The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1904-06-16
AN EVENING With
LATEST THREE OF
WORLDS WONDERS
Prof. Patty Explains and DEM
onstrates Wireless Teleg-
raphy, Radium and
Liquid Air
EXPENSIVE APPARATUS SHOWN
Lecturer Conducts Wierd and Wizard.
Like Experiments Before Thin But
Well Satisfied Audience at the
Opera House

1t was a thin crowd that attended
Prof. Pattys scientific entertainment at
the Opera House Monday evening but
every member of ii went away thor
oughly satisfied 1t was an evening spent
in close touch with the marvellous things
the world has been reading so much
about lately. Prof Patty himself is an
interesting talker and had his remarks
and his demonstrations equally we'll in
hand
The first and shortest, though the
most wizard like of the three demon
strations was that of wireless telegra-
ply. The lecturer had a splendid set of
apparatus with him-a receiver and a
transmitter. He explained the con-
struction of each, and then. after ar
ranging the receiver on IA table he took
the transmitter up in his hand and
walked to the footlights He tapped a
key on the box in his hand and immedi-
ately bell sounded on the box at the
table. Another tap and another ring.
A quick succession of taps and an ex-
actly similar succession of rings The
receiver was next fitted with an ordi-
nary Morse telegraphic receiver and the
lecturer walked around the table and
across the stage tapping the little key
on tbe box in his hand and producing
corresponding taps from the little tick
er on the table. Several people were on
the stage and had an opportunity to ex-
anime the apparatus, There was moth
ing which to mortal eye could Indicate
the slightest connection between the
two Instruments; bnt the taps on me
one invariably produced a demonstra-
tion of some kind on the other. The
receiver was next fitted with small
motor and the lecturer showed how easy
it was to start and stop the wheels of a
factory from distance without the use
of a wire. He remarked that he was
much disappointed when he heard that
President Roosevelt was to start the
machinery of the Worlds Fair by touch
ing button at Washington connected
with the Postal Telegraph Company 8
wire. 1t would have been Just as easy.
he said to have started the machinery
without any wire at all.
Next couple of tiny electric lights
were made to shine and to 60 ont lust
rs easily and from just rs great dis
tance rs the wheel of the motor was
made to revolve. Prof Patty explained
that while he was using spark of only
a small fraction of an inch measure
ment, Marconi, in sending messages
four thousand miles, used II spark eight
feet long.
The subject of radium, the wonderful
mineral extracted by laborious pro-
cesses from pitch blende, was then
taken mp. Prof. Patty gave an account
of the discovery of it by Nine Curie, of
Paris, and her husband. He said that
i, took ten tons of pitch blende to yield
grain of radiu IN and that nine months
were necessary for the process of ex-
traction. Photographs or rather
shadow graphs of various objects taken
by means of the rays of radium were
,,,h l,, 7
glass covered boxes with samples of
pitch blende and other mineral substan-
ces and tubes of uranium and low ac-
tivity radium were also passed around
and the audience was then given a
chance to look through several spinthar
iscopes ut PARTICLES Of radium Of very
high activity. These particles under
the powerful magnifying glasses could
be seen giving off Enthusiastically moving
rays of bluish light. The lecturer ex-
planned that in each spinthariscope was
n particle of radium 40 small that it was
utterly undiscernble by the naked eye.
He then gave an exhibition of the
luminosity and Horescence of various
minerals He also showed the audience.
with the hall entirely darkened, five
tubes OF radium, two of which were of
the highest activity ever yet produced
700, 600 times greater than that of
uranium. The five tubes represented
an expenditure Of $1,000 He held the
tubes in his hands for only few min
ntes IA he said they were liable to harm
him if held longer. He then gave an
expression Of opinion ~ to the practical
value Of the discovery and remarked
that for many years Mt least radium
would be Of no value Mt all except in
the scientific labratory and possibly in
the piactice of medicine. Even in the
latter it was ~ yet uncertain how uss-
ful radium could be
The last demonstration was one with
which the pnblic IL already tolerably
familiar The usual interesting expert
ments with liquid air were made.
Flowers were rendered brittle M glass,