The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-05-03

A
sbove 20 desrssv. In cold greater thai
this structural modification occurs quickly
and II the cold Ia pushed 10 an intensii.
great enough TO disintegrste the Tin.
often crumbles away In grayish powder.
In temperatures that do not often fal
fer below 20 degrees, the changes are ex
treuely slow. unless the tin becomes In
footed with the gray modification. II sorn'
OF the gray powder Of tip that has happcnet
to disintegrate should attach itself TO thu
so,pd tin. then the disease communicates
itself rapidly to all parts Of the metal.
In the cases of tin plates such a. are useo
for roofs, the tin ID not chemical indi'
viduality OF Its own. but 10 mixture OF
iron and tin. both Of which have already
passed through several notifications dur
Ing the processes OF conversion into plates
Therefore. the process of infection becomes
complicated and a tin roof offers a less
resisting field than pure tin.
Now. If metals can be thus infected with
disease, it follows that they can be in
oculated az organic substances can be
And as science has gradually built bridge
between animal life and plant life. 80 IT
appears possible now to find bridge be-
tween the lower phases Of plant life and the
so-called inorganic or dead world.
To tho layman the fact that metals can he
treated indefinitely by heat without dcstruc-
ton. seems naturally to prove that they
can possess the attribute which Is called
life But the whole course of plant life
depends on temperature and it's changes,
and temperature affects all animals, inclnd-
ing man. even producing illness and death
when TIE changes are sudden.
In other words, as gradual and normal
changes OF temperature affect animal
and plant life normally, so they do metals;
and abrupt and abnormal changes OF
temperature change the structural form
Of each.
The phrafe interchangeable as steel
is decidedly incorrect. Steel in its maxi
Ing has to undergo all the changes that
the animal body undergoes IN the coure
OF growth 1t is combination OF iron
and carbon, and carbon ID organic. The
German metallurgists have come to speak
as a matter OF coure Of the life that I'M
folds itself in steel under various tetnpera-
lures that are applied to 1t in working it,
During the coure of its changes. 1t often
develops qualities that make it ufeless for
indus trial purpot es while they last. mus
at one step 1t becomes brittle-a temporary
dis en-. ed condition that yields to what
might amott be called the medical treat
ment of heat properly graduated.
Poison this steel with hydrogen or hydro
genous matter and you scken II SO decidedly
that it gets into condition where it Is as
brittle as if it had been ruined in tempering.
Prof Heyn has been studying the changes
in iron under all grades Of temperature,
and he holds that the metal pasEes through
various stages OF disease that produce
structural changes just as cells change
in form. size and position in the forms
commonly called organic
He heated copper in order to fnd why
that metal suffers from ovcrheating, and
his conc,ls ion liz that it becomes poisoned
with copper protoxide. which 30 sickens
1t that its structure changes and partially
breaks down.