The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1899-02-14
shoEmAKERs' Wax.
Experiments with This Substance
That KiII Surprise Every One.

One OF the most apt illustrations ever
made hy Lord Kelvin was his likcnine the
luminifcrOus ether 10 n mass OF shoemak-
crs' wax. What Lord Kelvin said of shoe
makers wax may 30 tested by any boy In
"a manner that VIII astOnish his playmates.
First Let 10 bo said that the ether pcne-
trates all space. 10 Is as rigid as steel aud
yet so flexible that il does not retard tho
passage OF planets through space i'm the
least. It r. an invisible substance which
travels In waves through all things. Now.
10 illustrate the nature OF such paradox
ical material Lord Kelvin searched every
where, and at Last concluded that shoe
makers wax represented IL best. He
made tests and this Is what he found:
He melted some wax In common glass
tumblcr. After IL had hardened he tried
TO thrust lead pencil through It, IL
would not 90. Then he placed a coin on
the surface OF the wax and left 10 there for
several days Wncn he again visited IT,
the coin had sunk 10 the bottom of the
glass. The wax had closed over 10 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 un-
I'll it reached the bottom This proved
slow movements III he had tried 10 push
Gtoo fast Il would have resisted him
An idea struck the scientist. III the wax
acted like this toward the coin, how would
IL treat an object which floatcdg He ac-
cordingly placed "A cork In a tumbler aud
poured hot shocmakcrs wax upon IL. The
wax hardened with the cork at the bot
tom Yet when Lord Kelvin looked at the
bottom 81 the glass In a day or two he
found Tho cnr6 bad disappeared It was
somewhere Ia the muss Of wax and proba
bly, rising very slowly, hut surely. toward
the top. sure enough rftH a given period
or time tire cork fccpcd above the surface
on the hard wax and finally 10 roso 20
point where % remained half inbcdded
IN the waz just as itWuuld have done In
glass OF water II rose no higher than this
however, and a cOrkscrcw probably would
not have pulled H. from the WAX Yet its
own buoyancy had raised It up from the
bottom, through what seemed an impene-
trable mass Of wax
This, In fact, ~ the peculiarly OF shoe
makers wax. that IL rpsists all sudden or
quick movements, but is highly susceptible
TO very slow and prolonged pressure II
you pressed n Gatiron hard down on "A
lump of WAX OH a table it Is probable you
would make no impression on IL, but if
you left that iron resting ON the wax for
day or two, yOu would find the lump ilat-
tened out under the iron 80 curious is
this property Of the wax that tuning forks
have been east from pieces Of It, These
forks were capable of vibration, giving "a
musical note and being set going by vibra-
tion for another tuning fork yet when one
of them was laid across the open mouth of
IA Jar IL slowly collapsed and fell into the
jar in shapcless sticky mass. Any boy
may perform these experiments, and the
lesson In physics 10 be got thercfrom is no
less valuable than the amusement which
the performance affords. Cincinnati
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