The Norfolk Virginian. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 186?-189?, 1896-05-07
"A MsrysIuus Instrument for Testing Its
Mechanical Efficiency.
Will EVEN hEsIsTER HUMAN EhoTIoNs.
The subjects Are lucarceratsd In nm
Air tight compartment to Deter.
mine the Eaec ON different Foods
ON the Body-Tests Carried on by
= the National Government.
ny CARL

~ liz ths'c
no ~narticIe OF energy expended in this
or surrounding worlds Is ever lost, but
that oil work done, all the trains auled,
all the coal burned, all the wonders &C
complished by steam. meant simply the
Transformation of energy from one form
into another in perfectly
quantities. The men of science who put
forth this dogma even went SO far as to
show that so small q matter as the me-
chanical or chemical effect OF making a
cigar could be measured, and a candle
flame might have It's infinitesimnl effect
upon tho most distant shores of space.
This, Is a very rough way, Is what af-
rewards came to be known as the doc
trine Of the conservation of energy. And
because men eminent In the scientific
world said that this doctrine was true.
the rest of mankind accepted 1t as a mat
ter Of course, although not really appre-
bending how much was contained in 1t.
When II was said that q pound of coal
burned in ar engine was converted into
exactly measurable quantities of heat
and refuse. that was well enough. But
NO one went 80 far as to say that q
pound of food taken into the human
body was converted into an exactly
equivalent quantity of heat and work.
Though a professor of science is as fond
OF q paradox as any other we'll bred man,
this latter seemed going rather too far.
THE MAN IN THE BOX.
Nevertheless. it is Just this fact which
% corps of investigators at Wesleyan
University, in Middletown. Conn.,. aided
by the national government, Is attempt
ing to establish. When, several weeks
ago, the newspapers reported that at q
Connecticut college, a young man had
been sealed up In an air-tight box for
ten days Mt u time, for the purpose of
testing the effects of various foods.
doubtless the reader, as well as the
writer. attached but little Importance to
" cha pnafter II W. odd and clrinua IN
test foods in such a fashion as this, but
there were countless other odd and curl
GUS thinga In the dispatches of the same
day. And somehow the Telegraph re-
ports failed to make clear the very re-
markable character of the experiments
under way.
The. experiments upon the man in the
air-tight compartment were to demon
strate that the theory of the conserva-
ton OF energy applies to the organic or
living world just as It does to the inor-
ganic or ~lifeless world, and that 1t ap-
plies so definitely and precisely that 1t
will be of immense practical use to man
In indicating the sort OF foods which he
ought to eat In order to get the best re-
suits from hat wonderful machine-hls
body.
The experiments at Wesleyan Univer-
slty are carried on in conjunction with
the Department of Agriculture, Mt Wash
ington, and the Stors Experiment Sta
.ion. The work Is in charge of Prof. w.
Q. Atwater. professor of chemistry at
Wesleyan, and director of the Stors Ex-
pertinent Station, and Prof. Edward b.
Rosa, who holds the chair of physics at
the college, AS stated by Prof. Rosa,
the tests have this purpose:
Sir William Thompson. now Lord
Kelvin, Joule and other eminent physi-
cists, won q large part of their fame In
establishing the principle OF the conser-
walton OF energy for any machine or sys-
tenn of machines. They used inanimate
bodies selely. The same principle, as ap-
piled to an animal, has never yet been
tested, and yet 1t Is of enormous impor-
lance. We look upon the food a man
eats as so much fuel. When digested
and oxydized in his system it gives out
energy. Part of this is turned into me-
chanical energy, just as the steam en-
CINE converts heat energy into work.
Part Is radiated away as heat. We an
elyze the food a man takes, burn sam
pies in a special calorimerer to deter.
mine the potential energy Of the food,
and ,then with our subject inclosed
where all his heat may be measured,
and his work estimated. we can sum up
ell the energy absorbed, and balance 1t
against that given out"
10 do this latter was not an easy mat
ter. 1t required the construction Of one
OF the most complicated and delicate ma
chimes Imaginable. 1t is known as q res
plrauon calorimeter. 1t is the only one
OF Its kind IN existence, and is the inyen-
uon of Prof. Rosa That. IT to say, 1t Ia
an instrument for measuring heat, and
IN particular the heat of the human body.
and what the human body consumes and
gives of.
As you look at this machine as It stands
Ia the basement Of the Wesleyan labo-
ratory, 1t seems plain and simple enough.
II 1t were not set out in the middle of the
room you might mistake 1t for a BUTCH
er's cold meat box-,a big one-and. in
fact, IL Is constructed on very much the
Same principle. The interior box. about
as large as an ordinary convicts cell. Is
OF copper. Surrounding this, and three
o. four inches larger all around, Is an
other box of zinc, and around this is n
box of wood, and then the whole is en-
cased in a wooden frame. AS you poke
your head into the little tripple-dooreu
window, which serves as q means of in.
gross and egress, your first thought is
that the interior would not be a specially
comfortable place to lodge in for a week
or ten days at q time-that it would be
very much like living in an ice chest.
and second. that you quite failed to see
what good could come out Of such an ef-
fair.
But this instrument, simple as II looks.
10 fitted with an amazing series of cleo.
trical connections az delicate and SEN
nitive as the nerves OF the human BODY.
with a bewtldering number OF tubes and
pumps ard thermometers and scales.
and with eyery sort of device calculated
to register the slightest variation of the
temperature of the calorimeter, of the
walls which surround It, OF the cir be-
tween the walls, of the moisture OF the
9Sr1osphere introduced into the box, and