The herald., 1897-08-22

year ago as the result VI NY oWh PiAN"eS
researches in physical science, long be-
fore 1 had heard anything whatever of
the work of Dr. Stephen H. Emmens, OF
that of the Argentaurum Syndicate, OF
which 1 knew nothing until about the
end of October, 1896; still less at that
time had 1 heard aught of the later re-
searches of Professor ]. ]. Thomson,
r. S., of Cambridge university. England,
or that of Professor Gustav Heinrichs.
ST. JOHN DAY.
August 8, 1897.
Modern physical science seems to point
to the probability of the transmutability
of matter from one kind of matter to
another kind without undergoing chem
ical change, as the only explanation OF
the several kinds of pure matter-as the
sole cause of the indestructability or
conservatism of matter-just as trans-
mutability of the forms of energy is the
accepted explanation of the indestructa-
bility or conservation of energy.
=
We can and not infrequently do mod
ify the state of matter by subjecting 1t
to various treatments. For example, we
convert mercury from the liquid to the
solid state by freezing it, this change
being accompanied by molecular re-
arrangement which doubtless causes
mechanical change commonly desig-
mated as a change in its density close
packing together of the atoms or mole
cules of mercury, but not a radical.
chemical or constitutional change. In
its frozen state mercury can be dealt
with in many respects as other ductile
metals are at normal tempera tures-its
tenacity or breaking strength as rigid
bar of metal having recently been de-
termined at Dewar at minus 2S0
degrees F., in common with that
of other metals such as iron
steel and the alloys, copper, brass
and German silver at the same de-
preston of temperature. With such
physical fact before the mind, it natur-
ally looks for others of parallel kind,
which may be expected to yield a de-
cided clue to the likelihood or unlikeli-
hood of the suggestion-that transmuta-
ton of matter without chemical decom-
position, dissertation and decomposition
is one cause of the conservation of mat
ter having the same chemical constitu-
ton but in several and widely different
should our array of facts be sufficient
to point to such transmutation as gen.
eral law of matter, this discovery would
be one fraught with future possibilities
of the gravest and at the same time
transcendant Importance to the human
race.
Let US consider some. further facts.
Is it not the case that the Eskimo uses
,,;a ;..l,l lr
his house? The rigorous climate in
which he lives hides from his reach all
the building materials found in the crust
of the earth and used as building mate
rials in other climes-and so he erects
his buildings of water in the crystalline
and plastic form of snow. Even timber
he cannot use, because it's sap, its resins
and fibers too, are frozen so hard, rem
dering it too brittle for being mechanic
ally handled.
The modern Canadian builds his gor-
geous winter palaces of water, too, but
he uses water as a building material in
the still more crystalline, compact and
more cohesive condition of lake or river
ice. The inhabitants of some. of the
northern cities of the United States,
such as Minneapolis and St. Paul, do the
same thing.
The Southern Californian cannot OBJ
tain water in the condition which adapts
1t for use as building material, but he
uses ice extensively in the transmitted
state of liquid water-for irrigation and
hydraulic mining-neither of which
could the Eskimo do, however much in
clined to-n his northern home.
All over the world the same matter
water-is used In the gaseous state OF
steam, as the agent for conveying en-
ergy changed from the potential to the
kinetic condition by the union of carbon
with oxygen; energy in the form of heal
the resultant of the combustion of coal
wood or oil, sulphur or a metal and tht
oxygen Of the atmosphere is thus trans
muted into mechanical energy-whicl
overcomes the internal resistance OF
friction of the steam engine, moves it!
pistons, conveys heat to some of it,
parts, whilst the rest is utilized in the
work performed outside the engine. II
other instances the same substance
water, without undergoing chemica
change, but having its potential con
verted into kinetic energy in the act o
falling, as at Niagara and a host o
lesser falls, is converted into all phase;
Of mechanical work and electro-d dy
manic.
By electrolysis this substance, water
is broken up into its constituent gases
oxygen and hydrogen. By being suffi
GENTLY superheated in a sufficient,
strong metallic vessel the hydrogen ma,
be separated by dissoeiation, and met
allie oxide is formed.
BY bringing oxygen and hydrogen to
gether at sufficiently high tempera
ture, a red heat, they recombine with
loud explosion-the result being wate
again.
Here then we have seen a common
form of matter, water transmitted from
q gaseous body to liquid one, and from
liquid to solid without undergoins
chemical decomposition or dissociatiol
and decomposition, simply by the addi
ton to or substraction of that form O
energy known as heat from its mass; w,
have not found the mass altered, how
ever, but we have seen this one form O
matter, water, used as building mate
rial, capable of producing building
which will last as long as limestone, O
sandstone, and longer than granite-i
the energy associated with it as heat il
little enough, but which If increased suf
nciently will transmute the architecture