazy SUBJ
stance was ready to combine with
vapor of benzine and to produce gum
my compound which may one day pos
sibly Though not probably be of COM
mercial value. 1t was noted by those
who were watching carefully that Lord
Raleigh, in his charmingly delivered
and lucidly expressed address on argon
at the Royal Institute ON Friday night,
bowed his head to M. Berthelots' un-
questioned authority, but offered nc
personal confirmation
He has proceeded far in experiments
with acetyllene, but he would say nc
more than that there was some reason
to suspect affinity between it and argon
Professor Ramsey also-though willing
to give every credit to M. Berthelot' s
scovery-declines yet to say that
argon will combine. If, however. it is
found to do so with either vapor OF
benzine or with acetylene, one predic-
ton about it will not be fulfilled. II
will not prove to be the most powerful
explosive known. Argon- benzine gum
is quite harmless. Argonized acety-
line might be given to baby to play
with.
There is one other point about argon
that has yet to be made. 1t is still
doubtful-though the doubt is small
whether it is monatomic or diatomic.
The question is almost settled in favor
of the monatomous conclusion. Not
so the second problem, whether argon
is one thing or two things-a simple
element, or what we have hitherto
known as atmospheric nitrogen two
elements.
AS atmospheric nitrogen was mixed
with argon, so argon may turn out to
be mixture. The varying spectra as
between the argon obtained from the
atmosphere and the argon obtained
from cleveite would seem to indicate a
compound. What makes these and
other inquiries so interesting is not
only their intrinsic Importance, but the
enormous new fields of investigation
which are being opened up. Students
who are hardly yet old men remember
being taught at college that there were
sixty known elements. Today there
are more than seventy, and when two
new ones are announced within a
period of little more than seven months,
and each of them seems likely to lead
to the discovery of others, it is hardly
too much to anticipate as one of the
consequences of the discovery of argon
and helium the possible creation of an
entirely new chemistry.