The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-01-04
; HISTORICAL
) DEPARTMENT.
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SOME VALUABLE sTUMBLEs.
Accidents That Have Resulted in
Great Scientific Discoveries.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer,}

CreaC SclenJlnc discoveries.
Seattle Observation-Disclosures
For the purpose of some experiment
Lord Kelvin once melted some shoe
makers wax in a glass, and then for
got it, and left it on a shelf.
Days afterward he picked up the for
gotten test-tube, and, looking through
the glass. saw that a nail lay at the
bottom of the wax. This struck him as
curious, for he knew that the tube had
been empty when the wax was origi-
nally poured in, and there was no mark
on the surface of the now hardened
material. He laid another nail upon
the surface of the wax and left it there.
In week he found that it was at the
bottom, yet there was no sign of its
passage. Then he proceeded to melt
the wax and pour it upon a cork placed
at the bottom of a receptacle. In a
few days the cork had risen to the
surface, yet in this case also without
leaving any trace Of it's rising. The ac-
cident of the nail falling upon the shoe
makers wax gave the great scientist a
long sought illustration of the work
ing of ether, which carries light and
electric rays, and which, though as
rigid as steel, yet does not retard in
the least the passage Of the earth or
planets through space.
The stumble of Watts the plumber,
and the fail of his ladIe full of molten
lead from the top of tower to the bot
tom, gave the world cheap shot, and
in every branch of science similar &C
cidents are pushing on the great in
ventions of today. Edison had on three
separate occasions to thank accident
for putting him on the right track when
struggling after some new invention.
Il was singing into the mouth of the
telephone" he said, when the vibra-
tons of the voice sent the fine steel
point into my finger. That set me to
thinking. If I could record the actions
of the point and send the point over
the same surface l saw no reason why
the thing could not talk"
So Edison's bleeding finger gave the
world the monograph.
The first electric lamp made with
carbon filament also owed its origin to
the merest chance. Edison had tried
everything ne could think of, but could
find no filament suitable for the pur-
pose and one blazing-ho summer day
sat in his laboratory almost in despair.
A breeze. came through the Wlde-open
window and rustled a broken palm-leaf
fan which lay on the table. The sound
attracted his attention. He made a
grasp at it and with eager fingers be-
gan tearing up the outer rim. Expert
ments soon proved that he had found
the very substance he had been lock-
ing for.
1t was literally stumble which.
through Edison, is now revolutioniz-
ing the world of iron mining. Walking
one day along the shore, the inventor
picked up some black sand. He filled
his pocket with the queer-looking stuff
and when he got home turned it put on
a table. One of his workmen came by
carrying a big magnet, and, stumbling,
dropped his load against the table,
knocking over both table and sand.
When he picked up the magnet guam
Lity of the black grains was sticking to
{, proving that there was iron in the
sand From this accident has grown
he present enormous development of
owgrade iron ore which is powdered
irst and then passed between magnets
which extract the metal.
9 o o
An Austrian engineer was shooting