The representative., 1900-11-08

I
Prof. Langley, OF the Smithsonian in
stitute at Washington, D. c., is In receipt
| of wonderful little piece OF what the
inventor termed "radium," that has sent
thrill Of wonder through every scien-
tist In the land, says the Cincinnati En-
quirer. ~
| The specimen was received encaSed In
small box made of lead, accompanied by
| instruction for the professor to open it
in the dark. This was done. number
of the principal officers of the institution
repaired to the photograph dark ROOM
and the wonderful substance, no bigger
than silver dollar was taken from its
bed, and before those present could real
ize what had occurred, the room was lit
up as completely as though the full rays
of the sun had-penetrated the place. The
substance emitted a clear, greenish glow
and the features of everyone were clear
| ly outlined. There was natural hesi-
fancy on the part of those present to
touch the thing, but investigation soon
proved that the source of this wonderful
light was cool and solid, and that it
could be handled with ease.
A WOMAN'S DISCOVERY.
What is this wonderful substance? 1t
10 discovery made by a woman. Nine.
Skiowdowska Cnrrie, of the municipal
school Of physics, in Paris, and IL what
Is claimed for it be true, it is the light
| OF the future-the dream Of alchemists-
In short. a lamp that will burn forever,
consume neither Oil nor wick, il devoid
of heat and requires no attention.
Madame Currie was awarded 1000
francs and had her name enrolled on the
books Of this French academy of sciences
for this discovery which IL regarded as
one Of the NEST stupendous of the age,
upsetttng as" iy'does hitherto accepted
theories or heat, light and physical en-
ergy, and opens up fields OF knowledge
heretofore regarded as beyond the scope
bf fnan"This light, 1t is claimed, will
/ not only be very cheap when first in
/ stalled, but after that there will be abso-
lutely no expense in maintaining it, even
though left by itself for centuries. Might
after night, for an indefinite period, it
will throw out it's brilliant rays, and at
the end Of untold years the illumination
will be as great as at first. No under
ground or overhead wires, no dynamo
nor gas retorts, nothing but little disc
Of greenish stone. Place this in the wall
or in the ceiling and the rooms will be
lighted as long as the house stands
ORIGIN OF LIGHT.
The origin of light as accepted by the
layman is that it is merely the demon
stratiOn of energy or consumption Of
certain substances like coal, oil or gas
Heat is produced by the destruction Of
| Burning coal. This transformed into
motion by the steam engine and the dy-
namo, results in electricity for arc and
incandescent lights In short, no arti-
ficial light has ever been made for mans
use that has not been the result of some
material that was consumed in order to
make 1t. A feeble light without heat is
obtained from phosphorescence, but even
this owes its origin to the slow con-
sumption of the substance that produces
It. To produce light without the ex-
penditure Of some sort of energy has
been looked upon heretofore as an idle
dream, but the discovery of the wonder
full properties of the X-ray caused the
scientist to put on his thinking cap. The
X-ray discovery proved that there was
more than one form of radiant energy
although all of them have the same uuali-
ties In certain directions, yet entirely
different in others. Thus, while. the
powerful rays of the sun were unable to
penetrate thin piece of cardboard. the
A-ray, which could hardly be seen was
able to go through wood and metal. This
fact contradicted the universally sc-
cepted theory that the power of light
was due in all cases to the material con-
sumed. Experiments along the line soon
convinced scientific students that ura-
mum possessed remarkable qualities
that it had the power of absobing light
and emitting it afterward. 1t was then
discovered on experimenting with salts
OF the metal that it would produce sub
stances having properties similar to the
X-rays and that while they could not
be seen by the human eye they yet had
the power Of Jogging" a Photographic
plate when brought in contact with it,
IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.
Different investigators produced diff
ferent forms of these rays, but all failed
OF producing anything more than lab
oratory experiment. There was energy.
but unaccompanied by luminosity, and
all the experiments were useless so far
as the commercial world was concerned.
Then Nine. Currie began her work where
the others left on. She reasoned that
the wonderful properties manifested by
different substances obtained from ura-
mum were not due to any real power in
the metal itself, but to some substance
which it held in state of non-activity.
Working on this theory, she began her
work with substance known as pitch
blend" which is uranite, chemically con-
sidered, and which is simply the refuse
from the factories where various ura-
mum products are made. She first dis
covered substance similar to bismuth.
but several thousand times more DOW
erful than the uranium salt from which