The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-01-05

Il SOOG TSdutE Is tII pltSSN 10 SSlu lS-
finite classes of news along the wires,
which are laid TO subscribers houses
and offices, so that each person Inay
have the particular items he desires,
without the delay of printing and cir
culating in successive editions. The
news is supplied TO subscribers at little
more than the cost Of a daily paper"
In such facilities of communication
the advance made in the present cen
fury is not only amazingly greater, but
is even more solemnly impressive in
its bearing upon human destiny than
all that was achieved in the whole pre-
ceding period OF history.
About 1927, Mr. John Walker, a
chemist of Stockton-on-Tees invented
friction matches, by dipping splints of
wood in chlorate of potash and sulfur,
mixed with gum; phosphorus was add
ed in 1894, and by 1910. these matches
became so cheap as TO popularity super
seca the old flint and steel; and thus.
by new departure, only sixty years
ago, the means Of procuring fire, which
had remained unchanged over the
whole world, were transformed by the
magic of a chemists simple trick
In the illuminants-beginn with
the resinOuS torches, when link-boys
were as common in the streets of Lon
don as are the match-peddlers now
We have done some wonderful conjur-
ing. The three modes of obtaining il
Elimination for domestic purposes-the
torch, the candle, the lamp-remained
unchanged in principle, and but slight
ly improved, throughout the whole his
toric period, and down TO the end of
the eighteenth century; even the Ar
gand lamp did not come into common
use until 1880, and candles were used
in lighthouses in the first decade of the
nineteenth.
A few houses and factories were
lighted with gas at the very end of the
last century, but its first application to
general purposes was in 1913, when
Westminster bridge was illuminated
And now we are examining the
larynx with an ineandescent (electric)
lamp, and even letting it down into the
stomach. Says the writer again:
Whether we consider the novelty
| of the principles involved, or the in
genuity displayed in their application,
| we can not estimate this advance at
| less than that effected during the whole
| preceding period of human history
| from that very remote epoch when fire
was first taken into the service of
mankind, down to the time of men now
| living among us.
Photography has come to the aid of
| the arts and sciences in a way that
would have been utterly inconceivable
| a century ago. 1t has equipped the
| meteorologist, the physicist, the biolo-
gist, with self-registering instruments
of extreme delicacy, and enables them
| to preserve accurate records of the
most fieeting natural phenomena. In
the field of astronomy its achievements
are astounding; by the aid of photo
graphy stars are shown which no tele-
scope that has been, or that probably
ever will be constructed, can bring
| within the field of human vision.
| And the photographers dream ha:
| been fulfilled--tO obtain pictures which
shall reproduce all the colors of ma
ture, without the Intervention of the
artists manipulation. Professor Lipp-
mann, of Paris, in a lecture before the
Royal Society in 1896, fully described
his method and exhibited many beauti
full specimens. The effects are fasci
mating, the only fault being that the
colors are more brilliant than in ma
ture, just as they are when viewed il
the camera itself.
And the Roentgen ray, that most re
cent of all discoveries in connection
with light and photography, disclose!
curious secrets. This new form of "a
diant energy opens up SO many posi-
bilities, both as to is own nature anC
as to the illimitable field of research
in the properties and powers of tn,
mysterious ether, that it forms a fittin!
and dramatic climax to the scientific
discoveries of the century.
The Overwhelming Importance of tn
, | Cv11s1 nj n Of too,
things, of our world has never, per
haps, been SO impressively demonstrat
ed as in the recent Investigations int
the beneficial influences widespread,
and far-reaching, of atmospheric dust
Few Of the fairy tales of science ar
more marvellous than these recent dis
coveries as to the important function
, and the Kaleidoscope entertainments O
dust, in the economy of nature.
Il To the earlier physicists the blue c
sky and ocean seemed but the nature
color Of pure air and water so pale a
not to be visible when but small quar-
titles were observed, and only see
; throuG;. vast depths of atmosphere c
organic water. We quote again:
. But this theory did not explain tn
, familiar facts of the gorgeous tints re
I vealed at sunrise and sunset-not onl
= In the atmosphere and on the cloud
6 near the horizon, but equally respleni
ent when the invisible sun shines upo
! Alpine peaks and snow-fields.
= Every one has seen the floating dust i
4 a sunbeam when sunshine enters pal
@ TALLY darkened room; but it is NJ
A commonly known that if there wei
: absolutely no dust in the air, the pat
: of the sunbeam would be totally blac
o and invisible, while if only a very lit
: dust were present in minute particle
the air would be as blue as a summe
sky. So, when the great lun
4 mary has passed from our direct vi
ion, his light shines on the under side
J.. of all the clouds and air strata of di
n ferent densities; a new and more bri
: liant light fiushes the Western Sky, an