The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1896-07-23
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LORD KELVIN.
,TFlhorouei,ness OF the Great scient
lists Work G

Inc modesty Of true grea tness could
hardly be better. exemplified Than IN
IN 1ne case case OF Lord Kelvin, whose Jubilee
! as professor of natural arts in the
University Of Glasgow was recently
cele DRAFTED. Lord Kelvin is now tha
recognized l.ld sovereign, or highest au-
thorrlty IN science He is SO BY yirtue
q what he has done to advance science
IN general, both pure and applied.
rather than by any single feat, such as
the development theory Of Darwin. or
the discovery OF. the new photography.
y IS safe to say that as a great mathe-
sl mat as well as an inventor ex
peilmentallst and engineer. he has
PROBABLY never had his match for YER
ssltlle activity in the ranks of science.
Newton and Darwin confined their re-
seafches/t to a single field, but Kelvin
mas turned his intellect, like a power
lul searchllght, around the whole hori-
zon OF nature, and penetrated even to
ne stars. The extraordinary scope Of
MS WORK is seen in the list Of heads
under which it has been roughly sum
lharlzed: % Mathematical papers
,f are mainly concerned with prob
1ems that arose in connection with
speelal physical questions. (2) Elias
tlclty and optical theory. 81 Hy-
drodynamics and vortex theory. tides
and navigation. a. Observation-Disclosures,
heat and the age of the earth. *
electromagnetic work, including the
laying of cables. And yet, in the face
of the enormous amount of work he
mas done, and the distinction he has
achieved, Lord Kelvin confesses him
self humbled by the thought of how
infinitely little it all is, and pronounces
the whole of his fifty years of efforts
Tor the advancement of science q fail
ure. A striking fact, which shows
what an entirely different estimate the
world has formed Of his labors. is
brought out in the comments on the
Glasgow ceremonies by technical Jour
nals OF all kinds, in almost every
country. Many of these acknowledge
tnat the particular field which they
cover is specially and pre-eminently
indebted for it's half-century record Of
progress to the investigations of Lord
Kelvin. One of his legion of novel and
interesting studies was that on the
flgldlty OF the earth. He shows rea-
son to believe that the earth is almost
absolutely rigid, and that the idea so
long neld that the present surface of
the earth is a thin shell floating on 4
liquid nucleus is erroneous This
study arose out Of his Investigations
as to the tides. From his connection
with submarine cable laying he has
long had an intense interest III nayiga-
ton, and the theory of the tides and
tidal predictions have gained much
from him. The Indian government
has spent large sums of money in pro
Vldlng tide-calculating machines based
on his inventions. With these ma
chlnes accurate results can now be
gained with comparatively little labor
winch were almost impossible with the
very laborious and inexact processes
formerly adopted. By his method of
sounding by observing the compression
OF air according to the pressure at a
depth OF the sea he has notably aided
ships in determining their position in
thick weather. With the old method
OF throwing the lead, the ship had to
pc Drought almost to a standstill in or
ger TO get any result, and this method
was entirely inapplicable in deep wa
ter unless the ship was quite at rest.
10 rapid Ocean-gOing steamers the
the snip can take observations in deem
water while proceeding RAPIDLY. is in,
calculable, and the possibility of safe
rapid passage in thick weather is. at
least, partly due to the introduction of
LORD helvin's sounding apparatus on
board all the large ocean-going steam-
ships. -" p 80 -
Electric Light Efficiency
Electric lighting is passing through
an interesting and important stage.
Al one tine the rcint most considered
ny the customer was to have a large
aggregate amount If light inside his
mousse. store OF factory, and the dispo-
sltlon and quality Of it We're: secondary
matters. Economy. comfort and health
are now factors which enter largely
into the lighting arrangements of ey-
cry new installation. In offices, partic
ularly, there is more care given to the
screening Of the light, and it is placed
at greater distarce from the desk
Wherever practicable. One singular
result OF this innovation is that clerks
who arc constantly at the desk suffer
less from a dropping out of the hair
than formerly. Al one time the light
.$''F".NANSA " AA-ACIA JuoISOfcIs lie ueaQ OF
the occupant of desk, and the heat
Of the light would so beat down upon
his scalp that in course of time the
hair became weakened and badness
ensucd. This, indeed, is given as one
of the many causes why badness is
nowadays so prevalent With a bet
ter placing and judicious tempering Of
the light has come distinct improve
ment in the health of employees, and in
one large establishment, where over
100 clerks are employed, the low rate
of absenteeism from sickness, which
is less than one third of the normal, is
attributed to this cause. In factories
tits found that the good or bad ar
rangement of the lighting will make
all enormous difference in the amount
of work done by the operators, and
the less strain there is to the eve,
either from too much or too little light,
the better is the output of the operat-
ing department In a recently built
mill it was decided, after good deal
of experimenting, that the best ser
vice, life and illumination at moderat tie
expense and great economy was oh
tanned by the use of 24-candle-p
z OF