The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1903-09-13
"TALIUM."

HDllltIllL new metal called ''talium -
which would certainly have been worth
many millions TO the inventor Grantey
Adams discovered II just eight years ago,
and during IT'S short life Il was one of the
greaest wonders Of the Science and
. commerce VOL 'Talium" was an al
10y of metals electrically treated, nearly
oy per cent lighter than steel, both strong
or and tougher and costing 30 per cent
less to produce. 1t was the fruit Of four
years hard work and study. and event.
ualIy Adams completed II and publicly ex-
posed IL TO every kind Of test.
Trains or any other vehicles. as il was
proved would be able 20 travel at nearly
double their present speed If constructed
of 'talium." and there was no kind Of
edged tool that would not be IS keeh as
well as much lighter. if made of the new
metal The cOmmOuOn caused by this
discovery was extraordinary, and still
more so was the upshOt of 1t, for the
magnitude OF its success overcame Ad-
ans reason, and he became insane before
ever the secret of the construction Of
'talium' was given out. Adams died a
year later q hopeless lunatic, and as there
were no papers explaining his method the
great secret was lost. al the tools and
engines Of "talium" which he had made
remain but no analysis has revealed the
method by which the metal was blended
MILLS WONDERFUL LAMPS.
The extra ordinary perpetual lamps OF
Henry Mills. which he invented, perfected
and proved the worth of twelve years ago,
were lost in quite a different manner.
The Mills lamp was an incandescent
light produced without any using up Of
materials-it had nothing to do with COM
bustiOn. and the flame" of it was per-
fectly cold. 1t was certainly one of the
most wonderful inventions of the age
and not at all an expensive affair. - Mills
made two of these lamps and demonstrate
ed their absolute success, but an ex-
traordinary thing happened before the in
vention was put at the disposal of the
pubHc. On the night OF May 20, 1899,
Mills laboratory, In Hampstead. was
broken into. both lamps broken into frag-
ments and all the papers describing the
invention, involving years of work were
stolen There was not the slightest clew to
the perpetrators of the burglary, which
was done most scientifically, and the
crime has never been traced.
Even the reason for it is not known
whether it was malice, jealousy or theft,
No use has been made the stolen
papers, and Mills, who depended on these
papers, set to work again, but two
months later he contracted typhoid and
died. and the world was thus deprived of
his secret.
THE SECRET OF |'FULMITE."
In one way l IS perhaps as Wen tnat
the new gunpowder 'fulmite,' invented
by Herbert Sawbridge six years ago, new
er came to a head.
Saw bridge discovered this powder by &C
cident IN his little chemical experimenting
room at Exeter, England. He perfected
the powder after a good deal of study
and trouble. and finally showed that In an
ordinary service rifle this powder could
drive bullet accurately a distance of
nearly six miles. and that at ordinary
ranges il gave over ten times the penetra-
ton that 'cOrdte," the present powder
gives. A bullet propelled by II at 500
yards would penetrate twelve men, 1t
would have been a terribly destructive
invention, and one of its best points was
that il did not strain or corrode a gun in
any way; and above all, damp could not
harm it.
But such is the extraordinary fatality
that seems to dog inventors that Saw
bridge was killed in an explosion in his
laboratory, which wrecked the entire cot
tage. This happened soon after the
British Government had begun to nego-
tfate with SaWbrfdge for the D11rcbaSa NJ