The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1899-01-19
FOR LITTLE FOLKS.
SAOEMAKERS' WAX.
Some of i.s PecuiInrities That Were
Demonstrated by Lord Kelvin.

SOme OF ifH
Demonstrated by Lord Kelvin.
One Of tho most apt illustrations ever
made hy Lord Kelvin was his likening
the lumiuiferous ether to mass of
shepr.akers' wax. What Lord Kelvin
said Of shoemakers' wax may be tested
by any hoy in a manner that will as
tonish his playmates. First let it be
said that the ether penetrates all space.
1t is as rigid as steel and yet so flexible
that it does not retard the passage OF
planets through space in the least. 1t l.
All invisible substance which travels in
waves through all things. Now, to illus
trate the nature Of such paradoxical
material, Lord Kelvin searched every
where, and at last concluded TINT shoe
makers wax represented it best. he
made tests and this is what he found:
He melted some wax in common
glass tumbler After it had hardened he
tried to thrust a lead pencil through it..
1t would not 90. Then he placed coin
on the surface of the wax and left it for
several days. When be again visited it,
the coin had sunk to the bottom of the
glass The wax had closed over it, and
by lifting up the glass and looking
through tho bottom he could see the
coin lying there. Had the wax been as
deep as we'll the coin would have gone
on sinking until it reached the bottom.
This proved that the wax would con
form only to very slow movements. If
he had tried to push it too fast, 1t
would have resisted him.
An idea struck the scientist. II the
wax acted like this toward the coin,
how would it treat an object which
floated? He accordingly placed cork
in tumbler and poured hot shoemak-
ers' wax upon it. The wax hardened
with the cork at the bottom.
Yet when Lord Kelvin looked at the
bottom of the glass in a day or two he
found the cork had disappeared. 1t was
somewhere in the mass of wax, and
probably rising very slowly, but surely.
toward the top. Sure enough, after a
given period of time the cork peeped
above the surface of the hard wax and
finally ii rose to point where 1t re-
mulDeu Ddll lIUDtuutu III tDb VIVA, Jubb
as it would have done in glass of wa.
ter. 1t rose no higher than this, how
ever, and corkscrew probably would
not have pulled it from the wax. Yet
its own buoyancy had raised it up from
the bottom, through what seemed an
impenetrable mass Of wax.
This, in fact is the popularity OF
shoemakers' wax-it resists all sud
den or quick movements but is highly
susceptible to very slow and prolonged
pressure. If you pressed "a flatiron hard
down on lump of wax on table, 1t
is probable you would make no impress
sion on it, but if you left that iron rest
ing on the wax for day or two you
would find the lump flatteDed out under
the iron. So curious is this property Of
the wax that tuning forks have been
cast from pieces of it. These forks were
capable of vibration, giving musical
note and being set going = vibration
from another tuning fork Yet when
one of them was laid across the open
mouth of jar it slowly collapsed and
fell into the jar in b shapeless, sticky
mass. Any boy may perform these ex-
periments and the lesson in physics to
be got therefrom is no less valuable
than the amusement which the per
Torrance affords.