The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-10-10

atom-one of the smallest living beings
that can be seen with a microscope.
Diatoms are invisible to the naked eye.
Prof Gates tells me that they are SO
small that the pinhead of the earth
In which they live often has as many
as two million diatoms in it. About
dozen of these little things were in a
microscopical slide as big as a silver
scent piece. l first looked at them
through a microscope which magnified
twenty times. Through this they ap-
peared likt little bits Of dust or straw.
Next the slide was placed in what the
professor told me was the most pow
erful microscope known to man. This
magnified ten thousand diameters. The
magnification was so great that one OF
the diatoms was all we could see. 1t
was now in the shape of an eliipse.
with a line running through the cen
ter, and with a texture which made
me think of that of the finest silk
handkerchief 1t might have been
made of the most minute scales, but
It looked more like fine weaving thai
anything else. Then the new micro
scope was used, and the magniication
see one Of these little scales. 1t could
see that it was heXSgonal in shape,
with a filmy center. There were lines
around its edges, and Prof. Gates said
that, by adding a higher objective, one
of these lines would take up the whole
space of the microscope, and that II
one tried tG see the whole image 1t
would be so magnified that for the
observation of a single diatom you
would need all out of doors for
screen.
TWO MICROSCOPES IN ONE.
AS looked, Prof. Gates said: You
are the third man in the world who
has ever seen a diatom magnif1ed to
that extent. I have here used one of
the smaller detectives. You will no
tice that l have two microscopes join
ed together. You can note the num-
bers of the detectives, and it will
surprise scientists if you tell them that
with a Observation-Disclosures Beck OBJ
tective. and a one fXth Bausch and
Lamb objective yo1 (saw the hexagonal
opening of the die tom known as pleu-
rosigma, angulatU a. Now, did 1 use
one-twelfth-inch objective for my first
microscope, we c5uld only see the lines
about the opening, which would be
enormously magnified"
What is the chief element of the in
vention, Prof. Gates? '' asked
TT is more of a discovery than an
invention" was the reply. You see,
the microscopes, up to the present
time, have been limited to ten thousand
diameterS. We could enlarge the pho
tographS of images produced by such
microscopes, but the action of the light
on the sensitive plate is such that when
lines are very close together the light
affects the chemicals on the plate
so that they become one. So. in the
enlarged photograph you never have
any more than is seen in the first i'm
age produced by the microscope, and
you may have less. 1 conceived the
idea of placing a second microscope In
the real image produced by the first
microscope. This [ do here. 1t reInag-
mites so that I get the results which I
have shown you. The mechanism, how
ever. has to be very carefully made,
and the light which must come from
The original object is so reduced that in
getting the first results from my
5000 600 diameter experiment l re-
manned in my dark room, with the
microscope, for two hours, to get my
eyes III the proper COilQll1OH 70 STE liiS
results. You see, in using a 10000 di-
ameter microscope, the image produced
by it has only 1-1G0,000 000th
part as much light as that which
falls on the original object. When you
try to get your light from a part of
the image, taking one three-hundreth
part of it, you get only one thirty-bil-
lionth Of the light which falls on the
original object. This light is SO little
that it would filter through the best
camera made, and it is only by means
of my dark room that I will be able
to do the photographing of such results.
To make the right kind of micro
scope for the best work along these
lines would cost about $4,000, but it
would add enormously to the scientific
knowledge Of the world, and would
enable US to make just as great an ad-
vance over our present knowledge as
the microscope did over the unaided
hugan eye"
PROFESSIONAL BRAIN BUILDER.
As we looked through the microscope.
Prof Gates told me how he had come
to make the discovery. His ideas are
so striking and unusual that I almost
despair Of giving them to the public
He has a set of entirely new theories
as to the mind, many of which he has
gotten through a long series of expert
nents upon himself and animals, car