The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1902-03-29
SCIENTIFIC FACTS.
UNDISCOVERED DISCOVERIES" YET
TO BE EXPLAINED.
a Large Portion Of Our Scientific Know
ledge Is Purely Empirical-The why
of Many Things Is Unknown Even to
Scientists.

chemistry because he wanted to know
"why." When he saw the professor
mix oxygen and hydrogen and produce
water he demanded to know why this
result, and as no one could tell him
he became discouraged. AS a matter
OF fact, a large portion of our scien-
tific knowledge is purely empirical.
The knowledge derived from the OBJ
servation of phenomena, from expert
ence and experiments, enables us to
accomplish wonderful things, but there
our knowledge sticks. The world is
full of undiscovered discoveries" " 1t
is now six years since Professor
Roentgen passed his new light rays
through wood, paper and flesh, but to
this day no one understands why
those rays act as they do At first
some scientists fell back in despair
on the old theory of light, which was
that a radiant substance gave off light
as flower does scent; but as that
theory has been totally exploded the
rays are as great a mystery as ever;
in fact, the more we try to learn about
them the more mysterious they be-
come. Then there are the Y-rays, by:
which their discoverer, Alexander Or
LOFT, has steered a torpedo at q dis
tanee OF two and a half miles with no
connecting medium but the air and the
water. The Y-rays are as great a
mystery as the X-rays, and, as if these
were not enough, along comes the
Polish scientist, CURE, with his Bee
querel rays, which he obtained as the
result of experiment and which puz-
zled nobody more than their discov-
erer- A substance called radium, which
Cuire discovered, can be made to act
as sort of mineral glowworm. It.
will store up sunlight, and even if kept
for five years in pitchdark place will
give off light at the end of that time:
AS radium costs $4,000 an ounce. to.
prepare, this sort Of perpetual lamp fl
is not likely to become POPULAR. how-S
ever. Take a lump of loaf sugar and
spin it rapidly on turning lathe, tap
ping it gently the while with a small
hammer. The result will be- con-
slant display of light. Why? Nobody
knows. Then there is that scientific
wonder, the spectroscope, an instru-
ment made of glass prisms. Iron, gold
each different element-produces a
different dark line across the rain
bow-like play of colors into which the
prisms divide the white light, and we
thus are able to know the composition
OF the sun. moon and stars. We know
by experiment that the different lines
will be found in the spectrum, and
that they are caused by interference of
rays. But why do these various SUBJ
stances produce these various rays?
Again nobody knows. We are so ac-
customed to the compass that we for
get what wonderful thing it is and
how little we know about it. The
greatest scientist to-day knows scarce
" more about why the compass acts
as it does than did the first man who
used it '*in the early dusk and dawn
of time" We have discovered that a
magnetized piece of steel, swung on a
pivot, will, as a rule, point in a GER
tain direction. Why it does SO is not
known for certain, and perhaps never,
will be, though any number of in
genious and learned theories have
been advanced. In some parts of the
world the compass points due north,
and in others it points to the. east or
to the west of north. And in some
parts it will not act at all: At place
called Kotchetowka, in Russia. Pro-
lessor Leyst of Moscow found that the
needle pointed downward, Just as it
does at the magnetic pole. And yet
there is no iron within 600 feet >of the
surface of the earth at that place. The
whole subject of magnetism and cleo
:ricity is full of miracles and mys-
teries. Even ordinary everyday milk
has its mysteries. It has been found
that by putting milk into hollow steel
cylinders and applying great hydraulic
pressure it can be kept sweet for days..
A pressure of seven tons to the square
:nch for an hour has been found to
delay fermentation or "souring" of the
milk for seven days, while samples
kept under a pressure of fifteen tons
20 the square inch were sweet and
.resh at the end of fortnight. Here
IS something else to think over. How
]oes mere pressure prevent fermenta-
tion?-New York Press. "3..