The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1898-12-04

lie named one neon and the other metar-
pun Reckoning the density of heliLIn as
2 and of Oxygen as 8, THAI OF heCu wax es-
iim@ed at 10 or fl. krypton az 10. and me-
targon the same us argon, 20 or %.
Immediately after these facts were pub
llshed, In July, Prof Arthur Schustcr u
physicist who ranks high la the world OF
science. called attention to ihe rather close
coincidence between one of the lines OF
krypton t0oO6l and one of the aurora
f5369l. He also pointed out that eight OF
the metaigon lines corresponded fairly well
in position with the SGT Of eight In the car
bon spectrum such Il spectrum as is obs
tained from a bloNppe Flame, for instance.
one Waa left 10 infer that Prof Schuster
imagined II possible that IN some uncS-
planned way TN impurity containing cas-
bon had orepl int0 Ramsay iigDa. aud
that this, rather Than new element, had
given the so-cGilleA mctargou fpeclrlul.
Atcr fresh experiments however Prof.
Schuster reported that he had IN many
other tests completely el minated this carr
bon spectrum by means which he described.
aud that he had employed the same inothod
I'm his experiments with mettrgon He felt
that he was warranted therefore, IN uold-
ihs, PROFESSIONALLY that his spectrum was
thit OF an ew element, hnt QaS.Easr wqoA.
out hesitation that further work must be
done to establish the ease fwly.
TWO OF the other announcements OF tho
discovery OF new elements this year come
fipm Europe aud one ffdm Antr.sa. BAs-
duerel, n French chemist. reported two
wears or 30 ago that salts uranium threw
nj an invisible radiance very much like
that discovered by Rontgen, Following
I'D that line OF inquiry. N. and Mmp. Cuse
fouhd that variety OF pitchblende pos
sesses llat trait TO u very much higher de-
gree. They were thus led TO believe that
tho mineral contained a new element Up
10 date they have not entirely isolated Il,
but they report TO the French Academy Of
Sciences that they have rot II in tho form
or n sulph.dc, aud they call tha pure sub
stance pelcnium, From a chemical point
OF View the new element resembles bis
muth. but It's radlatinr power IL placed M
iQO times that OF uranium.
In some respects the alleged discovery
Of cosonium by Italians who were studying
the gases emitted from volcanic sources, ID
more interesting than any of the foregoing
achievements. Coronium takes It's NAME
from The fact that tie solar corona Is the
only tbiAg IN all the universe tliat has
lsitferto yielded It's characteristic spsc-
tf,iIp. of which the most conspicuous fea-
ture Is the ''1iI4 line This gas Is found
away up in the solar atmosphere, 800, 000
miles from the Guns surface II has on
this account been censidered much lighter
than hydrogen, the lighttSt knnwn telTes-
trial element, II the work BY Prof. Aaailii
and his collabonators Signori Andeilini
and Salvador. shall be found To be correct,
ana = nuitahle quantity of thls gas shall
hr Obtained for experiment It win proofs
bly, b. liulhfied By somebody. ana degree
Of cold thus secured that viii exceed that
ftsnltIng from the liqncfaotion OF hydro
ren Allsady Temperature of minus 2i3
accntigrads had been Produced With cor
ouium 81 may be practicable to touch ''ah-
solutf zero, which has been bypothetlcal-
~ placed az minus 2i3, and which psob;l
my represents the temperature Of inter-
stellar space, inQsinuch as other unrec.lkr
nlzed lines are found In the speetra OF tho
volcanic seSts examined BY the Itnliaps
here referred % Il SCENE likely thar eu-