The San Francisco call., 1896-07-26

What great help it would be to the
Goddess of Justice were she able to extend
her optical powers beyond the limit of
human vision. Supposing that when
some lynx-eyed official in distant town
had taken into custody phantom Dun
ham, it were possible to ring up the San
Francisco Chief, and then to stand the
suspected culprit in front of little box
connected with wire with the Police
Office here, so that Captain Lees looking
into the little box at his end of the wire
could see the party posing in front of the
distant box. What saving of expense
and settlement OF uncertainty!
What help to commercial transactions
if it were possible for man having a
check drawn by maker who resides in a
distant community, to be able to step into
a bank, and then calling up the maker
of the check, have him identity his work
and the payee to the satisfaction of the
cashierl
What an immense satisfaction it would
be to the man to be able to see the tele-
phone girl that is giving him taffy and
delay!
The desire is not at all an unreasonable
one. It's qualification is strictly within
the bounds of possibility. for recent dis
coveries have made 1t extremely probable
that before the close of the century devices
will be in use whereby person may see
his distant correspondent with as perfect
vision as he now hears his voice by means
of the telephone.
The telectroscope (tht name is formed
from the Greek words 'Telos," afar;
''electros," electricity, and "scopis." L
see-"I see afar by the aid of electricity
is an instrument which in its operation
converts light into magnetism, the mag
netism into electricity, and then trans
mlts the electricity over conducting wire
to the distant station where another in
strument reverses the process and con-
verts the electricity into magnetism and
the magnetism into light again, the opera
ton proceeding almost precisely on SINH
lar lines as those employed in the teie-
phone.
The telectroscope is the result of great
deal of careful study of the natural laws
governing the phenomena of light and
electricity. 1t is not one of those things
which we sometimes hear of. which "iust
come to me all in a minute, don't you
know" 1t is triumph of scientific rea-
soning along lines of deduction.
For long time scientific men have been
looking for the explanation of certain
phenomena in connection with electric
energy. To be able to say positively that
electricity ard light were one and the
same would have lifted the veil, and re-
moved the uncertainty that surrounded
many of the vexed questions. Now the
veil is partly swept aside, and is gradually
being altogether removed. Lord Kelvin
Sir William Thomson-one of the fore
most scientists of the world, and the
recognized greatest authority on electricity,
was recently honored in the city OF Glas-
cow by the celebration of his jubilee, at
which were present the distinguished men
from all over the world, the giants IN the
realm of physical science, come TO
acknowledge and honor their master. In
his speech of the evening, Lord Kelvin
said: Concerning electricity, l do not
know any more to-day than when | began.
l have simply learned few of its tricks"
Yet ths,positive discovery is made that
electricity and light are only different
manifestations of the same thing. Their
differentiation is simply matter of differ
ence in the rate OF vibration. Change the
rate of the vibration of electricity and it
becomes light.
We see tree, or a house, or any other
object, because the rays of light proceed
from the different portions of the tree or
house in different degrees of intensity,
and so impress upon our retina different
nerve effects, which make up to our con-
sclousness the image which we recognize
as the tree or the house. The whole pro-
cess is simply one of light.
We'have all noticed the beautiful colors
produced by ray of sunlight falling upon
piece of glass having two or more un-
equal surfaces. forming miniature rain
bow The band of brilliant hues passing
from red through the intermediate coIors
to violet, is called the spectrum, and is,
in fact, picture of the primary colors
which. when all are blended together.
form white light.
When science desires to produce the
solar spectrum it takes piece of glass of
a triangular shape, called prism, and
allows ray of sunlight to fall upon it.
The prism separates the white ray OF sun
light into its component parts. and there
is thrown upon the wall or screen RIBBON
of exquisitely brilliant hnes in which the
blending OF one color with that ad joining
i
process of art.
Some years ago a man of an investigat-
ing turn of mind took thermometer and
moved its bulb along the colored spectrum
to see if one colored ray was warmer or
colder than another. He found that away
to the left of the red ray was an invisible
heat ray, and when the thermometer was
| placed there the mercury went up with a
bound. Then other men began to investi-
gate further, and there was found another
invisible ray located away to the right of
the violet ray. which was a chemical ray
the "actinic." sensitized photographic
| plate is more speedily acted upon when
placed in the dark spot occupied by this
invisible actinlc ray than if it were ex-
posed to the full sunlight. But investi-
CATION was not content to stop here. Ex-
pertinent after experiment was continued.
and there has been discovered the pres
ence of a magnetic ray (invisible), and an
electric ray, also invisible. 1t is the mag
netic ray that is made use of in the opera