The Mena star., 1899-02-01
SHOEMAKERS' WAX.
Results of Scientific Exper- iments Recently Made by
 Lord Kelvin.

One of the most apt illustrations ever made by Lord Kelvin was his hkening the luminiferous ether to a mass of sLoemakers' wax. What Lord Kelvin said of shoemakers' wax may be tested by any boy in manner that will aston ish his playmates. First, let 1t be said that the ether penetrates all space. It Is as rigid as steel and yet so flexible that it does not retard the passage of planets through space in the least. It is an invisible substance which travels ir waves through all things. Now, to illustrate the nature of such paradox ical material, Lord Kelvin searched everywhere, and at last concluded that shoemakers' wax represented 1t best. He made tests, and this is what he found:
 He melted some wax in common glass tumbler. After it had hardened lie tried to thrust lead pencil through it. It would not go. Then he placed coin on the surface of the wax and left 1t for several days. When he again visited it the coin had sunk to the bot tom of the glass The wax had closed over it, and by lifting up the glass and looking through the bottom he could see the coin lying there. Had the wax been as deep as well the coin would have gone on sinking until it reached the bottom. This proved that the wax would conform only to very slow move ments. If he had tried to push it too fast it would have resisted him.
 An idea struck the scientist. If the wax acted like this toward the coin, how would 1t treat an object which foated? He accordingly placed cork in a tumbler and poured hot shoe makers wax upon it. The wax hard ened, with the cork at the bottom. Yet when Lord Kelvin looked at the bottom of the glass, in day or two, he found the cork had disappeared. Itwas some where in the mass of wax. and probably rising very slowly but surely toward the top. Sure enough, after given pe- riod of time the cork peeped above the surface of the hard wax, and finally it rose to a point where it remained half imbedded in the wax. just as it would have done in glass of water. It rose no higher than this, however, and corkscrew probably would not have pulled it from the wax. Yet its own buoyancy had raised itup from the bot tom through what seemed an impen- etrable mass of wax.
 This, in fact, Is the peculiarity of shoe makers wax--that it resists all sudden CT quick movements. but is highly sns- ccptible to very slow and prolonged pressure. If you pressed fiatiron hard down on a lump of wax on a table it is probable you would make no impress sion on it, but if you left that iron rest ing or the wax for day or two you would find the lump fattened out under the iron. So curious is this property of the wax that tuning forks have been cast from pieces of ii. These forks were capable of vibration, giving a mu- sical note and being set going by vii bration from another tuning fork; yet when one of them was laid across the open mouth of a jar it slowly collapsed and fell into the jar in shapeless, sticky mass.
 Any boy may perform these exper- i.nents, and the lesson in physics to be got therefrom is no less valuable than tho amusement which the performance affords.--London News.