El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-12-21
NEW GAS A WONDER.
ITS DISCOvERER, CHARLES r. BRUSH,
HAS NAMED IT "ETHERION."


HAS NAMED IT "ETHERION."
1t Is Said to BE the Lightest and
Fastest Moving of All the known
Gases-How 1t Was Discovered.
The Cincinnati section of the Ameri-
can Chemical society has started its
series of fall and winter meetings most
auspiciously. The chemists, engineers
and professional men of the city who
received the cordial welcome of Pro-
fessor T. II. Norton to the initial meet
ing of the chemical lecture room at the
university buildings were favored with
an exceedingly interesting paper by DR..
Alfred Springer on that latest acquisi-
ton to the family of elements etherion.
The discovery of this by the eminent
American electrician and scientist,
Charles F. Brush, has started discussion
in the scientific circles of the world, and
if the theories connected with it are es-
tablished the discovery bids fair to
rank with the most important of the
century.
DIR. Springer said the last decade of
the nineteenth century has been as rich
in new discoveries as it had been icono-
elastic in upsetting theories and facts
that before were considered we'll estab-
llshed. In the,past two years new gases
before unsupported have been discovered,
and these-argon, helium, neon and
metareon-now rank among the splen-
did triumphs of modern chemistry.
Brush is content to call etherion a
gas. 1t may be an element, but the dis
coverer does not claim this. He even in
Inmates that further investigating may
show it to consist of several elementary
gases. 1t presents phenomena, however,
such as are given by no known gases,
and its properties are extraordinary. It
is a constituent of the atmosphere and
occurs occluded in many substances. Its
chief characteristics, as pointed out by
DR.. Springer, is its enormous heat con-
ductivity at low vacuum pressure.
Brush discovered the new gas while
making series of high vacuum expert
ments.
His apparatus was the modified Nc
Leod gauge and thermometer. When
after a vacuum had been produced, he
saw that gas was evolved from the
glass, rapidly at first, then more slow
ly, but never stopping till the tempera-
ture was reduced. On cooling the gas
was partially reabsorbed. Some always
remained unabsorbed. Brush tried to
make absorption complete by introduce
ing pulverized glass into the vacuum,
and in doing this discovered the most
phenomenal property of the new gas.
With pulverized soda glass and good
vacuum it was found that by continu-
GUS reduction of pressure point was
reached where the new gas contracted
heat 30 times as fast as hydrogen, the
latter being hitherto the fastest heat
conductor among known gases. This cir
cumstance convinced Brush he had dis
covered an entirely new gas, with heat
conducting capacity immensely beyond
any before known.
Several other substances, such as
pine wood charcoal, gave off the new
gas. Brush kept the pulverized glass at
a high heat for several days in the at
tempt to deprive it of all the new gas
in it. He believes the gas resides in the
glass, not merely on it. He found that
simply exposure to the air was sufficient
to rejuvenate the glass from which the
gas had been taken.
The molecular velocity Of hydrogen
at the temperature of melting ice is
5,571 feet second, while the molecular
velocity of the new gas is 557, 100 feet,
or 1O5 miles second. At this rate Mr..
Brush says that it would be impossible
for the new gas to remain in the atmos-
>phere or to be bound to the earth as the
atmosphere is, and he infers consequent
ly that it extends through all space. 1t
forms probably less than one-millionth
part of the earth IS atmosphere, and from
what has been ascertained concerning it
it follows that it is 10, 900 times lighter
than hydrogen. Mr.. Brush has named
the new gas "etherion, signifying
"high in the beavens.''
It is among the probabilities that the
new gas may replace the present ether
hypothesis, which is doing duty for
science in explaining the phenomena of
light and electricity, and show that the
medium for these is not continuous
ether, but gaseous molecules, with
modes of motion yet unknown. DR..
Springer drew attention to many inter-
esting features of Brush S discovery and
the bearing it will have on future sci
ence. Commercial Tribune.
CO.ODE RAT\/E EAPkA