The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1896-04-03
THE SICKLE OF FIRE
By CHARLES KELSEY GAINES,

BY CHARLES KELSEY GAINES.
1t is fact not generally known, out
side strictly scientific circles at least,
that there exists an clement (techni-
cally called hydropyrogen, symbol Hp)
possessing qualities of such nature
that its more abundant production, or
any recklessncss i'll use, might impcril
the human race. Happily. in it's pure
state, in which alone it is dangerous, this
substance is very rare; indeed. only one
specimen is now known to exist, and that
is kept Theoretically sealed in thick glass.
Its name never appears i'll the ordinary
text bookS-for prudential reasons.
There arc more of these formidable
secrets in the laboratories of our biol
oglstS and chemists than most people
suspect. Few, until very recently, were
aware that in a frail glass tube, not too
Scrupulously guarded, in the very heart
OF the great American metropolis, there
cholera. which. if set free, might cause
an epidemic that would cost millions of
lives. And there are other things in that
locklcss cabinet quite as bad. There eX
list. also, poisons, the formulate for which
are never published. and explosives that
no chemist dare compound save in the
m,inutcst quantities. Many Of these
ordinary student; only the well-tried spe
cialist has knowledge of them.
hut to return to hydrOpyrogen. 1t is
obtained, but only with the greatest diff
Guilty, from the smoke of products of q
certain kind of sea weed. Even in this
the element is not always present. Out
of Il hundred specimens moderated and
show no trace of it; and when it does
occur, few arc the chemists able to de-
tcct, much less separate it-a most fort
unatr circumstances.
uydroryrogen, as developed from this
sea weed when burned under the action
of an electric current (Tesla's) Of the
highest tension, is an almost impalp ablc
fuses rapidly, and easily permeatcs every
known substance except indurated glass.
When subjected to a process similar to
that by which other gases are liqueied--
Il combination Of tremendous pressure
with extreme cold-it suddenly solidiics
falling in Il heap of slender, neede-like
crystals of a vivid ruby color. This ex-
through only three times. The crystals
thus obtained may be preserved for al
most any length of time, provided they
are kept absolutely free from moisture:
hence they are sealed i'll heavy tubes of
iniurateu glass. In the darkness these
crystals CLEAN with a fiery, quivering
comparable only to the
shifting colors sometimes seen in the
aurora horealis. Indeed, it is proba bly,
of the same essential nature, being
caused by induced currents streaming
through the vacuum tubes in which this
unstable and intensely energetic agent is
cncase1.
have said that hydropyrogen is dan
gerous to the safety Of the world. This
is due to its extraordinary effect in de-
composing and int1aming water. Not
that it is difficult to decompose water
that is done every day by familiar proc
eSscS: but there is no other agent which
exhibits so terrible Il potency-no other
which so dcGes control
Its action may be explained by ia
miIiar illustration. \ child sets on end
Il line of dominoes, separated by spaces
of about an inch. He pushes over the
nearest. and the whole line goes down
with a swift crash. each unbalancing the
next till all are fallen. Just so with a
series of molecules, the dissolution of
one breaks up those next adjacent, when
once the action is started. Such is the