The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-08-29
HIGH HOPES HANG
ON OXYGEN LENS
Things to Be Seen Through One so Feet
In Diamater.
GAS TO BE USED INSTEAD OF GLASS
Unique Way Of Getting m Absolute
vacuum..A Curious Laboratory.
Taking Photographs in the Dark.
Other Queer Things.
From the Philadelphia Times.

fore long telescopes will be provided
with lenses not of glass. but Of oxygen
gas. They can be made of almost un
limited size, so that the heavenly bodies
may be inspected at comparatively
short range The moon will be brought
within few miles. so that every topo
graphical feature of the side which II
turns toward the earth may be explored
and mapped. The problem Of the So
called canals Of Mars will be solved.
and II that planet has any inhabitants
the fact will be ascertained. In short,
astronomical science will leap into a
new era.
Such are the claims made for an In
vention which is the achievement of
Professor Elmer Gates. The beginning
" it was simply short piece OF iron
Thing, in the ends of which pieces Of
lass were set. The little cylindrical
OK thus made was filled with oxygen
las. Now, 1t has been ascertained by
Professor Dewar. that oxygen Is mag
netic. He found that in liquid con-
dition it could be picked up by mag
net like iron filings. Professor Gates
turned this fact to account by conver;-
Ing the iron tube into a magnet, wind
ing 1t round and round with fine wire.
a gas, of course, is composed of par
ticles of matter which are flying about.
exercising toward each other a mutual
repulsion. Thus it will be understood
that the molecules of oxygen in the lit
tie box were attracted toward the mag
netiZed iron ring. so that the density of
the gas was less in the middle than near
the ring Professor Gates used the box
in place of glass lens and made photo
graphs with it. Here. then, was the
discovery, namely, that oxygen gas
would serve instead of glass as a mate
rial for lenses. Professor Gates says
that he can build a lense fifty feet in
diameter which will photograph the
moon on such scale and with such ac-
curracy of detail that the surface Of our
satallite may se studied to an advan-
tage never dreamed of hitherto.
FAR MORE PERFECT.
But this is by no means all. The lens
Of oxygen gas necessarily is far more
perfect than any glass lens can be
made. inasmuch as the particles of oxy-
gen under such conditions as those de-
scribed arrange themselves In accord
ance with mathematical law Again 1t
is an accepted truth that lenses Of glass
have their limitations. In other words,
their usefulness in telescope work does
not increase indefinitely with bigness.
The lenses made for the Lick and
Yerlies observatories represent the linn
it Of size in glass lenses. Bigger ones
could not be rendered available for
practical purposes. With oxygen
lenses 1t is quite otherwise.
Professor Gates believes that there ls
practically no limit to the size of the
oxygen lens. His discovery will bring
the whole stellar field into comparative
ly near view, and the astronomy of the
near future will he a science enormous
ly more far-reaching and comprehen-
sive than at present. Think Of tele-
scope with lens fifty feet in diameter!
What might not this gigantic eye
search out in the realms of space as yet
unexplored? The topography of Mars
and the other planets which attend the
sun will become familiar. If there are
any people on the Marian orb, some
means may be found to communicate
with them. Even far-off Jupiter may
he watched. as 1t cools off and gets
ready to support the population which
eventually, doubtless, will be evolved
and furnish inhabitants for that huge
world ten times the diameter of the
earth.
NATURE OF ETHER.
Professor Gates has been making
some researches recently which throw
light upon the nature of ether. which
is supposed to I'LL all interstellar space.
Hitherto science has been disposed to
claim that this mysterious element, II
such 1t may be termed, was homogene-
Gus and continuous everywhere---i. e..
not consisting OF distinct PARTICLES But
Professor Gates has proved to his own
satisfaction that the ether is actually
must be definitely small goes without
saying; but the Professor asserts that
they are as much smaller than chem
ical atom as such an atom is smaller
than the sum-. If that be so. it is no
wonder that nobody has succeeded az
yet in finding out about the nature and
properties Of ether.
However Professor Gates thinks that
he has made q beginning in research III
this direction. The first step has been
accomplished by devising a means of
creating an absolute vac,tum-some.
thing never accomplished hitherto.
Though the air In q receiver may be
reduced by an exhaust pump to the ut
most tenuity, even to the one-millionth
of an atmosphere, some of il remains.
A Crookes tube contains a little air. Up
70 now the total vacuum has been n
mere conception, never accomplished
In fact. But Professor Gates vacuum
is absolute. He produces glass re-
ccptacle which contains not a particle
OF air. It has absolutely nothing in It
save the long-sought ether.
This remarkable result IL accom-.
plished in a very simple way. To be.
gin with. the Professor takes tube Of
potash glass. This is an extremely
hard glass, requiring n much greater
heat than any other kind to melt 1t. He
fills the tube with another sort Of glass
that Is very soft. having a melting
point 500 degrees lower than that Of the
potash glass. The tube and its con-
tents are then subjected to slow heat
ing until the soft glass IS sufficiently
melted to enable Il 10 be pulled out bod
lily part way from the tube Of hard glass
containing It. The space thus left IL an
absolute vacuum, containing no parti-
Gle of air or any other gas. 1t holds
nothing but ether, pure and simple.
PHOTOGRAPHS IN THE DARK.
Here, then, is a quantity Of absolute-
u pure ether. The question is. will 1t ex-
pure ether. The question is. viii 1t ex.
hibit under certain conditions any phe-
nomena calculated to throw light upon
its nature? One thing which Professor
Gates has accomplished BY means Of It
10 the taking Of photographs in the
dark. but declines to say much about
that inasmuch a. he has made only .