The Savannah morning news., 1902-02-09


latter will take on a plov, I,9ue allIue The
ness 20 the dark,
He closed the door and 81,
darkness resulted. The writ Os9iute
ms ms eyes TO hasten their ar,ro,,,.. used
@ llon TO the new condition. but 'i1-
eleu I,u 10 make no difference w.
tbar.i nc we're open or closed he on,
them again and strove miFbtiI,, optned
the expected new light. u See
IL is remarkable how c,,io,.,..
eye VIII accommodate itself 10 'ue
tioilS OF relative darkness" !" sai5 ~J1lul- pIu
I1aliock When l was in the ero,,.' u
mental astro physical laborato,, Il Il
washington l was able after av,b;1 IN
Work ana even make copious notaS -, 20
go aooill 80 Ozark that a. stranger enterina.
I'm ~ lne OUTSIDE would stumble o,.a7.
the furniture helplessly and 4o, yer
around genrally until we led hin, +e
cnalr- Inc darkness, however. is S,ar..
necessary for | am now using the laa..
| rdtner than the most energetic of -
active salts. And you must not ba An siI7
| appointed If you are not able to reaI
newspaper with it. 1 am here st,iI-i.
10 establish scientific princinla tL
industrial development of it is ouite sn
o.iler o, matter But l begin to see the
glow now; do you not see it?"
l did see it. It gradually grew fro,>
an indistinct speck in the blackness =,
'front.' until it became luminous na+chI
the size of dollar, and it brightene+I
with the minutes. To make sure Of M
eyes L passed my hand before thar,
plotting out the light entirely bu+
when l removed my hand there Il
shone brighter than ever Again whils
was admiring it it suddenly disan.
peared apparently of its own accord |
ha5 Y
Prof. Hallock laughed. Yes" hs
said, II have removed the yellou,
screen. You see how quickly the light
goes out. OF course, the rays are thers
just the same, but invisible to us whe,
not combined with the barium-cyanide
/ will replace the screen. Their
you see how quickly they am
turned into visible light Their
is in that box only two-tenths q
a gram of active material If we hat
enough so that it could be spread out
over say a square foot of space we
would get rare effulgence.
well, why not do that, for the SAKE
of experiment."
For the sake of experiment." he
replied, I'VE have done enough, for
we have established our principle, and
BESIDES. the present market price Of
that material is five dollars a gram
That fact does not, however, preclude
the possibility of an economical light.
ing system being developed from thess
rays. And 1 am of the opinion that
something practical may be made out
of this general subject of phosphores-
cence or self-luminosity of objects Not
only have we discovered that most
natural objects have the capacity for
storing sunlight, but here is the appar-
ent capacity for creating light Itself
possessed by many substances which
heretofore were supposed to be inert
There is room at least for reflection,
when, as Becquerel points out, a quiet
peaceful bit of white salt is capable
of shooting of rays with a velocity
of over 92,5 miles a second. There is
most urgent need for discovering the
source of this energy in view of its
utilization by mankind
Even in its present condition
enough is known of the subject of phos-
phorescence to admit of little expert
mentation. 1 believe that the owners
of office buildings might help out the
twilight materially by the judicious
use of certain luminous paints For
instance. the walls ana ceilings Of Of
fees could be covered with these paints
and made to emit light enough to last
with the twilight on winter evenings
until the close of Office hours And il
the Railways of houses and public
buildings were to be coated in like
manner one could get about them at
night without the aid of more artificial
light.
1T is possible that the discovery OF
the source of the energy of Becquerel
rays might lead us to the cause of ami
maj and vegetable phosphorescence. |
This has been a subject of investigation
during oil
the last century but it cannot be said .
TO nave been solved. Yet some of the
manifestations are truly wonderful
There are over 300 kinds of luminous
beetles in the world and they form only |
small proportion of the lower animals
which carry their own light with them
You have yourself perhaps heard Won
derful stories of the light emitting
capacity of some tropical insects and
or certain deep sea animals. Lord
George Campbell told of a huge
pyrosoma trawled up from the 2,2Ol
fathoms during the voyage Of the
Challenger 1t emitted a great guam
tlty of light when irritated. 1t was
large sac-shaped animal and as it lay
in the tub at night the men wrote
their names in full length on its back
the names standing out brilliantly IN
letters of light. There are other tales
quile dS WOHuerIul, out Ine IHeOiltS az
counting for these lights are really too
numerous to be told at sitting
"But in the efforts of Becquerel and
of Nine. Curie we have something
tangible" concluded Prof. Hallock
leading the way out into the labora'
tory. 1--WE have something to go upon
To be sure, we do not know exactp
what it is we have. 1t may be ls
energy of the sun stored withou.
our present knowledge. although tnaI
is hardly likely; it may be some
property of the ether it may be d
Mime. Curie suggested. the result OF
transcendental radiation more penn
trating than X-ray and pervading o..
space, although Prof. Geitel found ina
IL such is the case the radlauons
easily penetrate hundreds of yards =.
rock for radium was still active at sp
bottom of the deepest mine In Wh',,
he was able TO descend. At least
is the newest force with whlch y,
have TO deal. You have seen now
can be turned into light and when gS. go
think that i'm spite Of it's speed OF ss
500 miles a second the waste iIoiv oi,
less than a half inch OF surface if , 0nw
n milIigram in "A thousand hlllNy
years you must admit that the pos"
billties for the substance are great